07.6.2011 not much makes me happier than fresh summer blueberries. sunday morning i pulled some out to wash and the light shining in my sink at that moment was so nice that i grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos. (something i don't do very often at all any more) of course, then i instagrammed the final result of the blueberry pancakes with my iphone (bottom photo) because i wouldn't want the world of instagram to miss out.
07.2.2011 two years ago on a morning walk through oakwood, we walked past a yard sale and spotted a yellow(ish) Eames shell chair. we stopped and crossed the street to discover the price tag of $7. i stayed and guarded the chair while robby ran home to get the cash and the car. even though this chair was in pretty rough shape, i wasn't going to let it go.
so we came home with this:
pretty gross, right? well, after a quick mobile upload to facebook to brag about our good deal, my good friend rob texts me to say "get out the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser". i was suspicious, but this man knows a thing or two about a thing or two*, so i tried it... and let me tell you, it works like a charm. there have been a few posts about how to restore an Eames shell chair with naugahyde like this one (like this post on apartment therapy last year), but none of them mention using a Magic Eraser. it is truly ALL YOU NEED.
*it turns out this might actually be my friend casey's brilliant idea... rob was just the messenger.
here is the after...
today we just added casters so i can use it as my office chair, so i got out the Magic Eraser again and got it even cleaner. i took a few detail shots this time, that you can see below.
not bad for $7, plus $30 casters and two Magic Erasers.
so if you ever see a deal like this on a chair that looks disgusting... just buy it and a Magic Eraser and you'll be set.
06.26.2011 as i mentioned in my last post, we've been working on the front bedroom of our house. this is the one room in the house that has been left virtually untouched during all of the other renovations. it was the one room we thought didn't need any work. i am now laughing out loud at that thought...
a little backstory here: our house was built in 1938 with plaster walls. the walls were immediately wallpapered and then that wallpaper was painted over for several decades. this was the case for every wall in our house that did not get demolished during the renovation... which actually ended up not being very many. the one exception to this is the front bedroom. all four original walls remain in tact. which means that five months ago when we went to paint this room, we took a long hard look around the room and realized the walls had to be stripped. we are certainly not the first people to ever stip painted wallpaper off plaster walls, so it was going to be extra effort, but no big deal... that is until we got started and realized that someone had done some "repair" work at some point in the form of ripping off presumably loose wallpaper, and then skim coating over those areas, creating some pretty gnarly scraping situations at times. luckily i have one very strong husband, who powered through. but what should have taken us one day took one weekend, and we got tired and frustrated after finishing only three walls and we stopped. that was in early february:
this process basically involves utilizing a very strong person scraping down to the plaster, then applying a wallpaper removing solvent of some sort to get the glue and residue off. we used DIF in the concentrated form and used a garden sprayer to spray the walls... you let it soak for about 5-10 minutes and then scrape all that nasty brown stuff off. i can honestly tell you i LOVED this part... it was strangely cathartic to scrape of all that goop and see the smooth plaster reveal itself. the last step is cleaning the walls, which we did by applying more of the DIF (again using our garden sprayer) and a sponge with soapy water. you can probably skip this step, but we didn't want to...
so we lived with the room looking like this photo below from february until last weekend... we affectionately called it our crack house room. (not a tasteful joke, i know)
so last weekend we decided enough was enough and we were going to finish this room once and for all... we finished the last wall, robby did a good bit of repair work to the plaster (he used drywall mud instead of plaster, because he has a lot of more practice with it), and we primed...
then we decided that while we had the entire room taken apart and empty, we should replace the trim. this was necessary due to one big spot where the trim was missing from us removing a small added closet in the corner of the room. we didn't have trim to match to repair that spot, and we have replaced the trim in all the other rooms of the house (almost) so we figured we might as well do it in here to match. this of course required another full two days of work... removing the old trim, adding spray foam insulation in the huge gaping window jams where we removed the old pulleys and weights from the original windows (those were saved and donated to robby's work stock of items like that), putting the new trim up, patching holes, and priming...
so then we finally got around to painting... which lead to the all-too-hard decision of what color. we've debated often whether or not to paint the walls a color or leave them white like the rest of the house. here is something to know about me: i am afraid of wall color... that is a fact. it might possibly stem from my indecisive personality. it could also be because i HATE to paint walls. and it might be that i'm just not good at picking out color. whatever it may be, it is a running joke amongst my closest family and friends. and what can i say... i LOVE a bright white room. however, i knew i wanted my office to be a color, so we went with gray. the first coat was too cool, so we went warmer and lighter with the second coat, and i really do love it. (shocking!)
so this bedroom is our second bedroom (of two) and serves as my home office and our guest room. i have found it very challenging over the years to sucessfully set up a room to serve both of these purposes... we don't have guests all that often, but when we do, i really strive to give them a comfortable and nice room to sleep. we went through our phase with the IKEA futon, which i ended up hating because it made the room feel like a college apartment. then last summer our dear friends moved from their two bedroom house in durham to a one bedroom apartment in washington DC, so we inherited their full size bed. that felt like a move in the right direction as our guests were concerned, but it posed yet another challenge in arranging the furniture in our room. the bed has since been moved approximately 20 times, with my desk following suit. i think they've finally landed in their final resting spot, and for the room we have, i think it's as good as it will get.
here is the before shot from february:
i am totally embarrassed by that photo... it's utterly awful. i sincerely apologize if you stayed here at all over the past few years.
so for the after... i need you to use a little imagination. i'm still waiting for a duvet cover i ordered to arrive. i also need to purchase a fitted sheet for the box spring, since we did as we've seen our friends do and abandon the cheap metal bed frame and place it all directly on the floor (since we can't afford a real bed). most importantly i need to decide how to arrange the rest of the artwork i have on the big wall over the bed.
for now, here is where we are:
the inspiration for the final room color came from an awesome print my friend wyeth surpised me with about a month ago. you can find it here among many other super cool prints. for now, i stuck an extra dining room chair in that corner... i want to snag one of these eventually.
my desk area finally has shelves! i'll probably rearrange these items, too, but for now i've got my cameras, some old architecture school models, a wedding photo, and my sketchbooks up there. i also really want to find a legit, grown up desk. i want real wood and preferably mid-century to go with our sweet little side table in there. for now, this is fine, but i'm hoping for something new sooner than later.
so that is that. we do still need to touch up the ceiling paint, but we didn't have any on hand, so we'll do that soon.... or in another few months.
06.21.2011 so if you want to know how i hope to style our house, or see examples of architecture that truly inspires me (and that i hope to have for myself and create for others one day), you should follow me on pinterest. pinterest acts as a virtual idea board... a place to "pin" everything i see during my daily blog and internet browsing that i like. from food, to architecture, to photography and fashion, you customize it to make it your own. the interface is extremely user friendly and i love the clean look of it all. two small screen shots below to give you a taste. check it out when you have a free minute...
06.19.2011 so i've never posted about my house on this blog. i have an entirely separate blog i started for that project over 3 years ago, however i haven't kept it up. (last post: may 2010) when we were working every day for the first 6 or 8 months we owned the house, there was a lot to post about. the main purpose of the blog was to keep my family and friends updated with our progress, but once all the big ticket projects were complete, i think everyone lost interest. so i'm hoping to change that, and to move my house blogging here - where most people know to find me. i'm also hoping to pick up the blogging again. i want to force myself to document our projects, no matter how small they are. looking back at the old blog is actually rewarding to see all we've accomplished and how much our house has changed in the last 3.5 years. i also want to blog more because i've begun to realize (with the help of some friends) that we actually do some projects around here that other people could learn from (with most of that credit going to my hubs, who is the brain power of this renovation). my husband builds houses. i design buildings. i think we have something to offer, and i want to blog with that in mind. we're tackling a lot of projects that most people would hire someone else to do, but that we do on our own. we always try to do it the proper way. we're always trying to make the house and resulting space better and more energy efficient. and most importantly: we always do it on a tiny budget.
you will probably not see my finished house revealed anytime soon, because i'm not sure when we'll ever be truly "finished". (we claim we're 95% done with 90% of the house.) i haven't even really started "decorating" our house yet. we rearrange rooms constantly, and i am always thinking of new projects for our house... new ways to add storage or make a room more functional, new ways to make a room live larger than it is, and i've even designed another addition for our house. believe me, though, i am very critical of what we've done so far. i know for sure that if i had it do over again, i would have done many things differently, but i would not trade what i've learned here for anything. at the end of the day i love my house... truly love it. i love the light in the mornings. i love the way it feels open and much larger than it actually is, and how well it really does function. yes, i might have been an inexperienced, 3 months-out-of-grad-school designer who didn't think long enough about details when designing this house, but i am still proud of what is here and what my husband and i have made.
i didn't mean for this to become some manifesto, so i'm going to stop now and show some projects. i hope anyone who reads this learns something and maybe feels inspired to work on their own home. if you want to read more about our house you can see the galleries here and here, or go back and read all the posts from 2008 - 2010 documenting the bulk of the work here.
the first project i'll post is light on process photos ... i managed to miss documenting the entire process of the living room built-ins, with the exception of one (crappy) photo taken with my iphone. (to be fair, i think i was at work that entire weekend working on a deadline...)
so first is a photo of how we lived for over two years. we simply put an existing bookshelf we had in the space i had designed for the built-ins... complete with a sloppy swatch of paint to test a color. it functioned fairly well, but i didn't really realize how bad it looked.
...and the finished product.
we had been waiting to save money to hire someone to do something really funky and cool, but we realized that saving that money was never going to happen, so instead we went into the shed and used scrap materials that we already had and went with a less is more design. in the end, we didn't spend a dime to make these that we hadn't already spent on materials for something else... not even on the paint. not bad, eh?
below is a detail view of the shelves. i wanted them to be thick and substantial, and i did not want to see an underside... i wanted them to be (or appear) solid.
here is the one process photo i took (sorry for the poor quality) from my phone. robby nailed cleats into the wall to act as the main bracing for the shelves. from there he nailed a top and a bottom for each shelf into the cleat and then nailed the face of each shelf on the outside. you san see the puddy in each of the nail holes in this photo to get a better idea of where the cleats were on the wall. then we caulked, primed, and painted and they're done.
one overall view from the living room looking through to the back of the house. the built-ins made a huge difference in unifying the feeling of thick, usable walls where we had to drop LVLs and builkheads in order to remove walls and open up the entire public living space. i love having my collection of books on display, though i already need more built-ins somewhere else in the house...
the next posts will show the work we're doing to the front bedroom (we stripped the walls down to the bare plaster and replaced the trim) and to the updated fireplace in the living room (we removed the mantel and surround, put up new drywall, and we'll be making a new custom walnut mantel). then we have a major project to tackle: the exterior of the house. despite our best efforts to scrape the loose paint off the original wood siding (we saved it from under decades of aluminum siding) and restore it, (here and here) the new paint is falling off. so we have to scrape all of the old (lead) paint off the siding, sand it, prime it, and repaint. then maybe we can start to work on more fencing and landscaping... it truly never ends.
i hope that if i force myself to write about what we're doing, we might actually be motivated to accomplish more. we'll see how that theory works out...
06.16.2011 a few photos from my vacation a few weeks ago... i'm ready to go back.
05.30.2011 i just returned from nine truly amazing days on the north carolina coast... holden beach to be exact. i only brought out my "real" camera on the last day, choosing instead to document most everything through my iphone using my favorite app ever, Instagram. i am truly obsessed with this app. it takes the social aspect of facebook or twitter and turns it into something creative for those of us who are more visually inclined (though you certainly don't have to be a photographer to take nice photos with instagram). if you have an iphone - get the app... it's free. so here is my vacation taken from screen shots via my instagram feed which you can find here. happy summer!
04.16.2011 this was my last pack of TZ Artistic film for my SX-70.... the expiration date was 10/09. i took these four photos 24 hours ago... i scanned them within the first 5 minutes, again after 6 hours, and at the 24 hour mark. this is why i've learned the hard way to scan immediately. the color really changes and shifts as time goes by, and they will continue to turn in the days and weeks to come.
here's another example... the original photo taken on st patrick's day, and i just scanned it again, almost one month later. rather dramatic. it's the nature of the beast i suppose... though i would love to find some good dependable film for my SX-70. hey, impossible project... i'm talking to you.
02.7.2011 In late January the world lost an incredible six and a half year old little boy to cancer. For four years Liam Witt (known to many as Prince Liam the Brave) fought a courageous and long battle with this devastating illness. He was fearless, brave, and throughout the entire ordeal he was full of love and happiness. During that time his parents fought an equally courageous battle: to raise awareness for pediatric cancers and at the same time raise funds to support more research towards this underfunded disease. Cookies for Kids' Cancer was born as a way to use cookies and bake sales to add up to make a big difference. To date Cookies for Kids' Cancer has raised over $2.5M to support research into treatments and cures for many types of pediatric cancers. Their goal at the moment is to raise $1M in memory of Liam.
This year on Valentine's Day his family and friends will gather in NYC to honor his memory and celebrate his life. His parents chose this day because it was a beloved holiday to Liam, who wanted nothing more than to love and be loved. In their quest to raise money and honor Liam's memory on Valentine's Day, I reached out to the amazing Ashley Christensen - chef and owner of the incredible Poole's Diner in downtown Raleigh. She has these delicious warm chocolate chip cookies that occasionally make their way onto her menu boards. I've always thought of Liam and Cookies for Kids' Cancer when I have them, so I asked if she would be interested in putting them on the menu in his honor for Valentine's. Not only did she agree, she showed me what true generosity is all about. She decided she wanted to donate 100% of the profits from Poole's Valentine's Day dinner to Cookies for Kids' Cancer. Even as I type that, I am unable to find words that sufficiently express how humbled I am by her gesture... So amazing. She has donations for wine pairings from Juice Wine Purveyors, Bordeaux Fine and Rare, and Eliza Kraft Olander, and an amazing three course dinner planned. THEN she went further and challenged others to do the same. Fullsteam Brewery in Durham is donating 100% of their profits on Valentine's day, and Synergy Day Spa in Raleigh is donating 10% of their gift card sales from 02/10-02/14 to Cookies for Kids' Cancer. Ashley gets things done.
To top off the night at Poole's, Ashley has lined up some local musicians to play an acoustic set from 11pm-2am. Kelly Crisp (from the Rosebuds) and Brad Cook (from Megafaun and GAYNGS) will play some new material as well as some love inspired covers. Ashley is also auctioning off some sure to be delicious homemade local pies by my friend Meredith Pittman of Pie + Mighty, and wine from the personal cellar of Eliza Kraft Olander. To add to the night I will be auctioning off prints of the Love Padlocks on the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor in Paris. This is a footbridge over the Seine where Parisians and tourists come to leave padlocks with love notes written on them.
Two prints (matted and framed) will be offered.... with all profits going to Cookies for Kids' Cancer.
Translation: "We don't know when you read this but be sure we'll never forget you"...
This is sure to be a wonderful night, filled with love and driven by generosity to honor the memory one amazing little boy. Please call Poole's to make your reservations for dinner (three courses - $49++). Stop by Fullsteam Brewery for a beer or dinner. Buy your loved one a gift certificate from Synergy Day Spa. Or do all three! And if you don't live in Raleigh, please contact me for ways you can contribute to this night, and visit the Cookies for Kids' Cancer website to read about other ways you can raise money in your area.
01.11.2011 although it's been over a year since we were in paris, i still haven't managed to blog all of my favorite photos from our trip. since i'm still too lazy to do it, i just added some to a gallery on here. check it out if you'd like to take a little trip to the city of lights while still in the comfort of your own home. and i promise - now i'll stop talking about paris. (until i go again)
here are a few to get you interested...
you can also catch my first three posts of paris photos here and here and here. oh, and this one little snippet here. that's it. i swear. i'm done posting about paris! time to find a new city for photographic adventures...