Today marks the one year anniversary of buying this house. What a year! We were very lucky to be able to sell our old house in that time (there are houses in our old neighborhood which were on the market before ours was which still haven't sold), which then enabled us to start remodeling this one. We were able to get the contractor we wanted, he was available to do the work when we wanted, and it all got done in 4 months. This past weekend we had a huge garage sale along with some friends of ours and that was the final step for me - getting rid of the piles of boxes which have been in my office ever since we moved in. I finally feel settled in now. No more living in construction OR boxes.
There's not so much to report on the remodeling front right now. There will be more remodeling projects in the future - there is still PLENTY we want to do on this house, but we aren't starting anything major any time soon. John has been doing a lot of house work - some exterior painting outside of our new front windows (you could see the ucky paint under the eaves from the inside now and that needed to be prettied up), putting back the cool house numbers on the exterior that we bought last year, taking down the now-defunct lamppost in the front yard, etc. etc. Nothing really blog-worthy. But here's one little thing he did that's kinda clever. We had a big hole at the end of the plenum, above the dropped ceiling in the hallway. I went to a local metal fabrication shop, picked out a cool 50's looking grille for it, took them a template, then never heard from them again. So - until we get someone to do it the way I want it, John took a cheapo plastic grille sold at Home Depot for flourescent light fixtures - you've all seen them - very carefully cut it (the plastic wants to shatter) and fit it in there. It actually looks fine but I like the grille I had picked out better so I'll eventually get around to replacing it. But this works great. Thanks to our friend Mike for this idea! (As I was writing this post, the metal fabrication place called me that my piece was done! They never even gave me an estimate. I was peeved. Went to pick it up and it was bigger than the template so they are now redoing it. Grrrr.)
We are also working on getting a fireplace screen custom made, along with a matching screen door to go next to it, to cover the former wood bin/stereo box. This has also been problematic, with the number one fireplace screen guy in town giving us a ridiculously high estimate and taking his time even getting us the estimate. Anyway, we've got a few new people bidding on the job now who seem a lot better. Hopefully that will get done soon.
I've been trying to do some decorating. Got this great starburst clock on ebay recently. It was broken but $5.99 in new clockworks from Hobby Lobby did the trick. I think it looks great next to John's dad's Nakashima lamp.
We fixed up the entry a bit. Still haven't heard from Greyhound about how they are going to pay for the damage they did to my little Danish chest. But we hung my friend Michael's painting here, lit by a little bullet lamp that was a housewarming present last year. The orange phone to the left in the back was also a housewarming present, and the cute little phone stand was a purchase on a recent trip to Phoenix from Phoenix Metro Retro. Guests love to use the orange phone (it works and has a terrific loud ring).
Anyway, stay tuned. I want to do an upcoming post on our neighbors' largely-untouched MCM house and I want to try and learn more about this neighborhood this winter. I had to go to the county courthouse yesterday and tried to find out if they had any info as to who the architect was on this house but they said they would not have this in their records. I am wondering if City Hall would have this on file with original building permits? If anyone knows how to go about tracking this info down, let me know. I have a developer's name so maybe that will help. Ciao!
There's not so much to report on the remodeling front right now. There will be more remodeling projects in the future - there is still PLENTY we want to do on this house, but we aren't starting anything major any time soon. John has been doing a lot of house work - some exterior painting outside of our new front windows (you could see the ucky paint under the eaves from the inside now and that needed to be prettied up), putting back the cool house numbers on the exterior that we bought last year, taking down the now-defunct lamppost in the front yard, etc. etc. Nothing really blog-worthy. But here's one little thing he did that's kinda clever. We had a big hole at the end of the plenum, above the dropped ceiling in the hallway. I went to a local metal fabrication shop, picked out a cool 50's looking grille for it, took them a template, then never heard from them again. So - until we get someone to do it the way I want it, John took a cheapo plastic grille sold at Home Depot for flourescent light fixtures - you've all seen them - very carefully cut it (the plastic wants to shatter) and fit it in there. It actually looks fine but I like the grille I had picked out better so I'll eventually get around to replacing it. But this works great. Thanks to our friend Mike for this idea! (As I was writing this post, the metal fabrication place called me that my piece was done! They never even gave me an estimate. I was peeved. Went to pick it up and it was bigger than the template so they are now redoing it. Grrrr.)
We are also working on getting a fireplace screen custom made, along with a matching screen door to go next to it, to cover the former wood bin/stereo box. This has also been problematic, with the number one fireplace screen guy in town giving us a ridiculously high estimate and taking his time even getting us the estimate. Anyway, we've got a few new people bidding on the job now who seem a lot better. Hopefully that will get done soon.
I've been trying to do some decorating. Got this great starburst clock on ebay recently. It was broken but $5.99 in new clockworks from Hobby Lobby did the trick. I think it looks great next to John's dad's Nakashima lamp.
We fixed up the entry a bit. Still haven't heard from Greyhound about how they are going to pay for the damage they did to my little Danish chest. But we hung my friend Michael's painting here, lit by a little bullet lamp that was a housewarming present last year. The orange phone to the left in the back was also a housewarming present, and the cute little phone stand was a purchase on a recent trip to Phoenix from Phoenix Metro Retro. Guests love to use the orange phone (it works and has a terrific loud ring).
Anyway, stay tuned. I want to do an upcoming post on our neighbors' largely-untouched MCM house and I want to try and learn more about this neighborhood this winter. I had to go to the county courthouse yesterday and tried to find out if they had any info as to who the architect was on this house but they said they would not have this in their records. I am wondering if City Hall would have this on file with original building permits? If anyone knows how to go about tracking this info down, let me know. I have a developer's name so maybe that will help. Ciao!
