hallway - plastering

Night #2 of work on the hallway

I have been thinking a lot about the home spreads in Anthropologie catalogs which show all of these beat up, halfway wallpapered, cracks everywhere walls. That is pretty much what my house looks like. And for some reason i feel like i need to paint it and make it look all fresh and clean and normal. Whatever. I am a long way off. Here is what i did tonight.

Also - attempted to find the perfect grey for my bedroom. I checked some swatches last night and this morning, then went to the paint store. The 2 16x16 sheets i came back with were nothing like the color i was hoping for. I loved this picture that i saw a few days ago

but everything that i came home with looked like a submarine.

beginning again

Today we started in on the hallway. It is the smallest room in the house so we thought it would be "easy". Now i have watched enough renovation projects to know that none of this is "easy" but still - i was/am naive.


It appears to me that at some point in time every square inch of this house was covered in wallpaper. Most rooms seem to have multiple layers. There are also tell-tale seams on most of the ceilings that make me think are are a few layers of joyous paper up there too. We scraped and scraped. My mom says that we are doing this so that the walls will have a nice finish once we paint them. I am kind of thinking that i want to continue painting over the layers of wallpaper.


Really, i am just glad to be doing something. Hopefully the project will keep me from the brink of seasonal depression. Or it could drive me over the edge. Guess it could go either way. We'll see. But at least my hallway will be "Kona brown."

kitchen countertops

Our existing red formica countertops were cute, but there just wasn't enough room for what we needed in the kitchen and we really had our hearts set on warm wood counters. First was the big trip up to Ikea (twice) to purchase the Numerar counters in Oak. Then cut the notch that would sit around the existing 2x4 that we were leaving in place as a threshold into the new space and then many coats of tung oil....4 I believe.Once the long piece was in and secure, we had to tackle the removal of the orignal formica on the other side. We really held off on this because it meant no sink while we made the cuts, applied the coats of tung oil and moved it into place. While we had the countertop out we could finally take off the fake plastic tile backsplash and install the tin pieces we had salvaged out of the basement. A previous owner had put tin ceiling up in the basement and when we rebuilt the basement stairs we had to tear down the tin....so we flattened it out, sanded it, primed it and painted it white for our backsplash.

new york fashion week

some things i did in new york

danced, jumped on the tiny beds at the W, walked over 100 blocks, ate tasty d-lite, went to a fashion show in a limo, took some pictures, took lots of taxis, used my NFT book (if you dont know what this is look it up), went to a sky bar, had the best pizza of my life ... that was all one day.

shelf project

After finding some inspiration for our kitchen project in these images.....

I knew a few things that I definitely wanted in the design......

• lots of white (but different textures)
• stainless steel
• warm wood
• open shelving so that I could display my favorite kitchen finds.

Not all open shelving, I'm not neat enough to not have a few closed doors in the kitchen, but enough for some key items that have been given to me, or I have collected and are a good representation of the different colors and styles that I like.

So here is the beginning pictures of our open shelf project. We took the three longest cabinet doors off and moved the existing shelves to create the proportions and grid we wanted and, built face frames in front of the shelves and painted it all white!

kitchen run through.....

Back in the spring Kris and I slowly but surely began renovating our kitchen. It started with the floors and the new stairs to the basement, which is all I have posted about so far. So I thought it was time to play catch up....this is how it began......Our biggest issue was the size, no matter what appliances we bought, floor we remodeled or counters we installed, there wasn't even a drawer in this kitchen! The silverware lived on a shelf next to the refrigerator....its was bad! So we needed more room........

The new space for the kitchen came from the half of the former pantry that wasn't being used for the basement stairs, it worked out pretty well. And with a week long visit from the father in law, we got a lot done. We tore off the plaster, discovered there used to be a door opening there, braced the wall above, took out the original 2x4's (which we saved to make out outdoor table out of) and sized the new wood for the lintel. There was an original 2x4 at a 45 degree angle that we framed around to expose a bit of the old structure. And we added 5 more feet of kitchen space....and more importantly.....counterspace and room for a drawer!

relaxing back porch

Since we've been in the middle of kitchen construction almost all spring and summer, our screened pack porch has become a storage area....until now! I am reclaiming my relaxing space. Soon it will be cooling off (at least at night), the bugs will be going away and girls wine night can be had again on the porch!

We got these two wicker chairs for 15 dollars this weekend at a yard sale and the table at an antique store a few weeks ago (I've been preparing for this!)

In my efforts to learn how to sew, porch pillows became very important to me! So I whipped these up in the car ride home to Jersey.

I think I want to spray paint the chairs, just not sure what color yet?

And the view of the other city yards is beautiful and enhanced with the old lanterns I scored from my dad's garage and a lovely windchime my mom gave us!

stuff

Here is some stuff from my saturday adventures....we went to the South of the James Farmer's Market, Caravatti's for a radiator cover and historic scupper, then I went over to the Forest HIll Antique store and my favorite Diversity Thrift! good day of window shopping and lusting after furniture....until I found the perfect dining room cabinet and got a great deal on it!

But.....here is what I bought. It was so heavy, but once we got in into the house, I was so excited! And it's alrady full!

sewing 101

I am slowly but surely teaching myself how to sew. I picked up a great 70's Singer machine, but I have no idea how to thread it for now....so hand stiching it is. Luckily I can't sit still without having a project at night, so it's been keeping me busy. I scored a lot of Amy Butler scraps on ebay and have been making little purses. I also got this great berry pattern material from Tonic Living and made a huge new pillow for our bedroom! And my latest endeavor is making the cushions for our wicker outdoor set for our screened in back porch. So far I only have two pillows made for that.....one of which is currently living on this fabulous chair (one of a pair that Christina and I got from a curbside goldmine!)

I'm running out of rooms to make pillows for!

home sweet home

Kris and I took an extra long weekend trip home to visit my family in Jersey this week. It was a great trip, lots of family time, delicious food and fun.

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to my mom's new rowhouse in her town of Lambertville, NJ. It's a wonderful, eclectic little village on the Delaware River and once again my mom has turned yet another space into a masterpiece. Here are some pictures from her urban garden that she put together. She had a tiny space, but with the potted plants, sculpted bonsais and raised vegatable beds (she practices biodynamic gardening) she has really out done herself! She does a really great job of mixing the flowers, veggies and herbs all together and layering them so there is a little bit of everything in each bed. And we even got to enjoy a delicious lunch of salad and pesto from her garden and Jersey corn!

etsy shop

On friday our new etsy shop, Flamingo Artifacts, was choosen for the Friday Vintage Finds! It was an article about Danish Modern housewares, which happen to be my favorite kind which made it very exciting to get choosen! The bad thing about etsy for me is it just makes me see even more stuff that I want, there were some great other things choosen as well.

http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/spotlight/article/etsy-finds-vintage-danish-modern/2350/

So with this new exposure, we needed to update the shop! We'll be adding these guys in tonight

i wasn't feeling terribly ambitious on saturday. L and i were just hanging out around the house, i was trying to lay out in the back yard but the sun wasn't really being cooperative. we were checking out my exciting new basement configuration, when L started to examine the collection of odd ceramic vases and figurines that were left from the previous owner. Looking at one of them, L said, "this would be fun to spray paint" - and this is the result.

the wire basket is something i had picked up at a thrift store with the intention of painting. i had seen one in yellow in Dwell and i wanted one. I didn't have yellow spray paint on hand though. Maybe next weekend.

Weekend getaway!

In between refinishing hardwood floors and stressing over which new appliances to buy, Kris and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. We got married at beautiful Tuckahoe Plantation in Richmond in June 2006. So, as a surprise getaway, Kris planned a night away. We had been wanting to explore the Eastern Shore, so we left Richmond really early on sat morning and headed east!

Our first stop was Cape Charles.....very quaint little town, nice downtown shops and water views. We stopped for an ice coffee and looked around for a bit....but had to get on the road and head to our first stop, Chatham Vineyards.

The vineyard was off the main road a few miles, but it was a beautiful drive to Franktown. We had a tasting, bought a bottle and headed to our next destination....Onancock. Kris got us the "Maine" room since he knows I miss the north! The Inn was great, nice old house, the people were wonderful, and I was very pleased with his choice. We settled in and took a walk around the town, it has a really nice little downtown core, even a little stop at a thrift store to get some shopping in.

After we explored Onancock we decided to take a drive to Chincoteague Island and see if we could see the wild ponies that inhabit the island. This was a really fun looking vacation spot and a beautiful drive through the island to the Assateague State Park and beaches. We will definitely come back here one day! The beaches looked nice, and there seemed to be lots to do, antique shops, restaurants, an old theatre, cafes and of course a vacation staple....putt putt!

Then we headed to our final destination for the tour of the Eastern Shore, a wine festival at Bloxom Winery.

The festival was a great idea for our evening. There was a fun band playing, we tried a few wines, we packed a picnic and enjoyed our favorite anniversary treat, strawberries and blue cheese while relaxing in our new camping chairs!

stairway to heaven

When we moved into our house last year we were thrilled to have a basement, but the means to get there were a bit scary. We had a small door off the front hall next to the kitchen that lead to a very narrow wooden open stair and on the other side of it (that's right you had to step over the stair) was our "pantry". So Kris and I started demolition of these dangerous stairs in hopes of some new, safer more stylish ones. After I drew up my plan for the best way to reconfigure the stair, we needed the help of some professionals. Our friends Ryan and Bert of New Earth spent a few days at our house. First was to demo the rest of the pantry area and remove the floor boards (which we saved to relay as part of the extended kitchen project) and open up the space under the existing first floor stair, for the head room of the new basement stair.

After the guys did all the demo (which they saved as much to re use as could be) the new stair construction began. After Bert and Ryan would leave for the day, Kris and I would demo the next stage of the project, so this was when we made the opening for the new stair next to the existing one. We removed the lath and plaster and the guys cut our the studs and headed off the opening the next day. They completed construction of the stairs on the third day working at the house. And they were beautiful!In between the guys completing the stairs and me painting and finishing them, Kris' father came for a visit and helped us (built for us) a new stud wall along the left side of the stair. Now we have a new wall that gave 5 more feet to the kitchen and encloses the basement stairs. Then I painted the risers a glossy taupe (for cleaning) and stained the treads to match the existing hardwood floors.

progression of garden

I am very lucky to have a mother of many talents, one of which is biodynamic gardening. I am also lucky to have a husband with a horticulture degree and muscles....together the three of us have done some fun stuff in the garden this year!

Kris and I had decided this past winter that we wanted to tear out some of the stuff that was in the backyard when we bought the house. Last fall we did an entire remodel of the yard, broke up extra concrete and removed it, and tore up brick paths that lead to no where. Then we tilled in the grass, releveled the yard to drain properly and re seeded the small amount of grass that we had. We built up our beds on both sides of our skinny long city yard and used the bricks we had to create edges on the beds. We also wanted to build a raised vegetable garden to keep the dogs away and also have it been a boundry to the patio and a nice feature in the yard.

Once we finished all that, my mom came down from NJ in March and sowed seeds with me that I nurtured until she came back in May and we planted. We went to SB Cox, our local salvage yard, and bought 7 terracotta chimney inserts and used them to bring a little height to the gardens. We planted tomatoes in them that have climbed higher than our fences with beans growing in between them.