Tea, Anyone?

Steven got me this gorgeous little hand-painted tea table and 4 stools, with birds and cherry blossom branches. The table top is a quite thick tree section, minimally milled, and the legs of all the pieces are stout with fat stretchers and bridle joints i think, each with a little hardwood peg or stay where the tenon passes completely through the tenon (wish i really knew the lingo for what those kinds of joints are... can anybody help me with that?). Each is a beautiful work of art:







Just like our current Dining Room table, which we bought 5 or 6 years ago to use outside, we are both worried about this thing decaying on the front porch and are already talking about where to put it inside. We don't really need it inside, the front porch is the perfect place for it. It has a thick layer of something or other (Steven told me the Chinese word, but we don't know the English word). Looks something like a thick gauche topped with lacquer, then the hand-painted details, and then layers of clear lacquer. A lot of it is cracked and peeling, through all the layers, and all of the legs are peeling at their bottoms. That's all part of the charm, but we want to stabilize the charm where it is now. Does anybody know what to do for a piece like this? We are loathe to use one of those super-duper self-levelling polyeurethane sealers... as we have no idea how it would react with the lacquer or the painted detail.

We also had a great time with our new friend Jamey who went with us to Yellow Springs, and then to Springfield to pick this up. It was quite a production getting it; thanks for helping Jamey!

Cheers thanks alot!

*We've whiled away quite a bit of time doing our Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, and Joanna Lumley impersonations... while watching a Jamey's stellar array of EVERYTHING they've ever made*

Groovy Chandelier

We got this for scarcely more than the price of lunch--lunch at Ikea mind you--back in December. I haven't wired it up yet, but it is hanging on our back porch over the table. Love the bluish glow. I wish i could put it on our deck when we do it.

Someone Seems to Like the New Fireplace!

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Debut of the HearthGlo

From the look of this old Hearthglo fireplace heater, I think it is a good 10 - 15 years beyond the era our house was built in (mid-twenties craftsman story-and-a-half bungalow), but i LOVE it in our glossy white fireplace. We don't think the glossy white fireplace surround is orginal either, it looks to me that it was added in the 50s or 60s. Were it original, it would have the same look of the house's Sears kit millwork, such as our 5 panel rail & stile doors, the columns in antis, or the stair parts. They all have real, inset panels; this fireplace just has moulds to emulate that. And i bet it is not the same oak under all the paint, hence the glossy white.

A man named Charlie Brown came and fixed the gas line, put in new valves, etc. and got it all set up for us. It's so nice to have a working fireplace again.







Our old house in Atlanta had a glossy white fireplace of an entirely different ilk, with gas logs that we used all winter long. We are fond of this bungie, even so, we miss the sixties novelty we had before. The old house had this fireplace in the kitchen, with a big sloping ceiling, 4 large skylights, and my slightly kitsch, spray-painted-black Zsa Zsa chandelier. I took the fox furs that once belonged to my Aunt Connie and my Grandmother Banky that once decorated it, but left the chandelier itself behind.



This picture was taken the day we left the old house, about three and a half years ago now.

Outsmarting the Code Officials

In case you haven't figured it out by now, my projects in the garden involve all the infrastructure the garden requires to work and look good. Steven, of course, is all about the plants themselves and maintaining them and making sure they thrive. Me, i'm more interstitial exostructure (fences, decks, walls, walks, etc.) while Steven is cellular endo (plants, roots, digging, weeding). I've been thinking about this as Steven complains i never weed. Well, i do, he just never notices. And i never weed an entire area in one sitting like he does. And HE never is concerned with anything beyond the plants themselves.

So, our silly little town city government won't allow us to have a picket fence in our front garden. We aren't sure exactly why, something about being on a principal street and not wanting to close things in. Well it makes me mad. So i've been using our gobs and gobs of wood lath removed from the kitchen during renovation to make little tiny fences. This prototype panel is about 14 or 15 inches high and 24 wide, and just pushes into the soil. I took each scrap of lath and ripped longitudinally into 3 equal strips to start, so each member is quite small in section, like 3/8" square. I'll remove the nails as i go, and carefully arrange the cut sides this way, the plaster stained sides that, cut all the tops at a 45 degree angle so they won't soak up too much rain, etc. Now i have 30 or so more of these to go!

New Fence & Gate

We finished the gate last night (in the rain...grrrrr), and the fence is all substantially complete, except for a few trim items to cut and complete. Otherwise it is done. Now on to the back fence, deck, and planning the stone/brick pathways through this and the plantings. This fence will connect around to a back fence which will then connect to a deck off the screened porch, and the kitchen. The ultimate goal is to just be able to open the kitchen door and let a future doggie outside. Many things have to be moved/relocated/gotten rid of (such as the yuccas stabbing away at me while i work on the fence), Steven is working that all out in his head. Part of the solution involves us going to dig up lots of weeds (they are gorgeous weeds) from Laiyee's hill to plant next to the house. They do really well in full sun. Maybe Steven will post some pics of the few we already have near the back of the new fence.

The REALLY hard part is the prep work for the pathways, flagged patio, and pea gravel paths and parking area. We have ALOT of digging to do to properly prepare a lower gravel bed, then sand, then pea gravel or stone or brick. Somewhere in there is a permeable fabric layer--to keep mud from squishing up. Particularly if we're going to put cars on it, our rather bog-like backyard is going to need some work to keep the mud from squishing up. It would almost be easier (and probably cheaper) to put in concrete, but we've been resisting that, mostly for aesthetic reasons, but also to just avoid sealing in another big chunk of our tiny .1 acre of earth. Anybody have any advice for us on this? We were going to go to the library and see if we can find a book or a dvd or something. I found a few DIY websites, but find a bit of conflicting information (such as where the permeable layer goes).

Latest Craft Project :: Preps for Doggie??

Hi everyone! Here are some progress photos on the first of 3 series of fences. This is our east side yard, where, this weekend, we got about 60% complete on putting in a bamboo fence. We still have to do a bevy of mitre cuts on bamboo pieces at the numerous end points, and then outfit the cedar trim boards all over (visibly mocked up in some of these photos). Not to mention building a gate. Next will be about a third of the back yard, which will connect to this side yard as a big "L" shape, AND to the kitchen door. We recently passed the 2 year anniversary of Dear Departed Trotsky's untimely death... and being aware of it made us aware of just how much Trotsky would really have wanted us to have moved on to another canine companion by now. We miss the clomp clomp clomp of his elbows bashing the floor as he clambered under the bed every night at bedtime. And his banter with the cat. And his desire to go on twelve walks a day. His unconditional love. His cheeriness always. Ok, well, so that is why we are building these fences, so that hopefully sometime this summer, we will adopt another doggie, hopefully from the Athens County Shelter. And when we don't want to do the 1oth or the 12th walk that day, we'll be able to just open the kitchen door and say OUT. Or better yet, just have a doggie door in it and he/she can let themselves out!

Latest Craft Project

Last weekend i made a new medicine cabinet and lighting for the downstairs bath. We found an old empire (sort of) mirror at a giant antique market in Springfield the weekend before, and i built a new box behind that will hold much more than the old ugly 80s oak medicine cabinet now removed. There are no other cabinets in this bathroom but there is a small closet, so a bigger cabinet was the goal, along with a bit more style, as this sink is always visible from the front of the house since we opened the kitchen up to the living room. The lighting Steven found at the Lowe's sale table for like $4, and the black pipe holding it all up are some old curtain rods and parts we rebent, recut, and refashioned to hang the lamps over the sliding mirror. The raw wood you see on the back wall of the cabinet will be covered with some mirror pieces cut to go into the cubbies on the back wall (and thus cover up the lag screws) and i'll be done. The only part i am not happy with is the canopy covers over the wall jboxes (previous lighting was wall sconce-mounted bits too far back for a mirror thrust forward). And it's still not enough room for Mom & BC's little train cases of stuff, but we'll soon remedy that with another cabinet, coming someday soon!

Ready for Spring

New curtains crafted Saturday and Sunday. Rediscovered art project retrieved from moving boxes.

New Dining Room :: Part II

Hopefully, we will finish with the dining room this weekend. Here is a picture of the completed wall treatment, two layers of mottled glazes over the dark red base. It has come out pleasingly like leather--from a distance anyway--but on close inspection, the metallic highlight / pearlescence becomes visible. The other pic is of our sample board we made last weekend, with the arts and crafts border we'll do at the top of the wall. We've decided to go with the middle green; it is a shade darker than the ceiling green, and works nicely with the broken green beer bottle pieces in the chandelier. We've both got tired arms!

New Dining Room

arriving soon. no it won't be clinical white. had to prime over those rather Neil Sedaka stripes.



and here we have the rich base color, a nice slightly-bloodier-than-terra-cotta. Next, a golden glaze mottled over.

North Star?

As usual, not much decorating going on here for the Horrordays. We did, however, both get into a bit of a zen moment (yes, even Steven) transforming the Sputnik in the Living Room into an even more kitsch display of holiday sentiment. It happened quickly, instinctively, in a way that made me feel a kinship to bloghunk Drew and his "special" uncanny ability.

Hard Work Today

Today we painted a gaggle of beadboard to apply to nude garage/greenhouse walls, installed a sliding glass door, and found a poster for a local circus in the attic (we think maybe Curtis may know something about this circus?). And JingXia even helped. I can't remember the last time I was so completely dirty (even removing plaster in the kitchen wasn't as dirty as removing collar beams in the garage).

Next workday: install a gaggle of R11 batt insulation in said nude walls, and hold it in with the beadboard. I'll be moving a lovely old window that the sliding door replaced to the gable above the door (sorry JingXia, no more basketball), and our friend Aaron will be installing a wall-mounted gas heater for us. Then Steven's greenhouse dream will be done, just in time for all the various plants to winter. Yay!

Yowzah!

See how great Jonathan Adler's stuff is? I've been drooling on this sofa for months now... we have to get rid of the 2 long defunct radiators in our living room before we could fit another sofa in there. The extra foot of room width they needlessly eat up now is critical. And, we might have to lose the giant five-and-a-half-foot circular coffee table. *sign*

Martha Sits

Now, the tedious work of painting in the leaves, and highlighting them. Meanwhile, Meet the Press blares in the background.

He's So Martha...

Me, I can't bring myself to do anything much today. Not even a good thing. I polished silver and washed the new china, put it all away in the new china cabinet. And cooked.

But Steven has been very industrious.






















second coat going on



















the finished product: blue reed bundles, red maple leaves, brown lowlights at the reeds, chartreuse highlights at the leaves. a definite good thing.

1885 Ebonized Buffet

We just bought this gorgeous buffet today. I've always wanted an aesthetic movement piece, and now I own one. I have some beautiful aesthetic silver from my Mom (from her grandparents?), that'll look great in these gallery shelves. Does anyone know anything about James Schoolbred? Apparently he was a somewhat famous maker of aesthetic movement pieces in London.

Hopefully we can go pick it up tomorrow: in Lynchburg, VA, about 300 miles from here. Should be an adventure, since snow is in the forecast!

Chez ma Cuisine

Well, I thought I had posted this collage of stuff we've ordered for our kitchen, but apparently I did not. I haven't been very good about keeping up with my online diary here lately. Sorry. But check it out:



It is going to be fabulous!

Dig those fake foam beams.

Dig that swanky dish drawer washer.

Dig those blue knobs.

And that pot rack with integral lighting.

The star lamps.

Really dig that gigantic faucet sprayer thingie.

And i'm just gonna be beside myself with a self-cleaning CONVECTION oven. I love me some baking.

More of JingXia's handiwork

She is a wizard with the sewing machine. I'm loving this brown canvas with pink piping and the kinda turquoise walls. It's our Annette Funicello guest room, Moon Doggy! Those Africana curtains are leftovers from the previous inmates of 308, but we are getting a bit attached to them. It's a cacophony of clashing patterns.

Look at this

Cool new rug I got in Sioux City yesterday. I'll surprize Steven with it (unless he reads this first!). It will be perfect by the front door.