Thursday, April 22, 2010

A Little Birdie Told Me


Her photos are simply amazing.


Yesterday, my phone rang while I was at the lake. Fate! A few days ago I posted about being a chicken. http://designstarwannabe.blogspot.com/2010/04/can-you-say-chicken.html. I just realized I have a bird theme going on here. Well fate just stepped in
and complicated things in my life.

The run-down ramshackle shack I decided not to bid on is up for sale again. The financing fell through. It is a strange purchase. You technically are not buying anything but the right to lease the land for a 100 years.

The house itself is a tear down. And as much as I love to save and re-use old things ...there is not much architectual salvage. The structure subtracts value because of the demo disposal costs involved. A big bon fire is most likely it's happy ending.

The land is beautful...the views are beautiful and the challenge exciting. The investment risk is scary...to build a house and wait for it to sell in this market.Hmmmm. Maybe I am cuckoo for even contemplating it again.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Progress


Gaping Hole Gone!


Smaller Gaping Hole Gone.

     New Front Door still waiting on operable black shutters. 
   Paneled shutters on bottom and louvered shutters on the second floor just like the ones it had originally.

 

Can you see under that mess the jointer and planer? 


Garage After photos
It was worse than the basement. I cleaned and moved machines
from 6am until 7 pm even my toes were tired. 

The machines were vacummed.My father never purchased a single item that weighed less than 50 pounds. Monarch Lathe weighs 4000 plus pounds in the corner. Nikon V-4 Profile Projectore because you never know when you need to be exact to 1/1000 of an inch coming in at 1500 pounds.

And because one lathe is never enough a Pratt and Whitney Model "C" 12" coming in at 4500 pounds.


Cincinnati Toolmaster tooling machine every garage needs one of these babies. 3000 pounds.
In my audition video for HGTV I explained I had a good knowledge of working with tools. Maybe I should have included pictures of these.
 Basement during not quite done yet.

All finished in the garage. Now I just need to sell the machines and move them out. The  two commercial sewing machines plus one home PFAFF. My fault...direct result of my B.S. in Fashion Design.


Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Rough Start!!!

Reedy Roo and I made it back East to my Home Sweet Home.Nine and a half  hours of travel time and we were in the door. Relief! Ten minutes later,we were back out  to the grocery store to buy food and milk cruising in my Mom's mini van. The trip was uneventful except for the kicking, screaming, temper tantrum of all tantrums in the airport terminal. It was Reed, not me in case you were wondering though secretly inside I was feeling the same way.

This morning was a little less effective. I awoke at  6 am to meet the contractors scheduled to arrive at 7 am.. Exhausted and caffeine deprived I waited. I phoned with no success. I waited some more. Noon came and went...no contractors. No return phone call.

While I paced and my heart raced in frustration I accomplished a couple of other things:
1.) Measured the windows and ordered exterior wood shutters
2.) Found, met and hired a landscaper to take care of the front and back yards and add landscaping.
3.) Searched the garage and made a list of the machines needed to be sold.Pratt and Whitney 2 ton lathe, Monarch lathe, Brown & Sharpe grinder, Nikon Profile Projector V-14, Cincinnati Toolmaster press a whole machine shop in my garage.
4.) Posted several items to craiglist for sale
5.) Scheduled a second contractor to come look at the bathrooms for remodeling.
6.) Found and scheduled a mason willing to do re-pointing on a three story house chimney or at least give me a quote.

This is such a bittersweet experience. I write with tears rolling down my cheeks. Part of me is appalled and overwhelmed  with the sheer mass of things my father collected and the scope of the project. And part of me is intrigued and joyful as I open and explore each one. I hadn't realized how much a part of you things can be, not necessarily materialistic valuable things but items of love, knowledge or the history of the person they belonged too.

In organizing, so we can  empty the third floor I have to find homes for my dad's photographic darkroom equipment.
A Charles Beseler Enlarger Model 45 with the original cover. A Fischer Scientific Company scale that measures to 1/1/000 of a grain. An american Optical  Stereo Zoom microscope model 569. A Consew single needle commercial sewing machine, a US commercial blind stitch machine, an antique solid oak drafting desk with all the drafting tools. And that is just the stuff not in cases or boxes on the third floor.

Finally around 2 pm the contractors scheduled for 7 am showed up. Of courseby now, I was working with the landscaper and the bathroom reno guy had showed up an 1.5 hours early so he was inside measuring. Not his fault he had called and my 80 year old mother said it was fine to come early. Somehow, I managed to work with all three, chase my three year old and change a dirty diaper.
One of the two bedrooms on the third floor. Isn't the plastic tarp to keep the ceiling open and not molding
lovely. the roof has been replaced and the chimney temporarily sealed. The re-pointing should fix this leak.

 


Time Frame is 8 working days to complete the following:
New plaster coat on plaster walls to repair damage from removing original wallpaper
Repaint walls in bedroom Ralph Lauren Willow
Sand, caulk and paint all trim and doors Behr Swiss Coffee
Bathrroom walls painted beadboard in Swiss Coffee
Bathroom and Hall walls custom color
Bathroom fixtures will be cleaned and new shower hardware added to clawfoot tub
New curtains and curtain hardware installed
Hardwood floors refinished throughout
New light fixtures installed

Phase two will be a new tile bathroom floor when we remodel the second floor and first floor bathrooms.
Wish me luck.



Can You say Chicken!!!!

Not too bad from the outside rotted and rundown...with a nice view. But the inside was well..this is the best part the rest was downright creepy. So, I chickened out and did not bid to buy it and flip it. Still pondering if I did the right thing.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Kitchen Steels

Not just for pot racks, pans, cabinet hardware, and appliances anymore.
Steel, iron and copper are popping up all around our favorite room the kitchen


                                          
                                                   Steel shelving and cabinet accents
Copper glow

Vintage Industrial steel stools

Copper countertop

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Friday, April 2, 2010

Dream Weaver

As I ready for my trip back East. The first in a series to renovate the house I grew up in..I am dreaming of calm romantic beds to sleep in ....not quite the twin bed in my dad's office that slides off the boxspring when you rollover. If  I dared to replace the sleigh bed that my husband gave to me for Christmas many, many years ago ,,, I would choose one of these. A girl can dream






Thursday, April 1, 2010

First there was monobrow now there is monobed


Classic twin beds painted black with a canopy for one

I Love Lucy style for 2010


A cozy upholstered wall for two

Shutter, Shutter Everywhere I look


Grey weathered louvered shutters as closet/cabinet doors.
Courtesy Jill Sharp above and Cote de Texas below.

Chipped and peeling on a shower wall
Courtesy Velvet and Linen

As a dining room wall....

Or office organization...

In the kitchen....


By the couch...

And where we brush...


Anywhere but on window..is my choice