A little pretty

Century's 48 inch center table was the last thing I needed.  Yet every time I was in the Design Gallery at Nebraska Furniture Mart I stopped to look at it.

And every time I looked at it I ran my fingers over that hand-planed, pieced top, and admired the tapered pedestal and bourbon-like color of the wood.  God, where wouldn't it work?

I was there last weekend to check out (and rule out) something else entirely.  That piece was gone, but my table was still there.  Only this time it's tag was red, with the words Floor Sample Sale across the top.

The Mart's price is generally just above half of MSRP, which can still be easy to pass on.  The floor sample sale though generally slashes their normal price by about half.  That approaches the 75 percent off mark, and for something I love I pretty much couldn't walk away.

It fits beautifully in that empty corner and lets me pull out some books and pretty things and use that vintage Marbro lamp that I bought to sell but will probably never part with.  

A new lampshade (my lunch hour task for this week) and something on the wall (and of course baseboards) and we'll be good.

Sometimes it works out alright

Our maiden voyage selling at Bottoms Up was okay.  Friday's weather was just as hellish as it's been around here lately, so after a flurry of traffic in the morning it was pretty slow.  And hot, even with a big fan in our window.  Still, during that flurry I sold a few things and made rent.  Unsurprisingly, its the "odd object" that sells.

The weather was better on Saturday and the crowds were much bigger, so we all sold a few more things here and there.  It's a fun environment, but because the shops are in old industrial warehouses climate control is an issue.  If its cold this winter I've got great sweaters and jackets to keep the chill at bay, but in the heat of August there's only so much you can take off.

Because I've been out of business for a few years I didn't have that much merchandise to contribute, luckily Connie and Linda just moved out of their mall so they had plenty.  I went to tonight's auction at KC Auction Company in an effort to amass some stuff.

While furniture was what I was mostly looking for, there were a pair of Marbro lamps that looked promising.  They can sell high on eBay so making some money there would help me stock up for our space.  I let go of the first one, and it ended up selling for 80.  I liked it, but only enough to sell, so losing it wasn't the worst.

The orange one pictured here, well, it could totally work in the traditional/contemporary/asian thing we've got going on at Chez Malaise.  So when I bid and nobody else did I could hardly contain my excitement.  Its in perfect shape, including what looks like the original shade and finial.  Interestingly its painted metal rather than the porcelain I originally thought.  With a new shade its probably a keeper.

The booth didn't come away empty-handed though.  In spite of some woman hell-bent on buying all the furniture in the gallery I picked up this Asian-flavored chair.  The green color looked promising in this picture from the auction house, but in person it's not so great.  Even worse, that's vinyl covering the seat.  Both of those things are easily fixable though, so I've got another project to get on.

We'll be back at it on the first full weekend of September, which I believe is the 7th and 8th.  I'm hoping to have a small sideboard and a little drop-leaf table painted up and ready to go.  Also some vintage glass I picked up tonight, and with any luck maybe the chair.

Things I am good at: porch pots

After having the porch and sidewalk re-poured last fall and having the beds built and doing lots of planting this spring, the porch was looking a bit bare.  We needed some pots, and as big as our porch is they needed to be a decent size.

Ace Hardware in Westport turned out to be the spot.  I'd looked at planters everywhere and had money been no object Resto would have won.  That's rarely the case here of course, and we got these (about 2.5 feet tall) on sale for 45 bucks.

The plant selections at the Westlake were dry and sad however, so we were off to our go-to spot for plants, Soil Service nursery.


For some reason I've always had a way with mixed pots, and as usual I went with a lot of my favorite workhorses:  Sun coleus, varigated ivy, dracena, sweet potato vine.  I also decided to try some new things like ornamental pepper, persian shield, and in there somewhere is some plain old rosemary.  The giant firework-like things are papyrus, which I've never used before but like a lot.

They find themselves in both sun and shade depending on the hour, so there's a mix of sun and shade plants.  I don't usually do that but not knowing exactly what to expect in this location I just went for it.  The persian shield (those dark purple things) like mostly shade, and the coleus seem to be big enough to protect them.  One great surprise has been that potato vine.  I've always used it but its never grown like I thought it would.  These seem to like their spots (and the plant food they've received) because they started out with maybe one or two leaves over the edge of the pot, and now they're down to the porch floor.


Another smart thing we did was to buy a couple trollies to put under the pots so we can move them back and forth to even out the sun exposure.  They come in all sorts of overly-ornate designs at prices that seem silly.  These were the cheapest they had at Lowe's and they disappear nicely.


I used styrofoam peanuts to take up some room and provide some drainage at the bottom, and a potting soil that is supposed to hold moisture.  We're in the middle of a long stretch of 100+ degree days however, so I'm watering most every day as things are usually wilted by the time we're home from work.  Hopefully I can keep them alive through the rest of this hellish spell.

Now with mulch

Our new landscaper guy (who's name is David, no wonder he's good) was back on Saturday with truckloads of mulch.  The difference is amazing.

Brett and I have made repeated trips to multiple nurseries for more boxwoods, holly, and some variegated euonymus for the west end of the house.  We also planned to snag an Atlas blue cedar at Sutherland's 50% off plant sale this morning but literally missed it by a few minutes.  I resisted giving the side eye to the man and woman who had it on their cart.

Its hotter than hell today but we're heading out now to continue searching for some big pots for the porch.  As we've been concentrating on trees and shrubs we're both feeling the need for some potted flowers.  Resto REALLY needs to mark those zinc planters down hard at the end of the summer.

Boxwood blast

So you'll remember last summer after we had all the yews pulled out we built some beds.  One mild winter later and our borders were broken and coming up and just generally a mess.  So we called in some pros.

Following the line of our boxwoods (which did beautifully!) they installed a heavy duty liner.  They also roto-tilled everything, brought in dirt and graded, and buried all the downspouts.  So over the weekend and while the dirt was all fluffy and light we got to planting.

Here are some new boxwoods we added in the front.  Also note that the caved-in sidewalk and carpeted front porch are now all new.

There were no boxwoods on the east side of the house, but here's Brett finishing up the last of the 20 we installed.  You can't see them behind him but there are also five new hostas in the shady corner around that bay window.

And here at the northwest corner of the house is our new eastern white pine.  I love pines, especially funky ones with some empty spots on the trunk.  At maturity it should only be about six feet wide so it should fill up that part of the bed nicely.

There's also one little society garlic plant there, two more were added after I took this phone shot.

The guys will be back Thursday or Friday to mulch, and shopping for a Japanese lantern is on my Saturday to-do list.


Its finally starting to not look like an old lady house.

Benched

                                                                                                  Heres a better shot

When we bought the couch I mentioned that we'd ordered something else for the tv room.  It's American Leather's Rex bench, and we picked it up tonight.  White leather with buttonless tufting on a brushed steel base.  I'm pretty darn pleased with it in front of the fireplace.  I wanted something that would provide some seating when needed but not block the view of the fire.  Kind of mid-century, yet kind of contemporary.

My tables should be in soon, leaving only a chair (or a pair, depending on size), window coverings, a floor lamp and a couple things I'm painting and the big furnishing items are complete. 

More like a room all the time

So we had the Chinese cabinet for under the TV and built the wall to fit it. Then came the rug, and we lived with the sectional that was entirely too big for the room, and a couple old pottery barn tables that have clearly seen better days.

Then came the sofa, which totally opens up the room. And over the weekend I started working on that asian-legged coffee table I bought off Craigs ages ago. With the smaller sofa it fits perfectly, and I can't wait to show you what I decided to do with it.

Then tonight came this:

From Drexel's Synchronicity collection, its the Lief drum table. I'd seen it when we were sofa shopping and liked it, but I had to think about it for a while. I love a drum table and at 28 inches in diameter it's big enough for the corner I need to fill. Plus the lamp I want to use has a huge base, so this will have plenty of surface left.

And while I don't like everything to match, I like a little bit of continuity, so for the other end of the couch I ordered this from the same group:

Its the Spiro serving table. I'm sure they call it that because its small and has that handle for easy moving. Except the base is iron, so its a little weighty to pick it up with anything spillable sitting there. With a floor lamp behind it we'll be good to go.

Anticipated arrival is May, which gives me time to finish the two furniture painting projects, recover a pair of pillows, replace some lampshades, figure out the blind situation (samples already here!), and maybe even install some dummy curtain panels and hang some art.

Basic black

There's a third coat of poly to go on this, and then of course base moulding and such, but cute French Dan's crew is nearly done with the floors. We're very pleased with the results and nearly giddy at the thought we can move out of the master bedroom and back into the rest of the house.

Blue bedroom, version 2

When we moved into the house we were sleeping in the first bedroom you come to when you walk down the hall. The blue flocked damask wasn't exactly inviting, but it wasn't as depressing as the faded pink damask in the master or the dirty burlap covering the walls in the third bedroom.

Burlap was the first to go and became the gray bedroom with the window seat where we sleep now, and we turned our attention to the living room, family room and entry.

With those rooms and the hallway and closets all renovated, all that was keeping us from having the floors done was the blue bedroom. As fate would have it Bill was available, as was Chris the electrician. Down came the walls and up went new wiring, insulation and drywall. Steve worked his mud and tape magic and it was time for paint.

We had no idea what we wanted, other than some contrast. I'd thought about some pale aqua blues, but looking at chips what hit me was Benjamin Moore's Blue Danube.

It's darker and more blue-green than it looks here, the flash kind of washed it out a bit. The ceiling is the same pale grey (Sherwin-Williams' Fleur de Sel) we're using everywhere, and when the white base and crown are up I think we're going to be pleased.

I'm planning on hanging a lot of black and white art in medium toned wood frames. I got a start on that last Tuesday at KC Auction Co's fall catalog sale. It's an abstract mixed media by Lei Molin (Dutch, 1927-1990). The catalog described it as having a rabbit on the right side, but Brett sees a buffalo. Either way, it's the kind of thing I like, I got it dirt cheap, and I can't wait to get it to the framer. Public artwork service reminder: a mat serves to preserve the work, do not sandwich your piece between the mount and the glass!

House progress

We've had some stuff going on at Chez Malaise. Yay! The hall has had the old gold wallpaper stripped and is currently being skimcoated. (Pardon that gray bar, I can't seem to get that pic to upload right).
The second bedroom, formerly a sea of faded blue flocked damask wallpaper (except for the strips that had fallen off the wall), has new wiring, lighting, insulation and drywall. Mud and tape should be finished this week. This is especially exciting because the bedroom and hall were the only things standing in the way of having the rest of the floors refinished.

And because I'm incapable of waiting until everything is done before shopping, here's the rug I bought. I'll post a better shot when its down on the floor, but I'm really pleased. We wanted some pattern and we both like orientals, but finding the right one wasn't easy. I wanted orange rather than red, and not too much tan. I thought we'd hit every rug gallery in town until we remembered one we'd missed, and they had the winner.

We bought a 6X9 as we're working on the short axis of the family room. They have one more of this same rug in a larger size which is an interesting thought for the living room. It was rolled and folded over in a corner of the shop, I'm kind of hoping they leave it there until we're ready to furnish that room.

Putting antiques to work

Previously our entry was divided from the living room by an opening that was smaller and contained a built-in planter and some curly, scrolly wrought iron. It fairly screamed "tired, old house." When we began planning the reconfiguration we knew that we wanted to keep things feeling open, but we also wanted a bit of separation too, which we weren't sure how we'd achieve.

Looking at furniture at Kincaid's one day we also noticed a number of old Chinese lattice panels. Really beautiful, most of them were originally either doors or floor screens and too big for what we thought we needed. Cindy mentioned there were a few more downstairs, and what did we find but some big, simple square ones, just about the right size for our wall. We brought it home and Bill reframed the opening to fit with a couple extra inches on all sides.

After spending most of our Labor Day relaxing we decided to finally hang it. A little bit of measuring, a bit of eyeballing, and four screw eyes and hooks (3 on top, one on the bottom just to steady it) and we're done, and really pleased.

Meet Lloyd

Oddly enough, of everything we've done with this house I think I'm happiest about my new bathroom sink. (The Lloyd pedestal by Toto)

I've got to clean the floor, get switch plates and outlet covers on, and wash the new gray towels we got to replace our khaki colored ones. The last piece is having the glass guys out to measure for the shower enclosure. Oh, and I may need something new for our toothbrushes.

It's just so much more pleasant to brush my teeth or wash my hands here rather than a tattered blue or purple sink with wonky old faucets that spray in odd directions.

Night and day

Remember my family room? The overgrown, totally beat cabinetry opposite the fireplace and the worn parquet that was coming up in places, oh and the nasty dark paneling.

Well, the single door (with the storm door that wouldn't stay closed) and the cloudy, drafty picture window are gone. The replacement is a smaller window with sliders, then a 5 foot french door.

Yesterday the electrician rewired, then today the last of the drywall went up. Tomorrow and Tuesday is mud and tape inside while Bill replaces the trim and shingles outside.

So, after the floors are finished and the trim goes up and some interior doors are replaced the whole middle third of the house will be ready to decorate. I've got that sideboard to paint and a couple of chinese lattice pieces to do a little finish on and back with mirror for starters. Can. Not. Wait.

Finely marbled

As usual my camera can't deal with anything white, but here's a little progress shot on the bathroom. Bill's been here all week and only today got to start grouting.

He'll finish up the walls tomorrow and switch to black grout for the floors, which I didn't shoot as they're currently covered with paper.

I also noticed taking these that while the bathroom is oversized for what it is, it's also small when you try to take a picture. Hopefully when fixtures are in (can't wait for cute Matt the plumber to be back!) and ladders and tools are out I can get a shot that looks right to me.

There's also a bit of painting to finish up, and of course the window to be replaced (that's absolutely next on the list), but then my mornings should start here rather than the scary pink tub/shower we're beginning our days in now.

Black tile / White Flag

Yes, we'll try most anything, but more importantly we know when to call in the professional. Bill's back, and we have a new entry way floor to show for it. Gone is the old scrap marble, and in its place is black slate. The old marble was in concrete so there was a jackhammer and some beefing up of the old floor joists and a huge mess in the basement, but this is WAY better. And it goes into the closet because I'm one of those "fewer flooring materials the better" guys.

The white flag part comes in with the bathroom. It was taking us forever, it was time. He started on that today as shown below.

And then our french door and new window are in (so excited!), so he'll install those in the family room when he's done with this tile.

This freed Brett and I up to work on our landscaping. We've started installing edging and a small boxwood border and the maple from a few posts ago. Today we put in a little mugo pine, a pair of artemesia, a pair of reed grasses and started installing weed cloth. We bought some more boxwoods to continue the border but they're not going in until later this week, we were beat.

The Rapture was a bust, so we landscaped

I read an early morning tweet from someone in New Zealand that said they were all still there, so we decided the Rapture must have been scratched. Its a shame too because the weather was beautiful, perfect for heavenly ascention.

Not perfect was Friday, when I took these first two pictures showing the enormous overgrown yews:
And the enormous overgrown yews coming out.

Here is our new Crimson Sentry Norway Maple shortly after we got it in the ground. We're in love with the color and the fact that it grows in a more columnar shape. The house is heavy on horizontals so we're trying to put in plenty of verticals.

And here you can see the beginning of the bed liner and the little boxwoods that will eventually become a low square hedge.

Weed cloth and mulch are coming soon. Hopefully the weather holds on Monday so the tree guys can come back and get everything finished.

We've been to the nursery a number of times and have found a variety of pines, both tall and tree-like as well as smaller and bushy, that we're planning to use. (There's a very odd dwarf cedar at Family Tree that I think I have to have too. The foliage is corded, it looks like a big green mop.)

I've also been to House of Rock which has some good smallish boulders, and Van Lieus, which has very good pricing on Japanese outdoor lanters. Hopefully there's more to show soon.

Chipper

Earlier this week we had trees along the street trimmed up as they'd grown down to where it was hard to walk down the sidewalk. A different arborist (we split the job between two) and his crew are here again this morning. The dying tree on the corner is down and being fed into the chipper. Lines are up in the enormous oak in the back yard to clean up the trunk and ventilate the top. Crew chief is mowing down the overgrown yews that ring the house. Soon the monster magnolia will be trimmed back and ventilated.

We look less like the Munsters house every minute. THRILLED.

***UPDATE*** They got a good start but have been rained out. To be continued Monday...

Colored Ceilings

We're going with a very pale grey for our ceilings throughout the house, but in the entry and dining rooms we have some very cool old backlit coved ceilings. I gave this pale turquoise a shot and we really like it. (pardon my tape there) I can't wait to do the dining room now.

I'm very nearly floored

Bill was here yesterday and today, and fingers are crossed that he'll be back tomorrow. He goes back to work on Monday so his availability is about to plummet. Flooring has hit the home stretch! Here's a shot of what we started with. Sad old, worn parquet with a bit of old termite damage over in the corner by the patio door. And now, oak plank running continuously from the living room into this room!

Yes, there's plenty left. We've had one floor finishing quote and Tuesday afternoon the cute french guy who redid the bedroom floor is coming to quote . Also Tuesday a window guy is coming. If we can resolve the replacements for the patio door and awful picture window then this room will be close to done.

I can't wait to be paneling free.

China Black

You thought we abandoned the bathroom project didn't you. Turns out it was a good weekend for getting things done. While I was priming and painting new drywall Brett was slaving away mixing mortar and setting floor tile. And that green is waterproofing, not a wall color. Originally we'd planned to lay this on a 45 degree angle because I think that usually looks better. As we were measuring we got to looking and decided that with the black tile and black grout it wasn't going to make all that much difference. Now that theres a big spot of it down I like the way it looks and I'm glad we switched gears. More to come!