Rancho Tostado Redux

Diane's Office

2011-08-30T10:09:00.015-06:00

We just finished remodeling John's office and my office. John's office isn't quite back together yet so we'll save his office for another post. My office mainly got new floors, new windows, new wiring, new lighting, and new drywall in this remodel. The stupid pipe that stuck out of the floor (see earlier post) got rerouted. And in doing that, we had a little surprise. We're on a concrete slab, so John removed some of the slab so the plumber could get to the pipe better. Well, as he was cutting through the slab, he thought it sounded hollow underneath. Not a good sign. Sure enough, once he had cut a big enough hole that he could look under the slab, he could see there was a big hole in the dirt under the slab right there. A big enough hole you could fit a person into. Then he remembered that last year, in redoing the deck, which was right outside that wall, he had found a big hole under the old deck that a squirrel had made. And there had been a tunnel going from that hole towards the stem wall.... Well, the tunnel obviously had led to a big comfy heated squirrel condo under my office! It took 4 wheelbarrowfuls of dirt to fill it in. You could see where the slab had sagged over this hole, but I had never noticed it before. Good thing we found it. John used a lot of floor leveler to fix it. Well, this is the kind of stuff you discover when you remodel an old house!

So - here's a "pre" picture of my office wall from the hallway door-

And here's how it looks now-

I now have much better lighting. The original house had basically no built in lighting. We added track lights for over the desk and work table, and also added globe lights for more overall light. I really like the trio over my work table - all are scavenged from thrift stores and Restores - they are all different sizes, at varying heights -

We ended up going with the same tile floor that we used in the bathroom directly across the hall. It's a fake slate by Mohawk (Ember Forest, Gravura). I like the having the continuity and I also like having a sturdy tile for a workroom / high traffic area (access to our deck is through this room).

And finally - I had had lightweight wood slider closet doors.

I had been happy with these and would have been happy to re-use them after the remodel. But for some stupid reason, they had been cut off at the bottom so they were too short and hung too high above the floor level. The contractor thought we should get new, heavier doors, so I agreed. At first, I just figured they would be a natural wood finish like the others. But then, when I was thinking about painting a wall or two of the room in a bright color, I started wondering about painting the closet doors instead of a wall. Then I started thinking about painting ONE closet door. It seemed kinda weird and the idea got mixed reviews from my friends. I was really going after the look of those cabinet doors in the Kerf ads-

But I really didn't know how it would look with only two doors. Well, we went for it and painted one of each set of closet doors a nice orangey red. And I love it! It adds a lot of color to the room.

And I just saw an article on the trend of mixing natural wood with a color. So I guess I'm right in the groove.... :-)

Then I found this pic of a vintage house, that shows a set of doors, each in a different color (blue and white)! Pretty cool. I will definitely be playing around with door color more when we remodel the 2 bedrooms.

Denver Modernism

2011-08-29T12:34:00.003-06:00

We finally made it to a modern show! A friend has been going to the Denver Modernism show for years and it just hadn't worked out for us to go until this year. The timing turned out to be perfect - we had just finished phase 2 of our remodel and wanted to go up to Denver to the new Ikea to buy some bookcases for John's office - so it worked out perfect to go there last weekend.

It was a great little show. Not as many vendors as I would have hoped for, but it was still great fun and the prices were really terrific. The show prides itself on having something for everyone, in all prices ranges, and they were right. We went on opening night, had drinks at the tiki bar, had some fried cereal at Charles Phoenix's booth, caught a little of the Miss Modernism pageant, and did some shopping. The last booth we came to had some vintage Jensen Selig Z chairs that I had always admired. They were in terrific shape and the price was really reasonable. Still, how would we get them home with the Ikea bookcases in the back of the LandCruiser? So - we slept on it but ended up going back and buying them when the show opened on Saturday. Ikea always manages to pack things in impossibly small boxes - so we had no trouble fitting the 2 chairs in the car with 3 Ikea bookcases and miscellaneous other purchases. So we are now the proud owners of 2 Z chairs!

We had a great time in Denver and definitely hope to go to the show again next year. We also toured the Arapahoe Acres area of town (in Englewood), which is a lovely MCM neighborhood. Too bad they didn't have any house tours here, like they did during Modernism weekend last year. We also went to a few antique stores - some on S. Broadway (0-100 block and 1800 block) and a new place, Mid Mod and More, at 1716 Boulder St. It's in a cute little modern house right near downtown. And of course there are the classic modern stores there, Mod Livin' and Zeitgeist, but we skipped those this trip.

We just finished our remodel so will post about that soon. Still putting on the finishing touches though. But in the meantime - here's a few more additions to our vintage collection. First - a goofy little 1950s wire fruit basket I found in Roswell -

And finally, some friends are moving away and cleaning out and gave us their vintage Panasonic Panapet radios! Woo hoo! I love these, I had one as a teenager myself except mine was an orangey-red. It's great to have the pets around.

So stay tuned for remodel news. Sorry about any crazy formatting here, I'm doing this is Google Chrome for the first time and the formatting is not working like it's supposed to!

Remodel Phase 2 Begins

2011-04-19T11:38:00.005-06:00

Two years ago we did a major remodel of half of our house. We gutted the whole front half - the living room, kitchen, laundry area, and pantry. We learned that the original wiring from the 1950s was scary, and that the wiring from work since wasn't any better. So we realized that eventually, the rest of the house would need its drywall and paneling taken out too. So - here we are at Phase 2 of the remodel, which will be John's office and my office. Phase 3 will be the guest room and master bedroom and bath. Then the inside will be done except for the guest bath, although it had some of its wiring done in the last remodel.

John's office is in what was originally part of the carport. The roof is very low at that point, and John's office has always seemed a bit...cozy. So, his main objective is to make the space feel bigger. He is removing the walk-in closet which is at one end of his room and adding windows (in addition to ripping the paneling and wiring out on the existing walls). He is also removing the old carpet and putting in click Marmoleum flooring. John has already started demolition, here's our progress so far- here's how his office looked at the beginning- with one little window above his desk (there will be 3 along that wall after the remodel) - the trapezoidal window that will be added is in blue tape on left-

And here's a similar shot after he ripped out the carpet. Edge of closet that is ripped out is on right side of photos. Under the carpet was an old parquet floor in pretty bad shape.

And here is a "before" picture looking from the entry hall into John's office - you see a view of the closet door-

And here is how it looks now, since he tore out the closet last weekend-

His room now seems much bigger and airier already. And here's a final shot of the wall where the trapezoidal window will get added and the other window removed-

Now, on to my office. My office is simpler. Mainly the problem is the carpet and the wiring. But we decided to add another window (see blue tape. Final placement of windows has changed slightly from this.)

And here's what we found under the carpet -

I had forgotten that my office was originally 2 small bedrooms that had been joined into one room at some point. You can see the changes in paneling styles on the wall - half the room has a smooth painted paneling and the other side is grooved paneling and they meet in the middle of the room! Well, under the carpet, you can see the original flooring - one side a checkerboard imitation cork and the other is a charcoal grey with speckles of color. And in the middle, where the wall once was, they have filled in the gap with a variety of flooring.

Also in that wall that got removed in the past is a water pipe that goes outside to a faucet and the drip system. The problem is that it was inside the wall and when the wall was removed, it stuck up out of the floor an inch or two-

To conceal it, they cleverly (?) covered it with a piece of PVC covered with carpet to disguise it- (that's my bookcase to the right of it, I know it's a bit confusing visually)-

Anyway, the plumber is going to have to figure out a solution to this problem because I don't want a pipe sticking up out of my floor! (which is going to be the same slate-looking porcelain tile that we have in the guest bath directly across the hall).

I really don't like this checkerboard tile. The other bedrooms of this house all have different tile. So I don't feel so bad that after the remodel, we will have a bit of variety in flooring also.

The contractor (the same one we used last time) will start in 3 or 4 weeks so stay tuned. Meanwhile, we'll continue demolition.

San Diego Modern

2011-03-01T11:23:00.004-07:00

We spent last weekend in San Diego. Had originally planned to go to the Cincinnati modern show but just couldn't quite bring ourselves to fly north in the middle of winter. So we headed to sunny southern California instead. It turned out there are quite a few midcentury modern shops in the area, so we got our midcentury fix. For anyone else planning a trip there, I just thought I'd list them for you.

All of the following deal in original vintage furniture-

Along Park Blvd.-

The Atomic Bazaar
3816 Park Blvd.
619-534-8397
Wed-Sat 12-6
Sun 12-5

Mid-Century Design
3795 Park Blvd.
619-295-4832
Wed-Sat 12-6
Sun 12-4

Design/One
3789 1/2 Park Blvd.
619-501-2057

Near Little Italy and only a few blocks from where you pick up your rental car from the airport-

Klassic
989 W. Kalmia St.
619-640-6995

Boomerang for Modern
2475 Kettner Blvd.
619-239-2040
Mon-Sat 11:30-5

There is also a nice little antique mall on Kettner -

Antiques on Kettner
2400 Kettner
619-234-3332
Closed Tues, open 10-6 Wed-Mon

And there is a fabulous architectural salvage place on Kettner as well. Didn't see anything very modern but a great place for architectural/ design junkies to visit nevertheless-

Architectural Salvage
2401 Kettner
Tues-Sat 10-6
Mon, Sun 11-5

And one new place dealing in contemporary modern stuff-

Mixture
mixturehome.com
2210 Kettner Blvd.
619-239-4788

And one last place, a teeny little store in a different neighborhood but with cool vintage stuff-

Nest Vintage
830 25th St.
619-756-7491
Tues-Sat 11-7
Sun 12-5

Happy shopping!

Planner Group Catalog

2011-01-23T16:34:00.008-07:00

I grew up with quite a bit of Paul McCobb's furniture from the Planner Group. We had a coffee table, two end tables, a drop lid desk, and some bookcases (with and without the sliding glass doors). The coffee table and end tables were given away a few years ago but mom still had the desk and bookcases. The desk was sitting in the garage and we nabbed it a few months ago. She had thought she had saved the original brochure (she saves everything) but we had been unable to find it. However, I was back visiting last week and we came across it. Pretty cool to see the original catalog of all the designs, with some prices that my dad had scribbled in. I have scanned the whole brochure and am posting it here for anyone who wants to study it. Enjoy! You should be able to click on each picture to be able to read the fine print.

These last two are part of a big foldout and overlap a bit - sorry -

A Deck - and a House

2010-10-31T11:53:00.010-06:00

John started the deck back in the spring - I see my last post, where he had just gotten started on it, was dated in June. Well, it's finally done. And it looks great now - much larger and stronger than the old one. Here's a before picture -

and here's how it looks today.

John was really adamant about doing a zazzy, non-rectangular deck. I wasn't sure at first - I liked the idea of one side of it roughly paralleling our bocce court - but I wasn't sure how practical it would be in terms of arranging furniture on it, etc. But after we mocked it all up with string, I finally agreed it would work. After construction began, we realized that MAYBE his insistence upon an irregularly shaped deck was due to the fact that when his parents built a cool midcentury modern house in upstate New York when he was a child, they had an irregularly shaped deck too. When they were building the house, they lived in a one-room shack down the driveway on their property. (They actually lived in Manhattan and this was a home in the country for them.) We noticed in a picture that their one-room shack (about the size of a shed nowadays) had a little odd-shaped deck they had built to admire their hilltop view-

The main house they had built had a cantilevered deck that had the same great view-

Here's another shot of the interior of their finished house, just for fun. Too bad we don't have those chairs, although we do have a lot of other modern furniture from John's family.

A few years ago, we were planning a trip to New York and wanted to find out what had happened to their custom-built house. John's parents had sold it when he was fairly young. It took a lot of research and studying of maps to figure out that we thought the house must be in Washingtonville, NY (just about an hour's drive from Manhattan). So we rented a car one day and drove up there. We stopped at the first real estate office we saw and asked if anyone knew of a house up on a hill in the area. The realtor said she thought we must be talking about the doctor's place, and gave us directions on how to get there. As soon as we got to the long driveway up the hill, John knew we were in the right spot. It was fenced off and there was a neighbor at the property at the fenceline and so we talked to them. They told us the house was in ruin and abandoned and to go on up. It was very strange - there was still some stuff in the house but it had been vandalized and it was in terrible disrepair. John knew that it had an innovative feature - a rooftop lined in copper to create a giant swimming pool on the roof. It wasn't meant to be a swimming pool, it was meant to hold a few inches of water and serve as an evaporative cooler for the house (the house was off the grid with no electricity). Well, the roof had been the house's demise when it leaked and water poured into the living room. It was all very sad. The deck was in disrepair also and was falling off of the house-

Anyway, we stayed there for quite awhile and took pictures and walked around. When we got home, we were even contacted by the doctor that now owns the place. The neighbors had shown him our pictures of when the house was built. He hopes to restore it some day but it's probably too far gone.

Now that the deck is done, we're discussing our next project. Looks like it'll be a remodel of John's office and my office. Our main goals are: new flooring (they both have old carpet now), **new wiring (which means ripping the paneling off the walls and redoing the walls), and more windows. We are trying to figure out a window scheme for the rest of the house at the same time so when we redo those rooms, we will continue the theme (which most likely will be to add new windows in the same style as the old awning ones we have). The flooring issue is the hardest for me. It needs to be super-sturdy as it is my work space as well as the main route outside to the deck. Some kind of tile seems appropriate - maybe this terrazo tile by Eco Terr? Terrazo seems cold but I sure like the idea of it, it seems sturdy and I love love love the look. If anyone has any experience with it, or any ideas about flooring, please speak up! Cork and linoleum have also been suggested but I am worried about their durability.

The Deck and Beyond

2010-06-13T14:19:00.005-06:00

Sorry it's been such a long time since I've posted. It was a long long winter here and winter is not the greatest time for doing house projects. John worked on plans for our new deck and I mainly worked on decorating. I found a few pieces of furniture on ebay - since it is really hard to find vintage MCM furnishings in Santa Fe. I just purchased an expandable slat bench on ebay-

We had a slat bench here before that we had bought at a garage sale, but it was too short for the space. Love the new one.

We also bought an Adrian Pearsall/ Craft Associates coffee table on ebay. Of course, the glass arrived in a million pieces. But after a lot of haggling with UPS, I got paid for a new one.

And here's a cute little Paul McCobb/ Planner Group drop-leaf desk that I grew up with. Just threw it in the back of our Honda Fit and brought it here from my mom's. It's terribly sun faded (on the outside) but is otherwise in great shape. So we eventually need to get it refinished.

I also bought some FLOR carpet tiles to replace the rug I had in the kitchen, whose cheap rubber backing had started to stick to the wood floor.... I threw in a couple of darker tiles for some added interest....

And John has gotten started on the deck. He ripped the old sagging, peeling one out a month or so ago

and just poured foundation piers today.

The new one will be a lot bigger, about where the orange ribbon is in the top photo. Hopefully it'll be finished in a month or so.

DIY Thrift Store Decor

2010-02-15T10:01:00.012-07:00

Since we finished our big remodel last summer, most of this winter has been spent fine-tuning our decor and organizing things. Last weekend we spent re-arranging my office. I hadn't been happy with it and moving everything in there is such a pain - filing cabinet, desk, computer, etc. But last weekend we tackled it and I'm very pleased. It finally feels right.

Another thing that had been bugging me was the new pony wall by the front door. It's something like 8 feet long and I wanted something nice on it since it's the first thing you see when you walk in the door. But for months it has been a big white empty expanse. Every time I get an idea for something to put there, it doesn't work out.

So last week we were in an antique mall and John was looking at old records. We have a taste for goofy old records and still have a turntable that we pull out every now and then. (In fact, we bought an old vintage turntable that John is fixing up now so we can play it.) We also get a kick out of old album cover artwork. Some of it is just so classic 1950's - other times it is just so schmaltzy and silly. So I had an idea - why not just display some fun old record album covers on our pony wall? It would be colorful and fun. Vintage and cheap. The more we thought about it, the more we liked the idea. We could add and replace album covers as we wanted, so we could have a changing display. We could even have Christmas album covers out at Christmas-time. John designed a way to display them, using aluminum U-channel from Home Depot. He sanded and polished the aluminum channel, then sprayed it with a clear finish. Then he had to drill teeny holes in it for mounting it on the wall. Each record album cover would be held in by a top and bottom channel of aluminum and you would be able to slide the records in and out. His prep work was a lot more tedious than mine, which was to go to thrift shops and buy albums! I had a lot of fun doing that. I mean, how could you not like cheesy covers like "Claude on a Cloud"?

Or "Val Valenti, Italian Street Singer"?

"Yodeling in Hi-Fi" sounded pretty bizarre (and irresistable)

as did "Actual Business Letters Dictated at Various Speeds" (too bad the actual record was missing from that one).

We got everything measured and in place

and then we slid the records in. We are really pleased with the results. It's going to be a lot of fun playing with our display.

Next on the horizon: we need to redo our deck this summer. The current one is sagging and awful. We'll redo it and expand it. So for now, we're looking at our books for ideas and staring at our yard to try and figure it out. Our yard is still covered in snow and ice so it'll be awhile before we get started. I also need to get serious about fixing up a guest bedroom. Stay tuned!

A Little Atomic Splendor for the Holidays

2009-12-21T17:25:00.006-07:00

We did a little bit of decorating for the holidays. First, John hung icicle lights all along the front of the house just as the previous owner, June, had done. She left us all her lights and I think they look terrific.

We also bought a vintage aluminum tree on ebay. No, it doesn't have the rotating color wheel but it did come with a rotating stand. So the whole tree s-l-o-w-l-y rotates. I love it and it made for easy decorating. The aluminum branches are a bit precarious and won't take much weight so we put the lights under the tree this year.

And finally, here's an old plant stand I got at a thrift store years ago. We filled it with icicle lights and set it in our front entry.

Christmas is a great time to be in Santa Fe - there is the traditional farolito (bag o' lights) walk down Canyon Rd. on Christmas Eve, and since we live pretty close to there, we're having an open house this year. If you're in Santa Fe for the holidays, come on by on Christmas Eve!!! A happy holiday season to all - and here's to lots of midcentury marvelousness in the coming year!

We're Not in Kansas Any More

2009-10-10T20:28:00.004-06:00

We're home from Kansas. When I last posted, we had had a lot of fun shopping but hadn't really bought anything. Well, we found one more cool store in Kansas City on our last morning, it was called Weird Stuff. It was just the kind of dusty old place that we really enjoy. The kind of place where the longer you stay and dig around, the more stuff you find. Well, they had a whole bunch of radios and John ended up buying 3 more for his collection-

We also ended up with some fun old vintage magazines.

Then we hit the road and left Kansas City, headed for home. We scored again though, in Dodge City, at the Happy Trails Flea Market (indoors). It was an antique mall kind of place and had a little bit of everything. I got a vintage popcorn popper for 10 bucks - it heats up but I don't know if I'll really ever use it to pop popcorn, I just like its retro rocket look!

And I got a little copper enamel dish for $3 that matches the kitchen tile perfectly.

So, we're back home now and happy with our finds. Guess I'll just have to keep shopping on ebay and craigslist for that perfect vintage coffee table....

Hunting Down MCM in Kansas City

2009-10-05T20:36:00.013-06:00

We decided to do a road trip to Kansas City. John's mom was from Leavenworth and he had always been interested in learning more about her side of the family, so we made a trip out of it. We finished with the family stuff first, then had a few days to play in KC.

On Monday, we started our hunt for MCM stuff at the River Market Antique Mall. Lots of fun stuff there of all vintages. 4 floors of stuff. Recommended.

Then on to the big MCM furniture motherlode of KC, Retro Inferno. Wonderful store, helpful staff, but we didn't find anything we had to have.

On to Boomerang (39th and Pennsylvania), a great vintage clothing store with some housewares and furniture thrown in. Another fun spot.

On the way to Boomerang, we passed through a very interesting neighborhood. It was a lovely wooded area, with quite the variety of houses. First, a charming stone cottage-

and next door, something straight out of the 60s or 70s!

And this across the street - bizarre!

After Boomerang, we did a driving tour of some of Kansas City's midcentury modern homes (see the KCModern website for the tour). They were interspersed in neighborhoods of "normal" 1950s ranch houses-

What makes the modern ones different? Those trapezoidal windows and post and beam construction are always a giveaway- (this one has the entirely wrong style of door though - look out, I'm calling the design police!)-

Also - the big windows or sliding glass doors to the outside, blurring the distinction between indoors and out. You can see in the front window by the door here and right on out the back-

The front often does not have these big windows though, the front is often very private-

On Tuesday, we began the day at the ReStore (not much in the way of residential goodies), then on to a great architectural salvage place called Foundation. Great place, and they had this tremendous 5 FOOT wide modern lamp, I think he said it was from a department store. I LOVE this thing and they actually had several of them. Looked like the bottom of a rocketship to me. Wish I had a place for it....

On to some other vintage shops around town, then we hit the 1950's All Electric Home. This home was built as a model "house of the future" for Kansas City Power and Light in 1954. It was open for visitors for 6 months before being sold and lived in for about 40 years. Then, the Johnson County Museum bought the house and restored it to it s original condition based on the original drawings, etc. I wasn't allowed to take pics inside but there are some pics available on the internet. This one shows the living room - it has an electric "fireplace" with a tv hidden in the wall above it (a motorized painting slides out of the way to reveal the tv); motorized curtains; and recessed lighting.

This shows the kitchen of the future-

The laundry area had a combination front loading washer and dryer, all in one. They make these now but I never had seen such a thing. They also had a light sensor in the garage - when it got dark, it would turn on all these little night lights in the hallway outlets so you could see. Nifty! And all the floor heat registers seemed familiar to me - that's because they were just like Baz's over at Atomic Indy!

And finally, here's a pic of some globe lights at our hotel. I like the mixture of heights and sizes.

Grilles, Screens, and Blinds

2009-09-10T14:59:00.005-06:00

In the last post, I mentioned how the metal fabrication place had gone ahead and fabricated the grille for the end of the plenum without giving me an estimate and then they made it too big. Well, they had it fixed by the next day. I think it's a cool looking 50's-ish style of perforated metal and I'm pleased with it.

On the fireplace front - our contractor had recommended someone to us and he turned out to be great. He did a lovely job making a custom fireplace screen and a matching screen door to go over the space housing the stereo cabinet (former wood box). The stereo door looks a little wonky here as it isn't mounted on the wall just yet.

John made a nice stereo box with fully extending shelves to access the back of all that electronic equipment in there. And having a screen door in front (not pictured below) means the remote works through the door.

And finally, we ordered some vertical blinds from Smith and Noble. They had seemed to be in a good middle price range and we liked the fact that their Customer Service was so accessible and friendly. So we got those on Tuesday and John installed them over the last 2 evenings. I like them and the mechanism seems pretty good, but the valance over the top seems cheap. (I see we didn't even have the valance up yet when I took these pics.) And installing the chain at the bottom is not explained in the instructions and looks to be a royal pain so I haven't tackled that yet. But I think they look really nice and are certainly the right look for the room. We made them so they are longer than the actual sliding glass doors and hang outside of the space the doors are in. That way, when they are pulled open, the stacked blinds do not cover any of the window space, but are stacked over on the side, in front of the wall. (I think we figured out that the 8' sliding glass doors worked out to a stack depth of about 15" - surprising how big that is.)

One Year Now

2009-08-11T11:41:00.011-06:00

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!

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like - Home

2009-07-12T20:57:00.014-06:00

Hard to believe. We moved into this house 11 months ago. At the time, our other house was still on the market and had not sold. We had half of our furniture here and half at the other house, "staging" it. When the other house finally sold, some of the furniture was sold with it and never came here at all. So we borrowed some furniture, knowing we'd have to buy a few new pieces after the remodel. When we started remodeling this place, all excess furniture was returned to its previous owners or gotten rid of since we were now living in half of our living space.

Well, now the remodeling is basically done and we are able to move into our new space. Miraculously, the new sofa and barstools we had had on order for months arrived within a day of each other. We quickly re-borrowed (on long term loan) some furniture from John's sister - their dad had been quite a collector of MCM and Danish furniture and we finally had the perfect place for some of it! So everything was able to come together fairly quickly in the last few weeks. Still have more decorating to do but we're getting there. It's actually starting to feel like home. It feels great. We really love it. It was worth the long haul.

But back to where we left off. John needed to assemble the Ikea wardrobes in the hallway - they function as our entry closets.

The entry used to seem too big, but with the cabinets and our garage sale slat bench, it all seems correct now.

Here's the view from walking in the front door - the "cube" in front, housing the laundry and pantry, and a cute little Danish chest I bought on ebay and which subsequently Greyhound mauled. I've got a claim into Greyhound so here it sits with its dents in it until I find out what will happen to it. Need some fabulous artwork here!

Then here's the view from the end of the pony wall. The barstools, sofa, and cabinet behind the sofa are new - the Ikea cabinet behind the sofa houses the fiestaware collection I inherited from my grandmother - but just about all of the other furniture is inherited from John's dad Lou.

The sputnik lamp is new, from lamparts on ebay. I love this lamp!

We still haven't come to an agreement as to what shoud go on the display shelves. I think John's vintage radios should go up there and he doesn't. He thinks the view from the back is ugly (it's not) and who is going to see them from the back anyway except us? Still under debate.

When we bought the house, we joked that it needed an intercom. So - ebay! It's a vintage Rangeaire intercom with tubes! John will get it working - it'll have connections to intercoms in various rooms of the house, the electrician wired it all in. But it still needs more work. For now, it's just for show. We love it although John isn't sure if it fits in. (It's in the hallway right by the kitchen.) I love all the dials and switches.

Here's something I got on ebay years ago - an old industrial sign of Reddy Kilowatt saying, "Live Better Electrically." I talked John into moving it home from our shop, I thought Reddy fit right in here at the end of the hallway.

And here's the current view of the entry, with a Scandanavian rug from Lou on the back side of the pony wall.

We're getting there and it's feeling homier every day!

Floor and Tile

2009-06-28T07:54:00.008-06:00

Well, the contractor is basically finished here - woo hoo! There are a couple of details he will come back to work on later but a lot of the little details left are things we said we'd do. So we are in the process of moving back into our space, giving everything a good cleaning, and doing some finish work. But here's what's been accomplished in the last week -

1- The Backsplash. This was the one thing I was most excited about. We chose a 1x1" tile mosaic mix by Oceanside Glasstile (the Enchantment Blend in the Tessera collection). I felt like the product was very contemporary, and yet the 1x1"tile was a pretty 1950s thing.

The tiles are all hand made and irregular and come in different finishes - clear glass, matte glass, and iridescent glass. The blends are a mixture of these types. This really gives some zing to the space and yet I don't think it's overwhelming at all. It's everything I wanted it to be which is a relief seeing as this is pricey tile!

2- The floor!! Our Kahrs engineered Cherry Savannah floor arrived and was installed in 3 days this week. It comes in 8' lengths and is 3 planks wide. It's an engineered plywood type of product that snaps together. There is a thin layer of real cherry on top. There are no nails or glue in our floor, it all floats on a layer of a felt-like product.

We love our floor!

And the Marmoleum (a real linoleum product, made out of linseed oil) came in for the laundry area as well. We went for a wild orange color (Asian Tiger was the name of it I think). Well, it is LOVELY and not as wild as you think an orange floor might be! It really reminds me of my marbled papers.

As you can see, where it meets the cherry floor in the doorway, the color really transitions nicely.

3- Appliances! Husband John installed the new refrig and dishwasher (from Ikea) as well as the new stackable washer and dryer (LG from Sears). As suspected, I think the washer and dryer look obscenely huge. For a family of 2, they are overkill. I had a fairly new front loading washer at the old house and it was not as big but American front loading washers just keep getting bigger and bigger. You can go out and pay a lot more for an Ansko or Bosch or something European that is smaller but we ended up with the LG. The stove gets installed tomorrow when Jack, the electrician, comes to finish up (he'll be adding the under counter lighting and a few other things).

4- The Bar. The contractor was waiting on the floor to be installed before finishing the front of the bar. Ed used some of the birch panels from Ikea (you can buy them to match your cabinetry) and there is a 1/4" reveal between the panels. Ed used a strip of some kind of black automotive tape that husband John came up with at the back of the gap so it would look nice.

So - we have spent the weekend moving back into our space - unpacking boxes, washing lots of dishes, etc., arranging, and rearranging. And there is finish work - I've been on baseboard duty - filling the little nail holes with wood putty, sanding, caulking the upper edge against the wall, and today I will paint the areas that need it (the baseboards were pre-painted before they were nailed down). John has been working on the appliances but today he is going to work on the post by the stove, that supports the floating shelves. Installing the shelves meant notching into the post 3/4" for support and that notch needed to be cleaned up and finished. Ed suggested that husband John use caulk or even Bondo on the bigger gaps. In addition, as the post cured and dried out, it needed some more sanding, so the whole post, notches and sanded areas and all, will get touch-up painted and finished today. Then we can finally take the plastic off of the top of the bar!

And I need to put some more sealer on the hearth before we start putting furniture in the living room. So we're getting close.

And finally, here's a picture of our happy crew taking a lunch break - contractor John, Jack the electrician, and Ed the Detail Man. I'll miss their smiling faces. But not the mess! We are very very thankful for all their hard work and for the beautiful job they did on our (now) wonderful house!!

Getting There

2009-06-15T08:55:00.006-06:00

Well, the countertops were installed 2 weeks ago today. They look nice, I like the look of dark countertops with the light colored cabinets.

Another thing that got done 2 weeks ago was the installation of our floating shelves. Ed made us 2 beautiful shelves out of maple - it turns out maple looks the most like the European birch of our kitchen cabinets. They are lovely. The 2 Johns installed them - it was trickier than it looks. It's all done with threaded rods and aluminum tubes and washers and couplers. Getting the holes drilled in the right places in the ceiling was the nail-biter part. I think the wide-angled camera view makes the rods look a bit wonky here - but it all came out with everything parallel.

At first, we were not even planning on having those supports in the middle. Contractor John warned us about the wood sagging and we assured him we would not be loading up the shelves with anything heavy, like books. But, upon installing the shelves, they sagged merely under their own weight. So center supports had to be added.

You may notice in some of the other pictures that there is a bucket on the top shelf of the floating shelves. That's because the roof has a bit of a leak there - that is where the old vent hood and exhaust pipe were and we are waiting on the roofer to come work on spots such as these which tend to leak. Happy to report that there is no longer a leak from our chimney - yipee! It has rained and rained here the last week and this area is finally fixed.

The front of the bar here isn't finished yet, they will do that after the flooring gets installed.

Ed also made the mantle for the fireplace out of the maple, and he edged the melamine shelves in the pantry with it as well. Here's a shot of part of the pantry-

A week ago, Jack the electrician came over and hooked up a bunch of our outlets and light fixtures. It made a huge difference to have light. We haven't had more than a single floor lamp in there for light for 3 months. Having light again makes the place feel much more homey.

As you can see in the pic above, there is a big patch of concrete on the floor. That is something that got done last week as well. It turns out that there was a dip in the floor there, where the old wall used to be. So contractor John filled in the low spot there with a floor leveling product.

We were expecting our flooring (a Kahrs engineered cherry) to be here a week or two ago but it got held up. The tile for the backsplash was not in either so John and Ed packed up their stuff and left and went on to another job site. They'll be back as soon as the floor shows up. After the flooring is done, we can get the refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, and washer and dryer installed. So the main things left for them to do are the floor and the backsplash tile. Until then, John and I decided to help out with a lot of the little details that need to be done. So on Saturday, we took down all 5 old doors in our hallway and patched and sanded and repainted the doors and the trim. The hallway itself had been painted (and the 2 doors to the furnace area had been replaced and painted) and so repainting the old doors needed to be done before the floor went in. The doors were a real mess, original to the house I'm sure, and all had hooks or towel racks or some hardware on the back that had to be removed and the holes had to be patched. In addition, all of the hinges had paint on them so all the hinges got cleaned. They are all rehung now and today I will try and put the new handles/ locksets on them so they will all match.

Husband John has been installing and adjusting the cabinet doors, drawers, handles, and other hardware and he just finished that up this weekend. After that was done, I started moving stuff back into the kitchen! Everything over here has a good coating of dust on it so everything has had to be washed. I spent quite a bit if time this weekend washing and arranging and organizing. When they install the floor, there will be more sawing and dust-making but as long as they cover the cabinets with plastic, I think it'll be ok. Anyway, we moved our dining table, microwave, and electric tea kettle back into place yesterday - they will just have to be moved out again when the floor and tile are being done, but it's nice to have everything in one room again, at least for a little while.

Sorry I seem to have taken most of these pics with the lights off. It'd look a lot better if I had the lights on! I'll have better pics next time....

Whole Lotta Concrete

2009-05-31T10:52:00.008-06:00

This week, there was a whole lotta concrete work goin' on. First up - the chimney cap. Our chimney box is a pretty big box of pumice block, and it was capped by a mound of concrete (think of bread rising out of a loaf pan). Well, this 6" high mound of concrete had developed hairline cracks on the top over the years. After much hosing down of various parts of the chimney, these cracks were implicated as the cause of our roof leak. (We had had the chimney masonry repointed in the fall, as there were big hunks of grout falling out, but this did not solve the roof leak.) This problem needed to be fixed now, before the new wood floor goes in. Anyway, contractor John recommended that we remove the old concrete (jackhammer it out, basically), lay down a thick plastic membrane, then pour a new concrete cap. So husband John spent a large portion of last weekend removing the old concrete. This week, the job got finished - the membrane was laid down, a form was made, new concrete was poured. The result looks great and fits right in. The concrete had a little black stain added to it so it'd match the house better.

Oh - and door and window trim got done this week too, now the front is finished (for now anyway).

Meanwhile - down below - more concrete work was being done. The hearth on our fireplace had been chopped into several times - first, when the post supporting the beam was installed next to the fireplace, and second, when they recently cut out part of the hearth to get to a heating vent underneath. So - they sawed off the remaining hearth (you can see it is gone in the photo in the last post). The plan was to pour a new base out of stained concrete and to pour a new hearth to sit on top. A form was made for the base directly on the floor in front of the fireplace and the concrete was poured in, around our new heating duct. A strip of wood was added into the form so that when the form was removed, a little groove would be at the bottom - this is where the flooring will neatly fit into. For the top part of the hearth, which is a bit larger than the base, another form was built out of melamine. This form was also filled with stained concrete. The idea here was to let the concrete cure for a few days, then it would be flipped out of the mold, so that the part on the bottom that was next to the melamine would then be on top. The melamine gives the concrete a wonderful smooth finish.

Well, on Friday, when husband John was home, the hearth got taken out of its mold and flipped. Tricky business flipping an 8' long chunk of concrete. But John, John, and Ed got it done and slid it into place.

We love the look. It will lighten up some more as it cures, but it will darken some when it gets sealed so this is probably about the tone that it will be when it is finished. I think it's perfect, as it will tie in with the charcoal of the countertop in the kitchen. New heat registers are on the way but here it is now, with an old one.

Quite a bit different than when June was living here (this pic was taken on the day of the building inspection)-

Husband John is working on the fireplace this weekend. The box to the left of the fireplace is a box for wood storage, but John is turning it into a stereo cabinet. He spent some time yesterday insulating this box with blue foam (as this large drafty space takes up about one third of that big chimney box). Today he is starting on the construction of his stereo cabinet. Contractor John didn't want the edge of the hearth to be damaged so for now, he's got the melamine mold on it, upside down, for protection.

Other news: Ed tiled the guest bathroom floor and it looks terrific. It's a porcelain tile by Mohawk - the Gravura line, Ember Forest is the tile. Love how the tiles are all different. It looks like slate, but also has a modern concrete-y look to it. Easier to care for than real slate. Again, this bathroom was not really supposed to get remodeled yet but that old carpet in there just had to go. In addition, the wall on the left got some holes in it from wiring the kitchen, so husband John patched and drywalled and painted in there last weekend and now it is done. Some decorative tiles got replaced in the shower area as well, now they are all white. Eventually, those tiles will be redone but that is for another day. It sure looks better in there now though.

And here's a pic I found of how this bathroom first looked, again from building inspection day. That's white shag carpet on the floor.

On this week's agenda- the laminate countertops get installed tomorrow! That'll be fun. I assume the sink will be installed then, although the plumber won't be here yet to make it functional. The appliances won't actually go into the kitchen until our flooring comes. That could happen at the end of this week. That was originally the ETA for the flooring but apparently it is on a boat or something and everyone is being vague about when it will actually be here. If it actually gets here, I would think this project would be wrapped up in a couple of weeks. But if the flooring is late, then we are pretty much on hold until it gets here. There are a few other things that need to be done, but that list is dwindling. Will have pics of the kitchen, with countertops, soon!

Cabinets and Colors

2009-05-20T18:06:00.011-06:00

Well, things are rolling along over here at Rancho Tostado although I have to confess, Rancho Tostado may be in for a name update as well. Toast Ranch fit our old house perfectly and when we moved here, Rancho Tostado seemed appropriate. But - there is a classic MCM hotel in Scottsdale, AZ called the Hotel Valley Ho. We happen to live on Valley Dr. and I have been calling our place The Valley Ho for awhile now. I guess it can have two names for now.

Anyway, all of our walls have been painted. For those wanting particulars, we used Valspar from Lowe's - Woodlawn Whitewash is the white we chose, Arid Plains is the taupe color, and Araucana Sage is the pale green on the rafters (it's in the Martha Stewart line of Valspar paints). I was worried it would be too green. We had tried several greens on the rafters before and they hadn't worked. I'm real happy with this color, it is very subtle and in certain lighting, it almost looks white. It is also very similar to the cool green concrete of the patio outside the sliding glass doors. We used the taupe on the "cube" of the pantry and laundry room - and on the kitchen wall behind the cabinets - and on the opposite wall, on the fireplace.

I'm still not sure about it being on the fireplace but everyone else likes it and says it is better than the white was. I guess my problem with it is that it looks too much like adobe brick (a la Santa Fe style), not the look I am going for. But I think with furniture etc. it will look better and I think it is nice to have taupe on that wall opposite the kitchen so that is what we are going with for now.

The cabinets are in but most don't have the doors or drawers in yet. So for now, they all look a little plain and so will the countertop once it is done (in a basic charcoal Graphite Nebula laminate by Wilsonart). But all of this was meant to be low-key because of the tile which we will be putting in, which has more of a presence. We'll have to wait a few weeks to see it all together.

A few other things got done which were less thrilling. The main water cut-off outside was found to be a couple of feet underground, with a long, flimsy rod sticking up out of the ground which you supposedly would turn to turn the water off. Only the thing felt so flimsy, you were sure it might just break off, which would not be good.

The plumber was not happy with this, it certainly is no longer code - so after John dug a hole to get down to everything, the plumber redid the cut-off and now it is easily accessed through our own personal manhole. John still needs to fill the dirt back in.

And another little detail. My workroom gets afternoon sun and really warms up. The rest of the house stays relatively cool with not much solar gain. We decided that if possible, in this remodel, we would try and do something to increase the airflow between my office and the living area. So, when they were doing demolition and taking down the dropped ceiling in the hallway (well, they didn't take down all of the dropped ceiling, but they took down some of it), they cut into my office wall. The result is like a high clerestory window, except we are going to try it with no window. A few of the rafters from the hallway go through this space, so John painted the rafters in my office this weekend so they wouldn't turn from green to white as they went through the window. The gaping hole on the end of the dropped ceiling is the plenum for the heating system and will have some sort of cool grille on it, haven't decided exactly what to use yet. Since John is a car mechanic, everyone likes the idea of using some sort of auto grille which would be cut to fit the space. I need to hunt around some more for these online.

And one more thing- online shopping and ebay are a great resource. I bought a fabulous contemporary Modern Fan Co. fan on ebay for our last house - it was brand new, in the box, and cost incredibly less than you'd pay for it anywhere else. So - for this remodel - I have bought a cool rimless stainless steel sink at overstock.com, I bought a Hansgrohe kitchen faucet on ebay, and interior door handles on ebay (all new).

Highly recommended. In fact, I'm getting ready to go on ebay right now and buy some barstools, which you can see after I get them!

And a final note. John was just now removing the vanity in the guest bathroom . As you may recall, we tore the white carpet out of there at the beginning of the remodel and now it is floored in dingy bits of the original linoleum. Even though remodeling the guest bath was not to be included as part of this project, redoing the floor ended up on the list. As they are going to be laying the new tile in there tomorrow, John decided to help out and remove the vanity. When he was doing this, he found a hole in the wall behind the vanity and upon looking in there, he found tons of old razor blades. I know old houses sometimes had a place you could dispose of your old razor blades in the wall and I guess we just found ours!

Another Window Goes In

2009-05-09T12:21:00.008-06:00

Well, the other trapezoidal window went in this week also. We love how much light we now have in the living room. And we love how the outside of the house looks. (Some day we will get around to having it repainted and the color scheme will change. But that's another project for another year.)

We ended up having to put a pony wall by the front door - which separates the entry from the living room. We had always planned on putting something here but we weren't sure how we were going to do it - perhaps make something like a giant bookcase or entertainment unit sort of thing that could function as a room divider but could be moved if the need arose. Well, the contractor told us the new door/ window area needed structural support and we would need that pony wall to be permanent. So in went a pony wall, I really like it.

And here's a shot just to the right, with the newest window.

And an overview, from down the hall. The beam is where the old weight bearing wall was. Much more living room space now, much more openness, and much more light.

I wanted to post some old pictures of everything so you could have a pre and post comparison - and when I was looking at old pictures, I found a video I'd made, touring the inside of the house. It was really fun to look at this again so I thought I'd post it. This is from right after we moved in, I see we are sort of camping out. Anyway, enjoy! Things have really changed. :-)

As you can see from the above photos, a lot of drywall work was done this week as well. The sanding is almost complete, then they will paint. And then, the Ikea cabinets can go in. They will go in before the flooring, as the floor is an engineered floor that will be floated and the cabinets cannot sit on top of the floating floor. Other work that needs to be done soon - fix the cap on the chimney, which is cracked and which John tracked down as the source of our roof leak. Gotta get the roof leak fixed before the floor goes in.

And finally, our yard is just starting to really look lovely. The lilacs are in full bloom and the apricot tree is finally green (we did have a hard freeze when it was blooming weeks ago so no apricots this year but that's ok)- had to throw in a shot of what I see out the sliding doors from my workroom-

New Trapezoidal Windows

2009-05-04T17:32:00.007-06:00

I haven't posted for awhile. A tremendous amount of work has been done, but for the last few weeks, a lot of it was stuff you wouldn't notice so much - the electrical wiring was all redone; the subfloor in the entryway was all taken out and redone since it was not level; the semi-functioning sliding glass doors were replaced; plumbing work was done; and a lot of work was done on the plenum for the heating system. Finally, at the end of last week, drywall started going back up. Here's a view of the kitchen, and a shot of the area just to the right of the kitchen - "the cube" which houses the pantry and the laundry room.

Our custom windows came in for the front of the house and one of them got installed today. Here's how the entry room looked this morning, with the old windows and door.

And here's how it looks now!

And here's some intermediate steps- tearing out the door and windows-

Tearing out some more to accomodate the new door and windows-

Framing in the new door and windows-

And now-

It still needs some more work but we're really excited how it looks from the inside to have nice big windows up there. And another, smaller trapezoidal window will be added to the other side of the front of the house in the next few days, it'll go on the other side of the fireplace. Stay tuned!

Vacationing at Ikea

2009-04-20T11:22:00.006-06:00

What I love about the Ikea in Phoenix is all the palm trees. Makes it seem like a destination resort or something....

Well, after all the thinking about whether to save our old kitchen cabinets or not, we decided to get rid of them. Even I had to admit, once they came down, that the old ones were in terrible shape. It's too bad because they were a cool Eames-ish sliding door style that would have been pricey to replace. So we went with contemporary Ikea cabinets - the Akurum cabinets with a Nexus birch veneer. Here's what they look like in the showroom -

Anyway, we drove to Phoenix on Thursday and did a bit of shopping. Friday we hit some mid-century furniture stores but didn't find anything. So we grabbed some lunch and went to pick up our Penske rental truck. We had figured out we would be hauling 3500 lbs. of kitchen stuff home so our earlier plan of using our old LandCruiser to pull a trailer fell through. Even renting a 16' long truck, we had to have the one that was rated for 5000 lbs., not their other 16' truck that was only rated for 2000 lbs. The truck was lovely, it only had 2000 miles on it so it was practically brand new. It was really huge inside-

Then on to Ikea, with all the paperwork from the handy little Ikea kitchen planning program in hand. We had a list of every single item we needed and we reviewed it carefully before leaving the hotel. It was nerve-wracking - we had just driven 500 miles to buy our new kitchen and we hoped that we had not forgotten anything that needed to be on our list. And we hoped that they had everything in stock. Well, Ikea was great. The kitchen people took care of us and were happy we were so organized and asked us about all those little things you hoped you had not forgotten. Felt like we were in good hands. They sent the order for our kitchen down so that it was brought to us at the loading area on a pallet - you do not have to go individually go pick out every box (there were over 100 boxes because some of the items like a cabinet with drawers came in many different boxes). We also picked out some drawer organizer-type things and then we had to go over to the bedroom section to buy Pax wardrobes, which we are using for the entry closets.

We paid for everything and then John spent a long time arranging the items in the truck and I inventoried everything yet again to make sure we had everything that was on our receipt. The truck was so huge and the pack-flat Ikea stuff was so small that John was able to lay the Ikea stuff all on the floor of the truck - that way, we didn't have to worry about the weight of everything shifting so much for the long ride home. It ended up taking up very little space in the truck, even though the final weight estimate was over 4000 lbs.

Saturday we began the long ride home. We took the interstate, which is not the most direct route, and it took 10 hours. Now we're back home. They aren't ready to put the kitchen together yet. The electrician is redoing the wiring now and tomorrow they will be spray painting the ceiling. And they'll still have dry wall to do so it'll be awhile before we get to see our new kitchen.

Gutted

2009-04-15T07:45:00.004-06:00

My friend Janice came over the other day and told me that I hadn't told her that we were going to gut the whole front part of our house. I guess that's because I had never thought of it that way. We moved some walls, took down cabinetry and dry wall to get to the electrical.... but she's right, our house is gutted. Down to the 2x4s. Doesn't get any more gutted than that. Kinda scary. Here's what remains of the kitchen, the cabinets and sink have been removed. We still have a working refrigerator and stove though.

All of the subfloor in the entry had to get torn out too. When the weight bearing wall came out, we discovered that the floor in the carport-turned- entry area was not level with the floor on the other side of the wall in the living room (which is on a slab). So the entry floor got pulled out and redone.

But things are starting to go back together. The pantry and laundry areas got framed yesterday, yeah!

And things keep getting added to the list. The plumber came the other day to check things out and he pointed out that our gas pipe runs through our slab. About 2 weeks ago, he had been called out about another house on our street - their gas pipe in their slab had rusted out and there was a gas leak in the house and the whole house had to have the gas shut off. He suggested that we shut off that line through the slab and run everything over the roof to the furnace and our new gas fireplace insert. We have seen this on other houses on our street so we are going to go ahead and convert to this to avoid problems down the line.

Tomorrow we drive to Phoenix to pick up 3000+ lbs. of kitchen cabinetry and wardrobes from Ikea. Wish us luck! ;-)

Austin Show

2009-04-09T20:37:00.003-06:00

I'm back in Texas this week - went to a fab show at the Blanton Museum in Austin called Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury. If you're in the area, check it out. It's got furniture, paintings, great graphic Art and Architecture magazine covers, art pottery, album covers, photographs of those wonderful Case Study houses (including this famous photo by Julius Shulman of Case Study house #22, my dream house)..... even old cartoons of Gerald McBoing Boing. A lovely museum and a great show.

Saturday Fun

2009-04-04T11:06:00.003-06:00

John gives us a little tour of the new empty space!

The Beam is In

2009-03-23T20:55:00.010-06:00

Well, the beam is up! Here it is being held in place by a scissor-lift type thing - they used that to lift the 1200 lb., 32' beam into place.

One end of the beam was originally supposed to be supported by the masonry on the edge of the fireplace but we ended up having a problem. We always knew that the fireplace was made of a crappy pumice block - but it had holes in it that could be filled like concrete block and they had just planned on filling them with pillars of concrete which would provide the needed structural support. However, on closer inspection, it was discovered that when they built the house, it looked like junk had been thrown down into these holes that needed to be filled with concrete. For example, there was a chunk of concrete wedged about halfway down one of the columns that needed to be filled. So, we decided that this end of the masonry would just have to be removed completely and a post inserted for support. So they sawed out the masonry and then fitted the beam in.

Here's another shot where you can see the steel plate in the slab that was added to spread out the weight of the post/ beam over a broader area of the stem wall.

And here's how it looks with the post in place.

Another thing that had to be done before the beam went into place was that each and every rafter had to be fitted to sit correctly and snugly on the beam.

Now the beam is in and it looks terrific. All of the support posts for all of the rafters are now out and we have one big space. The support post in front of the kitchen is where the kitchen island will be.

So, to recap - the wall used to be right down the center of this space, under where the beam is now. Our plans call for a smaller entry (and door to be moved to the left). You can see the clothes dryer - that was in a weird hallway space outside of the laundry area. New laundry and pantry will be expanded towards entry area. However, pantry and laundry area won't even protrude as far into entry as currently shown because weird hallway dryer was in is gone. Entry closet that was behind dryer, facing door, is also gone (to be moved to wall on left).

Here's the current door situation. Where new windows will go is in blue tape!

The contractor is on vacation now for spring break with the family but he is basically done with this phase of the remodel. When he gets back, he will custom fabricate some metal brackets to anchor the rafters firmly to the beam. In the meantime, we're ready for the second contractor to come and start doing what he can. We still have details to iron out on the final plan but things are starting to finally come together. Don't know how long this project will take, we will have that discussion with the second contractor next visit. I am guessing it'll be a 2 to 3 month project based on other remodeling work we've had done. Hoping to have it finished so we can enjoy our new space this summer.

A few other random notes-

>Had a scary electrical situation uncovered in the kitchen wall last week. Sparks flying, short circuits, that sort of thing. Very happy to be redoing the electrical.

>We took out the carpet in the hallway and the guest bath (shag carpet in the bath is kinda creepy imho). Removed all flooring in the living room, kitchen, laundry, and pantry as well. Uncovered many old types of flooring including lots of old linoleum. The house has a strange echo-y quality now, especially the bathroom. Even though some of the old linoleum is kinda cool, most is not, and every room had a different color and pattern. Crazy.

>The coolest tool in the world is a laser level. John is now saying he has to have one. You can get a self leveling laser level at Sears for something like 89 bucks that projects a true horizontal beam as well as a true vertical beam - very handy in this remodel involving posts and beams.

>It's freaky seeing them dig a trench in my living room- they concrete-sawed through the slab in order to run a heating duct into our new entryway. Then they dug down a bit through the dirt underneath. Mind-blowing to see wheelbarrows of dirt being dug out of your former living space.

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down

2009-03-15T11:17:00.005-06:00

So much has happened in the last week. We have been planning a major remodel and it finally got started. The main thing we wanted to accomplish was to remove a weight bearing wall that separates the living room from the oversized entryway to open up the living room. Of course, one thing leads to another and all kinds of other stuff got added to the project - moving the front door into the new, smaller, entry area; moving the walls of the laundry and pantry area to make them bigger; adding some windows; and re-doing the kitchen.

We have done some remodelling work ourselves but this project was too massive for us to tackle. We originally thought we'd do the kitchen part ourselves but in the end, we just decided to have a contractor do it. The first contractor was only able to do part of the work, so we have two contractors lined up to do the job. So far, it's all been great. People have been recommending other people for various jobs and it turns out that most of them are people we know through our business. They are all a great bunch and I have never ever felt so good about a remodel before.

Anyway, the first step was to get the weight bearing wall out. To do this, they have to prop up each and every rafter in the living room and entry and then take the wall out. Then a giant beam gets installed, which is supported by a post on one end and the masonry of the fireplace on the other. Here are the various stages. First, a shot down the hallway - the kitchen is behind the first doorway on the right, it overlooks the living room, which is at the back right, and the entry area is an oversized waste of space (which you can't see) to the left of the doorway-

Here's the view from the kitchen. Pony wall which was in back of stove is now even lower, we have mocked up hanging shelves to see how we like them (we do), and we have mocked up a bar in front of the stove. Weight bearing wall is straight ahead. Wall with fireplace is just offscreen to the right.

In this shot, which is from approximately the same point of view, the wall panels have been removed from the weight bearing wall but the structural support is still there. You can now see into the entryway and the laundry area.

And finally, this is how it looks now! The wall is gone and the posts are in place holding up the rafters and roof. The entryway and living area are now one big space. They'll eventually be separated again - probably not with a wall but with something more impermanent, like a big bookcase that functions as a room divider but can be moved if the need arises. A wall around the old laundry area, pantry, and hall closet are now gone. The door will get moved into the new entry space - it'll be moved over to about where those windows are behind that post. And trapezoidal windows will be installed on that wall as well.

Finally, here's a picture of the removal of the wall by the kitchen - that doorway into the kitchen from the hallway is gone. The stove and counter will go back where it was but it will be on an island (that crooked pipe was in what was the pony wall and the hallway wall. It is a vent pipe for a washer and dryer that apparently were in the kitchen at one time. We will remove all that, there is no need for it.) The stove has been moved to where the refrigerator was for the time being to get it out of the way.

The glue-lam beam will be installed in the next few days and then all the support posts can come out. Will keep you posted!

Tearing Down the Pony Wall

2009-01-01T15:28:00.007-07:00

As has been previously discussed, we've been wanting to tear down the pony wall between the living room and the kitchen, making it more of a bar height. So, John hung up plastic yesterday so as to not get sawdust all over the place -

He also put a big fan in the wall here for ventilation - there was always a mysterious panel in the wall here, both on the inside and out - a friend told us that must be where they had their old air conditioning unit. Well, it was easy to remove and install a fan! We covered the light with plastic to keep out the dust.

Demolition was interesting. It looked like the wall was made out of a bunch of scrap materials.

In addition, it looks like the cabinets at the top of the pony wall were there before the rest of the wall - so maybe the pony wall is not original, maybe there were hanging cabinets there first (which is what we may do)?

Anyway, by the end of the day, the wall was cut down. It'll all get more officially remodelled later. This was done just to get an idea of how it would look. We love the way it opens up the space. A "before" shot"-

And "after"-

That's the vent for the stove still hanging down there. NOW, just imagine that wall in the above picture being gone - that's our final goal. It will make the living room much bigger.

We also learned a little more about the cabinets this week. It turns out that the knobs are not original - there were originally finger holes. Taking a knob off revealed a hole-

I had decided this week that we really had to try and save these cabinets, they are so period and I really do like them. But on closer inspection, the wood has cracked in many places and needs to be redone and the cabinets will have to be removed for the re-wiring that needs to be done. John is still insisting that we should just get new cabinets and I guess he's right. For all the work that would have to be done to restore these, we should just get new ones.

The Kitchen - A Discussion

2008-12-14T09:14:00.008-07:00

Over the Christmas holidays, John is going to tackle lowering the pony wall that divides the living room from the kitchen. Even though pony walls were a commom feature of MCM houses, having one behind the stove seems very awkward to us. A defining feature of modernist homes of the 50s (as well as today) is their open, spacious floor plan. Back then, having your living room, dining area, and kitchen all open up to each other was pretty radical. But nowadays, we're used to it. And kitchens have become more of a social center than ever. So, we intend to open things up a little more and shorten our pony wall.

Eventually, we will also get rid of this wall at the end of the counter, which is also very confining.

We may add some hanging wall cabinets above our counter during our remodel, as this is totally in keeping with the design of the period. Here's an example from Design for Modern Living-

All of this leads me to another topic: remodeling vs. restoration and authenticity. A comment was left over at the Atomic Indy blog the other day, arguing for authenticity in a remodel (using all original materials, nothing reproduction, etc.), and saying that a lover of good design should not settle for anything less. Well, I will make it perfectly clear that that is not our intention here. Our intention is to remodel the house as best we can, trying to keep the house true to its modernist roots. We are not trying to restore it. To restore this house, we would have to rip out the entry and convert it back to a carport, for starters.

The kitchen presents a real remodel quandry. We have original cabinets in part of the kitchen and yet we are struggling over the decision of whether or not to replace them. Once the pony wall gets lowered, the kitchen cabinets will be in full view of the living space and we want something that looks nice and clean and contemporary. We could leave the existing cabinets as is, we could re-paint them, or we could maybe just replace the handles for a more contemporary look. But we have just about decided to pull them out and replace them with Ikea cabinetry. Why? Because the old style cabinets just don't function as well as new, better designed ones. The interior shelf space isn't tall enough (they didn't have Sam's Club-size bottles of olive oil back then I guess) so many of the interior shelves would need to be removed.

As for the bottom cabinets - they were fancy for their time, featuring pull out shelving that is a real bonus even in houses of today. But the pull out shelves really don't work any more, they stick, and I don't even bother trying to make them work.

So Ikea it is. Affordable and a terrific design. I think this is perfectly consistent with our remodeling goals. Prefab and affordable are big issues in modern design today (just see any issue of Dwell magazine).

I really want to keep the top cabinets in the house though, I think there is something very cool about their sliding doors. We are going to try and remove them and use them in other parts of the house (probably John's workshop or my studio).

I'm not attached to the base cabinets, and, in fact, the base cabinets by the stove are not original to this house. Neither is the Corian countertop. For the countertop, we are currently debating whether we want to stick to Formica (modern in its time) or go with a newer modern substance such as Silestone, which can have sort of a terrazzo look to it. I'd love a terrazzo counter or floor but finding terrazzo tile dealers these days seems to be very difficult, especially in Santa Fe. My current fave is a substance called Vetrazzo, which is a terrazzo type substance made of recycled glass bits. I'm just not sure if it's available locally.

It All Begins

2008-11-08T18:44:00.015-07:00

I decided to start this blog both as a journal for myself of what we're doing to remodel our house as well as a record for others who might be remodeling their midcentury house. Reading what others have done to remodel midcentury modern (MCM) homes has been a big help to me in getting design ideas and learning what issues others have come up against in the remodeling process.

Some background: We live in Santa Fe, NM, where most houses are, well, "Santa Fe style." When we decided we wanted to move into town, I knew my dream home would be a MCM house but I figured the chances of finding one in this town were slim. But we did! It was built in 1955, is on the edge of downtown, and is in a small subdivision of 30 MCM homes. The paperwork that came with the house shows that this neighborhood had to get a special exemption, even back then, to NOT build in Santa Fe style. The builder of this house is unknown although I intend to research it. Our house has had two previous owners, and although we want to remodel it, it has been very well maintained over the years.

We closed on the house in mid-August. We want to remodel the house, beginning with the entry/ living room/ dining area/ kitchen but that will probably not happen until next spring. Some things we want to tackle -

Lower the pony wall between the kitchen and living area to open up the kitchen-

Make a smaller entry, incorporating most of it into the living room - the previous owner had it set up as a sitting area. This room was added on by the previous owner, it was originally where the carport was. The style in no way matches the rest of the house.

A redo of the entry will require knocking out the wall on the left in the living room, which is a bearing wall. We are hoping this can be done with the addition of posts and beams.

Major electrical work needs to be done. Much of the wiring is original without proper grounding. It also suffers from funky additions and repairs that verge on being dangerous.

Insulation: Houses of this era came with very little in the way of insulation. We are lucky that the previous owners added a lot of roof insulation and redid the roof about 10 or 15 years ago. So far, we feel like this has made a lot of difference and we are pretty impressed with the insulation (seeing as we have had some pretty cold days here so far).

We are working with our friend Julie to make plans for the remodel. She urged us not to delve into it right away but to live in the space and see how it works first.

So - we've been living here since mid-August. There are many smaller things that we have gone ahead and done that are quick and easy and make the place look better. First of all, there were virtually no overhead lights in the house so we made do with some garage sale lamps for starters. But then I found some great old globe pendants at the Habitat ReStore and we hung four of them. I love the look and just wish I'd bought more when they had them. They are original to these houses (the folks across the street have them in their house) - Julie jokes that ours are probably from some neighbor's house down the street!

We painted the front doors. I still want the house to have a different exterior color scheme but changing the door color helped immensely. We also replaced the light by the door and took the mullions off the windows to make them less Colonial looking (that part of the house is the addition where the carport was and is sort of a mish-mash of styles). We also took down the biplane weather vane. Before-

And after-

And just this weekend, John installed the new vanity, sink, faucet, and wall cabinets in the guest bathroom that we bought at Ikea in August. That bathroom still needs new flooring and new tile but John said replacing the vanity etc. would make a big difference in there with relatively little work. He's right! Before, the cabinets and everything were white with decorative decal accents (I am sure this is not original). I don't seem to have an original pic of the bathroom but here's the sink and vanity so you can get an idea-

We found the original wallpaper behind the wall cabinets (the wallpaper had been painted white in the rest of the room).

and now there's a little warmth with the wood veneer cabinets. Plus, I love the new sink!

But I can't wait to get rid of the carpet in there. It's got really nasty linoleum under it or I would have just ripped it out now. But, as much as I wanted to just go ahead and retile the floor, we really should wait - if we decide to get rid of the tub, we might want the same tile flooring in the shower, etc. So we should hold off for now. Pulling out the vanity again won't be a big deal.

Finally, here are some more pictures of our house just for a general tour.

The back yard, with an apricot tree and a bocce ball court-

The side porch off of the living room- sliding glass doors from the living room overlook this little patio and Zen garden.

Well, that's enough for now. Later I'll show you the house plans and have a discussion on the kitchen.