get to fixin'

link drop +

2011-05-20T13:10:00.004-04:00

Meet our neighbor: Stapleton
Can't. Even. Deal.
These are incredible (thanks Emily!)
One of these days I'm going to try to tie dye.
Made one of these this week:

And, in case it's not already obvious, I joined Instagr.am recently:

User name: gettofixin
online here and here.

snug harbor

2011-05-11T17:33:00.005-04:00

Two Sundays ago we spent some time at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden. There was a plant sale and I took the opportunity to stock up on some plants for the garden. I picked up some small dahlias, European wild ginger, some dusty miller for the window boxes, a pink iris (Beverly Sills,) cherry tomatoes (to grow in pots this time around,) and trollius (alabaster.) It was a little hard to resist buying more.

A little background history on Snug Harbor via their website:

"Robert Richard Randall, Snug Harbor Cultural Center’s founder and benefactors’ bequest of 1801, created Sailors’ Snug Harbor’s original three buildings as a “haven for aged, decrepit and worn out sailors.” Over the next century, Snug Harbor expanded to 50 structures and 900 residents from every corner of the world. By the turn of the 20th century, Snug Harbor was the richest charitable institution in the United States and a self-sustaining community composed of a working farm, dairy, bakery, chapel, sanatorium, hospital, music hall and cemetery."

Snug Harbor currently has many garden spaces including a beautiful peony garden.

There are tons of lovely old growth trees as well. I believe these are sycamore trees:

The Chinese Scholar's Garden was open and had free admission for the day. Neither of us had ever been there before so we decided to check it out. To enter the garden you pass through one of the Victorian cottages on Cottage Row (currently a gift shop) and walk down a path. All of a sudden you will come to a forest of bamboo.

I must admit I was a little intimidated by the bamboo. It was beautiful but whenever the wind blew and the stalks touched my shoulders I wondered if the bamboo somehow knew what we did to its relatives!
After passing through the bamboo we came upon the garden complex:

I think the photos say it all. Breathtaking.

Just like starting over.

2011-05-03T17:07:00.002-04:00

It is May. How is it possible that my last post was from Christmas of last year? I’m not sure where the time went or why I’ve been finding it so hard to post. I realize there’s blogging etiquette – you should inform your readers that you’re taking a leave of absence from posting, but I didn’t know I’d be gone for so long. Things have happened around the house – nothing amazing – but I do have some photos to share nonetheless.

Recently, Fernando spent a day cutting out the chain link fence that was crowding the hedge out front.

The hedge was really cramped and parts of it had started to wrap itself around the chain link.

Exactly the look we were going for: much less ghetto.

We will be removing the rest of the fence at a later date and replacing it with a vintage wrought iron fence and gate. I'm wishing for something like this:

photo found here.

I hope the privet will finally have the opportunity to grow in fuller along the bottom. There was a wrought iron fence in front of the house before the privet hedge was planted. I think it will go well with the new urn we purchased for the front garden from Martin Viette:

We needed something to place the urn on and remembered that there was a square piece of bluestone in the backyard that used to be under another stone. I think it was a horse mounting block. Since we don't ride horses in our backyard, I thought using it under the planter would be a good reuse. I'll probably add the actual step to the side garden in the future since we've also been using the old tie ring (which was set in concrete) there as a corner stone.

Speaking of horses... mounted Police near the house today!

Anyway... the urn weighed a ton and it took three of us to carry it from the car to the grass.

I really loved how it turned out and immediately wanted a pair of matching urns for either side of the front porch.

The next evening Fernando attended an auction and surprised me by bringing these home:

They needed a some sprucing up since they were a little rusty in a few areas:

He also painted them a nice glossy black and we planted them over the weekend.

They're not out on the porch yet because we're having the porch, columns, lattice and vestibule painted this week! Well, I'm not sure if it will be finished this week but it is being worked on:

If only I could decide which color goes where and what color to paint the front door?
Coming up: more on sprucing up the garden and more exterior painting.
Upcoming stories: the night the house became a gas station, a friend in the chimney and a ghostly visit!

Stay tuned.

Merry Christmas (or Happy Weekend!)

2010-12-24T23:59:00.000-05:00

A happy tree:

Wish we could light these:

On the mirror:

Colorful:

First attempt (ever) at making truffles:

Samichlaus, in the glass:

Currently on the needle:

All in all a very good Christmas Eve!

shutters up.

2010-10-18T13:00:00.001-04:00

Do you ever obsess over what should be the simplest things? I had such a hard time trying to choose the shutter dogs for our shutters. I didn't even realize there was a choice in such things (or that they were even called shutter dogs) until I started to look for them. I did so much online research and drive by photo snapping that I ended up with a folder full of photos - of shutter dogs!

Taken in Princeton, NJ over the summer; propeller:

Rat tails:

"S" variety:

"S" variety mounted on the side:

Taken in Historic Richmondtown, Staten Island, NY:

Scroll variety:

Crude yet minimal replacement on the same building:

For our own shutters, we've chosen the "S" variety. This is really more a choice of economy rather than an actual decision. We happened across two new old stock sets of "S" shutter dogs at a yard sale a few weeks back. They were $1 a box! It looks like we even saved 60 cents on the original price.

As of last week, the shutters are finally up on the house.

Before:

We now also have 7 different colors of paint on the house. This is the first time I've seen the grey we chose against the house. I love it. I'm not a "paint a patch and see what it looks like" kind of person - I chose this from a tiny swatch and bought it all at once. Relief.

We still need to find shutters for the upper floors. The other shutters we inherited had too much rot to salvage. Now, I can start obsessing over shutters.

a new (vintage) idea

2010-09-29T15:52:00.080-04:00

I know I've been absent from here. There hasn't been much work on the house - nothing much to report. To keep things semi-interesting what do you say we try something new? As mentioned before, we deal in vintage furniture/art/objects and have amassed a large collection over the years. I thought I'd post a story of two rare pieces, one we purchased to sell and one we've kept. Both have pretty interesting stories behind them. You are welcome to comment and let me know if you like/dislike this idea... because I have many more stories from the past decade of hunting.

Let's start with this piece:

Above is a vintage bar unit designed by James Mont. He and his matching larger credenza brother (both sold) recently came from an estate about 40 miles (not in NYC) from the Get To Fixin' house. What's so interesting about that you say? Well, upon speaking to the former owners, we were told that this cabinet and its mate originally came from Staten Island! The former owner said that her aunt had these pieces in her home (along with an entire matching dining set) and that her whole family lived on Staten Island when she was younger. She asked us where on Staten Island we lived and after responding St. George, she said, "my grandmother lived in St. George, on Stuyvesant Place!" To which we replied, "we know exactly where that is - we live on ________!" And she replied, "That's where my aunt's house was!" So yes, these two pieces were originally created by James Mont himself, for a house on OUR EXACT STREET! Crazy right?

And now, I'd like to introduce you to my favorite pair of vintage earrings:

These brass earrings were handmade by Harry Bertoia. I love their simple form and how they vibrate and spin with the slightest movement. I wear them from time to time, although they tend to get caught in my hair.

Bertoia is one of my favorite sculptors and furniture designers. I can't say I don't aspire to own a sculpture or two in the future but looking at my bank account I can certainly say it won't be happening anytime soon. The idea of two little Bertoia sculptures dangling from my ears thrills me every time I put them on.

I bought these 7 or 8 years ago at a tag sale in New Jersey. (Yes, that New Jersey. I love many parts of NJ [which I consider my home state even though I was born in and live in NY] and I've been seeing so much negative talk about the Garden State lately. We do not all behave like the people depicted on the that reality show ok? I think it's pretty obvious that being from one state or another doesn't automatically make someone a great person. I mean, I always thought everyone in Alaska must be awesome until I became aware of Sarah Palin.) Anyway, I was charged $2.00 for the pair. The woman running the sale looked at them in pure disgust (and flashed me a strange look too) after we decided that they were in fact made out of brass. She then ticked $2.00 off of the total after we tallied up all of our items. So in fact, they were free!

katydid trap and release

2010-08-10T13:06:00.013-04:00

Saturday night we were awakened by a strange sound coming from the air conditioner in the office. Fernando jumped up and realizing there was something trapped inside of the AC, started to thump on the side. He saw something huge fly out but it was so fast he lost sight of it.
The next day he walked into the office to find this on his computer screen:

I grabbed two plastic cups and Fernando swiftly trapped her between them.

When we released her outside, she seemed to not want to leave the cup. Her pause gave us the opportunity to examine her leaf-like wings.

Then she quickly flew away and landed near the living room window.

I'm glad we found her before the cats did.

island living

2010-08-05T13:35:00.000-04:00

amazing bug...

2010-07-29T15:45:00.013-04:00

planning its attack on Curtis High School...

Horton's Row: for sale!

2010-07-27T15:25:00.071-04:00

I love passing by this brick row of houses on Westervelt Avenue, close to Victory Boulevard:

photo via Landmarks Preservation Commission
I think this area is usually considered part of Tompkinsville but it so close to St. George who really knows? The lines between neighborhoods in NYC are so blurry.

photo via SI Treasure Blog
The row, known as "Horton's Row," was built from 1880 - 1882 by prominent New York City banker and broker Harry L. Horton. Originally, the row had twelve identical attached rowhouses that were built as affordable rental houses for middle-class families. While rowhouse are common in all of the other boroughs of NYC, this housing style is rare for Staten Island where mostly freestanding, single-family frame houses were built at that time.

Horton's Row, front view, circa 1885:

Photo source: Staten Island Historical Society Collection
Horton's Row, Park (Rear) View, circa 1885:

Photo source: Staten Island Historical Society Collection
View of Tompkinsville from Pavillion Hill, circa 1885:

Photo source: Staten Island Historical Society Collection
View from Brighton Heights, circa 1888:

Photo source: Staten Island Historical Society Collection
Today, only four of the nine remaining houses remain intact and they received landmark status in 2009.

photo via Landmarks Preservation Commission

photo via Landmarks Preservation Commission

photo via Landmarks Preservation Commission

photo via Staten Island Advance

photo via Staten Island Advance
I discovered today that two of the rowhouses are currently for sale and listed here and here. I really wish they had some interior photos!

More about Horton's Row can be found here, here, here and here.

watch the hairpiece!

2010-07-22T13:19:00.027-04:00

A few weeks back, over a long weekend, my Dad and Fernando finally pulled apart and rebuilt our front porch steps.

The decking was rotted in a few areas:

So new boards were added:

Finished steps:

They are still in their primed state since the weather has been too hot for painting. They (and the deck) will eventually be painted Sherwin-Williams, "Summit Gray."

They don't creak one bit.

We've also had our eaves painted!

It was a scary process... I'm glad we didn't have to get involved.

This area needed patching:

Before:

And after (a toupee in Sherwin-Williams, "Black Magic"):

Next up in exterior painting: the bay window. If this heat wave ever ends...

Year #2!

2010-06-26T10:00:00.005-04:00

Fernando found and sent me this photo last month:

The photograph, entitled "Invisible House in Staten Island," is by filmmaker Lynn Sachs and can be found on her website here.
Yes, that is our house.
Happy 2nd Re-Birthday House! I'm glad you no longer look like a giant bush with roof.

shutters for the day!

2010-06-17T14:18:00.021-04:00

We luckily inherited most of our original storm windows for the house when we bought it. They were stacked in the basement:

And some of the original shutters too!

There are signs that they were once mounted outside:

If you look closely, you can see the dirty outline where they once were:

We had our local handyman take the best shutters to prime for us - we had 4 still in good condition. He brought them over today and gave them a preliminary hanging before Fernando paints them.

We purchased some of the hardware we were missing many months ago - it's a perfect fit. We'll be painting the hardware black and we will need to order more. We bought everything that was available in stock at the time from Reiman's Hardware.

I'll have to hunt around for the outer hardware too.

Temporarily in place! Now I'm thinking I might need wider window boxes...

I really can't wait to start working on the exterior trim paint. It will be nice to not have to look at that peeling yellow paint when I come home from work... too bad, we're still quite a ways off from that reality.

Do these things happen to you too?

2010-06-11T12:34:00.042-04:00

Sometimes things just don't go our way. We'll start a project and realize we've forgotten something and then spend two hours running back and forth to Home Depot. Or the weather doesn't cooperate. Or we have to work most of weekend and we end up too exhausted for anything else.

We planned to re-build our front steps over Memorial Day weekend. We ripped out the hideous metal pipe railing:

We were excited to find stepping in the extra long length (12 feet!) we needed over at Garber's. We bought it ahead of time and ordered the wood for the risers. Did you know that wood doesn't standardly come in whole inches? They call them 2X4's but they're more like 1.5X 3.5's!
We had to have the riser wood ripped down and slightly trimmed to length. The guy that was supposed to be working in the mill decided to take off for the long weekend early (right after we placed our order) and they called us the next day and said our wood wouldn't be ready until the following Tuesday. Bye bye re-building front steps over Memorial Day weekend plan.
I really want this project to be over - our front steps really suck.
Lots of wear and tear:

General Scuzziness reporting to duty:

Chunks missing:

The new steps were longer than our car:

Can you take a photo with one hand while carrying steps with the other?

Fresh primer:

Long risers:

Now we're all primed and ready to go but we're waiting on my Dad to have a free weekend to help out.

On a positive note, the decaying front porch isn't stopping our new jackmanii clematis:

a quick trip down south

2010-06-03T20:46:00.049-04:00

Last Sunday we had a baby shower for my sister-in-law. Julie is a certified master dog trainer and sometimes works with the Staten Island Animal Care Center to rescue dogs that are about to be put to sleep, fosters and trains them and then finds new homes for them. She is awesome.
After her shower, Julie went to pick up a Lab from the shelter and we tagged along for fun. I successfully resisted the urge to adopt another cat. After the shelter, we headed over to the nearby Conference House Museum in Tottenville to let the pup run around and get some fresh air.
Fernando used to live a few streets away from the Conference House (c. 17th Century) and somehow never really ever walked around the grounds! Tottenville is the Southernmost tip of New York State and is still a part of New York City even though it feels like you could be a hundred miles away. The historic houses on the Conference House grounds are literally the last houses in New York City.
The Conference House or Billopp House was the site of a 1776 conference resulting in a failed attempt to halt the American Revolution starring Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge.
The Conference House/Billopp House:

photo from Wikipedia (we forgot to take one!)

The back of the Conference House/Billopp House:

There's an amazing herb garden at the side of the Conference House. I love the brick paths. I think a similar style garden would look great in our backyard. Maybe next year.

The Ward House - closed for renovations:

The Rutan-Beckett House:

Jealous of this greenhouse:

Next we happened upon the Biddle House:

There was a woman doing some garden work in the yard. Her mother works for the Parks Department and their family gets to live in the house as it's caretakers! Where can I apply for that job?

There is a staircase at the back of the house that leads down to the shoreline:

This contemporary beauty (complete with indoor pool) lives next door:

The sliver of beach was littered with things washed in from the sea:

My sister Gab and I picked things up along the way:

Julie's boyfriend found some kind of hatched nest:

My sister's booty back at the Russell Pavilion:

Tottenville is accessible by NY public transportation and makes a nice day trip away from the rest of the city. Read more on Tottenville over at Forgotten NY.

rambling...

2010-05-14T11:04:00.048-04:00

Things have finally been happening around our house after a long pause. We've mostly been cleaning up the yard and planting some perennials around the house. At this very moment, we're having our upstairs hallway painted! I can't tell you how happy I am to not have to do this myself. I loathe painting. I promise to post some photos as soon as it's done - I'm not doing it so you know it will actually get finished! I can't wait to see it and to finally hang up the light fixture we bought for it many months ago.
New flowers in the window boxes:

New flowers in the hanging baskets:

My peony has buds on it this year. The roses are budding as well. The ferns are taking over everything in the front. Daffodils and tulips came and went - I planted huge white double tulips and they looked amazing. I'll have to remember to take photos next year!

I planted a few different varieties of allium last year: Globemaster, Gladiator, Drumstick and another that I've already forgotten the name of. I haven't seen the Globemaster or Drumsticks yet but I'm pretty sure that these are the Gladiator in front:

Oh and this crazy allium:

All of the bulbs came from my favorite nursery: Martin Viette.

Did I mention that we used to have a dirt patch directly in front of our house? Ever since the giant yew was dug up we've been wondering if we should plant some grass in front. I was against a lawn because I don't like all of the maintenance it entails - weeding, watering, mowing, etc. I finally gave in and allowed Fernando to put some seed down. This grass promises to use less water than the average lawn. It took a few weeks but we actually have a nice shaggy start:

So there's some dandelions and clover too. I hate the idea of poisoning the dirt with chemicals so when we can really start walking on it I plan to pull those out by hand. I do like the new grass (Fernando was right) - I wouldn't mind plopping down on it for a picnic.

Some more pretties from Martin Viette waiting to be potted:

We've also decided to replace some of the wood on our front steps. Last weekend, we sourced some boards that would be a good replacement and hopefully we'll get working on that with my Dad in the near future. I'm excited to have freshly painted stairs and not the multicolored mess we currently have. We just need to decide on house colors.
Another doorknocker:

The other one I had posted about just wouldn't fit. I can't wait to paint the door and hang this guy up... if he fits. It reminds me of the one at 10 Downing Street (spotted over at Katy Elliott):

How nice is that glossy black door? I like the idea of black and near black for trim on a brick house. Just like this one:

Anna over at doorsixteen posted this interior by Stephen Roberts a while back and it reminded me of how much I wish I could stack up logs like this in my living and dining room fireplaces:

I'm afraid that will never happen (without some crazy chopping, hammering and glueing) because our fireplaces are way too shallow. So I'm settling for some logs in the fire ring outside:

Winston chopped those for us from a tree in our backyard. What of the bamboo you ask? I've resorted to stomping on it as new shoots pop up out of the ground. We will never be rid of the root system. I'm hoping to keep it from receiving needed sunlight and that maybe it will eventually die off underground. I'll just have to keep that up for the next 150 years.

chop 'em while they're down

2010-03-18T16:10:00.027-04:00

We had a few big snow storms that damaged the evil bamboo in our yard. It wasn't exactly chopped down, but it was on the ground from the weight of the snow and very easy to chop. Since we couldn't get around the back, Fernando decided to hack at the fallen pieces. After the snow cleared and the recent rain storms, we were left with this disaster:

Where's Jamie Durie when you need him?

Did I ever mention the bird's nest of a mess that was growing on our arbor? I couldn't wait to clear this off - it was mostly dead growth and matted leaves weighing down heavily on the lattice.

We hired Winston to clean it all up this week. I'm not sure how he handled this job by himself, but as you can see the results are incredible:

We now have a blank slate. I'm thinking Clematis for the arbor.

He also chopped down the remainder of the bamboo!

It ended up here on the curb:

I wonder if this will have any effect on the ridiculous amount of mosquitoes we get in the summer? He's going to try to get the roots up next. I'm still skeptical that this can even be done. Good luck Winston.

The first signs of Spring:

I can't wait to start planting some more flowers and a few veggies again. And grass. We REALLY need grass.

who are the kitties in your neighborhood?

2010-03-18T11:36:00.003-04:00

snow day: outside and inside

2010-02-10T11:59:00.013-05:00

Morning shoveling:

Backyard:

Bamboo bending:

The only time chain link fencing looks ok:

Curtis High School is quiet:

Ferocious Toby:

Snuggly Toby:

Surprised Oscar:

Mellow Oscar:

Introducing Merit + Worth Collection

2010-02-08T22:45:00.005-05:00

Have I ever mentioned that Fernando is a vintage dealer?

Well, he has decided to set up a blog storefront over here: merit + worth. He'll be updating the blogshop weekly with all of his latest finds. Stop by and take a look to find unique vintage items.

lights! photos! but not much action.

2010-02-04T13:05:00.039-05:00

I will be a very happy person when I don't have to look at primer covered walls anymore. As you can probably guess, our dining room is still not painted. The reason: the plaster crown molding still needs to be repaired. I think I've found a place that can replicate it, now I just have to trace it and order it and have it made and have it installed - one of these years. In the meantime we've hung some things on the walls and just most recently installed the ceiling medallion and new vintage light fixtures (so much nicer than bare bulbs.)

Cracked molding:

Hey, it's a little better than this:

"New" 1970's Barbini fixture and medallion:

Here's the newly refinished dining table (we still need to find chairs we like, so we're making do with these:)

A close up of the "new" fused glass sconces:

I would love to hear your color suggestions for the upstairs hallway - what's your favorite light to medium grey?

I'm taking color suggestions for the dining room too. At first I wanted a mossy, olive green - but it's a big commitment and I want to be sure. There are three landscape paintings hanging in there as well - all with gold and olive green tones. The adjacent living room is painted Benjamin Moore's Iced Cube Silver , so something that doesn't clash with that would be great. Or maybe it should just be the same color as the living room?
Iced Cube Silver:

And finally: if you're an admirer of vintage design you may want to check out Fernando's new blog storefront. It will feature a mix of furniture, art and decorative objects and it will (hopefully) be updated more regularly than Get To Fixin'. We'll be introducing it on Monday... so keep an eye out!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-25T00:55:00.020-05:00

The new Artemide Nesso ceiling fixture in the living room, just in time for Christmas:

You may be used to seeing this classic design in the tabletop version. We purchased it as a special order from Artemide and we were told there were only 20 of them made... we bought two!
The tree has been up for a while and we hung a nice big wreath on the pier mirror (I don't have a photo.) Here's a detail of the tree - funny, it felt a lot taller in our old apartment. Maybe we'll get a taller one next year?

We were late this year in sending out our holiday cards. Fernando had a great last minute idea. He used an image from an old original Andy Warhol card we found a few years back that has since been sold. All we had to work with was the poor quality photo on the left. With a little color added and some Photoshop magic, I think it turned out pretty nice:

Happy Holidays to you!

St. George for sale.

2009-12-03T15:43:00.059-05:00

No, I haven't given up on our house just yet. Still, I can't help hunting around to see what's for sale in the hood.

When we were house hunting here, nothing we liked seemed to be for sale in St. George. When we were apartment hunting, this carriage house beauty was available:

Fernando just didn't want to commit to a house. It was understandable - he was still in school. The people that did buy the house did a really nice job in sprucing it up on the outside. I've always wanted to see inside (we never looked at it) and just found a virtual tour online (click next.)

Another gem for sale in St. George is this beauty:

Ok so it needs a little curb appeal but let me assure you this one is amazing inside. I've seen it. It needs a lot of work but would be so worth it in the end. There's a butler's pantry, a huge kitchen, huge bedrooms, a beautiful staircase and when Fernando saw the sunroom on the back of the house he wanted to sell our house immediately. Ah, Fernando: don't you remember all of the work we did to our house?!

I don't recall seeing this one around in person but it looks to be in fine shape from the listing:

At the high end of the market (two blocks from our house on our street) you'll find one of my favorite houses in the neighborhood:

There are still some fixer uppers to be had as well for cheap prices... like poor next door:

That's really not the most flattering representation of next door. Unfortunately, she's seen better days and her current owner has forsaken her. Useless fact: she was once part of the J.C. Green estate along with our house and now stands where the stables used to be:

This one is around the corner and so cute - I love the round porch. I can imagine that it might need some work considering the super low price:

Another deal nearby:

On the edge of St. George, you can find this cozy house:

The photos show a central air conditioning unit and a great deck. At less than the price of a co-op that's a steal. I love the portico - can't you just see it with grey weathered clapboards, little window boxes and a black sperm whale above the door all New England style?

JUMBO post!

2009-11-17T15:51:00.108-05:00

I wanted to share my lastest project - my newly wallpapered linen closet. Here it is without its shelves:

The walls in here were in less than nice condition and needed sprucing up. The "wallpaper" was actually made via Kinkos on a blueprint copier from vintage wrapping paper. I found the roll many months ago, when it was still cold out (February?) and joked about using it to wallpaper the little bathroom downstairs. When I opened the roll and actually saw how amazing the paper was, I knew I needed to use it somewhere.

I used the same wallpaper paste here that I did with the Woods wallpaper in the foyer. If you ever decide to do something similar I highly recommend using very little paste applied directly to the wall. I ended up rolling it on and wiping most of it off, after I ruined sheet number 1. I made a lot of copies so ruining a sheet or two didn't really matter and I have leftover to use as gift wrap. This paper is super thin and gets pretty wrinkly the second it gets wet. The finished product has some ripples but I still love it. Also - the trimming is best done when the paper is dry. The shelves are back in now; I had painted them white a hundred months ago after stripping a hundred years of contact paper off of them. Now, I think I'll paint just the front edges with the same paint I used on the closet trim. The paint (BM French Beret) was leftover from the bathroom (right next to this closet.)

The paper states that the engravings were taken from Dr. J(ohn) Jonston's (Joannes Jonstonus)
"Description of the Nature of Quadrupeds, Fish, Bloodless Aquatic Animals, Birds, Coiled Creatures, Snakes and Dragons" Amsterdam 1660 A.D. I love the way the drawings on the paper are arranged to interact with each other; like the baboon (?) catching the ostrich egg. I especially like this man faced bird thing with his old school wig hair:

John Jonston (whose name is a perfect example of when something is gained in translation) is also responsible for this piece of incredible:

And this piece of amazing:

Yes, I realize the man needs his own post.
Other things have been happening around Chez Fixin' too - like COUNTERTOPS! Teaser:

Alas, the kitchen is still not finished yet. There is a lot of painting to do, the trim needs a lot of help and yes, we need drawer hardware. I'm hoping to finish up around Christmas.

A new light fixture was purchased for the upstairs hallway. I'll be happy to not have a bare bulb hanging around anymore. That whole area needs some wiring help before the fixture can be mounted. We chose this:

See how nice it looks in the product photo hanging against that grey background? I want to paint the hallway area a similar color. The fixture is by Artemide and is called Logico. We chose the largest size (standard) in the ceiling version. It reminds me of an Alvar Aalto Savoy vase - just upside down. It weighs about a ton and a half and is still in the box for now. I hope that we'll be able to hang it up this weekend.

I also finally ordered a fixture for the living room too. It's not a Mouille fixture but I figured that I should have some light in the living room while I save up $6000+ for a light fixture (yes, I am joking.) I don't have it in hand yet but it looks like this only upside down and with a much thinner neck:

We also bought this vintage (Poseidon?) door knocker that I hope fits on our front door:

What else you ask? Well, the found wooden bench has moved upstairs to our bedroom where it fits nicely against the wall that was formerly a fireplace:

The foyer got a new Kagan style bench with green upholstery that fits exactly where I had always wanted a bench:

We also put a white laquered linen tray top table from Jonathan Adler next to the living room door to use as a catch all for keys, cell phones, glasses, owls and anything else Fernando tends to misplace:

The office has a new case piece where a pile of junk used to hang out:

We also added an IKEA FADO lamp to the back bedroom on our "rid the house of bare bulbs spree." Oh and I'm working on a guest bedroom. We changed the fixture in there to another white IKEA KULLA pendant lamp and just bought a new mattress and box spring. I have a great headboard over at my Mom's house that I have to pick up and few other things planned... but that's all for another super sized post.

i guess we could always slice it up and make some more benches?

2009-10-07T15:06:00.057-04:00

I could use many excuses here as to why it's been so long since I've posted - we've been sick with the flu (swine flu?,) I've been taking a jewelry class over at FIT, last weekend we did the flea market so we could clear out some of the attic... etc. Really, there hasn't been much to blog about lately.
I had started a post all about the beach. But now it's Fall and totally irrelevant. Maybe I'll save it and put it up one day when we're freezing this winter. Yesterday we had our storm windows put up so that we hopefully won't freeze to death again this winter. We wanted to get the trim all painted before we popped in the windows but it looks like the trim work isn't happening this year. We'll most likely do it next Spring.

The person we hired used this incredibly long ladder and actually said that he was scared of heights!

I like the four paned windows much better than the two paned windows that are on the house - the third floor storm windows are just two paned.

So far we've noticed less noise from the street and less wind howling through the house. On Wednesday, when we had 50 mile an hour winds in NY, this happened:

If you guessed that that's a fallen tree from our yard that fell over into the neighboring house's yard, you are correct. We are very happy to report that the tree did no damage to our house, the neighboring house and (unfortunately) the icky chain link fence around our property. The only thing it did in our favor was take out some of the bamboo. Anyone need some firewood?

I keep saying "neighboring house" because currently, no one lives there. It is for sale and has been for a while. If you would like to be my neighbor - now's the perfect time. The price has been drastically reduced and the seller is selling for much lower than he paid. The house is huge, at 3 stories and it's around 15 or 20 feet longer than ours. I've never been inside. The seller had tried to flip the house when the market was good but his team of workers ditched him, he ran out of money and had to sell the house. Up until recently, the realtor with the listing had a non working phone number on the sign and when you called the office you only got a full voicemail box. People stop by all of the time and ask us about it because they can't get hold of the realtor. They finally added a working contact number so I hope it will sell soon. I feel really bad for that house.

So, do you want to see what I found recently? Yes FOUND! Would you throw this away?

I know these photos are a little dark but they were taken at night. It's a signed studio piece by Roy Sheldon.

It was a curb find. Someone put it on the curb! I almost hit the curb when I pulled over to grab it. It does not fit where I wanted a hallway bench but I'm using it here for now, until I find something that fits by the door. Then it will travel upstairs to our bedroom (no, you won't see it on the curb again anytime soon.)