JUMBO post!

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.

summer catch up

Peeps inside:


Toby on the chair:

Oscar on the bed:

Yes, we painted the walls but haven't gotten around to the trim yet! Anyway, I don't think I ever posted a photo of the bathroom mirror (Restoration Hardware's "Albion"):

So... some things have gone on around the house and outside of the house. I don't want to bore anyone with more talk about our yard or how we've added a light here or put up some blinds there. We finally gave in and put in two air conditioners. We had been getting by with window fans but it seems that the NYC heat and humidity has finally caught up with us. I love that all of the rooms in the house have doors because it makes it much easier to section off areas to cool down.
3 feet have been trimmed off of the privet out front. The yew out front is also finally gone. The giant (and HEAVY) root on the curb for the garbage collection:

Some pachysandra planted under the hedge:

Sunflowers on the side:

A house next door has been for sale since before we bought our place and they recently dropped the asking price drastically. People have been stopping by to check it out and since we're usually out and about in the yard, they ask us questions about it. I've been noticing a lot of people being curious about our neighborhood and Staten Island in general. I've been having to explain why we live in St. George, what there is to do here, where we eat when we go out, etc. We even find ourselves giving quick tours to tourists and our visitors! So, what better way to show my love for St. George than through my blog - from now on I'll be doing more little postings with photos of the neighborhood. So if you're a little curious, keep looking, if not, feel free to ignore. ;)

First up is the St. George Greenmarket:

Our Green Market is open on Saturdays from 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM from May through November. It is held in the Borough Hall Municipal Parking Lot at St. Marks Pl. and Hyatt St. across from the St. George Theater. We try to make it over there if we are around Saturday mornings. There are no supermarkets nearby and the Green Market is within walking distance from our house, so we try to take advantage of it whenever we can. Staten Island also has a CSA program that we do not currently participate in - although this might be a future possibility for us (when we have a fully functional kitchen!)


I'm really not this grumpy:

I can't resist Tart Cherry Stomp and Apricot Stomp from Red Jacket Orchards. They are both perfect and refreshing mixed up with seltzer or Pellegrino.

I also love the blueberry cornbread from Not Just Rugelach:

If you get there early enough you run into just about everyone in the neighborhood. Last weekend we met a neighbor who personally knew the original owner of our house. He told us a few stories about Mr. Coburn and described how he cared for the interior and exterior in a meticulous manner. Mr. Coburn was the person who added the newspaper headlines to the attic stairs and wrote the quirky notes found around our basement. He had a schedule of chores for every season - when he would put up the storm windows, trim the hedges, etc.
I think that's one of the nicest things about the Green Market - the people you run into and the people you meet.
These photos were taken late in the day after the crowds had died down:

what's going on here?

In all of the time between my posts you'd think we would have done a ton of things in our house - but you'd be wrong. It's been really cold inside and my hands don't work when they're cold.

We are lucky enough to still have all of the original storm windows for the house. They have been sitting in our basement for a very long time - they even have the cobwebs to prove it. They are all engraved with locations so it's just a matter of figuring out which way is north and hanging them up.

We put up all of the storm windows that we could. They cut the cold and stop some of the wind. Our house is tall so the only windows we've been able to cover ourselves are on the ground level and the ones that we could reach from the front porch roof and back mud room roof. They, like the rest of our trim, need scraping and fresh paint. I love the 4 pane design over our existing windows and how they compliment the glass vestibule. I think we'll keep them up year round on the front and back of the house to keep the cold out in the winter and the cool in in the summer.

I know I said we'd be hanging lights but what I didn't realize is how hard it would be. Every room has had at least two problems to address. In the foyer we needed a deeper ceiling canopy, in our bedroom we have to add wood to have something to mount the fixture to, in our office we also had to crack open the ceiling and move some stuff around, we have weird metal things sticking out from here and there and a lot of re-plastering to do.

One of the bedrooms needing a larger ceiling cap and some plaster work:

The office now has a Structo-Lite foundation and now needs a coat of plaster:

Some of the bulbs broke for this fixture so we'll need to find more (they're a little hard to find.) This one has glass globes that cover the bulbs (not currently on) but it's still too bright and we'll need to put it on a dimmer.

This one is vintage and in its previous life it hung in our old kitchen:

We haven't tackled our bedroom yet but I did purchase a white Kulla lamp for this spot.

Below is the only fixture we were able to actually hang. It's in our living room and guess what? We hate it. I love the fixture. I love the medallion. I hate them together. Since the medallion is already up, we're going to have to find another fixture for here. Any suggestions would be welcome - whatever it is it can't hang too low because we've installed a TV above the fireplace.

We still have not painted our upstairs bathroom. I did spend an eternity patching and sanding all of the trim and walls. I have another quick sanding to do and then we'll be ready for paint. We actually even agreed on a paint color! We'll be using Benjamin Moore's French Beret. I'm trying the Aura paint in here since it's supposed to be cleanable and mold resistant and just so amazing... that's what I hear anyway.

French Beret:

Obama moves to the White House and the Kitties move to the Brick House.

Oscar and Toby have moved in with us. They seem to really like their new house - especially all of the windows.

We had a long, lazy and snowy weekend. With mornings like this:

Looking out of the window at this:

Oscar has been sleeping under the covers. He really likes the electric blanket.

Other creatures sniffing about:

I've been doing laundry! Here is an action photo of the first load of laundry EVER done in this 99 year old house:

We did get a few things accomplished. Some furniture was unwrapped and moved into the living room so we have a place to sit other than the bed. There's cardboard under the furniture legs to protect the floors. There will be rearranging and editing in the future - I don't want to get too comfortable in here right now because I still have to fix the moulding.

Thanks to my dad, a few doors were hung (with working doorknobs!) The water dispenser and ice maker in our fridge are also hooked up.

Fernando laid out that platform for the washer and dryer in the basement. It raises the machines a few inches off of the ground in case we have any more water. We still need to paint the surrounding floor. He also filled up some cracks with hydraulic cement. We haven't had water since but I think most of the ground is still frozen from the weather lately.

We finally decided on a much needed mirror for the bathroom. If it's in stock I should be buying it tomorrow.

This weekend we plan to get some of the light fixtures up. Oh how I'll miss the hanging bulbs.

The big problem with hanging lights here is that some of the wiring doesn't have anything around it to secure a fixture to. The living room is the only one ready to go but it stopped working a week ago. I think it might just be loose wires in the switch or a bad switch. I also changed my mind about the fixture for in there... decisions are hard.

2009

Happy New Year!
So far it's been a very happy one for us - we've finally moved in and now we're living amidst chaos. Check out the dining room:

Those are BOXES. I think we had around 250 packed up from our last move. There's even some furniture too:

It's not staying like this (I promise!) Some things are going and others will be moved around. The aluminum group chairs are not good on our floors - they've made that patch of floor over by the desk a mess. I don't know if it's because the floor was recently refinished or if it's because they are old or if it's just the type of wood they are, but they are soft.
We've been doing a lot of painting and most of the trim is done. Check out the stair risers:

More work was done to the bathroom. That's my Dad doing touch up to the plaster:

My Sister has been working on patching and sanding the bathroom window. It just needs a coat of paint. I still haven't decided on a wall color!
We now have our IKEA HÖLLVIKEN sink hung on the wall:

The plumbing is currently hooked up - that was taken just after it was hung.
And here's the new bathroom faucet:

All of our kitchen appliances have been delivered. It was hard getting them into the kitchen and after the first attempt failed, another date was scheduled, two doors (on our mud room) were removed and the appliances are now in the kitchen. All of that and only one huge scratch down the front of the left refrigerator door. Another door has been ordered and is on its way. Nothing ever goes smoothly.

Speaking of nothing going smoothly, I don't think I mentioned the footprint. There was a footprint in the final coat of poly right in the middle of our living room floor. The floor people have been back 3 times since then to "fix" it and it now looks like a weird 1 1/2' (yes foot) square patch in the middle of the living room floor. They are scheduled to come back and completely re-coat the entire living room and dining room next Wednesday. This means that all of that stuff you see in the first photo of this post has to be removed and found another home in the interim! And that the toilet from our miniature bathroom has to move upstairs this weekend (yay!) and that we won't be able to put furniture in those two rooms for at least another week after they are finished. :(

We also have our new washer and dryer in the basement. When they were delivered we realized that the ground was too uneven where the plumbers put the hook-ups. We've also been getting water again in that corner when it snows. Everyone we've consulted seems to think it's ground water. We will eventually have to add a sump pump in the future to end the water issues. As for the washer and dryer - we had to move them over, under the basement stairs and that meant longer hoses (not readily available at most plumbing suppliers.) We finally found 8ft hoses at Sid Phillips. They are not hooked up yet.

Our kitchen cabinets were delivered at least two months ago and are being installed TODAY. I'm very excited to see the results...