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.

what goes up and never comes down?

You know how people usually just wallpaper one accent wall in a room? Now I know why. This was hard. Really hard. There are 4 doors and a window in the area, lots of trim to cut around, some really uneven areas and of course the curved wall. Luckily, I had my Mom there to instruct me and help out along the way.

After the first mishap - applying the paste to the back of the wallpaper - I did my research on how to put it up. I settled on Roman's Golden Harvest Ultra Clear Adhesive Pro 880 paste. Cole and Son recommends using their own paste or a "pre-mixed wheat paste." I can't remember why I settled on the Pro 880 but it is recommended because it makes future removal easier. This is never coming down (at least for as long as I live here anyway.)

I'm not completely finished yet (this is around 15 hours of work, over two days!) I'm waiting to give the banister and newel post another coat of stain and some poly before I paper that area. Then I'll get to the finishing touches like above the door here:

We also finally hung our freshly painted Arteluce sconces. The ceiling fixture in here needs some adjustments and a special part to fit properly. No different than the rest of the ceiling fixtures in the house!

Yesterday we stopped in at the DWR store in Roslyn. I became smitten with the simple lines of their Shaker Settee. I would love it for underneath the sconces. The problem is it's 5 inches too wide for the space.

So, I guess I'm back to hunting around. I would really like to find something vintage since most of our furniture is vintage. We only have that chair in the corner at the moment to have somewhere to sit down to put on and take off our shoes.

In the slowest kitchen remodel ever news: we decided on a ceiling fan over a light fixture. I had a great vintage light fixture for the kitchen but Fernando thought we'd be better off with a ceiling fan since there's no circulation in there. I did a lot of hunting around to find something reasonable and not gross looking. I usually hate ceiling fans. I found the Minka Aire Concept I fan to be exactly what we were looking for:

It's up and installed already as of last weekend thanks to my Dad (who also bought it for us as an anniversary present.) I would definitely recommend it - it looks great, it's very well made and comes with anything you could possibly need to hang it up. It also has a remote control that we mounted inside the pantry. I'll post some photos soon when there's a little more progress in there!

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.

door hardware - any ideas?

The cabinet installation is done! Well, almost... two cabinets arrived without their glass, so that's been ordered. We also need to choose cabinet door hardware. I'm really pleased with the row of cabinets next to the fireplace - they utilize the dead space perfectly.

We moved the island out a little further than we had originally planned but there is still enough room by the back door and it works.

We used Hanssem Somerset cabinets in here, in "frosty white." We had planned to use "crystal white" but the color looked more creamy than we wanted under our lighting. We also used IKEA PERFEKT FAGERLAND wine shelving down the length of the wall to the right of the refrigerator. There are three units stacked and the cabinet installer did such a great job you'd never know it wasn't ordered with the Hanssem cabinets. I was a little nervous about this because I labored over the problem of needing at least 6 inches next to the fridge for the doors to open properly. Hanssem did not have anything under 12 inches in width (too big for the space) so as always IKEA to the rescue. We're not big wine drinkers but I thought it would be handy when I can't resist buying those cases of Pellegrino at Costco.

We still have to paint in here, build a half wall around the dishwasher and back of the sink cabinet and move our poor doorbell before we can pop in those lights and get the countertop installed.

My Dad stopped by yesterday and hooked up the stove, washer and dryer, put doors on the bathroom and our bedroom (yes!) moved the toilet upstairs and re-installed the curtain rod so we can shower. I hate baths here because the tub never warms up and no matter what we do, baths are freezing. We're working on weather stripping all of the windows and doors but the house is still pretty cold. Our bed is a mountain of blankets!

The snow yesterday left a pretty blanket over our back yard and bamboo forest:

sneak peak!

Fernando just sent me this quick shot of the kitchen progress.

I feel incredulous - I really was beginning to think I'd never have a functioning kitchen again!

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...

cue quincy jones

I can't tell you how much I wish I had an after shot for you here. This was pretty much the state of the front section of our backyard for the last two months.

We did hire a "clean-up" guy last week. He came the following day and removed a lot of metal. We really had a lot of metal. Someone had been hoarding it in the basement. Most importantly, he removed the stinky old stove that none of us could lift out to the curb. He even had a red pick-up truck ala Sanford and Son!

Alas, he too must have been scared away by the swarms of mosquitoes and the never-ending clean-up job. He never showed up again.

Fortunately, our amazing neighborhood gardener, Winston has saved us from our festering junk heap! Winston does work for our neighbor who has an almost identical house to us. I say almost identical because their house was not renovated in the 30's and because compared to ours, it looks like heaven. Manicured lawns and perfectly trimmed hedges with fresh exterior paint and I can only imagine inside! Ahh.
Winston does a lot of the houses in the neighborhood - he will come around when he thinks something needs trimmed and just work. He's a little hard to find - we begged our neighbor to send him over to us next time he saw him. Eventually, I would like to do the gardening myself. I love garden work. For now, I'm extremely overwhelmed with all of the weeds, vines, hedges that tower above me and did I mention the bamboo?! If you look to the left of the top photo in this post (above the pile of dried ivy) you'll see we have a bamboo forest taking over our yard. It extends way beyond the lattice and into the middle of the yard. If anyone needs bamboo for a project, let me know - you are more than welcome to take as much as you need.
We hired Winston to remove the roots of the ivy around the house since we are already getting re-sprouts here and there. He performed nothing short of a miracle yesterday in rounding up all of the garbage in the yard and sorting it into bags and bundling vines and wood. Now we can actually set it all out on the curb on garbage day. Not all at once, but at least it's very manageable now. We can see the stone patio now and even found a strange thing resembling a headstone sticking out of the ground! I highly doubt it's a headstone but I can't imagine what it could be. I'll need to shoot some pics and ask for opinions.

I do however have some recent photos highlighting the new lighting in our kitchen and dining room. Check them out:

No, nothing looks finished yet. But we're hoping that one day soon it will be!

let there be light and walls and tile

We have walls in the kitchen again! The new plaster is drying and we've had some new spotlights put in (and the fridge was sold.) There was a little miscommunication and now we have a light that isn't centered above the arch but we're just going to have them take it out altogether. We did have a light wired right into that little passageway so I don't think we'll miss it. There will be 3 new halogen spotlights on each side of the room, the center fixture and a little one between the dining room door and pantry.

As you can see the poor doorbell got plastered into the wrong spot. Hopefully, he will be centered back up above the arch soon.

We also had a couple of spotlights installed in the dining room to highlight whatever we end up putting above the fireplace. We had another installed on the wall to the left between the two windows, also to highlight future art. On the opposite wall to the fireplace we had two sconces wired, one on either side of the window.

In powder "closet" news - the tile has arrived! We're very happy with it. It was hard for me to order something like this online since I wasn't able to feel them or see them in person. This time I really got lucky. I couldn't resist laying them out on the floor (even though the room is still quite gross) and as you can see it's not going to take much to cover it. That's a whopping 4 square feet there!

I've been looking around for a nice wallpaper to use in here and Fernando has been freaking me out with the idea of Men splashing urine on the walls. The room is SO small and the walls are so close to the toilet. He's insisting I need a washable wallpaper or tiles on the wall and I've just decided that this will be a Ladies (or Men who pee like Women) only room.

And with that here's a taste of what I'm imagining for in here:

I guess I could have just scanned a sample since these pics are not a very good representation but I didn't. So, you have to imagine that there is lots of black and a bit of grey and silver and the hummingbirds are coral and turquoise. I may change my mind (or come to my senses and buy something vinyl) tomorrow but this is definitely what I like today.

(mostly) remote shopping

Our small bathroom disappeared for a short while last week. In a past life it used to be a little entry way into the dining room on the right of the hearth. I still can't believe someone turned this small space into a powder room! It's currently all boxed in again (of course I don't have an illustrative photo for you - we keep forgetting the camera) and we actually gained a whole inch in width. This is all pre-plaster of course so I don't know what kind of difference it will actually make.

I also purchased mosaic marble tile for the floor. Actually, I bought it online and I'm a little nervous to see it in person. I looked everywhere for a honed Carrara marble tile in a herringbone pattern. Next time you're bored, try going to a tile store and asking for herringbone patterned tile. They will usually show you a hexagon pattern or a basketweave. One woman showed me a basketweave and when I said that I was really looking for a herringbone, she said "that IS a herringbone, hun."

I found herringbone carrara in two places - the first would not give me a price quote? The second (Waterworks) only had it in a polished finish. I really wanted a honed finish because I want that "it's been here for a while" kind of look. We had polished marble floors in our last bathroom and I loved them. They started to look honed after a while but only in some spots. I suppose it wouldn't even matter because the tiles are so small (our other tiles were 12X12) but the honed finish was definitely my first choice. The ordered tiles should be here at the end of the week and I hope they're nice!

The old light in the powder room used to work on a pull chain. It's now been wired to a switch. The ceiling needed to be dropped a bit because of new plumbing and a fan that we had installed. I bought this little fixture (not my photo) on ebay a few days back and I'm hoping it will work for the small space. The globe is glass in a bubbly texture. It needs rewiring and I'm thinking that the brass should be sprayed silver but we'll see when it arrives. I actually have a similar but larger fixture, purchased at an estate sale that we were thinking of using in the foyer.

We also nabbed a slab of Calacatta marble for the kitchen countertops over the long weekend. And what do you know? I don't have a photo of that either. If I did have a photo it would probably look something like this:

It's a beautiful piece and we're hoping they will be able to cut it so that the backsplash is bookmatched with the counter. We mapped it out and the marble guy seemed to think it should work so here's hoping.