link drop +

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.

snow day: outside and inside

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:

Happy Holidays!

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!

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:

two steps forward, one step back

I've been sick since Friday. Needless to say my bathroom did not get painted this weekend. We did get the office fixture up and the Kulla lamp up in our bedroom. We also lost (sold) the living room fixture.

I'm still waiting for your suggestions! We've had vistors to the blog from Milan to Minsk (no kidding!) so vistors, welcome and please feel free to leave a comment. :)
Perhaps I should show you my dream fixture for this spot?

Unfortunately, unless this becomes available at my dream price (much, much cheaper) it's not happening anytime soon. We did have another idea for this spot but it's just plain crazy and I won't mention it again unless I'm forced to do it.

Let's see... we also wrestled with the garden on Friday, before I came down with a fever. I toppled 20 and 30 foot bamboo stalks. Fernando managed to dig up massive chunks of bamboo roots and rhizomes. I was going to take a photo for you - I had left them lying on our patio - but it snowed heaps all over the yard and they got covered up. I've realized that getting rid of the bamboo (or even just controlling it) is not going to be easy.

I did discover a huge old climbing rose in the back corner of the property while picking up a dead branch. Ouch. There were also the first signs of spring poking out - crocuses and I think daffodils. We did so much hacking that we can actually walk around the yard now. I'm just dreading binding up the branches and stalks to throw away. If anyone is in need of some cut bamboo for a project - let me know!

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.