Lacking No More

Have you ever had one of those days where you just wanted to scream "f-it" whilst throwing your laser level at the wall and catapulting your toggle bolts into the trash? Me too.

This past weekend we attempted to revivify our TV wall with a pair of the ever-so-popular Ikea Lack Wall Shelf.

I have a question for you Ikea. Who hurt you?

Mounting the shelves correctly was as difficult as eating a single Pringles chip without wolfing down half of the canister. A series of WTFs supervened.

The black and decker bullseye laser level's stud finder feature was uber inconsistent (in its defense, it is a couple of years old... so it may have lost its ammo).

Eleven holes later, we finally found a stud! Eleven!! Pssh, 16 inches my butt.

Next puzzle? Hardware. We were advised to use 3/16"x 2 toggle bolts.

Can you imagine how big of a hole we had to make to have the springed wings slide through? Nix that plan after a couple of zaps with the drill (that's what she said).

A few days later (and a couple of minutes googling for new hardware research) we found our perfect match: self-drilling drywall anchors.

Total lifesaver. That audible pop lets you know it's working.

Yada yada yada, the Lacks went up with ease.

We are currently rotating the shelf decor on a daily basis. All I know is that Spuds stays put and a bigger TV wouldn't be so bad...

What do you think?

3/10/10- Linking up to Amanda @ Serenity Now! Our Family Room Project is taking a longer than expected (going on several months now) but I have a hunch that Amanda's linking parties is my spoon full of sugar. ;)

Watch Your Head Spuds!

As my friend Jam would say, "Friday, Friday, Friday!" Indeed it is...and I couldn't be happier.

This weekend Chris and I will be taking a minor break from Operation Oscar's Room to focus on last year's project, the Family Room...which in reality is only a couple of months old.

In that room, we still have a few loose ends in need of some tying. It pains me to report that the infamous "tabar" conversation has slithered its way back to the table (oh, hai pun). This loopy conversation ignites my Ricky Ricardo "Mira que tiene cosa..." shpeal.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program...remember those lateral files we bought to use as a TV console? Well...they're looking a little bald against the granite abyss. But, hopefully, this weekend we will rectify that with a couple of wall mounted shelves...and some knicks in need of a knacking. 

Ignore the box of legos on the far left but say 'hello' to Spuds on the right.

Happy Friday!

All-u-min-ee-um

You know, installing mini-blinds is a lot harder than it looks. As you may recall, we ordered two Bali horizontal blinds about 3 weeks ago at JCPenny. A week after the purchase, they were sitting pretty on our porch. Oh man were we pumped to see the brushed aluminum slats in the flesh. As always, I fished for the instructional sheet and read thoroughly, step by step; easy peasy! And then, the "wtf" moment entered the room.

Chris: "Where's all the hardware?"

Me: "Um, in the box labeled hardware."

I dumped the said contents on the table.

Chris: "Why do we only have two brackets and eight nails?"

Me: "I-don't-know."

Chris: "Maybe each blind only needs one bracket?"

Me: "I don't think one bracket will solely support a 95" long blind"

Chris: "wtf"

I phone customer service and to my surprise, pressing 1 option was specifically for missing hardware issues. Five minutes later, our missing hardware were on its way.

To make a long story short, it took us a total of, oooh 1 hr to install two measly blinds. And of course a few "extra" holes kindly made an unexpected appearance.

A couple of suggestions and tips for any future inside mount blind installer. 

1. Use a drill bit slightly smaller than the screw that will be used to tighten the brackets. In our case, the screw smoothly made its way through the drywall but once it hit the wood, oooh child, was it rough! Three drill bits tries plus 4 stripped nail heads later and we were golden. Getting the first two brackets secured took about 40 minutes. The final three took 5 minutes.
2. The template attached to the instructions sheet was a lifesaver! It precisely helped us mark the spots with no hassle.
3. Make sure the 3rd and middle bracket is not aligned to any of the string grabbers. We learned this will prevent the slats from opening and closing, hence the 4 punctured holes up above. Seems like information that should have been pretty upfront in the instructions.
4. Your forearms and shoulders will get a nice workout. In no time you'll be sporting guns akin to those of Taylor Lautner's. Ok, I may be embellishing a bit.

Other than that, I would say our blinds fit nicely in our new room. 

  

::open::

::closed::

I don't think Uncle Kitty approves. Her window peeping time has come to a halt.

p.s. We still have to taken down the curtain rod which means more spackling and tackling. Sigh.

The Treatment

It's been almost 4 weeks of family room lounging time and we've been exposed; literally. As you may recall, the room has a colossal window (95x48) smack dab in the middle and we have yet to tackle window treatments. We are pretty much every peeping tom's dream...not that we walk around naked or anything- that's Uncle Kitty's crime. 

At first we were all gun-ho with curtains; we even mounted the curtain rod after painting, but something just didn't look right. We dabbled with the possibilities on Google Sketchup rather than buying real curtains and shamelessly returning them back to the store all in a mess because those anorexic plastic packages magically shrink when the contents are set free.

We nixed the curtain option and decided to go back to our elementary school days of, wait for it, aluminum blinds. And yes, I'm speechless as well.

JCPenny was having a 70% off sale on all Bali blinds. We literally saved over $500 on our order for both windows (though I'm pretty sure they are never less than 50% off). Can I get a hallelujah! Better yet, guess what color we went with? The blinds should be delivered to our home any day now. I just hope our measurements are absolute; and if their not, I guess our neighbors will get another show of me in my snuggie. Yes, I got a Snuggie for Christmas! Speaking about this pop culture phenomenon, have you seen the Dreamie?? 

Shut The Door and Have A Seat

Two oh oh nine was a whirlwind of a year. Feels like only yesterday I was daydreaming about all the yummy Thanksgiving fixings and the extra gym hours needed to recuperate. Now here I am hunting down 50% off sales on after-Christmas decor and guessing as to how people will refer to the next year ..."two thousand and ten...or...twenty-ten"? Nerd alert indeed.

Ok, ok, back to the home decor affair. Remember the sneak pic peek from last week's post? Well my blogging friends, I am super excited to share our wonderful early Christmas gift.

Bona fide Herman Miller Charles and Ray Eames molded plywood chairs. (!!!) The mid-century modernist in us jumped out with excitement and we were all smiles for days. Chris and I literally could not stop looking at its intriguing design, stroking the smooth wood with our cold hands, or placing Uncle Kitty on them only to watch her slide down to the signature 'bendy tailbone'. 

These two beauties were gifts from my father-in-law's cousins. They simply had no room for the Eames chairs in their home and since they knew Chris and I were mid-century modern furniture enthusiasts, it was a perfect match! We are so grateful for their generosity and we would like to thank them again, 'Thank You, Ross & Barbara! From the bottom of our hearts.'

After receiving these two bad larrys, I was crossing my fingers (and all my limbs), hoping that my Christmas gift to Chris would be a "mini-me" of the aforementioned Eames chairs. I had ordered two miniature designer chairs on Poketo.com and unfortunately ordering the mini chairs is a crapshoot unless you order the entire series. 

No dice but it was worth it.

Today I stumbled upon another embodiment of the tiny little chairs.

I will take the one of the far left, please.

Happy Monday!

Full Nelson

It's official, we've moved into the Family Room.  

Now that the television has promptly found its new homebase, we've been resting our behinds on our lovely new sectional daily (pretty much glued to it this past weekend). As predicted, cat hair sticks to the fabric and illuminates like a neon sign. So far conditioning Uncle Kitty to take her kitty naps elsewhere has been relatively progressive.

And so our quest for a coffee table has commenced. Ideally an authentic Herman Miller Platform Nelson Bench would be sublime but as you know Herman Miller furniture has quite the price tag.

::google sketchup::

Room and Board is just ending their 15% off all Herman Miller furniture sale. Chris and I toyed with the idea but I just couldn't make the leap, even with the discounted price.

Oh, it's such a beauty.

We could go for an "inspired" Nelson bench such as this little number below. I've been eying it for a few weeks now anticipating a price drop over at Retrograde LA.

So it's missing the finger joints and the 'plant pot' legs...is it still worth it? I guess it really doesn't matter since I just noticed the SOLD label next to it as I was linking the url site to the humble ablog.

BUT, I was shell shocked when I saw this on Sears' website. Really? Sears? My "go-to for-large-appliances" Sears? If the picture is as true as their actual product, I'm surprised Herman Miller hasn't sued their copy-cat designing butts.

Any Herman Miller owner's out there? Should we splurge or save? 

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

The weekend's gloomy, cloudy skies finally caved in yesterday...and gave us, drought prone LA'ers, some much needed rain. I have a love/hate relationship with the rain (as I do with LOST...2/2/10). Love the free car wash. Love the bathed lawn. But, hate the freezing house...58 degrees (inside) in fact.

In a previous post, I mentioned how much our house heater sucks. It's old and far from eco-friendly. We are major weenies and refuse to use the Lusk signature fireplace in our living room. So, what's a semi frozen blogger to do? Bake. Bake like a 50's wife and pray I don't set the smoke detectors off.

I found an easy peasy recipe a few months ago that I've been dying to try out; Crispy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (talk about a title hook!) And let me just say, I literally used the words, "heaven's to betsy" when I took the first bite- that's how amazingly delicious they were. 

Goliath cookies were on Chris' mind and so, he conquered. 

He made sure to include a quarter for good measure. Geez, this takes me back to my elementary school days of Friday after-school bake sales which included jumbo pickles and saran wrapped giant cookies at 50 cents a pop. Those were the days.

And what better way to end the post but with a picture of our much awaited sectional.

She's here!!

Modern Warfare

What do you do when your house heater is as old as Larry King and turning it on seems akin to a game of Russian Roulette? I kid you not, even Uncle Kitty is a bit nippy in here. Until that glorious day when we dive deep into our pockets for a new centralized heating apparatus, I'm bonded to a fleece blanket throughout the entire winter (and no, it's not a snuggie). 

Besides daydreaming of safe heat, I cannot wait until our Family Room is ready for use. This past weekend we purchased our wannabe Jane Bi-Sectional sofa in, dare I say, off-white. This means it will be a no food, no drink zone.  Knowing me, I'm sure I'd somehow stone skip tomato sauce on it from the kitchen; I'll betcha five dollars.

We still have a few other minor details to take care of, for example, replacing the ceiling fan.

Have you seen anything so repulsive to the naked eye? 

The door that leads to the backyard is also an eye soar BUT perhaps salvageable.

In a perfect world with money trees blooming by the minute, I'd replace the incumbent with a pair of french doors or better yet, tear it all down for a Nanawall.

Ok, ok, so the door screams 1970's...but something about the detailing screams 'I could be awesome.'

A pop of color could do the trick. I can see it wearing a fuchsia or caramelized orange. Am I crazy??  Chris thinks so and wants to replace it ASAP. I on the other hand think it's crazy to play Call of Duty until 4am but, whose to judge?

Family Room: Before and After

It has been two months since I first posted and introduced the Family Room Project and boy oh boy does it feel great to say we're (almost) done. The fact of the matter is, the foundation of the room is prepared for the furnishings. After many distractions and trips to the Home Depot, I can safely roll around in the Family Room with grace and style. 

:: Before ::

The oddly shaped room, atrocious linoleum floor, dreary off-white walls and the gold bulbous wicker/wood ceiling fan.

Entrance

 

To the left...

To the right...

And from behind

The square pattern on the wall was our toughest challenge yet. We made some poor paint choices such as Behr's "Squirrel" which looked like day-old guacamole (sorry Chris) and promptly painted over it.

Our carpet was installed over the weekend and because we chose a pattern design, the process was a lengthy one.  

Drumroll...

:: After ::

 

  

  

 

Now comes the expensive part...

Right Angle

Happy Sunday!!