Stronger

Transit map it is!

We've got a couple of other additions that we're still toying with the idea of...we'll see.

Hmmm, is it just me or does it give off a Kanye West kind of vibe? 

Operation Oscar's Room

I feel the first order of business to Operation Oscar's Room is narrowing down some paint selections. I'm not quite sure what color hues to go with as of yet but I have a few paint pattern ideas in mind that may make my heart (and hopefully Chris') go pitter patter.

                                                     ::my first try at google sketchup::

                                   ::not to shabby ^_^::

I know, it's basically a giant paint swatch, but seeing it in a large scale kind of makes me say, "oh la la." I wasn't going for a focal point here (like we did with the family room) but rather, more of a backdrop. I think it might work nicely with all white furniture.

Another idea we have is a bit tricky...trickier than anything we've painted before. Our inspiration? A subway transit map. More specifically the NY city subway map from the 70's. 

Could it be done? Perhaps. Would it look good? Tough to say. In either case, we'll be buying enough 3M painter's tape to make a whole village of Smurf Mummies.  

What are your thoughts? Giant swatch or transit map? 

And The Oscar Goes To...

Remember that gigantic and hideous "hi-I-sell-drugs" security doorknob I posted a couple of weeks ago?

Well my friends, I feel it's time to tell you about the tall tale of Oscar's room. Oscar is not a roommate nor is he a pet of any kind. He is not a family member who mooches from us either. Oscar is the name of our spare bedroom. And yes, he is real.

We met Oscar over a year and half ago when we closed escrow on our home. Oscar was renting a bedroom from the previous homeowner and he was a tad late getting all of his belongings out of our bedroom. We had the opportunity to chat with him a bit (mostly to find out what the previous homeowner was like since we never met the gal nor did we ever receive the "keys" to our [then] new home). Oscar was a bit of a character. He looked like a Mexican version of Donald Faison, you know, that guy from Scrubs? But with more of a 'Stand and Deliver' persona. All and all a nice guy.

Oscar was kind enough to leave his manly doorknob lock with us. He divulged the secret code, ahem, 420 and even left behind some 'panama red' in the garage...under a home depot bucket. Perhaps it was a housewarming gift? Nah, the chow chow they left behind was our "housewarming gift."

On our Twenty-Ten Project/Goal list, I pledged to makeover Oscar's room and bury his name for life. This past weekend, we broke the ice.

I do have a confession (but more like a warning), and please tell me I'm not alone! Oscar's room is what I like to call my Monica Closet. It's my version of my chaotic space. I'm a fairly neat person all around, but when I come across a future DIY project I tell myself I'm going to get around to it later and promptly stick it in Oscar's room. I stick everything in Oscar's room, including our college degrees signed by the Terminator himself...they are inside my hello kitty sewing machine box. Sigh. I'm a closeted disorder-er, you could probably find me in the DSM IV.

As you can see, most of the items in the room are empty boxes. But before we rummaged around, Chris declared several arguments will ensue throughout the process. He was correct.

I'm relieved to reveal the not so embarrassing aftermath snapshot.

Let the decorating fun begin!

And please tell me there are others out there with their own version of the Monica Closet.

Show Me Your Digits!

Ever since we moved into our new home a year and half ago, I've been on the hunt for some snazzy digits, house numbers that is. Currently our home can be identified a couple of ways; 1 being the faded curbside painted numbers that are masqueraded by unexplainable greenery...and the other being the daytona blue 350z parked on the driveway.

I really didn't want those plain jane numbers I've seen at the local home improvement retailers; not my cup of tea. But when I came across these drapper house numbers over at www.moremailboxes.com, I was busting out the 'Carlton Dance.' 

With a variety of colors to choose from (not to mention their spiffy names) you can choose from stainless steal to Bougainvillea Pink! Or my personal fav, Bonita Blue. 

And considering all the rain us Los Angelenos are getting, these numbers will never rust! 

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?? 

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? 

Rear vs Rear

As we patiently wait for our new sofa to arrive, it has given me time to ponder our next big project. On our 'costly-renovations-we-have-to-do' list, remodeling the bathrooms precedes cultivating the backyard; but now that the family room will be thee place of leisure and entertainment, the backyard has moved up the list as it is in plain sight. Sooner or later someone will shimmy their way to the exterior door and open pandora's box... yes, it's that bad.

Not sure if I've mentioned Chris' backyard solution yet, but it begins with C and ends with T...cement...he wants to cover it all with CEMENT!! I think that classifies as house abuse, don't you? Chris hates anything to do with landscaping. Yours truly maintains the watering and weeding whilst Chris mows the little active greenery that we do have. So... we've compromised and settled on the best of both (our) worlds. Frankly, I'm keen to this idea! Here is a google sketch-up of our vision.

The current patio cover is in decent shape but could use a few pressure washer sessions.

Laying pavement tiles doesn't look too hard to do, right? He even threw in a couple of planters to appease me. We could also lay larger pavers leaving several inches of space between the tiles and allowing grass to border each slab. Either way, rototilling the entire space is going to be a PAIN.

Until we reach a final decision on our next project/blog series, I will (hopefully) crack open the third book in the Twilight series (thanks to Rosemary at Booking It Bus Style for lending me her collection... I promise to give them back soon!) and make sure that Uncle Kitty doesn't brawl it out with Peanut.  Oh and adding the finishing touches to our family room. ^_^

Square Dance

Weekend+pandora+ruler+tape+ladder+paint = square dance

::Goal::

::Dancing::

 

::Taping::

  

::Painting::

 

::Excitement::

The tape adhesive sucked all the moisture out of my fingertips but it was worth it. Two more paint colors to go before the carpet moves in!

Don’t Pass this Bar (by Chris)

I want a bar. Wait…first off, I should tell you that we don’t drink. Not even water…except socially. Now that I’ve captured your attention with that great joke, I’d like to get semi-serious for 4 paragraphs.

 

As I was saying earlier…I want a bar; a place where I can sit down (in an elevated manner) and relax (one butt cheek at a time on a narrow cushion). There’s your set up…and here comes the conflict; Dolores doesn’t want one. Sounds like we’re in need of a good old fashion tie-breaking vote…that’s where you come in.

Let us first look at the facts. Fact, we like to eat. Fact, we like to watch television. Fact, we like doing the previous two items simultaneously. Myth, we like staining our sofas by eating and spilling all over them. Myth, this bar will be obtrusive. Fact, it totally will not. Myth, how do you know? Fact, because it can fold down dumb head. Myth, you’re sleeping on the couch tonight. Fact, whatever.

A Dark Horse in the Competition

Chris made a special trip out to Retro Office Inc. yesterday (his Sunday the calendar's Monday) hoping to nab one of their AWESOME flat-file-cabinets converted coffee table and take advantage of their 50% off everything sale (Monday was the last day of their promotion). We had planned to both jaunt over on Sunday BUT as luck would have it, they were closed.

We were a little apprehensive about the company after finding several poor reviews online written by unsatisfied customers. Most of the bad mouthing pertained to returns and unexpected minor dinks and dents on the merchandise. To our advantage, we are only a city away from the warehouse, therefore any potential returns would be as easy as pie. Also, it made sense to us that some of the items would have dents since these are not brand spanking new products. We definitely were in a good position.

Family Room Part II: A new 'vizio'n

Back to the current project; so we've decided to transition our family room into the actual family room (rather than the living/dining room). One of the most important areas of the room is the wall on which the 42" Vizio will reside. It took many drawings just to determine a basic layout for the room (we tried the TV on literally every single wall); and now that that is, thankfully, done...we have to figure out how the actual wall will be arranged. So, we have 149" of wall space to play with. I would love to use our current TV stand (a stained reddish wood 50's dresser that belonged to Chris' Grandparents), but I fear that it will look diminutive on that wall. Now, our search for a low and long media/entertainment unit/credenza thing officially begins. (NOTE: Chris claims this is the perfect time to get a new, and possibly bigger, TV...hence the title)

Wall of Sound

As I had previously mentioned, in another post, pattern-paint seems to have become a reoccurring and inexpensive design element of our home. Our first foray into the field was a smaller wall at the end of our hallway. We choose this wall for three reasons; time, space…and exit strategy…in the likely case that we had failed miserably, the white-out process would have been a snap!  Another reason why paint is your friend. ^_^

Now I must admit, the initial idea to paint a pattern on our wall did not come to me in some stroke of genius at 2am, or anything of that nature. The idea, or inspiration I guess, actually came from the "House Challenge" episode on season two of Top Design, in which Preston Lee used a gorgeous diamond patterned, textured wallpaper. (Speaking of Top Design, how awesome was Wisit?!)

As soon as we saw the wallpaper, Chris declared, "I can paint that behind the guitars!" Flash forward a couple weeks, the guinea pig wall was chosen, paint colors were selected…and all that was left to do was figure out where the hell to start. 

Family Room Part I: The Shape of Things to Come

It has been 15 months since we purchased our lovely home… and a few rooms have already been under the knife (errr…hammer…I guess? Paint? I don’t know. Anyway). Next on our “to-do” list is our ‘family room’. 

                                                                **Current Condition**

Now, this room was not part of the original house. It was constructed years before we moved in…in fact; I think it was constructed years before we were even born. The room is semi-oddly shaped, houses two windows (including our largest and most expensive window) and a standard ‘off center’ door (that is, sadly, a little too centered) which leads to the backyard. Oh, the backyard…now that’s another blog entry in and of itself. Hideous.