hoboken

Saturday we took a stroll around Hoboken. This time I finally had my camera with me to take a picture of the Clam Broth House sign. Have always had an affinity for old signage.

Clam Broth House

The Clam Broth House (1899–2004), was a landmark building which was condemned by city officials because of structural failures caused by construction workers, and destroyed in 2004.

The Clam Broth House attracted more attention than usual, because of the giant hand-shaped signs. There were two giant hand-shaped signs, one hanging on the outside of the Clam Broth House that pointed downward towards the entrance, and one on a neighboring building (which is the only sign still there today). In addition, there was a third, smaller hand-shaped sign. The Clam Broth House opened in 1899.

There were cracks and bulges in the building's facade prior to the building's destruction, and the facade also buckled in May 2003, causing it to be shut down.

The Clam Broth House reopened in 2010.

source: wikipedia

front door plans derailed

Today I wanted to present you our new and improved front area but our plans to paint the front door got derailed...Once I unscrewed the kick plate I realized that there is way too much rust underneath and we better get a new door.

This is how our front door is looking right now...I already caulked around the windows, took down the old numbers and stuck them to the mailbox with tape on Friday. The only thing I did to the front is switch the light fixture. Before mounting the fixture it got a couple of coats of black spray paint because we didn't like the white faux antiqued finish.

We were still very busy all weekend though. Will show you more soon...

spargel - white asparagus

After working on the house on Saturday and Sunday we were in the mood for some German food. Because I knew that Zum Schneider in New York's East Village is serving white asparagus right now we had to go. It is so yummy!

White asparagus is typically served with boiled potatoes, smoked ham and butter sauce, or sauce hollandaise. Also love it as a creamy soup. Sometimes I find it at supermarkets in NY/NJ as well. This year the white asparagus I found was very thin. The thinner it is, the harder it is to peel, by the end you are left with virtually nothing and unlike green asparagus it needs to be peeled.

There is even asparagus season in Germany (April-June). All Germans know this as "Spargel-Zeit" (translates "asparagus time"). You can read more about it here (scroll down a little bit) and the article also explains why it makes your pee smell funky...

memorial weekend to-do list

Like most holiday weekends since buying our house, the upcoming memorial day weekend will be used to start/finish a project. This weekend we want to fix up the front door, paint and hang the bedroom door and get the house ready for the arrival of P's parents next week.

We already got the house numbers a while back at the DWR Outlet in Secaucus. The mailbox we found on sale on www.dwr.com (they don't have them on their website anymore, that's why I linked to the manufacturer's site). In order to be able to complete the project this weekend we also bought a stainless steel kick plate and hinges at Home Depot, a lamp at a local re-store and two cans of exterior paint.

I'm not divulging the paint colors yet but you are more than welcome to take a guess ;)

feeling peachy

The peach colored hallway is no more. I painted it last weekend. Now the hallway feels more like a part of the house. The color is Horizon (OC-53) by Benjamin Moore. You can see that the dining room on the right is slightly darker, it is painted Stonington Gray (HC-170) as is the living room to the left. We chose a lighter gray for the hallway because it doesn't get much light, as you can see in the pictures.

Finishing the hallway means that all the downstairs rooms are painted and are just waiting for the finishing touches. Yay!...Ok, the powder room isn't painted yet but I only use it to clean my rollers and brushes and don't really use it for anything else right now.

Also I discovered that the paint on one side of the vestibule door is coming of in big flakes when you gently peel it away, so much easier than stripping.

post icff party

Last Wednesday I attended an art opening at atelier showroom in the New York Design Building hosted by surface magazine to show some support for my friend Benjamin Boland. Check out some of his work and more on his website...

atomkraft? nein danke!

On my way to the train I always pass this house which has an Atomkraft? Nein Danke flag in its backyard. It is kind of odd to see this flag in a backyard in New Jersey since I've only known them from Germany. It reads Nuclear Power? No thanks. Guess that means there are other Germans living in the area...

It reminded me of my childhood, more so the mid eighties after Chernobyl. There were a lot of demonstrations against the dependency on nuclear power after that.

Makes me want to get my power through a provider that supplies energy generated from renewable energy sources. After consulting Google for only a couple of minutes I found this, have to really do more research on that subject...

Just wanted to share my flag sighting ;)