new front door

The new front door is finished!

Originally I just wanted to paint the front door but my plans got derailed when we found out that the door had pretty much rusted away underneath the kickplate. The new door was put in a while back already (sadly I forgot to take pictures of that) and I started painting it last weekend. The color is Rumba Orange (2014-10) by Benjamin Moore. I left the window frames white at first but we didn't like it, so I painted them over the course of the week as well .

The first picture is a little reminder of how it looked before. What a difference!

new (old) dresser

I discovered this dresser on craigslist last week. P picked it up after work one night and it is sitting in our basement right now. The paint was already pretty beat up so I decided to strip one corner to be able to see if there would be some nice wood under the coat of paint. It was and because the paint was coming off so easily I started stripping the whole dresser. I am nowhere near finished but it's a good start.

The rest of the weekend was really productive and we got a lot of things done:

*painted the front door (not quite finished - will update soon)
*put up our new house numbers
*hung the new mailbox
*checked out our local Goodwill and Salvation Army stores for a desk, sadly didn't find anything
*prepped all door frames, baseboards and window frames in the upper hallway for paint

chair progress

Another chair update - I have finally gotten around to sanding the backrest/armrest piece after gluing the cracks back together as good as possible. All the cracks have been filled with stainable wood filler wherever needed that I mixed with wood dust from sanding the piece. On the pictures I circled the most obvious crack. Still need to sand it once more with fine grit sandpaper and it will be ready to get the finishing touches.

The natural wood looks so good I haven't made the decision if I should stain or just oil the wood. Wood stains on hand are Minwax Dark Walnut and Jacobean. Maybe I should try to achieve a similar look to my Eames DCM dining chair?

Once I finished the backrest I can start looking for a nice fabric to match...

walls

Yup, after living in our house a little over a year the first pictures are now hanging on the walls. Three in the dining room and one in the living room. Two of them are concert posters (OMD and Foo Fighters). Does that mean I'm stuck in my teenage decorating years? ;)

saturday

Just a chill Saturday at the waterfront in Chelsea...

happy 4th

Hope you all had a great long 4th of July weekend!

We watched the Macy's Fireworks last night from a park a couple of blocks away from where we live that is overlooking the Hudson.

Of course we tackled another project this weekend - we painted our upstairs hallway. Finally no more peach colored walls in our house! We used the same color as in the downstairs hallway, Horizon (OC-53) by Benjamin Moore.

Now we have to do something about the door situation. Most of the doors on the 2nd floor are cheap & crappy. One already is gone for good. Notice the classy sheet solution on the right opening. We got rid of that door pretty much right after we bought the place, it was so bad. But my parents stayed in that room when they helped us work on the house and move, so we gave them the sheet for privacy. And more than a year later it is still here...

Next step is painting all the door/window frames and the baseboards. And of course find new doors...

stalking architecture

Our Sunday in LA we spent driving around stalking some cool houses and snacking our way through the city. It started with breakfast at Angelique Café in Downtown, followed by a walking tour around the area. Next stop was Phillipe's Home of the French Dip Sandwich for an early lunch. It was good but a little too meaty for me. First stop on our little architectural tour was the VDL Research House by Richard Neutra, which you can actually tour on Saturdays. Just check out the link! Hopefully next time I will be able to take the tour. Our second stop was the Lovell House, also by Richard Neutra. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures. Looking at houses got us hungry so we stopped by Berlin Currywurst for some fritten (french fries) and currywurst. Yummy!

After looking at two of Richard Neutra's houses our next stop was the Ennis House by Frank Lloyd Wright. I should have taken better pictures, it looks like a Mayan temple in the hills of Los Feliz. If you want to take a tour of one of his buildings in LA check out the Hollyhock House or the Anderton Court Shops on ritzy Rodeo Drive.

Out last stop of the day was the Stahl House (Case Study House #22) by Pierre Koenig. Because I booked us an evening viewing tour we were actually able to go inside. It's such a great house I could have moved right in. The view is stunning as well...

After our viewing tour ended we were hungry again and stopped for some tacos at Pinches Tacos right at the bottom of the hill. Food and architecture - what a great day!