We spent the weekend in PA visiting Michael's family. We had rented a van so that we could pick up a chifferobe he had in storage for WAY to many years.
Much to my surprise Carole had something special for us. Seems she had inherited a Danish modern lamp from her mother. They passed it along to us as a gift.
As I know they are our most loyal blog readers just a quick note to say thanks. You were right, it found the right home.
Unexpectedly, we found a deal we couldn't pass up. Visiting friends in Hobart New York a few years back, we became infatuated with a recliner. I'm not sure which came first our decision to go mid century Danish or seeing that chair. We never found one in the right condition until we were pretty "funitured-up".
Walking home the other day we saw a woman selling one in the local flee market. It was in mint condition. The woman thought it was "some sort of cheap lazy boy". I've been looking at them on ebay and knew that for the price she was asking we could at least resell it for a profit.
...that was until I sat in it. It is the most c o m f o r t a b l e chair ever!
We sealed the brick today. Oddly enough, motivation came by way of lighting. Plug modeling was installed ages ago with three outlets per "bay", but for the longest time we've only had a single halogen flood on each side. Something about finishing the drywall the comes up out of the stairwell prompted Toby to plug both lights in on one side and the difference was (to use a cliche) like a light coming on. And now the halogen high-hats that are in the soffit on opposite wall don't seem to off-balance the room. It's almost like we knew what we were doing all along.
But it's not like the additional light suddenly made us realize what a dingy mess the cobbed brick wall has been. Truth is we've done just about all the kitchen work we can until plumber does his thing, so we're sort of casting about for small projects and tying up lose ends. Before sealing the brick, we needed to fill a few spots where the old mortar had fallen out and crumbled to dust on our floor ever since we exposed the brick work. Read on a home reno site about someone using a cake decorating bag to grout a faux brick wall in order to minimize the amount of mortar that winds up on brick faces, which seemed like a pretty good solution for all the little cracks I wanted to fill. Then at HomeDepot we found an all-in-one bag of mortar; just add water, squish it around, tear it open and apply with included plastic trowel. We mixed it a little thinner than suggested, snipped a corner of the bag, and started squeezing.
Next day, it was ready to seal. We've been waffling over whether to seal the brick at all because we've both seen too many glossy brick walls and wanted to preserve as raw an appearance as possible while still minimizing the slow, dusty decay. Also trying to cut down on our consumption of VOC's. Once again, a pursual of the internet provided solution: diluted Elmer's glue! (What's less toxic than that?) Thanks to pressurized spray pump (another bright internet idea) application was remarkably easy.
Don't know how well the difference makes itself known in these pictures, but from where I'm sitting (about three feet away) it looks almost clean enough to eat off of.
We got the cushions back for the three piece couch sectional. The foam is not quite as dense as it needs to be to drape over the springs. Other than that they look pretty good...
On Monday night I built a dust barrier to FINALLY finish taking the remaining plaster off of the brick walls on either side of the fire place. I covered the floor with construction paper over cheap compressed board (the stuff that peg board is made out of without the holes). Next I hung 1mm plastic and taped it all around. I loaded in the tools and had Michael seal me in like the bubble boy.
About and hour later I emerged and removed the dust barrier. it was like I was never there. Not exactly sure why but for some reason I really get a kick out of controlled demo. The wall looks great. I'm still sitting on the fence about trying to seal the brick and mortar. I've never seen that work and look good at the same time.
Speaking of demo. We have a debris container that will be delivered on Thursday night. The old roof off the kitchen, the back off of the first floor rear (looks to be an easy 4 or 5 layers), the rear awing, the interior walls of the kitchen (ceiling already gone), will all be demoed, carted and hauled away by Monday. It's a pretty tall order. Any loyal readers wanting to stop by and work through their aggressions on Saturday are more than encouraged.
It seems on this blog we spend the bulk of time discussing elements of traditional construction; electrical, plumbing, carpentry, demolition, etc., etc.
In a break from that routine (and to finally have something to post about) I wanted to talk a little bit about home entertainment and the convergence of devices.
As many of you know we got rid of our TV when we moved into the the house. We thought it would keep us focused on the task at hand.
The thinking had always been when we got the house to a clean enough place we would begin to create a custom system that suited our needs. First, we weren't getting a new TV. We've pretty much become a netflix and iTunes household. We watch movies and we watch TV. It's just a different model.
To do this we wanted as few components as possible. We ended up with the new dual core Mac mini and a 24" flat panel dell monitor (cause just about any device will plug into it). I have to say quite the killer combo. So much so I think my friend Jeff now has exactly the same set-up.
Now, you might have noticed that I've only mentioned two of the five things pictured at left. The other three are the tag alongs that were needed to make it all work. First up the RCA cable modem provided by Time Warner, next a Linksys wireless router. We had been sucking connectivity off of our neighbor since we moved in. We couldn't keep stability with the apple airport we had, but for some reason Tracy's network was always rock solid.
We had never stopped paying Time Warner. I had read one of the Ethicist articles in the Times that completely legitimized bandwidth theft as long as you were paying in somewhere.
With the new system I was bound and determined to get my own network running. We got rid of the old cable router with a service call from TW. I hooked up the linksys and with the help of Jeff it was up and running perfectly....for about a day. Then it went dead. The tech guys at work claimed it was because i was not running the mac IP spoofing necessary to make it not drop my IP. Thing was, I couldn't use it with my PC either.
I was getting frustrated. We had gone out and essentially got all new hardware to be back in the same place we had been-- Paying for a service we got for free from our neighbor. When Jeff returned from Europe he came over determined to help us out once and for all. He got it all set up and running in moments. Rejoicing was had. We went out to dinner and came back a short bit later, the line was dead. Doh!
That's when we come to our friend in the last panel. The power conditioner. We had been noticing since we installed the ceiling fan on the third floor that whenever you change the speed an audible pop would come out of the speakers attached to the computer. This couldn't be a good thing. Somewhere we have a ground problem. We went down to Office Max and got two APC power supplies, one for downstairs where the router and modem are and one for upstairs for the computer and stereo. We ran the cable through the conditioner as well as the electrical for all the devices.
Results: it works. Signal remains stable to the computer and the popping no longer happens when you change speeds on the fan. With regard to the grounding problem I realize this is some what like taking a pain killer rather than addressing the cause of the pain BUT, it worked. All of the frustration and all of the seemingly in-congruent advice I got for setting up my network came down to this; a cleaner signal.
For one second I want to go back and readdress one thing I thought about when writing this post. We got the new computer and monitor just after returning from vacation in May. Originally we had got rid of the TV to stay focused on the house...just an observation that you may have noticed too, progress is coming at a much slower rate these days. Just a coincidence?
July 1st has been the day we've been talking about since returning home from vacation in early May. The thought was we would use up some materials we had lying around and try to take a break from any new projects. 7/1 became the marker.
For the regular readers you will note that there has been a conspicuous absence of activity. That Danish modern post must be getting a little tired by now. Well...today is the day. Starting off slowly, we finished installing the last bit of bead board on the second floor.
The biggest project headed our way in the next few weeks will be replacing the roof over the kitchen. We're still thinking green roof and I think we're leaning toward constructing it ourselves.
But most of all...we're back baby!
For a couple of weeks we have been pretending that work is done and we've moved into the second floor (oh if only that were true). Most of that notion comes from us picking up a bit more Danish modern furniture off of eBay. This time it was a three piece modular couch set containing to straight pieces with arms on opposite ends and one slightly over 90 degree corner piece.
The construction and line works well with the Z chair and the expanding bench. The cushions are vintage. That means that the fabric has seen better days and the foam is disintegrating from within. I'm told that the type of fabric that traditionally covers most mid century Danish is called wool boucle. I've started searching around for it on line but will more than likely end up trekking over to ABC Carpet see some in person.
For the most part the wood is in great condition. It could use a little TLC but all-in-all not that bad. We got it from a dealer out on Long Island. We had paid for it via pay pal. When we showed up no one was home. The pieces were sitting on their front porch under a tarp. Without hesitation we loaded into the truck and drove off. It did belong to us after all.
Finally, the last "moving in" touch on the second floor, I've begun experimenting with screen. We're considering folding screen to make sculptural blinds for the windows on the first floor. I would like to claim the idea as my own but must give credit to my friend and artist Prudence Gill.She showed me many years ago how wonderful and deeply textured light playing off the aluminum facets can be.
yardage
I had been shopping at places like ABC carpet. Their selection is not nearly what it used to be but their prices remained well... retail. I longed for the days of old musty, saw-dusty smelling fabric dealers on lower Broadway and the lower east side.
It was about the time I realized the American Apparel had replaced my favorite fabric store on Orchard St. that it dawned on me. Manhattan was really no longer that different than the rest of America. A broad array of consumer choices where even the most rarefied material has been homogenized and packaged for easy digestion
What Manhattan represented to me 16 years ago is sort of gone. What's replaced it isn't necessarily bad, it's just different. The fabric dealers I long for did not disappear they just moved deeper into the boroughs. I'm not saying that a Dunkin Donuts on every block is a good option but like it or not, walk down 5th Ave from 23rd to Washington Square-- I challenge you to find a shop owner that's not either 1) struggling to hang on or 2) part of a much larger chain that can be found in malls near you. But I digress...pardon the rant.
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