August 30, 2010

There I Fixed It...

The neighbors are an inventive bunch, aren't they.

Funny you should say so as I should have asked for their help last night when my kitchen cabinet detached from the wall and flung itself lustily at my boyfriend's kneecap. See here for a visual. Horrible. Broke my window, chipped my floor, smashed nearly all of my mugs and glasses - cannily sparing only those without sentimental value - and nearly smushed my main man. Apparently the fucking jackwagon who installed it drilled four holes into masonite - without anchors or supports of any kind or, you know, knowledge of basic carpentry - and let it, you know, just hang there. Like you might a postcard. Or piece of grass. It could have easily killed any one of us. Well maybe not me because I'm lead, but normal people.

So, yeah. It's been a sweet day - two trips to the Depot and it's still not back on the wall. Definitely keeping a "my glass may be broken but it would be half-full if it could be" outlook. Or trying to. The fact that Victor made me the SICKEST table ever while I was gone is helping. I'll post pictures as soon as I'm done picking this ceramic shard out of my heel. Can I sue for this shit? No, I mean seriously.

Posted by Bree at 05:39 PM | Comments (1)

January 21, 2010

Making Dilemmanade

Savvy readers of this blog over the past few weeks may be wondering, "What, my dear girl, did you do with the dresser that you bought he who shall never be named before the break-up?" Well, after several days spent staring at the hollow husk of my romantic life - or, you know, a semi-beat up wooden block - that now sits at the foot of my bed, I decided - shit! New dresser! Bringing my grand total to three (and, um, three closets). All of my sweaters, sports bras and tights now have an organized home. Hells bells - I've even got a drawer for tank tops! And cardigans! And nipple clamps!

Fuck yes, I'll take it. Even though my therapist surmised I probably felt like stabbing the dresser, I don't. My knives are too nice for that kind of malarkey.

Posted by Bree at 09:57 AM | Comments (1)

January 03, 2010

Moving Moose

I'm taking the Moose's imminent move-in as an opportunity to rid myself of lots of detritus (read: crap) that has accumulated during the last few years in this joint. One of the things I like best about switching houses/apartments/cities is that it's an awesome reason to purge items like "Stripper Mary Janes," books you hated so much you wouldn't even loan out and bank statements from the late 90s. The mortgage thing, though, has a bit of permanence attached to it. Hence me hanging on to all of the above plus various craft project items, ill-advised apparel and outdated Metamucil packets.

Mat's arrival, howevs, necessitates some moving around, some redesigning and some flexibility in terms of what I really need to keep and, of course, what I really need to control. Oy VARGAS. But my new attitude of throw-outitude would hardly feel right (read: possible) without some (smart) purchasing to fill the void. Hence the dresser we bought yesterday for Mat at a very cool and well-priced antiques place across from the Oriental Theater:

And the pot rack we got for Christmas from my folks. Thanks, my folks!

And the light fixture I'm ordering from Rejuvenation to replace the P.o.S., 9-watt one I installed in the bedroom upon my arrival. You know, the one you can't change the bulb on? Yeah, that one.

And the Las Vegas, Nevada print I'm ordering from 20 x 200 for the hallway:

(UPDATE: The size I want is too spendy. Alack.)

And the ticking stripe box spring cover for the bedroom. (Use code G9KMENT for $10 off $50, $25 off $150 or $50 off $300.)

Forthwith and in summation, a quote that is in marked contrast to my decorating style:

“Diane Keaton was living in a stark white apartment, in an Art Deco building on East Sixty-eighth Street. It boasted a white-on-white living room, which contained a white-on-white painting. The kitchen was also white: not only its walls and floors and Braun and Osterizer appliances, its crisp white telephone and white watering can, but even the Keri lotion was in a white container perched on a white shelf. “White is very cleansing for me,” she explained. Except for her two cats, Buster and Whitey, she lived alone.”

- The Unruly Life of Woody Allen, by Marion Meade

Posted by Bree at 04:05 PM | Comments (1)

July 12, 2009

Chaiiiiry, Chairy Baby

If I wasn't busy scraping nickels together to make the fire over which to heat gruel, I'd be all up in these. $395 a piece.

Posted by Bree at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2009

Captain Curtains

Part of the excitement/trauma of turning my bathroom into a b&w paradise is figuring out what color shower curtain to get. After much (two-three minutes) thought, I realized that neither a black and white NOR a colored curtain would do. The former? Too stark. The latter? Too clashy. Indeed, I need fabric that incorporates all of those elements. The Black. The White. The Color. And naturally, what I need is not found in your traditional "stores" or "marketplace."

So, of course, choosing the path less taken has led me to figure I should buy some fabric and make the durned thing myself.

And by "myself," I mean bring the fabric to Angela with a plaintive look on my face and a couple of pints of Sweet Action in my arms. Don't be fooled by the picture above. My prowess is still somewhere in the drunken orangutan zone. But you know what they say, lock a drunken orangutan in a room with 100 typewriters and he'll eventually sew couture.

Hi Angela.

Here's a thought.

Posted by Bree at 10:54 AM | Comments (1)

June 10, 2009

A-Shaking re: Bathroom

The details have been decided. The contractor has been hired. The wallpaper installer has been hired. The tile has been bought. The wallpaper has been bought. The sink, the faucet and the showerhead have been bought. The date has been set to coincide with our trip east next month. The excitement is mounting. The idea of writing a blog post in this style has proved not to be a good one.

Posted by Bree at 08:37 AM | Comments (0)

May 21, 2009

America's Next Top Superemodel

As you can clearly tell from the fine (reversed) drawings above, I'm about to embark on a bit of a bathroom remodel project. And by "about to" I mean, "when Rick comes home and I pee in his house at will." The end result - whenever it goes down - will be an amalgam of the following:

Chloe Sevigny's bathroom

and

Jenny's bathroom

and

This.

The sink will be the one above (which is an American Standard), the subway and bullnose tile will be white, the trim will be black and the floor will be a black and white marble similar to (or exactly) the following:

The wallpaper will be likely be this black and white floral pattern from Walnut Wallpaper:

.

I'm not moving around any plumbing, and am keeping the toilet and tub, so hopefully it won't cost an arm and a leg...or really any part, come to think of it. Plus, like a good Briggles, I've been slowly stockpiling pieces when they go on sale (like the sink, faucet and this 24" x 36" mirror from Restoration Hardware). The only major expense I can foresee is smooth-coating the ceiling and walls, but since it's only one of two rooms in the house I haven't smooth-coated yet (the kitchen being the other) - it's a must.

Because I have eyes, I realize this is a lot of black and white - but I think I'll get a kelly green shower curtain or something equally POW! to break it up. I'm also thinking of trying to work another color into the wallpaper - I mean, not me personally - but rather of finding a black and white and [INSERT COLOR] paper rather than the one above. What did David Bowie sing, "Ch ch ch choices?" How apropos, thin white duke. How apropos.

PS I'm also thinking of this paper which really only adds gray to the mix, but still.

Posted by Bree at 08:26 PM | Comments (4)

May 05, 2009

Weed Head

I don't know what the hell's going on over here, but all of a sudden...brace yourselves...I LOVE GARDENING. Say whhuuuuu? My entire life, I have completely shirked the dirt-encrusted hands, the sweaty foreheads, the buggy, sluggy nightmares - fuck, the whole caring and nurturing and growing and tending process that my mom and Nana tried for YEARRRRS to instill in me. I was raised with FORMAL GARDENS, for God's sakes. We had a greenhouse on our property and, probably - literally - 15? 20? 25? different beds. Rock gardens and vegetable gardens and side gardens and front gardens and back gardens and planters and window-boxes and blueberry bushes and raspberry bushes and and and and NO GARDENERS besides the women in my family. Minus, erm, one very important exception. Until recently, I pretty much couldn't think of an activity I loathed more. Well...except for jump-rope.

But, bicches, times is changed. I don't know if it was my massive garden rip-out project of last summer (the dirt patch I created during those glorious months has, by the way, been sprinklered and will be seeded and aerated this WEEK!) or my relative success with a vegetable garden (relative success = zucchini for breakfast, lunch and brunch) or hiring someone to mow down my front meadow (making its 29,000 perennial bulbs WAY more manageable) or WHUT, but man. I just went to take out the trash and realized that I wanted to weed in my backyard. Key word: "wanted." So I did. And it made me happy and content and pleased. And yeah, I've got dirt under my nails now and on the knees of my pants and on my shoes, but all I want is for the sun to stop going down so I can do some more. Please don't tell my mother.

Posted by Bree at 07:33 PM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2009

Green Thumb in Morning, Friends and Associates Take Warning

I've got some big plans for this weekend.

Big. Boring. Plans.

Yessirree, I'm going to strap on my lawn-mowing shoes (I've already decided that the lavender and black vans will be the ones to make the sacrifice) and finally learn how to mow this .0004/tenths of an acre I've got. Which means I first have to strap on my poo-gloves and dispose of roughly 4 hectograms of Deuce deuce. THEN, after all the fecal manipulation and grass trimming is through, I'm going to weed each of my beds...and no, I don't mean my connubial beds. I mean my FLOWER beds. AND THEN, after all the weeding is through, and I'm high on sanctimony and sunblock fumes, I'm going to TILL MY VEGETABLE GARDEN. <- That remains to be seen. I have to figure out some way to remove the mulch and all the old roots/plants (including 80 or so unclaimed and malformed carrots). I also have to figure out some way to get a team of oxen into the Audi.

And then, holy crap, I'm going to hire a grounds crew and leave the country and NEVER LOOK BACK. Adios, suckers! But FIRST, I'm going to plant some PLANTERS for my front steps. And figure out if one of the Euonmys bushes from last fall has really "shit the bed," so to speak, and gone on to that great compost heap in the sky. (Unlike his greenish brethren, Little Scrawny Brown [as I like to call him] has seemingly not recovered from this winter. I know the feeling, Little Scrawny Brown, but it's time to shave our legs, exercise our glutes and GET BIKINI READY. Or at least start trying to fit in a little better with the neighbors. And stop eating so much peanut butter. Seriously.)

Oh and right, if anyone wants to come over and hit me in the face with a shovel or choke me with gardening twine or something to end this seizure of domesticity, feel free. I'll be the tall, sweaty brunette. You be the person bearing cheeseburgers and diet cokes.

Posted by Bree at 08:14 PM | Comments (2)

March 17, 2009

Blik Chick

Although I'm pretty satisfied with how my house looks at the moment, there are still some definite areas for improvement. One being the all-gray guestroom, which could totally benefit from some pattern or, you know, something non-gray. The other is the stairwell, which looks totally fine and pretty but would've been so super kickass if I hadn't ordered the wrong (AAAAAAHHHH) wallpaper last year. I'm still wearing my hairshirt over that debacle. It needs to be drycleaned soon.

AnywayZZZ, I've been interested in all the cool new designs Blik has been introducing recently. From collaborations with SCAD grads to repurposed Eames drawings to Threadless graphics, they've been rallying. In terms of the stairwell, this one (in snow and silver) is kind of leading the pack right now:

And yes, I know, wall graphics are played out and plebian pedestrian. But so is Beyoncé. And I don't hear Hova complaining.

Posted by Bree at 11:40 AM | Comments (1)

February 25, 2009

H2OH NO

Rick says I post less when I'm happy. Perhaps, perhaps. I also post less when my laundry machine decides to go berserk and flood my basement.

Ain't she lovely?

Ah yes. Latish-night tragedy was averted by a vaguely hysterical phone call to Matt (I was vaguely hysterical; he was introspective and calm) in which he told me what to do (manhandle my carpets outside, vacuum up the water, take a Xanax, submit to Annoyance Allowance, you know - typical). So I strapped on my snorkel and went to work.

It's still a sodden mess down there (my dirty laundry water -mmm- went into both rooms -mmm-) but the carpets are pulled up and everything's drying. Besides, I got to reaquaint myself with some old friends (well helllllooo extra roll of wallpaper and endless amounts of shelf brackets), curse some borrowed ones (Rick, don't worry, the endless amounts of heavy weights you gave me are FINE. Same goes for those mirrors, Liz. A-OK.) and throw out random jetsam (word up useless pane of glass/old cardboard box/feathers from Walter's many bird-kills).

All in all a wonderful Tuesday night. During which I shrugged re: death by electrocution as I plugged 1970s appliances into outlets while standing in giant puddles. Also railed against the heavens more than once re: my decision to leave New York City and take on things like...water. And houses. What the fuck was I thinking?

Namaste.

Posted by Bree at 09:33 AM | Comments (3)

January 19, 2009

Laying Some Pipe

Industrial Wipe, $35 at Wire & Twine

Posted by Bree at 08:46 PM | Comments (1)

October 28, 2008

See? I Told You I Toiled!

Forthwith, pictures of my cleaned out side and back yard. Baby's all sorts of ready for a sod situation come April...

(I have since picked up these branches, glovelessly, because both Steven Tyler and I are living on the edge.)

And here's one of THE DEUCE examining the pile of thorny rose bush detritus I have yet to dispose of:

And here's one of the warm-up coat (cocaine flakes and all) I wore all day yesterday and all day today:

Posted by Bree at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)

October 27, 2008

And on Monday, We Rested

This weekend was equal parts exhausting and exhilarating, mixed in a blender and served neat. Matt and I, along with every single other homeowner in the country, spent the waning days of fall busting our humps to get the yard and house ready for the snow. On Saturday, I hauled eight bags of the remaining mulch and landscaping fabric out of my side garden, dusted my hands off and declared the project DONE. As it's too late to lay sod now, it'll have to spend the winter as a mud pit but as soon as April rolls around, my back yard will be DOUBLED in size. Seeing this project through all by my lonesome - and over several months - also has caused the cubic footage of my ego to double in size. So that's nice.

Saturday night, I bitched and moaned and moaned and bitched about how torn to shit my hands were from the process and Matt repeatedly admonished me about my failure to wear gloves. He also dug a splinter out of my palm and advised putting a band-aid on a raw and gaping blister. (My self-care abilities rival that of a seven-year-old's.) So, when Sunday dawned bright and early and I hopped over to some wild rose bushes to cut them down and dig them out, one would think I heeded his advice and threw on some gardening gloves. And one would be wrong. I didn't. I'm a quick study. And now I now have half of one hand and about a third of the other still in working order. The remaining parts are on bedrest.

BUT, while my hands were still functioning, I shimmied up on my roof and helped clean out the gutters, trimmed my butterfly bush, weeded and dug out my vegetable garden, pulled up some alien-looking carrots and shoveled two of the three gigantic and terrifying rose bushes out of my yard. Matt rinsed out my front gutters and, in a feat of strength and bravery previously unmatched, singlehandedly moved my 300-lb. swamp cooler out of my second-floor window and perched it on the side of the house.

To cap off the weekend of fun and flesh wounds, we went to an [UNNAMED SPORTING GOODS STORE] that Matt's cousin manages to pick out my 2007 Christmas/birthday gift of a winter parka. Naturally, I had been putting this off because a. parkas never fit me and b. the whole trying on process makes me hot, bothered and flustered. But, after another winter spent in hypothermic convulsions, the time was nigh. With the help of a nice lady there, I tried on coat after coat that was too short in the arms (womens) or too bulky in the midsection (mens). Finally, my eyes alighted on a beautiful red and black piece of outerwear from Descente, and success was ours for the taking. Silly me, I failed to look at the price tag, thinking it would be in the $200 - $300 range like all the others. Right. It t'weren't. Not to get into specifics, but it most definitely t'weren't. It was a few hundred bucks MORE than my UNLIMITED, FIVE-MOUNTAIN ski pass and, I think, the most expensive coat in the whole store. BUT, Matt's cousin didn't seem to consider it a problem (Matt has done a bunch of work on his house in the past and this was a trade kind of situation) and Matt didn't seem to consider it a problem (he repeatedly reminded me that he now was off the gift hook until 2011) and so! Who am I to make a fuss!?

Hopefully, I'll get my paws on the coat within the next week or so and can show off it's fancy stylings in a photograph. As for now, I have to go soak my mitts in paraffin and try to cellularly reconstruct the pieces I managed to slough off. I also have to figure out just what to bribe my garbagemen with so they take away the 200 lbs. of yard trash I collected over the weekend. I'm thinking ice beer and banana bread but am open to suggestions.

Posted by Bree at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2008

Cheap and Good

I bought the above poster at Good Shape Design the other day for a mere $30. It's perfect (parfait!) - all black, graphic-y goodness - to hang over the crazy wallpaper in my library. So far, the only things I have on the walls in there are the Jason Miller mirror and a small little piece made out of book pages that no one will ever notice.

The only problem with me buying all these posters and so on is that it necessitates trips to Michaels for cheap, junky frames, which I put off and put off because I find the process so tedious and frustrating. Especially when you've got something, (like my Royal Tennenbaums prints), that measures 8 1/2 x 11 but has a white border around it that makes it look SUPREMELYSILLY in an 8 x 10 frame (which shows the white border only on two sides). In my experience, almost all of the prints I covet on Etsy are like that. It's annnnoying because I must smother the smugness of getting a cool piece at a bargain basement price with some exorbitant frame bullshit I can't afford or go the cheap route and be pissed and disappointed every time I see it.

If I had a genie, I would wish there was some middle ground between $300 custom framing and the $6 plexiglass and wood veneer craptunculars. And then I would wish for dental insurance. My third wish would be for french toast.

Posted by Bree at 08:45 AM | Comments (3)

September 09, 2008

Patent Trending

Pantone just released its spring 2009 fashion color report. It kind of concerns me because, allowing for slight differences in hue, my dining room is palace blue, my bedroom is fuschia red, my office is lavender, my kitchen is vibrant green and my guest room is slate gray. And, though it's more of a stretch, I should get some points for the yellow living room as well. That means I'm five and a half out of nine. Which means I'm 61.11111(bar)-percent trendy. Which means nearly 2/3's of my choices will look dated and irritating just about the time I'm ready to sell this place.

grumble, grumble.

Sad but true: regardless of trends, I'm going to have to puke beige all over this place to ever make it palatable to another.

Posted by Bree at 07:25 PM | Comments (0)

September 01, 2008

The Bushes

My front yard has two garden plots on either side of the porch steps. When I moved in, these were covered with pretty, unobtrusive ground cover. Yet, my need to tackle projects beyond my skill/know-how being what it is, I soon (1 1/2 years after moving in) added the ground cover removal/new bush addition task to the ever-expanding list of things to do. I hired a nice young person to dig out the beds at the beginning of the summer and then...put off all subsequent process until just yesterday. Yes, me and my neighbors have been enjoying the sight of ground up dirt in my front yard for all of this jubilant season. Oh the accolades my little cemetery received! I would post all the kind notes and e-mails regarding this ever ecologically-minded return to the earth, but alas - whose bandwidth could take it? Not mine, sir. Not mine.

Despite the positive feedback and calls to spread my "back to basics" gardening aesthetic nationwide, I dragged (or, as they say here in Colorado, "drug") my kind and patient manlover to Paulino Gardens on Saturday. Granted, I thought it was on Broadway and Louisiana (it's not, it's on Broadway and 58th), but after a little trial by tire, we made it there to discover a 40-percent (you heard me Chicago Manual of Style, that's 40 HYPHEN PERCENT) off sale on shrubs and trees! Oh blessed be! After much fretting, sunstroke and extremity scratches from a misguided struggle with barberry bushes, as well as a conversation with Matt wherein he gently reminded me that half of this project was in shade and half in sun, I finally found a woman driving around on a golf cart (true) who told me that Manhattan Euonymus was the plant for me.

Good in all conditions, pretty, basic and not evergreen. I bought six. Plus six bags of mulch. And a cherry tree for Matt, which he promptly named Fred. $230 on the Amex was easily digested with a cheeseburger and large diet cola at Good Times on Colfax immediately following.

In the midst of what will forever be known as "world's fastest housing of a burger," (I was done before 17th street, WORD), we brought the plants to my house, where I swore and sweated and railed against the dual travesties of hard work and dirt before getting two into the ground (below, and note persnickity ground cover, which is probably akin to the cockroach in nuclear annihilation survival skills).

After being forced into a Silkwood shower (clarification: I was forced into a Silkwood shower by my own stench), we continued our day of flora frivolity by bringing Fred to Musketeer at Buntport. He didn't come inside but, judging from all his ribald tales of swashbuckling in the cherry grove, we like to think he enjoyed it all the same. (Aside: If you don't know what I'm talking about when I talk about Buntport, this is what I'm talking about.)

I left the other four to work on today (above and below), which I did with both aplomb and minor abrasions. Notice also the gigantic zucchini hedgerow to the right, and let me know if you would like any zucchini. For I've taken to eating it at breakfast, for midnight snacks and as a "quick pick me up" during Pilates.

One would think I would move all the trash out of the way before taking my "Ta Da!" pictures, but one would really not be rewarded with that line of thinking.

So now, for the time being, I am resting on my laurels and your laurels both. I will sit here and drink a diet coke plus vitamins with the satisfaction of a job that if not well done is at least, well, done. Photographic evidence to the contrary, I would also like to enjoy this time imagining my bushes are perfectly spaced.

Posted by Bree at 12:23 PM | Comments (3)

August 23, 2008

Hint to Self: Read More Carefully

I just nabbed the clock, above, on ebay for $15 plus $15 shipping. It made me happy because it's the exact clock I stared at for five years at Mt. Greylock Regional High. (Yes, I said five. It was a combo jr. high and high school and, yes, due to my somewhat nomadic tendencies, I went to a different school in the ninth grade. I assume the other school had clocks as well but can't summon them to mind quite the way I can this lovely.)

No bigs, pricewise, but UNFORTCH I read the description wrong. See, where it says this:

Q: Since most clocks in the classrooms are slave clock hardwired into a master clock in the main office. Has this clock been converted to a standalone clock with a standard plug?
A: Hi, No, it has not been converted.

I read as:

Q: Since most clocks in the classrooms are slave clock hardwired into a master clock in the main office. Has this clock been converted to a standalone clock with a standard plug?
A: Hi, YES BRIDICULOUS YOU WEIRDO it has been converted.

(Slave clock?)

And apparently this picture still didn't clue me in to the fact I was buying the shell of a clock:

My first thought, beyond the "UGH!" I mean, was that I could just set the clock to 2:25, which is when the final bell rang, and happily live with it as an objet. A tribute to freedom, if you will. But no. Even with thoughts of a $30 tribute to freedom, I was still unsatisfied. So I researched how to fix it myself and install new hardware and figure I could do that as well, though it will certainly be an onerous task fraught with annoying interludes in Hobby Lobby.

So that's my story. Similar to much of my academic career, I made an oopsie by not paying enough attention. And now I must scramble to fix it on the back-end.

Posted by Bree at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

July 31, 2008

No Product Photographer, I

But look!
I finished my backsplash!

The measuring, painting and mosaic-ing all went off without a hitch but Matt and I found ourselves in a bit of a double-pour epoxy pickle over the weekend. Seems the d-p e didn't want to conform to the mold Matt built. Which, to be precise, involved wax paper, duct tape, 2 x 4's and kebab sticks. So the crazy shit went (somewhat) ALL OVER my back deck (if you can call a concrete slab a "deck") and resulted in a front of the backsplash that looked absolutely perfect (minus the fruit fly I've forever embalmed in hopes of creating my own Jurassic Park type situation)...and sides of the backsplash marred with the aforementioned wax paper and duct tape. Which had become one with each other and then had a menage with the epoxy.

Matt, being the Mike Rowe of my house at least, took my sad little effed-up backsplash to his shop yesterday and RUINED a saw blade trimming off the glass mosaic edges (and all the crap that was stuck to them) on the top and sides. But he got them off, so I painted it to match and stuck it back up there today.

Hopefully at some point, it will actually get attached to the wall, but I'm not making any promises.

Posted by Bree at 01:25 PM | Comments (1)

June 18, 2008

Low-Budge Bathroom Remodel

Now that my house is getting pretty close to completion (minus, of course, the additional bathroom I'm going to install next summer), I'm setting my sights on another. Matt's parents have a cabin outside of Breckenridge and within spitting distance to SOUTH PARK (in lovely Fairplay, for those of you in the Colorado-know) that I've spent quite a few weekends at over the past several months, and that might benefit from a few hours of dedicated work.

Considering the hospitality, generosity and warmth with which his family has treated me in regards to both the cabin and life on a whole, I've decided to repay the favor(s) in the best way I can think of: redoing one of the bathrooms at the cabin. Matt is extraordinarily capable at everything from installing tile to wiring light fixtures to plumbing pipes, so the operation on my end will be more a picking out and buying type of thing rather than actually INSTALLING. Or so I like to tell myself. Matt has already informed me that I'll be "an expert at mudding" (aka installing drywall) by the time this is through. It's that kind of talk that makes me weepy.

Thus far, we've decided to go with beadboard wainscoting, quarter-round and a pre-built tub/shower surround. Next steps are picking out paint colors (aka seeing what leftover paint I have in enough quantities to cover the square footage), tearing down wallpaper, refinishing the walls and ripping out the FRP (fiberglass-reinforced plastic) panels currently covering most of the vertical space. The shower fixture needs to be replaced as well. The floor, toilet and sink are A-OK so we're hoping to get the project done over a very long weekend in August. That's all for now. Pictures to come as we get further along in the process.

Posted by Bree at 01:03 PM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2008

She Was FRAMED

I found two great, low-budge framing options online today.

Bulldog clips, thumbtacks, eye hooks and salvaged wood via Apartment Therapy Chicago

Old wooden hangers (my Mom has about 150 of these if you're interested) via Poppytalk and O at Home. I think these would look frametastic with a selection of August Sander prints.

Posted by Bree at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2008

Junk Metalhead

Amazing. After trying to unload my old stove on the Denver Rescue Mission, Habitat for Humanity and Freecycle with NO takers, I finally dragged it out into my alleyway, literally, four minutes ago. And I can hear someone moving it onto a truck right now.

As you might've guessed from the above, the junk metal trade is alive and well in central Colorado. In fact, Matt's Dad just bought a house with all of the metalwork and pipes and whatever-else-makes-up-a-house-that-could-possibly-be-stolen stripped out, and the furnace abandoned by weakly-biceped thieves in the kitchen. (Consider a rewrite on that last sentence. - ed.)

This all makes me think that Dukie from The Wire (excuse me, Duquan) might find some financial success in the metro Denver area. Just sayin'.

Welcome! I like your pants! Oh lighten up, Michael...

Posted by Bree at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)

May 09, 2008

Megalegga Hi, Mega Hi Dee Ho

I don't know what that title means, but it popped into my head the moment I saw this UNBELIEVABLY GORGE wallpaper on Design*Sponge.

What a fresh, cool take on damask (which even I am tired of seeing). It's going to be shown at ICFF but assume will be available here at some point. Perhaps the point at which I decide to wallpaper my bedroom. Such coincidences have been known to happen.

Posted by Bree at 12:25 PM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2008

Home Remodeling: Idjit Edition

Did I ever tell you about the time I ordered several hundred bucks of the wrong wallpaper? Yep. I did. The right wallpaper...just the wrong color. And it's still not resolved. Because apparently the company is all sortsa small and overwhelmed and so on and so forth. Luckily, I'm working with the super nice folks at Eades Wallpaper to get a resolution so hopefully I will one day be able to enjoy the correct papier.

In other news, FINALLY the Baleri chairs I bought from Unica Home in JUNE have shipped. Naturally, they messed up and shipped them this week (even though I told them I'd be out of the country) so fingers crossed Fed Ex doesn't get all sorts of ornery with my absence and return the package or leave it in limbo on some island with Tom Hanks and Wilson the volleyball.

So that's what's up with that. Oh and yes, I'm also driving around town with 500 pounds of the second type of tile picked out for my kitchen in my trunk. Welcome to my world.

Posted by Bree at 09:49 AM | Comments (2)

April 21, 2008

Torn Like Natalie Imbruglia

I just can't decide if I want this tile for my bathroom or not. So...torn... Will it be too busy? Will it clash with the tiles that are already in there? What color grout will I use? Will I have to get all new towels and bath mats and SO ON because my floor looks like somebody puked up a bowl of skittles on it? Should I get the border? Does the place I'm buying it from even sell the border? And on and on. Which is frustrating because my bathroom has about 2 square feet of floor space, so whatever I choose will be neither expensive nor irreversible (especially considering my boyfriend likes nothing more than tiling various areas in my home). So why the indecision, Briggles?

I may not know the answer to these questions, but I do know this: tile = wicked fucking boring.

Posted by Bree at 09:24 PM | Comments (1)

April 16, 2008

Wash-n-Wear

Ever use a laundry machine that coats your duds in suds even after THREE rinse cycles? Ever have to pull sopping wet clothes out of 2 inches of standing water and wring them out with your hands before throwing them in the dryer? Ever find out the reason why your laundry situation is le suckadoo is because you don't have drainage in your floor, so the water has to move UP a pipe and when the machine turns off, all the stuff still stuck in the pipe flows back DOWN towards the machine? Ever have your boyfriend tell you the way to fix this is to dig a giant hole, stick in a drainage pump of some sort and install a slop sink over it? Ever have your boyfriend's friend come over and spend the day shoveling cement out of your basement to accommodate such an installation?

Just wondering.
No reason.

Posted by Bree at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)

April 14, 2008

The Trial of Tile

It appears that the floor tile I purchased for my kitchen is...lavender. Lavender, people. Lavender. In my defense, Matt thinks it was a particularly purple batch of the stuff as he's used it before to a less LAVENDER effect. LAVENDER. LAVENDER. LAVENDER.

Suffice it, the tiling project has been put on hold until my head gets out of my ass and I start making design decisions less suited to a color-blind sixth grader. More TK.

Posted by Bree at 04:15 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2008

Alas Alack, My Wallet is Slack

I would very much like to buy this rug by West Elm ($549 for 8 x 10) for my study, but am feeling the pains of a recent economical yet still bruising home-based spending spree ("new to me" Jenn Air stainless gas range/convection oven, lawnmower and gas grill off Craig's List + new bathroom sink [the same as Marcus and Jenny's] with a ten-percent off plus free shipping deal at Home Depot + new tile for the kitchen) and must say "neigh." I hope that others among my readers are not quite as monetarily strapped as I at the moment and can still, you know, enjoy the finer things of life. Like steak. And exciting underpants.

Posted by Bree at 04:48 PM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2008

Doing It, Doing It, Doing It Well

Crafty McUnskilled over here spent the weekend getting shit done. Of course, not the stuff I super-need to do (er...finalize colors for my web site, finish writing it, sign and mail my taxes, buy food not of the carbohydrate family and etc.), but stuff all the same. Minus the slight mishap of trying to turn an ornate, circular frame of mine into a bulletin board (after about 1/2 hour of hacking at the board with a box cutter to make it fit, I BROKE the frame during the gorilla glue finale. All went into the trash. Le sigh.), I count the two days as being both economical and productive.

Evidence A: I managed to cut padding and fabric for all four of my outdoor chairs - and successfully cover two of them - before jamming Matt's staple gun.

Before

After

Evidence B: After giving up the hope of being able to use "green" chemical stripper on a dresser I'm refinishing, I went to Ace and requested "the most toxic goo you've got." Came home with Extra Strength stripper - stuff that ATE through my gloves repeatedly (I would know to stop and run inside to wash my hands as soon as the unbearable BURNING began) - and stripped the shit out of two sides of this dresser. It's got about 8 layers of paint on it, no joke, so each side took THREE applications. After my lungs started whistling, I packed it in for the day...but big progress out in the garage!

Drawers

Half-nude

Now if I could just truly internalize the need to wear "scrap" clothing when working in the muck, my life would be nearing completion. Till then, I'm just going to have to be the only lady at Cherry Creek Athletic Club with lime green paint and chemical burns on my yoga pants. It's a good thing.

Posted by Bree at 10:29 AM | Comments (2)

March 06, 2008

Done and Done

Gawly, it feels good to write that. And ladies and gents, I think it's true - I am (almost) done and done with this massive house renovation I've been doing since the day of my move-in, February 24, 2007. Granted, I still need to tackle the bathroom and replace the linoleum in the kitchen and back entranceway and sort out an unfortunate wallpaper experience I've been having (erm...ordered the wrong color!), but the majority is done. And as Posh would say, it's mayjuh.

So. A round-up:

Donezo:
Skim-coated nearly all vertical surfaces in the house
Fixed wood floor in living room, added wood floor in downstairs study
Added new light fixtures in every room
Painted every room including the kitchen twice (Thanks, Rick, Marie, Nate and Angela!)
Changed wood fireplace to gas; installed custom-made glass doors
Installed custom-made shelves, baseboard and mantel in study (Thanks, Matt!)
Wallpapered study
Bought new couch (arriving in April) for living room to replace the once-white, now...um...burnt sienna pre-dog selection
Bought all new furniture, bed linens and etc. for guest room
Bought new chairs for my dining room LAST FUCKING JUNE which have yet to arrive (Thanks again, Unica Home - you can bet you'll be getting my business again...uh...NEVER. Trust me, there is a venomous post just waiting to be sprung about this situation. Look forward to it.)
FINALLY got my wicked irritating wireless connection sorted out (again, THANKS MATT!)
Carpeted basement with remnants (Thanks, Rick!)
Swapped old, leaky fridge for a "new to me" one with the freezer on the bottom (Thanks, Matt's Dad!)
Bought custom window treatments for living room and guest bedroom

Future Plans
Install slop sink in the basement for...um...my slop. Also to make the washing machine drain.
Retile kitchen and add baseboard; buy new stove
Retile and repaint bathroom; replace sink and mirror
Figure out entry wallpaper situation - perhaps buy more, or just eat the $1,000 fuck-up. Shweet.
Re-roof garage
Repaint exterior

Yep, things are coming together - and all rather quickly. Matt's dad, in fact, told me the other night that the amount of renovations I've done usually take about FIVE years, so I guess that's something. Of course, I'd love to add a bathroom downstairs and totally redo the back entranceway but, yeah. Not at the moment. Instead, I'd just like to rest on my laurels for a bit, enjoy all the progress and give my bank account a break from the sound beating it's been taking for the last 11 years or so.

Posted by Bree at 09:10 AM | Comments (1)

February 25, 2008

Dreamy

Above is a photograph of artist Lisa Congdon's workspace from sfgirlbybay (bonus: The Congdon gives a shout-out to one of my favorite all-time books, In the Heart of the Sea...buy it! Read it! Love it!).

Is it wrong to feel like I'd be all creative and making money hand over feast if I had a workspace like that? If only! If only! Yeah...hmm. About once a week I catch myself sighing and moaning and wishing I could just devote a small area of my house to something all artsy or all writer-y or whatever I think would make me more productive, and then I realize I actually own the bitch and can do whatever I want. It's kind of defeating not to have the "But I rent!" excuse so handy for the last 15-odd years. So I eat another Zone bar and consider how to reorder my Netflix queue. Alas. But pictures like this - and the occasional modgepodge purchase - give me hope that one day I will decoupage the living CRAP out of my mortgage.

Posted by Bree at 09:27 AM | Comments (3)

February 04, 2008

Astonishing

I picked out a new color for my kitchen (goodbyyyyye 1972 acid trip, helllooo Benjamin Moore #553) and it only took ONE sojourn in Guirys and a mere FIVE paint samples. I daresay I'm getting better at this...

NB: If any of you in the D-town area need an excellent painter, my friend Nate is the man to call. Shoot me an e-mail or comment and I'll give you his number. $100/day - quality work.

Posted by Bree at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)

February 03, 2008

Snug As a Bug

I've been very pleased with the price, quality and quick shipping of the guest room bedding I've gotten at Overstock.computer over the last couple of weeks. This is the first time I've ordered from them, and I'll definitely be back next time I'm in the mood for new towels, pillow or cubic zirconium.

Amalfi 210 TC Egyptian Cotton Luxury Duvet Cover in Grey

Siberian 330 Thread Count Down Comforter

Westwood Park 600tc Solid Sateen Sheet Set in Ivory

Posted by Bree at 03:36 PM | Comments (0)

January 31, 2008

Buying the Stairway to Heaven

Exciting stuff, people! The last bit of unfinished drywall - and a thorn in my indecisive side - in the old casa has been covered with paint. Granted, this is exactly the part that's going to be covered with this wallpaper (in a different hue) in fairly short order (once I, er...scrape together the resources to buy the $190/double roll extravaganza!), but I'm still so excited that I like the color. I had the wallpaper sample matched at Sherwin Williams and will also paint the top half of the staircase with it to cut down on paper costs and give the eye a little rest from pattern fatigue. (Painting the bottom was necessary to see if I could dig the blue and to protect the overall look if the wallpaper ever shifts or shrinks.) I think I'll get away with only buying three rolls, so the whole thing will be about $1,000 - $1,200 including labor. Not too shabby!

Posted by Bree at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

A.M. Dialogue: House Renovating Edition

Nate: "Have you seen Matt's caulk?
Bree: (pause)...Well...we have been dating a while.

[Cymbal]

Posted by Bree at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

January 27, 2008

Yum

I think I've found the wallpaper for my front hall. Portobello from Rapture & Wright. I'm still a little torn on the color, as I'm worried it will take away from (or clash with) the crazy blue in my dining room. Though, as Matt pointed out, you'd never see the two colors directly at the same time unless you were - you know, a hammerhead, it's still worrisome.

Solution? I need to paint underneath where the wallpaper is going anyway (in case it shifts or comes a little bit away from the wall or something) so I'm going to hit up Sherwin Williams and have the wallpaper matched tomorrow and then have the walls painted this week. (This whole dating a contractor thing really has its benefits in terms of being linked in to a wide variety of skilled boy-persons looking for home improvement jobs.) So anyways. Those of you who've been here or talked to me about this know that this decision on the front hall has taken me almost a year so, suffice it - very stoked to be making progress.

Posted by Bree at 09:50 PM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2008

Guest Room Coming Together Etc. Etc. and Amen

Ahmagod. Wednesday night, the durlin' Angela and I busted our respective humps to get the drywall primer up and at 'em in the guest room. Only problem being we forgot to open any windows or, really, even the door, so found ourselves totally headachy and nauseated and STYMIED as to why that could possibly be..? It wasn't until we breaked for Project Runway (and dericious pasta with OMG-that-shit's-spicy-sausage prepared by the boy for his working ladeez), and breathed the (relative) fresh air of my living room that we realized our...uh...mistake. Genius comes in pairs, as they say.

Regardless, many giggles, much smoothing over of the primer - which had the annoying tendency to broadcast the nap of the roller and thus undo the several thousand dollars I had spent to get that room skim-coated and smooth...sweet! - and the occasional accidental face + roller event (sorry, Angela!) and we were done. And by done, I mean DONE. Though the plans were to paint the actual color (Benjamin Moore #1486) Thursday and tonight as well, I caved in a fit of "FINISH MY FUCKING HOUSE" yesterday morning (pre-coffee), and decided to hire Matt's roommate to knock it out today.

Fuggit, man. I just got an enuermo project at work, with a super tight deadline (design and build a DIFFERENT new web site, 2 tri-fold brochures, counter cards, a sponsorship campaign and media outreach oh by...hmm...let's see, how 'bout if it's DONE AND DONE by February 12?), which means - yippee! I actually am going to have some relatively serious cheddz to spend, but HOLY CARP. Pass the Xanax. And the Immodium. And the meth. And the comfy socks. THX.

So, right. Point of this post. The guest room is coming together and the study is NEARLY DONE!!!! Matt got the shelves up yesterday and they look so amazing. 100 feet of built-ins for my books and tchotkes! Ahhh! So, rather than going out to Gabors and getting shnookered as I'm wont to do, I corralled myself into organizing and unpacking all my books and wow...after separating out the ones I've never read, looks like this girl won't be hitting Barnes & Noble any time soon. HOWLY MOWLY. If you're feeling the budgetary crunch - but need some good entertainment - I suggest you also pull out the "unreads." It made me feel like I'd just gotten a bomb-ass present. A bomb-ass present by the name of THE DICTATORS (below):

A mere swath of the bomb-ass bounty

Posted by Bree at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2008

Is Freedom Chaos?

Oh man. There are now three rooms in my relatively petite compound in total disarray. The guest bedroom is all ready for painting with Angela (not ever to be known as Mangela even though she's totes in charge of her local dry cleaner this week) tonight and tomorrow (the baseboards were handled with great aplomb by me yesterday); the study is still desperately awaiting final shelf installation; the upstairs office is full of crrrrap, including a mattress and a couple dozen pillows, and - hell - even the hallway is stacked with books. This makes me all :(-face. Though I know by this time next week, the casa will be smokin' cool - it's very difficult to live and work in all this disorder and mess. wah.

Posted by Bree at 08:46 AM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2008

Whoa, Whoa, WHOA!

Remember when I bought this little lovely all the way back in August?

Seems someone with a fully engaged cerebral cortex has thought to turn it into a wallpaper:

How cool! I feel, like, I don't know - partially responsible for this brilliance. I know, I know, how is it that a girl from the valleys of western Massachusetts could be so influential on the international design scene? I too am stymied. And sadly also feel it would be impossible to collect a commission on this, no matter how deserved. Indeed, I can't even buy the stuff (questionable orangey color notwithstanding) as, of course, I have put a moratorium on bird imagery in the old casa. It's beginning to feel like an aviary around here and the flying turds AREN'T HELPING. Chirp.

Posted by Bree at 08:26 AM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2008

Fuck Factoring: News From the Contractor

Matt just walked into the living room (where I am writing a soon-to-be-Pulitzered piece on "What to Do if Your Loved One Resists Care"...ah...) and announced, "Yep - I'd have to give this mantel a fuck factor of four." When I innocently questioned what, precisely, he was referring to he explained: "Well, when you build a bed, you have to give it a fuck factor. Like a ten would be crazy monkey sex. You know, 250-pound midgets jumping up and down on each other. Or, like, a six or a seven would be...I don't know, pillow fights and stuff. So, yeah, your mantel is a four. Just hanging on."

In other news, the wallpaper installer is coming on Wednesday! No word yet on his fuck factor but that study is about to be done and donuts. I'll keep you pasted.

Posted by Bree at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2007

Upgrades in the Hizzouse

I'm totally locked out of my house right now. There are two men here applying environmentally sound cleaning solution to my once-white couch in an effort to remove the effects of one (1) dog-owning, red wine-drinking, ciggy-smoking, coffee table dining, dark denim-sporting lady who shall remain blameless.

In other news, the transition of my study from a room into which I never venture to a room into which I often venture is coming along. I've spent roughly 8,000,000 dollars turning my fireplace from wood burning into gas (including: new gas lines, ceramic log set, custom-built metal doors and a custom-built mantel), and another couple mil on wood for the new baseboards and built-in bookshelves. The good news is I'm going to have over 100 feet of shelving for all my literature, tchotkes and picture frames to collect dust upon.

I also found a dresser yesterday for my guest room (and my chief guest) over at one of my favorite local shops for reclaimed/refinished/relatively cheap wooden furniture: Five Green Boxes in Old South Pearl. Granted, it's been painted this kind of barfu shade of lime green, but I have hope I'll be able to refinish her without too much pain/trauma. Now the only thing standing between me and enhanced clothing storage is the fact I have not yet bought the dresser in question. Ah...details.

Oh and one more thing: the hugely expensive custom-made roman shades I ordered for my living room and guest room will be installed next week. It's beginning to feel like a real house over here! In fact, as soon as my kickass dining room chairs arrive (which, with their six-month lead time, could be as late as CHRISTMAS), I'll have you over for a perusal.

Posted by Bree at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)

October 01, 2007

Fab(ric)

With a scoring assist from my *most famous* friend, I finally picked out a fabric for my kitchen curtains. Behold!

Amy Butler, Nigella fabric in Grey Passion Vine from Purl Soho.

Not that I have any idea how to make curtains, but I figure it shouldn't be too hard. A little modge podge, a little elbow grease, some peanut butter (or oleo) and things should fall into place easy peasy. Erk.

Posted by Bree at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)

Rodent Update

I'm such a damned softie, I bought a "catch and release" trap for Mickey. I plan on sitting back tonight with a snifter of scotch and waiting for the fun to begin.

Posted by Bree at 06:12 PM | Comments (0)

September 30, 2007

Eeeeek!

There's a mouse in the house! I've seen him twice now, and cute as he might be, he provides even more ammo for the "I needs a kitty in my life" argument. If anyone hears of one, don't matter none whether its young or old as long as it likes The Deuce and likes to kill. I'll be good to adopt sometime following the holidays. Or before, depending on...OK. BREAKING. IT JUST RAN ACROSS THE FLOOR AGAIN.

I need the cat NOW g-damnit.
TONIGHT.

Anything to avoid the glue ew that I fear is in my near future. Ugh.

Posted by Bree at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2007

Progresso

I did it! I ordered wallpaper for my study!

Katimba from the German site Wallpaper From the 70's.

I'm still undecided for the entranceway/staircase but then again, it's hard to figure out the exact pattern to complement my NEON GREEN kitchen.
Pictures of all this are coming.
Someday.

In fact, to show my dedication to you - loyal reader - herewith I offer one of part of my bedroom:

If these walls could talk, they'd say "Thank you, oh wise one, for painting me such a lovely shade."

Posted by Bree at 06:04 PM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2007

Ebay Hooray

I never get good deals on ebay. Never ever, ever never.
So imagine my shock that I just scored THIS WROUGHT IRON TABLE AND 4 CHAIR SET (for pick-up only down near Garden of the Gods in C. Springs) for $50!!!

$50?! I just spent that this afternoon on...uh...toilet paper and gin. (Staples.) That's nuthin, kid! Almost makes the fact I have to get up at 8 a.m. and drag my sleepy Ma with me on a trip down I-25 in Angela's truck seem quaint. Almost.

Posted by Bree at 06:24 PM | Comments (0)

September 21, 2007

Worker Bee(s)

Ang's shot of part of the grueling labor I subjected her (and Marie) to last week:

Priming Bree's Kitchen

Heee. ! Let's just say that my Mom is outside right now deadheading and weeding in my garden. She tried to show me some stuff but I suddenly got a crazy urge to take a shower and check my e-mail. Some things = never change.

Posted by Bree at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2007

Summing Up My Modus Operandi With Functionality and Wit

Check out the gorgeoooos lil wall hook shang-a-doo I just ordered from Lekker Home. Hearts and flowers and glee!

Posted by Bree at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2007

Wallpaper Samples

Here are some I ordered last night from the German company, Wallpaper From the 70's.

For the study; also ordered in brown/lime green for the entryway as the kitchen (visible from the entryway) will eventually be lime green.


For the study.

For the entryway.

Dunno, but I love it.

Here's also another vintage wallpaper vendor I found recently. Can't get samples, as it's on ebay, but definitely worth a look.

Posted by Bree at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)

August 21, 2007

Vindicated by Vogue

Gadddamn, I'm hip. This is the exact same color I just painted my dining room. I'm going to go make love to myself now. Perdon.

Posted by Bree at 02:52 PM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2007

Pictures of New Paint Job!

All snaps care of Rick and his new digi-cam. One things for certain, when this kid leaves for MIT, I think life's gonna be a whole lot MT-er.

(Ahem. Awesome.)

Coffee table with living room wall in the background

Dining room into living room; me on phone with Zane

Close up on dining room wall; picture of me and Marie, 1997

Posted by Bree at 08:42 PM | Comments (0)

July 10, 2007

The Case of the Purloined Peanut

As I was (relatively ably) assisting Rick in putting together some of my new tables last night, I was (momentarily) distracted by the discovery of two halves of a shelled peanut on the living room floor. Say wha? Not only have I not eaten peanuts here ever, but my dog is a voracious - albeit underskilled - truffle pig and I have housekeepers.

What gives, legume?

This is totally reminiscent of the time on 77th Street when I came home from work and found the toilet seat up. Turns out there wasn't, in fact, a well-mannered burglar in the vicinity - just a brother with an extra key and a bladderful of fun to empty before his drive back to Westchester. Needless to say, I was a bit disturbed 'til that one was cracked. One can only hope there is a similarly understandable explanation for the mystery goober pea.
Like sleep-eating.
Or aliens.

Posted by Bree at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

July 07, 2007

Putting the "Stifie" in Justified

Did I ever admit to you - loyal readership - that when I was a copywriter, headlines and subheads were my Waterloo? I could jam out a 1,000-worder on some skyscraper's HVAC system and cooling towers in no time flatus, but would turn it into my bosses headlineless...just hoping they'd take the bait and slap one on for me. It rarely worked.

Glad to see this problem's been solved.
Stifie.
HHAHAHAHAHA.

Gene Genius! And WAY better than my first draft --> "Justified and Ancient," which is...oh...the title of a song from 1991 by KLF. Somehow I thought I might be the only one to remember that.

Anys - on to the point. I was cruising around in my new Google Reader sites this morning (I know I'm like the last kid to the RMS feed party, but whatever. I had better things to do. Like figure out my VCR timer.), and saw that Holly at decor8 had posted about Pantone's latest color recommendations. And here's where the stifie comes in (<-- awesome): two of the colors are ones I'm using in my house! Cue the horns.

The bigger one on the left is, more or less, the color of my bedroom. (The bigger one on the right is, more or less, the color of agony.)

The bigger one on the right is a more muted shade of the color of my dining room. I tend to think turquoise aids digestion. Then again, I don't cook.

(N-benz: I would trim those in photoshop, but my computes is acting like a wicked dick this morning, so don't have the time to cajole it into servitude. Apoplectic apologies and the like.)

So psyched to have design affirmation from the good lads and lassies at Pantone! Almost - but not quite - as psyched as I was this morning when I found a gigundus diet Red Bull in my fridge. Cut horns, cue percussion.

Posted by Bree at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

July 05, 2007

House Schtuff

In a spectacular display of hungover multi-tasking yesterday afternoon, I managed to assuage my Netflix guilt while hitting up the crrrazy summer sales (from the comf of my own couch, naturaments). The following pieces will be arriving at some time sometime, at which point I will cajole my fella friends into installing them for me. Like clockwork, I be.

Number one - Sconce for the bedroom. Marked down from $130 to $70 at Resto.

(Mine's in silver...'cause it's second best.)

Number two - runner for upstairs hallway to make the Deuce feel more comfortable. Marked down from $500 to $350 at Po Barn.

Also picked up some bath hardware (towel bar, tp holder, etc.) while I was there to fance up the john a bit. Nothing like THIS, but one always needs aspirations. (Get it? Ass-pirations? HAHAHAHHAHA.)

In other news on the house front, the painters are coming in a little over a week to basically do the whole thing up! Very exciting, though I am nerrrrvous about the rather odd color choice I made for the bedroom. In a word: raspberry.

As for what's going to go atop these beauteous walls, I've got a number of new art pieces at the framers (hulllooo, $$$. damn.) as well as the Jason Miller mirror (so! psyched!), and Rick just hung my big ole chalkboard in the office last week, so yes, things are all coalescing. The gardens are looking beautiful, the lawn is well-fertilized with 1,001 Deuce turds and I'm ordering my snapping deck tiles this week...

Most importantly, I snaked an earlier air conditioning repair appointment so once that gets fixed, I'll actually be able to spend time here without wanting to remove my skin with a vegetable peeler. Whee! Won't that be nice. You're all invited over to celebrate. We'll sit around in our woolens and try to see just how cold we can make it.

Posted by Bree at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)

June 20, 2007

Update: Sit Your Ass Down

Guess which chairs I just bought?

That's right.
The $$$ ones.

As if there was ever any doubt. Couldn't put cheap plastic next to expensive plastic. It was a very ne'er the twain conundrum. [INSERT SIGH.] Regardless, this whole $, $$, $$$ escapade reminds me of a game I used to play when I was a kid - cover up all the prices on a catalog page and see which thing on it you'd buy first. INVARIABLY, I wanted the most expensive thing. Seriously, I bat about a 99-percent on this. Some might call it taste; I call it annoying.

Posted by Bree at 04:07 PM | Comments (0)

Torn like a Bride's Nightie

I'm torn betwixt and between when it comes to which chairs I want to get for my forthcoming Eero Saarinen white, 54-inch tulip table. Sticking cheap-o chairs with what will be the best looking thing in my house (minus le pooch, of kerrrsss) seems akin to wearing Payless shoes with a VerSAHTCH. No can do.

Add to that I want them orange (or something), vaguely (but not excessively) modern, at least slightly (or not at all) recto-linear, reasonable in price and extraordinary in quality. Therein lies the rub.

So here are the choices, rated from most expensive to least (aka what I want most to what I want least):

$$$ Clipt chair by Jeff Miller for Baleri Italia

$$ Leaf stacking chairs by Moroso


$ Oh Chair by Karim Rashid (probably get these in white and have orange cushions made)

Posted by Bree at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

March 28, 2007

Beginning to Realize...

that I don't really like home improvement projects. Something about the nuisance, and the time, and the need for exactitude really gets my goat. And not in the way I like my goat getting got.

Case in point? I just spent a good hour and a half (a) switching the drapery rods that were in my bedroom into the guest bedroom and (b) installing new ones in my bedroom. Seemed like a pretty easy job, and one that could be accomplished with minimal effort at the start and maximal enjoyment at the finish. About a million mishaps later (including me falling onto - and very nearly offa - the footboard at the end of my bed), I stepped back to survey my work.

Conclusion? Rods are uneven. Following the preexisting screw holes without measuring? Not the smartest idea in the book. This means I have to take at least one and perhaps two of them down, remeasure, redrill the pilot holes and rescrew the stripped screws. Suhweet. Motivation: at an all time nadir. Thank God the boy knows how to do all this stuff, and has offered to help me out, or I'd really be up shit's river with a crooked-ass paddle.

Posted by Bree at 07:38 PM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2007

Confession Booth

It's hard to admit but here you go: I am totally stymied about how to decorate my walls. What to paint, what to wallpaper, what colors to use. It's overwhelming. [Insert "Gah!"]

Luckily, Elaine's here - walking around with the Benjamin Moore sample book, figuring out this madness for me. So far, her opinion of my suggestions has started with a vee and ended with a toe...but we may have just stumbled upon an awesome idea for the kitchen. Pear green #2028-40. White shelves. White cabinets. Stained linoleum scrubbed with ammonia.

Here's a picture of it I found here (colors may vary, natch but you get the jist):

Mmm pear...
mmm banana....

Posted by Bree at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)

January 27, 2007

Dine Time

What I want:

How I'm gonna get (one element of) it on the cheap:

(Odyssey table from CB2 for a mere 149 dubloons)

Jeebers, I'm such an enormous fan of white everything of late, I might as well start wearing a pillowcase on my head and acting like a psychotic asshole.

Posted by Bree at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2007

Let There Be Light!

One of my many, many missions having to do with the new house is to buy new lighting fixtures for all of the ceilings. This needs to happen in a bit of a hurry as I'm not supposed to turn the circuits back on without lights attached because sparks might fly (in a most unsexy way) and the house would be a thing of the past. Natch - I can always reattach the hideosities that the sellers left, but feel that's a waste of time and effort in addition to a total affrontery to all I hold dear (namely good looks and expensive things).

Thus, imagine - if you will - my time today at the local outpost of "Lamps Plus." Overcome by the selection, the crazily reduced prices (including 20 percent designer discount!) and the realization that if I don't like frosted glass, or stainless steel or giant brown fixtures then eff what the census say - I really am in the minority on this here coil, I spent a good bit of time wandering around like a dope, eyes affixed to ceiling. Finally, I stumbled upon a black iron "chandy" I now call my own:

OK - that's not really it. But it's similar (mine's cooler) - but here, HERE is where the real deal comes in...ready? I'm going to spray paint it kelly green. And hang it in the dining room over my (not yet acquired) round white table.

Do you hear the angel choir?
'cause you should...
It's magnificent.

Posted by Bree at 05:24 PM | Comments (0)