Progress

This week the article has been put to the wayside while I focus on packing and moving.  Tomorrow is going to be a big day with a lot of major items being moved into the new house.  If all goes as planned, my daughters and I will be moved in this week.  Very exciting.  It's also been a great opportunity to downsize.  And...I have some new MCM Acquisitions!  This Nelson saucer lamp will go over my dining table.

And my new dining set arrived last week (I managed to find it off of ebay); here's a picture of what it looks like:

Pool Progress

Tile and coping has been selected.  Here are photographs of the progress so far.  New pump, timer, and skimmer have been added.  Plastering will begin soon.  I know I'm biased, since I picked everything, but I think it looks great!

MCM Acquisition!

Man, I have to crow.  I managed to find an estate sale where this noguchi coffee table was listed for about 2/3 market price.  It's in great shape, and then I got another 50% off!  Boy, I understand the joys of a great purchase now.  A real Noguchi for a knock-off price.

One day, I hope my house appears on this blog.

More Pool Rehab

So the pool is finally empty, clean and the old tile and plaster chipped away.  And then we discovered a whole bunch of surprises.

First, the drain you typically see at the bottom of the pool?  Nope - don't got one.  So we'll need to add some additional drain lines.

The concrete pad around the pool is slanted and hollowed out in areas - meaning we need to remove the old concrete and add some coping.

The pool skimmer?  Doesn't work.  The lines to the pump?  Broken.  Need new lines.

So...a change order is in place....and I'll be playing the game of creative financing.  Yay....not.

Pool Rehab Begins

So I've been working with various contractors getting quotes on how much it will cost to take the pool from cess to sensational.  It's a lot.  So I've decided to do the rehab in stages.  The reasonable stage of just doing what I should afford went by the wayside once my girls started imagining there was a pool.  So...I'll be rehabbing to the point of operability.  The nice touches (pool heater, pavers, salt water system) will have to come later....after bankruptcy later.

Anyhow, here's the second stage of rehab - the first was emptying the dark, impenetrable waters, then removing all the various beasties and debris that was left over.  Now they are removing the old broken tiles and getting the pool ready for replastering.  Here's a pic from today.

Floors are Done!

The floors have been refinished, and I am very pleased.  It looks great.

Now to start furnishing.

I found these on craigslist for $80.  I think they'll look great next to the kitchen bar.

Painting begins

Painting has begun.  In an irritating note, the colors in the girls' room are not in the right place - but the girls like it.  Also, the contractors, for I assume their own gain, used a different paint brand.  Still, I think it looks nice.  It will look nicer once I get some freebies out of the contractors for messing around.

Here is the main living/dining room:

 Through the window you can see the play structure that Santa left the girls for the holidays.

Here is the master (a darker green than the living/dining area- and yes, I like green).

And the girls' room

It's coming along.  After I catch up on work, I'll be using the rest of January and February to downsize my current abode, and obtain some more furnishings for the new place.

Mid Century Modern

So the remodel continues apace.  Painting will start soon.  The pool has finally been cleaned out of debris.  Still pretty nasty looking.  I am starting to toss around ideas for furnishing the new house.  I've decided to sell essentially everything I own other than heirlooms, and start over.  As part of the process of restoring the house, I'm considering restoring a mid-century modern aesthetic to the furnishings.  I'm definitely no hipster, but I grew up with MCM furniture, and it has always appealed to me.

Things I'm considering:

A Saarinen dining table with matching tulip chairs.

A Nelson saucer pendant light for the dining space

For the living room space, I'm looking at a Bantam type sofa.

I definitely need one of these Arco floor lamps.

And a Barcelona knock-off - I can't afford a real one.

And a Noguchi coffee table...

Here are the kitchen and living/dining space

And the pool sans ton of leaves and various dead animals...

New Hobbies

Several months ago I purchased a foreclosed home in my neighborhood.  It had been on the market for almost two years, and it was in need of serious work.  It had been under contract twice...only to have the prospective buyers walk away.  It finally dropped in price to a point where I HAD to go for it.  Funnily enough, my offer came in along with seven others - all from investors.  As I was the only offer with an intent to live in the house, the bank accepted my offer.  So for the next year, I'm going to restore this old girl.  Rehab involves a new roof, mold remediation in the crawlspace, installing drainage around the house, rehabbing an old pool, and lots of minor and not so minor stuff on the inside.  I'll fill you in on the updates.

Here's the front of the house

The backyard - underneath all of that is a pool.

Here's the pool without the chicken wire covering

Once the covering was removed, we discovered not only goldfish, but frogs and snakes, too.