Category Archives: house

Flea Market Finds.

Posted in family, house, thrifted by

Recently, on a perfect Fall day, we spent the day thrifting at the Golden Nugget Flea Market in Lambertville New Jersey.  It was sunny and warm and Kiran’s first real thrifting expedition  (not counting the countless trips when he was a baby in the stroller where he had been blissfully oblivious to the treasures around him).  This time however, he enjoyed touching everything much to the dismay of the vendors.  While Kiran didn’t find anything to buy I found tons of stuff but I limited myself to only a couple of things.   

I found this fabulous vintage wood and plaster frame for $7:

The frame  is not in great shape and the plaster is crumbling in places.  I need to super glue the plaster back,   cleaning it thoroughly and paint it a bright glossy red.  Scott took that picture of me and Kiran in the Summer.  I love the roughness of the concrete and the chain link fence against the ornate details of the frame.

 I also  found this amazing painting (it is not a print) for $15:

We left the flea market around noon and went to a picnic area by the lake for lunch.  I can’t wait to go back to this flea market.  There were lots of vendors and lots of great items at good prices.

More About Books in the Fireplace.

Posted in Books, bookshelves, house, living room, organizing by

The two main reasons that I decorate, renovate, rearrange and work on the house (constantly) are because: 1)  I enjoy being in a beautiful space and 2) I enjoy being creative.  Ultimately life is about the creation of beauty and perception of beauty through our senses is it not?

What does this have to do with the books in the fireplace? Well Kiran and I were sick and stuck at home recently.  So I decided to color code the books in the fireplace (something I have been meaning to do).  It was a fun project for us to do together and the result is fabulous (at least it looks a million times better than it used to look). 

Being sick is never fun, but being sick and taking care of a sick child is so much worse! Little projects like this kept us sane and it was a lot of fun.

Organizing Some Books.

Posted in Books, bookshelves, house, organizing by

While the fireplace is the the major “bookcase” in our house, I also have some of my favorite books on the shelves in my room.  These books were stacked randomly and always looked a little messy.  Yesterday evening while Scott was working upstairs I decided to organize them. Yes they are color coded and they look fabulous!

I am now wondering if I should try to color cordinate the books in the fireplace as well…

Isaiah Zagar Mural.

Posted in house, Inspiration by

Ever since my first visit to Philly in 1995 I have been obsessed with the Isaiah Zagar murals coverning numerous buildings and walls in South Philly.  When we moved to Philly in 1999 we went for a walk down South Street and spent hours admiring all the murals on the buildings.  The colors were amazing the details stunning and the best thing about them was that they were accessible to the public for anyone to admire.  Never did I ever imagine that I would have one of Isaiah’s fabulously beautiful murals on the side of my house!


Our Mural up close.

Our house has an extensive side wall that is clearly visible from the street.  While the old brick walls of our house are beautiful, the cinder block wall separating our house from the neighbors was just ugly.  So on a whim I started to research how I could get one of Isaiah’s murals on the side of our house.  It turned out to be much easier than I anticipated…which really shows that sometimes all you have to do is try and you could get something amazing. 

Isaiah started the mural by making the larger pieces in his studio, then attaching the larger pieces to the wall and drawing the outline for his students to complete. 


Isaiah starts the mural (as Kiran watches). 

Then one weekend his students started working on the mural and they finished it in two days under Isaiah’s strict guidance.

Isaiah and his students working on the wall.

Scott and I Help with the Mural.


Isaiah adds the finishing touches.

The completed mural.

We’ve had a lot of people give us their comments on the mural.  Most of them love it and some people  think that we have reduced the value of our house.  Neither Scott nor I worry about the “value” of our house while we renovate it.  We are renovating the house to accomodate our lives and our tastes.  I think that the value based approach to renovating is unnecessary not always necessary and prevents people from being creative in their living space because they want to play it safe for resale purposes. 





Second Floor Bathroom Update.

Posted in house by

I realized that I haven’t posted any good pictures of the second floor bathroom.  Yes the bathroom is very pink!  Instead of trying to hide the pink we decided to embrace it and go a step further, with the mint green walls.  Since my earlier post I have been working on little things on the bathroom.  We had to re-grout the tub, replace the stems of the faucet and do a few other not so exciting things.  I have added more pictures all in black frames which I think was necessary to minimize the pinkness of the room.  The only thing left for us to do in the bathroom is remove the old sink and install a new sink, faucet and cabinet. 
This is what you see when you open the bathroom door:

To the right of the door to the bathroom (below) is a little nook with the sink and a cabinet below the sink which also has two drawers.  Because there was hardly any space for toiletries we installed this shelf to the right of the nook.  Please excuse the wiered angle of the picture. I was trying to take a picture that looked decent without me being in it.

The pictures are vintage prints that I framed.  The light fixture and towel rod are from Restoration Hardware.  The shelf is from Ikea.  The flowers are from my stoop.

To the left of the nook we installed a magnifying mirror which we found at a yard sale (below). 

This picture below shows the main wall in the bathroom.  To the right is the bath and to the left is a huge window which faces south.  I keep rotating my plants in here.  I love succulents but the humidity is a little too much for them.  I think that I have finally found the right plants for this spot.

I have a bunch of vintage candle holders over the heater cover (below).  The heater cover was in pretty bad condition but we primed and painted it white and it is really convenient and hides the ugly radiator.  To the right of this picture is our linen closet.  I love my petite chandelier which was a total score on eBay.

This is what you see when you leave the bathroom (below).   The sink nook is to the left and the bathroom leads out to the second floor hallway.

The bathroom, like the rest of the house, has a strange layout but we’ve made the space work for us.

I am over this house! (not really).

Posted in backyard, house by
The back yard

I should be relaxing in my back yard but I am not!

Sometimes I feel like I spend every waking minute, at some level, thinking about what needs to be done on the house.  This combined with my slight obsessiveness  makes it really hard for me some times to just relax at home.  This seems absurd because I used to be the type of person who wanted to always relax, read and enjoy my home.  I am not sure if everyone who buys a house gets house-nuts or whether it is just me.

Last summer I loved my backyard…this summer not so much.  This is mainly because I hate the slope of the yard and now I’m obsessing over what I need to do to it…slate tiles, break the concrete and pour new concrete and level it, etc.  The previous owners in an (overzealous) effort to keep water away from the house inclined the yard at such a steep pitch that it slants sharply away from the house.  Therefore everything always looks crooked…no matter what I do!

It surprises me when is people come over and don’t notice the slope…is it all in my head? When did I decide that things had to be so perfect? I used to love old imperfect things. When we bought this house I fell in love with it because it alluded to grandness in its past lives in a very atypical row house sort of way. I really wanted to restore it to its original grandness but keep all the personality.  Well now somehow I have entered a house renovation world where I embrace the imperfections but at the same time need everything that we do to be perfect. I am not sure if I could ever reconcile these two emotions. I am making a pact with myself that from today onwards I will make more of an effort to just let things go (just a little).

I will leave you with this picture of my back yard:

P.S. Look closely and you will see that everything slopes to the left.

Do I need another lamp?

Posted in house, lust by
I love these E27 pendants, designed by Mattias Ståhlbomand.  I love the colors and I love the fact that they are so colorful yet so simple.

I am tempted to buy one of these even though I have no idea where I could us it.  My resolution lately has been to only buy things after carefully planning and deciding where I could use the item.  I do make exceptions for things that are absolutely fabulous…then I buy them even if I have no use or space for them!  These lamps don’t get me that excited, so for now (sigh) I won’t be buying one.  I will however keep scrutinizing each room to figure out where I could use a E27 pendant. 

Planning a Roof Deck

Posted in exterior, house by

This is the view looking north from the roof of our house.  The views in all directions are absolutely stunning.

So why don’t we have a roof deck you are probably asking?  Well, we would eventually like to put a deck on the third floor roof.  However, even though I am planning (and dreaming) of the deck we first need to extend the third floor out, put a bathroom on the third floor and plan the access on to the roof deck before we can build the deck.  We would also need to remove the carpeting on the third floor and install new wood floors, replace the roof on the third floor, and figure out where and how to move the 100 pound air conditioning unit. 

The picture below shows the view from the third floor.  You can see the roof above Kiran’s room.  We would like to  build a room and a small deck on this side.

The window to the left in the picture below (now without the bars) is the guest room.  We would like to extend the wall out to the edge and put a bathroom in the area that is to the left of this picture.

This is one of those things that we would eventually like to do but there are simply too many other things that need our immediate attention.  Once we finish the basement stairway and install shelving/organization units in the basement and renovate the first floor bathroom we will be ready to start on the third floor!

EDIT: I can’t believe that I forgot to mention the small fact that this will be a dream for a while because renovating the third floor and building a deck is not in our budget for right now.  I guess the beauty of dreams is that they aren’t grounded in reality.

Vintage Teak Lamp.

Posted in house, Kiran's Room, thrifted by

I bought this lamp, a couple of months ago, at an outdoor flea market in New Jersey.  It is a teak lamp in working condition, on a marble and wood base.  It is beautiful and a total steal at $15 for the two lamps.  While one lamp was in great working condition, the other one needs to be rewired.

The lamps came with their original shades but they were ripped and dirty.  I would eventually like to re-cover the original wire shade skeletons but as a temporary fix I have been looking for an inexpensive black shade.  I went to Ikea last week and I almost fell over with excitement when I saw the black shade which was the perfect size for the lamp.


The Ekas shade cost $13.  It works perfectly with the lamp and it looks great in Kiran’s room.

Scored!

Posted in house, scored by

I decided to run into Marshall’s a few weeks ago on a whim.  I was really excited to find this amazing garden stool. I have been wanting a blue and white garden stool for a very long time but I wasn’t compelled to pay $150 or more for it.  I found this beauty for $29.99.  What a score!


I also found this LOVE sign which looks a lot like an Alexander Girard print.  I love the whimsical designs by him and I have been contemplating buying the LOVE  canvas print  from Urban Outfitters.  This one was another steal at $7.99.

It is hanging on the wall behind the staircase that goes up to the third floor.  I love being able to see it from inside Kiran’s room.