What Lies Beneath...

One of our biggest fears is what lies beneath the vinyl siding on our house.  I'm always spouting off to my clients about the evils of vinyl siding. And yet.... we have old vinyl siding on our house.  Removing the siding has been a big stress for us and an unplanned expense (if we need new siding) that makes it more conducive to just leave the damn stuff on. 


It was fairly mild yesterday, and maybe hubby just felt the need to rip something apart, so he took off a portion of the siding on an inconspicuous side of the house.  

Apart from a few nail holes, looks as good as 55 year old siding can look!  (It was originally red)

LP

House Colour Trial

Hubby picked up some paint colours today at Benjamin Moore to try on the house.  The first couple were too light, so he went back to pick up a black range.  I've been thinking of the downside of painting a house black or dark black grey:

• trouble finding the house at night
• ear marked as local 'haunted house'
• turn house into the inside of the sun in the summer

Lot's to consider here.  Anyhow, here is the results of our quest for the perfect black/grey + drama door.  Hot damn I'm lucky hubby and I have the same taste in colours/decor/design.

The new black roof and downspouts from our hail damage claim.  Current state: challenged.  That dirt patch on the right is not a grave, it's a garden. I keep telling hubby we need to make it bigger, otherwise it looks like something fishy is going on our house.

Picking out colours at Benjamin Moore.

This is the base colour we settled on for body, trim and sash: BM Wrought iron. And this aqua (BM Aruba Blue) sample is an option for the doors - Gloss finish of course. This blue is my fav.

How about a pink door (BM Peony) - of course this received top votes from the girls.

BM Mandarin Orange.  This one is hubby's favourite.

BM Tangy Orange.  This one is actually not as 'poppy' as I had hoped.  Hubby thinks it would make us look like we're trying too hard to be cool.

Apparently this was my colour inspiration for the doors.  Thanks Lalaloopsy.

LP

House Colours Part II

So it's been a while since I've posted.... Because I've been WORKING.  At least 12 hours a day since January.  And you know what happens when you work 12 hours a day with between 4 to 6 hours of sleep per night?  You get really sick.  Sick enough that your doctor tells you to take a month off, but you say  no way, two days, then meet in the middle at a week. I see that she is rolling her eyes while she writes me a prescription.  

So this week, for the first time in my life, I'm on sick leave for a bad virus/exhaustion.  This leaves me oodles of time to plan for the trillions of things we need to do to our house this year that I haven't had time to do.  


First on the list is to finalize house colours.  I was in Cabo last week with the fam and my bestie and when I wasn't working (seriously - it's been bad), I was grilling her for help with house colours.  She's pretty straight forward with things. I told her I couldn't find something that works with the brick wall in the front.  So she was all "so paint it out".  Hunh.  


That opens up a whole new world for me and colours as what I really want is a darker neutral house with a pop colour door.   And I'm still digging the all one colour house (body, trim, sash) with a punch coloured door like lime or smurf blue. Jay wants to paint out the garage door in the same punch colour. (smart) I've assembled a collection of my favourites:  

Modernizing a bungalow - Carolina Eclectic

Grey with a dash of pink - Holiday House Rules

The minimalist house - Homearchitecturetrend.com

Black and White Cube House, Toronto - The Most Beautiful Houses in the World

This one is my favourite: Chalet in Clearview, Ontario:Trendir

I still like this one too...

All Grey House - Amunt

LP

Tagged!

I received this tag a few weeks ago. (Thanks Heather)


Here are the rules:

1. Post these rules
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post
4. Are jokes about "there is no Fight Club" still funny?

 11 random things about yourself:

1. I'm obsessed with octopuses. And other oddly adapted animals like the Aye Aye and Kiwi.  
2. I cannot comprehend the logic in why people replace original building materials with new inferior ones (ie wood windows for vinyl, wood floors for laminate)
3. I always take on way more than I can handle. Then get overwhelmed and just end up watching bad tv and drinking wine.
4. I love road trips.  One of my lifelong dreams is to rent a winnibego with my closest girlfriends, visit the 'Biggest of [ball of string, honeybee, logger]" along the way and wind it all up with a beauty pageant somewhere in Texas. 
5. I have a fear of revolving doors.   
6. I am terrible at mailing things.  Abysmal.  I have packages waiting to be mailed in my house that I should have mailed 7 years ago (through 4 moves)
7. I believe that most ailments can be cured with local honey and fish oil. 
8. I have phone phobia (is there an official name?)
9. My house is for the most part, clean and my closets are neurotically organized (colour coded and labelled).  But my car is always a disgusting pigpen.  
10. I have dance parties with my kids in the kitchen every night while making dinner. 
11. I love chips. 

What is your #1 best memory – the one that will always make you smile?
Oh, so many # 1 best memories.  One was finishing a 10 day hike in the Stein Valley, BC, when I was 16 after being lost for 4 days.  


If you could do anything (career wise), and money was no object, what would that be?
I love what I do (heritage consultant / conservation specialist) but.... probably a naturopath. Then I could encourage more people to eat local honey and fish oil. 


What is the most awesome place you’ve ever visited?
Comanche National Grassland in southeastern Colorado is the most spectacular place on earth. I worked there for 4 summers in Grad school and try to go back every year.  


What is your go-to comfort food?
I'm a big fan of rice crackers and hot sauce. I lived on it when I first moved out of my parents' house at 22.  


What is your guilty pleasure (that you’re willing to admit to in a public forum?)
I have an unhealthy addiction to Mamma Yamma's tweets (@mammayamma). She's a yam puppet on kids CBC. I'm in my 30s... 


Favourite way to relieve stress?
Hot yoga.  I think about going a lot.


Favourite book?
Tale of Two Cities. 


Favorite movie?
The Sweetest Thing with Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate. When Harry Met Sally. I am hoping Hunger Games will be added to this list {please don't be crappy}.  


What are you good at that hardly ever gets recognized? (example, are you a masterful karaoke singer? do you play a mean harmonica? is your hidden talent hopscotch?)
I'm quite unusually skilled at making children's Halloween costumes using primarily glue and iron ons. 


What did your 10-year-old self want to be when you grew up? Do you still want that? (Are you that?)
From a very young age I wanted to be an archaeologist.  Then I grew up, became an archaeologist, and didn't want to be one anymore.  I used to bury toys in the fall in my dad's garden and dig them up in the spring. 


What's holding you back?
I don't like digging in the snow. 





LP

A Break from the Present

My mom says the 70's were boring.  I don't know.  Looks like that guy with the moustache lacking irony, with the hot chick drinking gin & tonic's midday on the back of a hay truck are anything but boring. 

I think my love of mid century period spurs from a fascination with our society's abandonment of the traditional model of everything during this period.  How does this...

Grace Presbyterian Church - Calgary (1912: Gothic Revival) (Sean Perrin)

Change to this...

St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, Calgary (1968-69 - Expressionist)

What happened to our society that made us rethink an entirely new way to live, eat, pray? Burn our bras? Protest wars. Sit wherever we want on the bus? Colour our hotels butter yellow?

Holiday Inn - 8th Ave Downtown Calgary (Delcampe.com)

Modernism in the west began in earnest after the Second World War. And the initial rolling out of post war mortgage and educational programs, suburban development, embracing this new modern aesthetic were accomplished with military precision. The generations who lived and experienced a prolonged period of wars and depression (1913 to post WWII) probably yearned for a break from this past.  But despite an embrace of modern in the early 1950s, there was an undercurrent of entrenched traditionalism and conservatism. A lot of women didn't work after marriage.  


But it was the next generation in the 60' and 70's, who really shook things up with music, sex, drugs. And architecture was radical and experimental and expressed a cataclysmic shift in values of a society who were eager to formally break from the past and redefine a new future. 

A perfect hyperbolic paraboloid roof - Waikikian Hotel Lobby, 1960s (Sourced from a Flickr group on hyperbolic paraboloid roofs - amazing)

We lived in a condo for a few years downtown Vancouver and when we moved in, one of our friends gave us an interior design magazine for apartment dweller from the 1970s as a housewarming gift. 

What really strikes me about the following images from the issue is how the 'radical' was so mainstream.  And what a stark contrast with our society today (which, when you think about it, has really reverted back to this conservatism the previous generation had fought so hard to shake off).  Can you imagine a  key party spread set in a bedroom in Dwell?  It seems absurd. Yet, there's an overtone comfort and connection in these images that seems to be lacking today. 

And what?  

Look at those goofy  plates. And the lobster on a bed of grapes. 

Imagine this image in today's interior design context - complete with the stoned guy with the Puerto Rico t-shirt and rainbow window art? 

Every image contains some combination of moustaches, booze, sex, feasts or cigarettes (for my fellow gardener bloggers).

This time the alcohol matches the couch.  

LP

The Hallway - 2012

One of my big goals for 2012 is to make this hallway work.  It's certainly somewhat slightly improved from what it was, but faux concrete block and ship wheel lighting are haaaarrrrdd to work with. Have I ever shown the ship wheel lighting?  It's amazing.  

The 'lighting' of the lighting is terrible - so sorry. I think the ceiling looks like a little chicken has been out for an upside down stroll.  Maybe I need some sleep. 

It's also a narrow space so it's difficult to add anything to spice it up (apart from my $5 thrifted table that I recently spray painted with black chalkboard paint).

We usually have a cuter front mat.  This is our winter mat. Cute winter mats do not officially exist.  Well they do, but I can't afford them. 

This year, I plan to update the flooring in the front and rear entryways with Kismet Tile.  Based in the US, Kismet manufactures totally individualized and wildly colourful Moroccan concrete tile. I'm obsessed.  They are fairly reasonably priced ($25/sq. ft) and  most importantly - THEY SHIP TO CANADA!  yay!  I think the space could easily handle some bold colour - which may actually detract from the concrete block patterned walls. (ever noticed that faux concrete block interior walls has NEVER come back into vogue since the 50's? - there's a reason for this).  

I also plan to repaint the water cooler cabinet. 

Yellow just doesn't cut it with oak floors.  Think I need something cooler, like a deep eggplant or dark teal to counter the yellow/orange of the flooring and wood trim.  I am also committing myself to framing some family photos and hanging them in the stairwell.  Hubby wants them in the living room.  I'm more of a hallway kind of gal.  Do I sense an arm wrestle?  


LP

House Colours

We have some big decisions to make in 2012.  This is the year that we paint the exterior which will finally clean up what has been a wee eyesore in our neighbourhood for some time.  The roof was damaged in one of last year's biblical hail storms and we are on the list to have the roof replaced with new.  It's about 15 years old, so close to the end of its serviceable life.  We're on the wait list for February (!! - who roofs in February?) and are replacing with a black roof. 


The current paint scheme is dirty creamy/white - camouflaged during winter months save for the chartreuse door that literally hurts my eyes in the winter.  The paint scheme has been set for months.  

Merci Redneck Modern

That is until I have started obsessing about a single colour house.  Very 70's, certainly not period appropriate, but I'm suddenly very taken with every element (trim, sash, body) painted in a neutral colour with a pop colour door (warm yellow).  Am I crazy? 


 I finally found an example I like in this month's Dwell.  

Architect - Amunt

I prefer this colour

House for reference (I miss summer)

There's almost no trim on the house and the the shutters were added.  I would even consider keeping a more modern designed shutter to replace the aluminum ones.  

Then add this door, in yellow: 

The Fortuna from Crestview Doors

This doorbell from Spore (that we ordered with the kitchen light from Lumens and have yet to install): 

And this address plate from Modplexi on Etsy.

Now to convince the hubby.... 

LP

Living Room Update - 2012

We have a big list of 'to-do's' for 2012.  And now that the backyard is done, we will have some time to devote to things like ... EL PINKO!!!  (which is marginally better since we painted the walls and counter.  Marginally.  [read: not worth showing - still sucky]) The goal for this year is to get some things done around the house that don't break the bank, like updating with paint, wallpapering, polishing out metal hardware (which I've been doing every day for the last two weeks - I have officially erased my fingerprints).  So over the next few weeks, I will be highlighting some of the projects we are going to tackle, room by room.  The big items for this year are El Pinko and painting the exterior.  Other than that it's updating as we are inspired and the budget allows. 

The first room, only because I am currently in it, and can assess while I'm sitting down, is the living room.  Now, I know I said I wasn't going to bring in any more retro items into the house, but we flipped things around in the living room after we de-xmas treed, opened up the space and added some modern pieces to balance out the old. So, yeah. I lied.  

We finally have a dedicated, comfy little area for reading in the living room.  

Love my new HBC blanket from my ma/pa.

But, since there is not a stitch of built-in lighting in the room, we need some task lighting. A pole lamp - just like this one - would be perfect.

However, I seem to only come across pole lights like this on Kijiji.  No.  

 A vintage typewriter for beside the reading corner.  I love design that is kid friendly and interactive.  I hide little figurines in  small spaces and love when kids can play with decor without it being too stuffy and formal. I'm sure I'll be driven mad with phonetically-misspelled typewritten notes strewn around the house by my 5-year old but I can handle it. 

Attempts to thwart Santa from our youngest.

I also want to find a new chair to replace this one this year.  

I love our little mad men chair but it can't handle all the girly swooning it gets daily from the kids and is starting to show its age.  This little chair epitomizes 'occasional' chair and would be much better preserved in a quiet room with a cute side table.  Like a grumpy old cat who doesn't like to be pet.

I also think I need some of these yellow ball flowers in some German pottery that seem to be in every mcm design shot lately.  I have no idea where to find them but I'm willing to have them sent from some ridiculous place on the other side of the world so I can create a cool vignette like this one.   

Courtesy Brick House

A bullet planter.  This has been on my list for years.  Easy to find online but impossible to source in antique stores.  Perfect for the rotating plants that I kill on a regular basis.  Purgatory for plants, here, I tell you. 

Courtesy ModCats.com

We desperately need more light in the living room.  With such wide exterior overhangs, it's like 8pm in this room at all times.  I've been coveting this from Schoolhouse Electric for our corner teak unit - which you may not know, has a secret compartment for adult fun.

Ion Lamp in White

Why yes, that is a light globe and two lava lamps (one which might be my daughters). 

What have we here?  A secret bar?

Finally, we need a new rug,  which is strategically placed to hide the silly putty ground into it.  We purchased the current one for our very first townhouse back in 2005 for $90.  I've been on the hunt for a new rug for years but have since learned that we get ripped off on rugs here in Canada.  A decent rug is at least over a $1000 and Overstock.com won't ship rugs here. I know.  You feel sorry for me. You should send me a rug.

LP