Archive for 2010

HUNK of Burly Love

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Remember when I went all bonkers on that Craigslist guy and his stupid driftwood tables? Well, I’ve been on the hunt for some of those chunky organic looking burl wood root coffee tables for awhile now and finally scored. On Craigslist of course, different guy though.

We immediately had to take them outside for a good scrub down. Both were chock full of years of dust and dog hair, a snickers wrapper, push pins, and gum. Yuck.

BTW, these things weigh a fucking ton. I almost passed out trying to get it out of my car with The Boy, saw stars and everything, and skinned up my forearms pretty good. Great vintage always comes with pain! Speaking of pain, this Craigslist guys wife just kept yammering in my ear about kids clothes and her sister and their impending bankruptcy the entire time we were there, like one long LOUD ass run-on sentence. TMI bi-otch. I’ve had a run of a few pretty painful Craigslist visit lately, just another reminder of the crazies out and about in the Inland Empire.

It’s so hard to photograph these things. The den is like a vortex for bad photos since the space is awkwardly laid out and dim to boot. The weird curvy glass is reflecting all horrible and driving me bananas. I kind of want a square piece of glass for this thing and I’m thinking the cowhide rug is not working so well, plus I kind of am starting to hate those shelves. Now I gotta rethink this WHOLE room. Jesus Christ.

I liked the Eames elliptical table we had in the den before, but that thing is so goddamn low. How do people do it? I got tired of needing to crunch my whole body into a yoga ball every time I wanted to set down a drink.

When I talked to the Craigslist guy on the phone I originally asked just about the coffee table. He had it listed and languishing at $250 for a month. Of course I asked if he would be willing to negotiate on the price of the coffee table and he stated that he pretty much just wanted these beasts out of his house. We agreed to sell both tables to me for $100, even though I didn’t really have a place for or want the side table, but, I did take it off his hands in the end.

I stuck the side table in the pit that is our master bedroom to function as a temporary nightstand. We sold almost everything out of that bedroom and now need to redecorate, so you know that big plans are a-brewing! Too bad my sketch-up plan for it crashed and didn’t save and now I gotta start all over like a stupid jerk that doesn’t save a few hours worth of work…

Kitchen Chairs

Monday, June 21st, 2010

OK. The kitchen chair issue got solved.

I procured these fine babies off the same stylish fellows who supplied the new kitchen light. Holla!

Exterior Light

Friday, June 18th, 2010

If you somehow haven’t noticed, I really like The Ace Hotel in Palm Springs. So, when it came time to figure out some exterior lighting for the house I deferred to The Ace and the industrial lights installed outside their room doors. I loved the simplicity of the design, the industrial quality and the low, low price. Easy to source, we just went to Home Depot and bought a set of four.

Vapor Tight!

When we bought the Brick House there were no exterior lights installed, just a bunch of empty holes with cables strung through. About a year ago we tried to install some exterior lights and went TOTALLY CRAZY. The wiring was so funky that the lights would just stay on or sometimes one would shut off and two would go on and after about a week of fiddling with it we gave up. It was stupid and we were stupid.

Now that most of the painting is done (we still have a little more to go – it’s never going to end) we started talking again about the stupid exterior lights. Knowing that we were not qualified to deal with this problem we talked our electrician buddy Chris to come out and try and figure out what the hell was going on.

Installing them was pretty easy and figuring out what was wrong with the wiring was also pretty easy for Electrician Chris. I guess they were wired for Photocells or something. Whatever. We are dumb.

We did end up adding an extra light to the corner above the patio since the whole side yard is pitch black at night. Electro Chris tied this light into the other garage lights like magic! Custom shit.

I know the garage doors are all atrocious and the patio is a mess, but look, we have lights. After two and a half years of living in the dark, we have exterior light! This is a big deal. Go 2010 Year of The Exterior. GO.

We don’t have to stumble around in the dark to take out the trash anymore. Huge achievement.

Yep. They work best at night.