Archive for the ‘before’ Category

Thrifty!

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Oh my.

I just checked and the last time I went thrifting was in May – and come on that didn’t even really count. I mean I went to one estate sale and one thrift store on the way home which is pretty much like not going at all, you know, like dog years are to human years – two months not thrifting is like two years to me. Damn you crazy day job schedule!

On the way home from a botched trip of fun I made The Boy stop at my favorite Salvation Army in hopes of beating some traffic. I blame him. He found this painting of Captain Seaman or whatnot and pointed it out to me. Even though a moratorium was placed on buying any new art, I just couldn’t resist.

Look at that wee little child molester mustache and the lazy eye. Classic.

In order to show off Captain Cool Guy’s installation here is a sneaky peek at how the master bedroom is shaping up. The new dresser is chillaxing, waiting for an oily rub down and the bed is in some desperate need of attention. Still have a lot to do, but hopefully it turns out all right.

Anyone have a source for a perfect light gray duvet? That is super affordable and awesomely simple. Speaking of, why are bed linens so fugly and expensive!?

FILED UNDER: art, bedroom, before, decorating, thrifting, thrifty, vintage

58 Comments »

Tank

Friday, July 16th, 2010

I know it’s a bit premature (since the side yard is nowhere close to being ready to install the pool) but we went ahead and got ourselves a 10 foot galvanized livestock tank.

We were planning on restoring and painting the garage doors on my single day off this week, but since it’s been a 100 plus degrees for some time I think my brain may have got a little fried from being overworked, overstressed and totally overheated. Pretty much I just said fuck it, there is no way we sanding and painting garage doors in this heat and we aren’t driving two hours to the beach and I need to swim RIGHT NOW.

We went over to the local tack and feed store to pick out a tank and I was super disappointed to see that the 8 foot galvanized tanks were gone. The owner informed us that there was no chance of getting another shipment in for months and months and months…shit.

I had recently gotten a couple quotes from BH Tanks to have a custom tank made like this one; at about $1,300 – $1,500 it was out of our budget. We settled on this 10 foot biggie and at about $500 it was a little bigger and more expensive than we originally planned. We had to go home and remeasure the side yard to make sure it would fit – and with the yard at 16 feet wide the 10 footer is going to be a better fit.

Until we get the side yard cleaned out and ready to go, plumb out the tank and order our salt water pump and filter we are just going ahead and filling that bitch up. Total ghetto Hemet style our above ground pool out on the back patio. No filter, no chemicals, just an old fashioned cowboy style dipping trough. When the water gets too filthy to stand we are draining the tank into our sad and overheated grapefruit tree.

The Boy even went more ghetto style and brought in a folding plastic chair to sit in while in the pool. Classy.

I must have spent three hours soaking and swimming around in there and it was AWESOME. SO AWESOME. Seriously worth every penny – that’s how happy I was. I haven’t been that elated or relaxed in a long time – the Boy got his TV and I got me a pool. Now at least when we are doing projects outside in the 100 plus degree heat we can jump in the tank for a little cool down and get back to work.

I’m betting that we can get the side yard going since, big announcement, the long arduous battle that has been the exterior painting is ALMOST DONE. So close. So very close.

FILED UNDER: before, exterior, pool

53 Comments »

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.