Category Archive: General

Steffi Strips!

January 25, 2008

Last Saturday it was snowing, so we decided to make an amateur video of Steffi stripping! ENJOY!

[jwplayer mediaid=”2615″]

Our trusted paint stripping technique starts with the heat gun to remove the easy stuff. We then use a chemical stripper to get rid of the hard parts and the detail. Lastly, we sand the remaining stain off with 180 grit sandpaper. It’s a pretty involved process (that looks easy in the video), but the results are worth all the effort.

The music is by Jack Tuttle. He has some wonderful MP3s on his website, and he even gives lessons if you are in the San Francisco area. His website is www.jacktuttle.com. Thanks Jack!

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Bungalow Travels

January 11, 2008

Between Christmas and New Years Patrick and I decided to go on a little post-holiday escape – the destination being New Orleans. I had been there with my family some 10 or 11 years ago, but Patrick had never been. The “great” thing about doing a home renovation is being able to put those big sums on the credit card. (Sounds like my mom’s favorite phrase – “the more you buy, the more you save”, hahaha.) And that’s when it pays (quite literally really) to have one of those point credit cards that lets you redeem things. So thanks to our new stove, bath tub, toilet, etc. we were able to get a couple of nights for free at the International House Hotel in New Orleans, woohoo!

On the way to New Orleans Patrick had scouted out the town of Convington, a cute historic town north of New Orleans on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain. He had narrowed it down to two Bed and Breakfast’s, so during the 7-hour drive I called the two places to make sure they had vacancies and verify their cost. We opted for Camellia House, and as an added bonus when I called back the lady told me she would even give us a discount because there would be a little bit of construction noise. Camellia House ended up being the cutest Bed and Breakfast we had ever been to! Well, the whole town is pretty cute for that matter, made up of tons of cottages and bungalow homes. Absolutely adorable!! But Camellia House and Linda (the lady running the place) were absolutely wonderful. We would recommend this bed and breakfast to everyone!

The whole experience was just great…we arrived there and were greeted by the wonderful owner. We ate dinner at Buster’s Place, a “restaurant and oyster bar.” We tried the Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat beer and loved it so much that the waitress ended up giving us two of their beer glasses (with gold rim). I liked the oysters a lot too even though I wasn’t a big oyster fan in the past. And funnily enough we ended up sitting next to ex-governor David Treen and his wife! (Louisiana governor from 1980-1984.)

Patrick wanted to add that the Camellia House also has a really nice hot tub to relax in!

Camellia House from the outside with lots of beautiful landscaping.

Camellia House Covington

Our adorably decorated room.

Camellia House Covington

The exterior was just gorgeous too – here’s a view of the pool.

Camellia House Covington

Here’s me about to enjoy a wonderful breakfast with coffee, orange juice, pastries, and fresh strawberries.

Camellia House breakfast

This table cloth from Buster’s Place was too funny I had to take a picture and post it here.

Covington ad

So after spoiling ourselves a bit with the bed and breakfast for the first night we went on to our free hotel for the next two nights. The International House Hotel is in the Business District, but just one block from Canal Street and the French Quarter. We’ve read reviews on Trip Advisor how it seemed to be a necessity to stay in the French Quarter, but we were really happy we were close but just outside of it because we realized there’d probably be a lot of noise had we actually stayed anywhere in the French Quarter. Especially since the Sugar Bowl was coming up on January 1st and all the football hooligans were starting to trickle into town and were eager to drink and party. While we were in New Orleans we did a lot of the typical tourist things like try a muffuletta at Central Grocery, have lunch and a sazerac (the “original cocktail”) at Napoleon House, have beignets and coffee at Café du Monde, having a Po Boy sandwich at ACME Oyster Bar, travel to the fancy historic Garden District by street car, do a cemetery tour, walk along Bourbon Street and enjoy a $1 street beer, listen to an awesome brass band on a street corner on Frenchman Street, visit Jackson Square, visit the 1850 house, visit Madame John’s Legacy house, take the free ferry across the Mississippi to Algiers to visit Mardi Gras World, etc, etc.

Some of the unique experiences we had were stumbling into a photography exhibit/shop that sold original photographs by masters such as Diane Arbus, Helmut Newton, etc. The most expensive photograph I saw hanging on the wall was a $175,000.00 Diane Arbus photograph. It was a little crazy standing in front of such an expensive, original piece of art work! I mean, I suppose in museums you do it all the time, but I suppose it was a little bit crazy because we just walked into this photography place (because we both love photography) and didn’t expect to enter a place that would sell original pieces from such famous photographers!

Another pretty crazy experience was going to Mardi Gras World and meeting Mr. Mardi Gras himself, Blaine Kern. This 81-year old gentleman could have easily told people he was 60 had he wanted to. We did the overpriced tour of the warehouse containing a ton of vibrantly colored Mardi Gras float materials. At the end of the tour we were told we could wander around to take photographs. To our surprise the crowd cleared out and we were the only people remaining. So we walked around, taking photographs of all the crazy motifs when Blaine Kern walked over to us and started talking to us. He told us about his new plan of starting a Halloween parade and turning New Orleans into a popular Halloween spot. The proceeds from the “Krewe of Boo” costs would go towards funding for firefighters and policemen to be brought back to the city of New Orleans after their displacement during Katrina. Quite a project to start for an 81-year old. One should also note that Mr. Mardi Gras produces 75% of the Mardi Gras floats and has turned this into a $20 million a year industry in the 60 years he’s worked on it. Quite impressive.

Playing around with old Mardi Gras items.

Mardi Gras World

Posing with Mr. Mardi Gras, Blaine Kern.

Meeting Blaine Kern

Enjoying my $1 Bourbon Street beer.

$1 Bourbon Street beer

Sugary goodness at Café du Monde.

Café du Monde beignets

After New Orleans we thought we’d take the opportunity to drive to Baton Rouge for the night. Along the way we stopped to view an overpriced plantation home. For this night we hadn’t made any hotel plans, so since we spoiled ourselves the first night of our trip we thought we’d stay at a budget motel advertised along the highway for this last night. The Motel6 turned out to be the worst hotels we had ever stayed at. Our first non-smoking room smelled so bad of an unknown odor that we opted to switch rooms. The second room turned out to be occupied by another person. The third room was next to the first room and smelled equally bad. We threw in the towel and said “let’s just stay in this room.”

After an uneventful and dead night out on a Saturday in Baton Rouge we returned to our stinky motel room. Shortly after we decided to walk next door to Super Target to buy incense to help us breathe in the room. (To our amusement the Super Target sold liquor! A no-no in Bible-belt Georgia.) The incense made the room mildly bearable. We finally went to bed, though Patrick kept tossing and turning for a while due to his horrors of the unsanitary room. In the meanwhile I attempted to block out the gross thoughts but was kept up by Patrick tossing and turning.

Finally, when we had just about dozed off, someone tried to enter our room. After telling them the room was occupied (hey, been there, done that earlier on in the night!) they left. We tried to get back to sleep only to have to receptionist call at 11:45pm asking why we were in the room and me having to explain the whole ordeal. The conversation included being “accused” of breaking into the room. Or at least that’s how I interpreted the question of “Was the room door open and you walked in?” Yes lady, I just walked into an open motel room door and made myself at home!! We once again attempted to doze off, only to be disturbed by another phone call at midnight. Needless to say I was quite annoyed by this time, and since I was half asleep again I don’t quite remember what insults I may have thrown her direction at this point. After finally getting to sleep the phone rang AGAIN at 2:00am, but whoever called hung up. Patrick was wise and unplugged the phone at this point.

After a bad nights sleep we got up early and checked out without showering, being too disgusted by the conditions to the bathroom. Patrick’s “this was the worst night ever” comment resulted in a surprisingly fast, easy and unquestioned full refund! Though this didn’t give us our hours of sleep back it at least made the stay somewhat more bearable and saved the motel from getting a horrible review on Trip Advisor. (To their benefit there was a sign posted saying they were about to start renovations to the motel, so they at least knew there was a problem.)

Being off to an earlier than usual start we went to see the USS Kidd (an old warship) and the state capitol building. The state capitol, built in 1928, was absolutely gorgeous on the inside. The free elevator ride to the top was also nice and we got a nice view of the area. We then headed back to the ATL, driving along the Mississippi coast and experiencing the damage left by Katrina. We had seen some of the impact in New Orleans. The tourist area had shown no sign of damage, but the northern area we drove under had been quite depressing. The raised I-10 bridge looked like a refugee camp underneath with one tent squeezed next to the other. The houses north of I-10 were largely occupied by FEMA trailers in the front yard. But when we drove along the coast through Bay St Louis, Gulf Port and Biloxi it was very crazy to see the obviously desirable beach front property remaining largely empty. There were lots of brick stairs leading to nowhere and lots of commercial signs with no commercial buildings left. Some houses had been rebuilt and looked stunning, but about 90% of the land was probably empty.

The rest of the ride back home was rough. We were tired from our lack of sleep the night before, so after the night time driving and dangerously thick fog along the way we were very happy to be back home and get a good night of sleep in our own bed.

Patrick mistaking the old navy war ship for a pirate ship. :)

USS Kidd

Luxurious beds in the USS Kidd.

USS Kidd

The beautiful interior of Louisiana’s state capitol building.

Baton Rouge state capitol

Tourist trap without a building.

Katrina aftermath

The mailbox to nowhere.

Katrina aftermath

Now that we had a nice trip it’s back to working on our home!

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Southwest Atlanta Neighborhoods Take on the Associated Press

December 3, 2007

Patrick wrote a response to an article recently released by the Associated Press. I’m reposting it here to maximize its visibility because I feel that it’s important to show people the slanted representation the AP article gave.

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In a syndicated article written and widely distributed by the Associated Press the southwest Atlanta neighborhood known as Westview is described as a place where all hope is lost. The article claims “house fires, prostitution, vandals and burglaries terrorize the residents left in this historic neighborhood.”

During the month leading up to the article Janna Elphinstone of the Associated Press interviewed Westview neighbors about mortgage fraud in the area. Both Westview and neighboring West End had been hit hard by mortgage fraud in previous years. The mortgage fraud led to vacant bank-owned homes, which also brought crime to the area. Looters, squatters, vandals, and burglars took advantage of the large inventory of neglected homes.

Over time new life began to emerge in the neighborhoods and an unfortunate situation turned into budding opportunity. New homeowners have begun to purchase the fixer-upper bungalows that dot the streets of Westview and West End. Because of the years of neglect many of the homes were never renovated and remain close to their original condition – large fireplaces, built-in bookcases, coffered ceilings, butler’s pantries, hardwood floors, period light fixtures, and large front porches. Change is inevitable when all of these elements are combined with below-market prices and a location only five minutes from downtown Atlanta.

When speaking with Elphinstone neighbors were delighted that someone in the press was willing to listen. They carefully explained how a bad situation was resulting in positive change. The years of hard work were starting to pay off… or so they thought.

Unfortunately, the new residents felt Elphinstone ignored the excitement and hard work put forth by the community and that she painted a tarnished image of their neighborhood. Elphinstone highlights some neighbors as “afraid to walk out of their homes at night.”

To the contrary, on a recent weekend a vibrant group of neighbors and friends met for a chili cook-off in a 90 year-old bungalow that is being restored by its owners. The party had over 50 adults in attendance and numerous children that played in the front yard. Patti Berry, who was visiting Westview, allowed her three children to eat on the front porch and play with the other children outside after dark. Other neighbors chose to stroll a couple blocks to get to the party.

While Elphinstone quoted Scott Smith, the Vice President of the Westview Neighborhood Association, that some realtors “tell [their] clients to think twice about buying here” she fails to mention how excited local realtors are about the area. Nia Knowles not only sells homes in the neighborhood, but also lives there with her family. They relocated from the East Atlanta Village to the West End earlier this year. She specializes in historic homes in West End and Westview, and she offers her clients an insider’s look at what’s happening in the area. She recommends her clients buy now while the home prices are still low.

Neighbors feel it is unfair to generalize an entire community based on a few carefully selected quotes. They assert the style of sensationalized journalism written by the AP’s Elphinstone is not only in poor taste but it creates an unrealistic point-of-view about foreclosures and crime. Repeated complaints to the Associated Press have failed to be acknowledged.

In order to set the record straight neighbors in Westview and West End decided to fight back. Neighbors, like Carl Nes from the West End, have begun to reach out to local Atlanta news agencies about the slanted article that inaccurately targeted their community. In the past Nes has had successful dialog with reporters about the West End neighborhood and he wanted to ensure his neighbors in Westview also received better treatment. Nes explained “Yes, Westview, and West End have problems, but the opportunities abound for turnaround.”

As for the twenty-two vacant bungalows on East and West Ontario that Elphinstone colorfully describes in her opening paragraph – many have been renovated and are currently for sale, and others are awaiting makeovers from the DIY crowd.

This news release is in response to an article written by Janna Elphinstone for the Associated Press. It was widely distributed by news agencies across the country: Associates Press article

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Frustration, Christmas Decorations, and a Chili Party

November 30, 2007

Ok, we fully admit it…we’ve been lazy updating our blog! But probably only because there hasn’t really been much to report. We’ve been working hard on the kitchen butler’s pantry…for about 2 months now! I honestly didn’t think it would take this long to work on it. Then we decided to throw a chili party, which made us that much more determined to finish the project before our “deadline.” Our hopes were high and we thought we would get there. We worked hard, even having house time cut into our work time – we’d apply coats of paint stripper, go back to work for 20 minutes, come back to scrape off the paint, apply another coat, go back to work, etc. We were just sailing along for a while there, excited about being so close to finishing our beautiful butler’s pantry. Then we started running into our first dilemma…the hinges. Since the rest of the kitchen is new and therefore has new drawer pulls we decided to replace the old hardware to match the rest of the kitchen. Both of the latches were broken anyway, so they would have been replaced one way or another. So we searched for ball tip hinges that would be the right size for the cut wood. But like everything else these sizes have changed over time and we couldn’t find an exact match. Finally I was thrilled to have found a very close match! House of Antique Hardware had 2.5″ x 2.5″ ball tip hinges in the door section rather than the cabinet section, so we ordered them.

By the time the hinges were getting close to delivery our hope was starting to fade. We realized we would not be able to have the entire pantry ready by the time our chili party would happen. The top glass doors needed to be re-glazed and some of the pieces of glass were broken or missing altogether and the glazing would take 2 weeks alone to dry. So we gave up on having the top glass doors ready and focused our attention on the bottom wood ones. The hinges came the Wednesday before the party. They were a tiny bit larger than the cut area, but we figured it wouldn’t be too hard to chisel away a little bit of wood to make them fit. Easier said than done. It didn’t take us long to figure out that we had not paid attention to the thickness of the hinges, which were about twice as thick! I guess door hinges are thicker than cabinet hinges because they generally have to support more weight? The extra thickness of course translated to the doors not being able to close. So we started the painstaking job of attempting to chisel a deeper cut. After a semi-successful job of getting the cut to the right height we attached the hinges and then worked on attaching the door to the cabinet. This resulted in much cursing and frustration as things weren’t lining up properly and we had to chisel away more wood from the cabinet too. When we finally got the door attached things till felt tight and were making noise. Our frustration on hurdle after hurdle finally made us decide that we just aren’t carpenters and we don’t want to ruin our butler’s pantry because we’re not capable of doing the job. So we’re at a stopping point and want to call a carpenter sometime soon to install the doors correctly.

In the meanwhile the chili cook-off day had arrived. We invited a whole range of people, varying from friends, old classmates, old co-workers, and neighbors. The guests were asked to cook their favorite chili recipe and the most voted on chili would receive a prize. Patrick and I cooked our own 8-hour crock pot vegetarian chili (in case some vegetarians would show up) and also made a nicely spiced (and spiked) cider. In the end we had about 56 people and 10 varieties of chili (other people contributed mulled wine, sour cream, cheese and salads). Patrick and I wanted to take pictures but ended up being too busy running around refilling the cider, etc that we didn’t even pick up a camera. Thankfully our wonderful friend Neil shot some…

The table with all the chili’s lined up. In the foreground was the famous “white lightning” chili made by neighbor (and neighborhood vice president) Scott Smith. Though this chili wasn’t the winner we had to give Scott a big pat on the back for having the chili with the most buzz throughout the night (due to its hot nature).

Westview Chili Party

Friends sampling the chili’s.

Westview Chili Party

Me with the photographer’s lovely new fiancée.

Westview Chili Party

Neighbors Wendy and Lori chatting with old co-workers/friends Robin and Cathy.

Westview Chili Party

Friends, West End neighbors, and siblings.

Westview Chili Party

The winner of the most voted on chili was first-time chili cooker of a mild chili, Cathy. Her prize was a chili cookbook featuring chili recipes from each of the 50 states. The runner-up was West End neighbor Carl Nes who was rewarded with the “Hot Sauce from Hell.” In the end I think everyone loved the chili cook off and we had several requests to make this an annual event. :)

So the chili party came and went (with an unfinished butler’s pantry *sniff*) and Thanksgiving came and went. On Black Friday I was determined not to step foot into any stores, so Patrick and I decided it was time to put up the Christmas tree. In past years we have felt that Christmas passed and we had never gotten into the Christmas spirit. Perhaps last year had something to do with the fact that we were probably bundled up in big winter coats scraping paint somewhere in the house! Haha. In order to get into the Christmas spirit this year we thought getting things set up early would maybe help. As we unpacked our trendy silver Christmas tree we realized we had never bought any lights for it – a silver Christmas tree with green light strings just wouldn’t work. Additionally all we seemed to have was silver Christmas balls that were left over from our green Christmas tree days. And silver balls on a silver tree just doesn’t seem to work quite so well. So we did what I had been determined not to do – we headed to Target to acquire some more fitting Christmas tree “attire.” To our surprise the store seemed more empty on this Black Friday than on regular shopping days! So we bought white Christmas strings that could disappear on the silver tree, and some colorful glass ornaments – enough to cover the tree for now (I have full intentions on stocking up when everything goes on sale after Christmas! *wink*). So here we have it…the first time we’ll celebrate Christmas in our house! :)

Livingroom with Christmas decoration

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Frank Lloyd Wright

October 24, 2007

This weekend Patrick and I went to Chicago to visit our friend Clementine and to explore the windy city. One stop we couldn’t do without was visiting one of the Craftsman Godfather’s homes: the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio.

After a long “El” ride to the suburb of Oak Park we hustled to catch the 1:20 tour. We walked up to the home just in time to see the tour leave (and the next one not being until 3:00!). Fortunately we were in luck…a group of another 5 people just missed it as well, so the lady at the ticket counter was nice enough to escort the 7 of us to join the group that had just left. The tour lady didn’t wait to show us that she was quite a bitch. When we joined the group she didn’t hesitate to inform the ticket lady that she didn’t want us to join the group and to just take us back to wait for the next tour. (In such instances I would imagine other tour guides to warmly welcome the late joiners.) Thankfully the ticket lady nicely explained to her that the next tour was not for another hour and 40 minutes, upon which the tour lady discontentedly allowed us to join. Once we entered the house and walked into the living room she told us that they didn’t display the lamps that would have been in the rooms because “YOU will knock them down” – not a nice “people could knock them down” or something less accusing…just plain old “you will.” Wow, we got accused of something before we even did it! Then when we were in the tiled dining room she freaked out at one guy and told him to close the water bottle he was holding – which was closed. Throughout the tour she asked if anyone had any questions, so at one point I was curious to see the interior of a built-in closet in the nursery and asked her if she could open it so we could see inside. All she answered was “NO!” I guess that answered that.

Overall the tour was interesting. The $12 fee was a little bit on the hefty side, but I guess we shall call it our contribution for our Craftsman passion. Based on our tour guide’s description of Frank Lloyd Wright he seems to have been quite an asshole himself. He would make his wife wear dresses he designed that would match the style of the house. Plus the fact that he left his wife and six children for a client’s wife doesn’t make him seem like a very caring gentleman either. But I suppose many influential people have their weird knack’s, so you have to separate his creativeness and what it has contributed to history from his selfish and, as our guide book put it, “not so humble” personality and life.

Here are some photos from our trip:

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home & Studio – front of the house (now facing a side street)

Frank Lloyd Wright Chicago Home

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home & Studio – side view towards studio (now facing a main street)

Frank Lloyd Wright Chicago Home

One of the “Bootleg” houses – one of Wright’s first home designs (for which he got fired by his boss)

Wright Bootleg House Chicago

Nathan Moore House (quite crazy with cathedral-like looking windows)

Nathan Moore House Chicago

Arthur Heurtley House

Arthur Heurtley House Chicago

You can see the Japanese influence on this design

Japanese influenced craftsman home

The Unity Temple (we decided against the $8 tour of the interior)

The Unity Temple Chicago

Unfortunately photography inside the home and studio were not allowed, but the interiors of his home definitely showed the influence of interiors that can be seen inside the common style bungalows with tons of wood work, built-in features, butler’s pantry, etc. (that is, unless they’ve been torn out by careless contractors wanting to make a quick buck). The pictures I’ve found online are pretty bad quality, but to get an idea: living room and dining room. The old dining room converted to the “kids’ homework room” had very nice built-ins, but unfortunately I can’t find a photo.

On our next trip to Chicago we’re going to have to find and explore the famous “Bungalow Mile”. Plus the German part of the city so I can connect with my peeps and see how much in touch they still are with their German heritage. ;-)

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