guest room in progress

Oh, hi there! Long time, no see! Let's do a home decor-type blog post, shall we?

Back in 2007, we put the home office in the room in the northeast corner of the house at the recommendation of our electrician, because it was the only one with grounded outlets. This past October, Bram had the outlets in the junk/guest room grounded, and the day after Thanksgiving we began The Great Room Migration (see that post below from November).



Real estate listing photo, February 2007
I'm only just now noticing that they totally Photoshopped out the breaker box!
... AND the outlet under it!



May 2007



June 2007



Looky here! It's a mood board-type thing! I'm a nerd.


[click to embiggen]

1 walls Behr Garden Wall 730D-4 | trim Behr Swan Wing WF-400

2 artwork from the collection, clockwise from top left | watercolor c.2005 by Jamie Chase | collotype c.1990 | two monoprints on aluminum litho plates c.1990 by Albert Fung | Public Theater poster for Silence, Cunning Exile c.1993 by Paula Scher | painting 1998 by Joey M. Robinson | painting c.1970 by Ange Banko

3 old Ikea linen curtains c.1997 | BlindsMax Timber SolarVue Solar shades - M screen in Deco Flagstone D249

4 Room & Board Hudson Storage Bed | wall-mounted nightstands by James Holmes | old Ikea lamps c.2000

5 silk and wool quilted throw | Fabrics-Store.com 4C22 100% Heavyweight Linen in Mix Natural | latex and memory foam hybrid mattress

6 FLOR Carry A Torch in Ebony

November 2016
Painting over the Thanksgiving long weekend







January 2017
New FLOR carpet tiles and bed



February 2017
New mattress; old bedside lamps; sorting through art to hang (welcome back Silence)



Remaining artwork framed/re-framed, added proper hanging hardware, hung; repaired shades for bedside lamps



March 2017
Sewed linen duvet cover + pillowcases; new pillows; installed blind + curtains on one window — had to stop when inanimate objects began conspiring against me



April 2017
Installed blind + curtains on second window; neatened up



Mr. Holmes is currently making the little wall-hung nightstand boxes. Other than hanging those when they're done, the room just needs a few more housekeeping-type things done (clear out those boxes, re-orient the marble-top, find a home for the wicker chest), so I'll end this post here.

I'll see about doing a full-on, prepped-for-guests reveal post with better pix later. Like maybe in July? ... Stacy??

Goings-on Since Friday

At the Feeder

The hummingbird feeder sat empty too long, so filled it up last Sunday. By Tuesday, it was empty — that's about 1 cup of nectar. Filled it up again.

For most of Wednesday, this ruby-throated was trying to trying to chase everyone else off.



Stupid auto-focus.

shelf project

There's a little nicho in the bathroom. All the Stamm houses had them. The shelves are glass. Who paints over removable glass shelves? (In that horrible yellow cream color?) I know, I'll just strip off the paint and we'll have glass shelves again! Stop laughing!


28 March

After the first coat of CitriStrip/scraping. Yeah, I don't care what the bottle says, you're going need to let that sit longer than 30 minutes.


29 March

Cover it with plastic (cut-up trash bags) and let it sit at least 24 hours.


29 March

Apparently someone, at some point, thought it would be a good idea to paint that thing a bright orange-red. Over mauve.


31 March

We're gonna need a bigger boat another coat. Also, probably should mask off the walls better. And take the towel bar down.


31 March

Yup, glass shelves.


1 April

They're in there real good.


1 April

Had to break the shelves to get them out. Baseball hat? Check. Long sleeve shirt? Check. Safety goggles over my glasses? Gloves? Train robber bandana over my nose and mouth? Check checkity check. It's hammer time!


1 April

After more cleanup, sanding, scraping, wood putty, more sanding.


1 April

Then 2 coats of primer, followed by 4 coats of white paint (Behr Swan Wing, to match the trim in the rest of the house), followed by no photos of any of that.

And then we had a series of dinner guests, so I dumped all my painting/stripping supplies in the bathtub and closed the shower curtain.

And then Andy was coming to visit, so I had to clear out the tub, put the towel bar back up, clean the bathroom, and get some new glass shelves.


14 May

And there you go.


14 May

The end.

Plantings and Stuff

Monica's been documenting her plantings and other assorted blooming over at Santa Fe Garden. She's outside now, I'm about to start cleaning in preparation for Andy's arrival this week.

The Apricot Flood Begins …

 

Mon's making apricot tart right now …

Update: the crust now, the tart tomorrow.

The Apricot Tree, BTW

  

Click for larger.

And It Seemed Like This Might Be The Year

Mild winter, early spring, days of 60°-plus March days … the apricot tree popped last Saturday while we were in Taos. And with the temperatures only trending up, seemed for a moment there that this might be the year the blossoms don't all freeze before they have a chance to set.

learning Google Sketchup

I thought I'd try to visualize what it would look like to get rid of our china cabinet and add some built-in (storage) seating in its place.





Now all I need is a banco, some expensive Eames chairs, a swanky drum pendant light, a new rug, and a Shaker table. Easy peasy!

I probably ...

... should call it something interior-decorator-ey like a "winter woodland" wreath.



You know, instead of calling it the "Siberian-elm-branches-I-pulled-out-of-the-pile-of-dead-brush-piled-up-next-to-the-shed-and-wired-up-into-a-ghetto-fabulous-wreath" wreath.

New Shelves, Completed

Since Mon was getting some good photos for Jim's Web site, here are the finished shelves:


Click for much larger; seemed a shame to waste all that high-res Photoshop work.

And for the truly bored curious Raph, here's how it's arranged; left to right, top to bottom:

• McSweeneys 4, 6, 7, 10, 13–19 (2 is on the signed shelf; unsure what happened to the rest); wedding pottery from Kevin and Amy, all relocated from the living room, making space for a couple Lydias
  
• painting Joey gave us as thanks for a drafting table years ago
  
• Emigre 16–32
  
• gardening books; tin of seeds
  
• home decorating/repair books
  
• assorted fiction
  
• turned wood bowl from Ange + Gary; two pottery bowls made by my grandfather
  
• the looted art library; reproduction Eastern European icon
  
• assorted travel books; Drac-in-a-Box
  
• to-read shelf
  
• trade paperbacks
  
• trade paperbacks
  
• trade paperbacks
  
• trade paperbacks
  
• trade paperbacks
  
• trade paperbacks with room for expansion; Spinney and Critter
  
• trade paperbacks
  
• oversized comics
  
• paperback books, mostly guilty pleasures

It's best not to look too closely at what's behind the doors, but at least one is collectible magazines.

Another view here; and since she was doing all the staging and rephotographing, a new one of the table Jim made a couple years back

"One Trusted with Private or Secret Matters"

The title Administrative Assistant (or Personal Assistant, I hear more working with Europe), now much more in fashion than Secretary. There's baggage that goes with the term — but its origin as one who is entrusted with keeping secrets (post's title from Dictionary.com) has a noble heritage. Jefferson was secretary of state; that's good enough for me to be secretary of our comic nonprofit.

More than a decade ago, my grandparents had the family claim the household items we wanted for when the time came. I'd already taken some photos, some arts and crafts they made, put my name on a few more, but there was only one piece of furniture that I wanted:




The secretary had always sat in the living room. Grandpa built it in 1947. Its trip to Santa Fe last month did not go well; the accompanying chair (at the left, above) sustained some damage, but a local furniture restorer was able to repair it seamlessly.

For now, it resides in the spare room, also in a bit of flux. When I got it into the house, I just started opening and closing all the drawers, looking in the little cubby holes designed for pens and pencils and stamps and letter openers and checkbooks and whatnot. It dates from a time when your office was a corner of whatever room you could fit in; but now, we've got whole room with a sprawling desk, file cabinets and bookshelves. I use maybe one check a month, bills don't get mailed. The laptop could sit on top, probably fit on the open desktop, but any co-worker can attest how hard I hit the keyboard.

I was showing it off to the furniture restorer, who just kept going on about the craftsmanship, what great shape it's in (seriously, it was like Antiques Roadshow), how he wanted to shake Grandpa's hand. Just oil and take care of it, and it would outlast us all — it's the kind of piece that becomes an antique.

There's a separate bookshelf unit for the top that I'm admittedly conflicted about. We don't need shelves there. It's very, very Colonial. And, really, it changes the whole nature of the piece; I enjoy the compactness of it, its dimensions without the shelves. Originally I had thought to repurpose the shelf unit — the way the wood from the coffee table I also wound up with was repurposed from a TV cabinet. But after the restorer's comments, I don't know if I should break up the set.

I oiled it today, moved it to its location for the foreseeable future. For now, the secretary is kind of awaiting its purpose. Some of the domestic office work may find its way there, or it may wind up being for guests. It's proven itself trustworthy, and somehow it'll find its way to handling private and secret matters again.

Well, it is the Herb Bed

Sparkler in the Snow

'Cause why not? You've got a couple sparklers you found in road some months back, and a little bit of snow left.

-=-=-=-=-

Also, I remember Marfa before it was a tshirt subject at Sundance. And before Wikipedia, for that matter.

Living With Art, Furthermore

She's a much better fit in many ways, but there's still some discussion.

Part of the appeal is how she looks with the winter sunset; but here's a more straightforward shot.



Plus it has the dog.

Speaking of which; even though this is appealing, I'm not sure it's going to work to (or is even necessary to) clean our Greyhound.

One Ring to Rule Them All?

The dog, who never does such things, started digging in what used to be the garden. This is what she unearthed.

Living With Art, Continued

Everyone was agreed — even Jamie — that though the painting's great, it wasn't right for the room. It just took us a couple years to get around to looking for another one.

And then it wouldn't fit into the car, the one we both liked and want to try. But we couldn't let the wall go bare until we can get someone with a truck to transport the square painting we're looking at.

Note: above, obviously not hanging yet, and upside down.

New Year's

Not pictured: dog.

Happy one, everybody.

The Tree, Christmas

For years, I resisted getting a tree in our little apartment in Arlington. When we moved to the condo, Monica prevailed; the first year, decorating with P+T was, I think, the origin of the traditional Christmas Tree Decorating Trader Vic's Mai Tai.

But the decorating aesthetic, that was a point of contention — simple and elegant or a haphazard mishmash of the assorted ornaments acquired over the years? I was a proponent of the latter and, once Monica made it Connecticut for Christmas one year and experienced Joan and Ken's tree, she saw the light.

For as long as I can remember, they've had an impossibly large tree that dominates a corner of their house, pressing against the ceiling and spilling out into the room. And it's covered, covered with decades of ornaments of all shapes and sizes. It makes for a giant, warm, family Christmas display. Since then, our quest was for Joan-and-Ken-ness in our (definitely smaller) tree, and they've been happy to help by providing ornaments.

So, then, that first year we had Cheyenne, we finally left her alone after about a week. Just for an hour or so to go out to dinner. And when we returned, she'd pulled a bunch of ornaments off the tree and "collected" them. To this day, she still collects things, bringing them to her bed in the bedroom, giving them a few chews, and leaving them. When it's socks, or fabric, or those Envirosax (she loves those), it's not really a big deal. Glass ornaments, or ones with pins or made of wood — that's reason for worry. We undecorated the tree immediately that night.

And last year, wondering what to do, never really quite got around to making a decision about having a tree. This year, we did buy one and, wondering if we should pull out some ornaments, put up the lights and garland. And by then, it was late and the tree looked just fine and bright and safe for houndies. And so it stood this year, but for a couple of Joan and Ken's recent ornaments, a photo of their tree from last year, and a few birds Monica made, to watch over our celebrations.



-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

M+D arrived into Santa Fe Airport last Tuesday afternoon; Monica was off for a few days to bake last week, but I was working.

Christmas Eve we spent catching up on stuff and preparing for the coming days; after a visit to deliver cupcakes, M+D headed back out for the Farolito Walk. Ribs for dinner, then Jon and Susanne joined us to help with all the cookies that Monica baked and M brought.

Christmas day began with pastries from Clafoutis, presents mostly of the warm and fuzzy clothing variety (and a skunk fetish to commemorate the year), and a dog walk. Then over to Stacy and Jim's for Christmas dinner with Bernice. Who made Cheyenne a sweater!



A good time, wonderful dinner (the pheasant came to the table as breasts, no beaks in sight) and dessert, a lot of fun visiting. And some planning for our taping of Mouth of Wonder on Monday — which took some extra work, because it's an extra half-hour.



Sunday, we headed out for brunch at Tesuque Village Market and then, at J+J's suggestion, to Ohkay Owingeh for the Turtle Dance there. Been years since we'd gone to the dances and with actual activities on Christmas, made more sense to go the following day. Over an hour there, in the warm day, following the lines of dancers as they moved around the town square. Home to rest up for a soak, and then dinner.



Monday, we recorded the show — listen in to hear our favorite Web foodie sites, my interview with Stacy, and M and Stacy planning out brunch. You can tune in to 101.1 FM or catch the stream this Saturday, 10:00 MST.

Tuesday, we checked out the History Museum and spent some time with the amazing documents at Threads of Memory. Posole for dinner.

Wednesday, M+D got delayed flying out SFE because of poor visibility with the incoming storm; cleared enough that they were still able to get out and make their (also delayed) connection and get home. We headed out to Secreto with Rob for some visiting.

Yesterday and today held a lot of loafing, kicked off by all sleeping in as the snow fell yesterday morning. Starting Wednesday night, accumulation was 4-5"; subfreezing temps have made for some nasty going out there. Piled on the long underwear; dog got two jackets for this morning's walk.

Planning on reading the whole 100 Bullets straight through (in anticipation of adding it to this year's top ten) sitting in front of a fire, a quiet evening in. Jon and Susanne over tomorrow. That's the plan.