for the love of thornhurst

back in the high life, again.

2011-09-28T14:00:00.000-04:00

I've taken on a new approach to blogging here at Love of Thornhurst. And that is to try doing it. After a long spell of not posting, it seems like we owe you something bigger than just an update, so I kept putting it off. And after all that, I'm just going to give you an update.

In the coming months, we've decided to take a step back on the big projects and try to get a little more settled within the space we already occupy. However, over the last year, we've completed some big jobs and some little jobs that acted more like big jobs. So, in the coming weeks, I'm going to do my best to get some pictures up here and then we'll try to keep things moving in the future.

Looking forward to hearing your kind & encouraging thoughts and comments about our future posts! As you well know, I don't pretend to be democratic with comments on my blog. It's about my home - and assuming people would never say something insulting in person while actually in my house - I don't allow rude or insulting posts in my house's blog. This is really a non-issue, since Lovers of Thornhurst are notoriously kind people. But I'm sure you understand, that it's really so we don't hurt the house's feelings. It's getting older and little more sensitive in its middle age.

Blogging soon....

finished slate entry

2011-02-19T16:49:00.002-05:00

Well, I finished this 5 months ago and am just now posting a photo. I am trying this from my phone so bear with me.

Free slate from era-appropriate home, ~$50 of supplies, and about two half days of work makes for a stylish entry. Much nicer than the astroturf that preceeded it.

new old slate

2010-09-13T18:04:00.004-04:00

Picked up some free slate taken out of a 50s/60s era home last year. Come to the tour this Saturday to see where we put it.

new url

2010-09-13T12:43:00.000-04:00

we took the plunge. we bought a url for the blerg.

you can now read all about our house at

www.loveofthornhurst.com

or you can find us right you always have at

courtneysblerg.blogspot.com

either way, we hope you'll stick around!

Mid-Century Mindyourbusiness

2010-09-09T00:22:00.000-04:00

Now, I didn't know Avriel Shull personally and I'm going to go ahead and venture a guess that most of my readers didn't either due to basic laws of physics involving time or space constraints. But I do know that she wasn't a saint, that my house isn't a shrine, and that she built the damn thing so that people could live in it.

That said, I LOVE this house. L-O-V-E this house. I love this house. My husband loves this house. When my children grow up, I think they will love this house. We bought this house for these reasons:

It was this house.

our house was painted these colors circa 1990

Charlie let us.

Tonight i came across the first mean comment I've found about our house. It was on the internet, and since I also have the internet, I found it. Anonymous said something to the effect of "That new paint job is really ugly! The old colors were better because they were old! Yuk!" (Anonymous spelled yuck incorrectly, not me. I just wanted to give you the full effect so you could really get to know what sort of person Anonymous is.) Youch! You really hurt my feelings, Anonymous!

My mother always taught me that the real reason we don't say anything if we can't say anything nice is because the person will likely find out and we'll probably say something stupid to boot leaving us really feeling dumb. To simplify for you Anon, you said something not nice and you were misinformed when you said it which leaves you looking mean & stupid. All in one shot.

our snazzy door

Here's the deal: The colors Anon apparently loved so much (but never actually saw in person) were not the original colors. The original house colors were along the lines of beige, peachy beige and burnt orange. We liked the burnt orange so we brought it back. (Note our snazzy door, Anon.) Choosing exterior paint colors is hard. The light changes the colors about every hour. Not to mention seasonally. We did the best we could with our first shot. We think it looks pretty good.

choosing from over 20 paint swatches

We made some tough choices too - like reducing the paint colors from 3 to 2. Risky, I know, but we thought it helped showcase the beautiful architectural detailing in the windows & roof line. Maybe in the future we'll tweak it a bit, but painting a house is expensive and time consuming, so for now, it's sticking.

The primary reason we painted our house was because the last paint job was all but peeled away. As mentioned above, we love our house, so we cared for it by sanding, scraping, and washing down 50 years of cracking paint so that the siding might make it 50 more.

Here's the other deal: Lately we've been reading a LOT of unkind words written on the internet about people's homes. We think this is not nice at all. We want to be sure that our readers know now that we believe houses are for living in and that most people do the very best they can with the resources they have. Owning an Avriel Shull house is a big responsibility, maybe even more so than a "regular" home. And we, like most people are doing the very best we can with the resources we have - including our stylistic sensibilities. This home is like a child to us. We pour every extra ounce of energy we have into making it beautiful, safe, and healthy.

So please, next time you feel like making a mean comment about our house, don't. And if you do, you won't be invited over to enjoy this fabulous house we live in. Because we, not you, own it. Which means we can do whatever we want here. Which is, I guess, the moral of this posting.

modern living made beautiful by the husband...

2010-09-02T10:02:00.000-04:00

you can see so much more at: a phlog.: a kitchen in use

what's black & white & all over our basement?

2010-08-24T13:48:00.000-04:00

Oh how naive we were...in previous posts, we ranted about the rooms & rooms of wallpaper throughout our house. we now know that NEWSPAPER UNDER WALLPAPER ON CINDERBLOCK BASEMENT WALLS is the true test of a home owner's commitment.

extra, extra.

Our best guess is that it was for insulation or to help the wallpaper stick - whatever the reason, this paper is very hard to get off the walls.

Along with removing this 1979 edition of The Indianapolis News, we've torn out the tiled ceiling, pulled up the indoor/outdoor orange carpet, scraped, washed, and sealed the walls.

Zach ready for the worst which incidentally, once planned for, did not ensue.

Sooner than later we'll have a totally rad hangout, increasing our living space by almost 50%. Come on over! (Not really. We still have a LOT of work to do.)

Zach's fans, also a nice before shot of the grass cloth paper & orange carpet. Oh! And what's that? Yes! You're correct if you guessed the answer was a chair rail and molding nailed into cinderblock walls. For a finished look.

Jarts: You know... For kids!

2010-08-15T08:38:00.003-04:00

A lovely piece of memorabilia left for us by the Hubleys.

vintage thermador oven & range

2010-07-29T09:53:00.002-04:00

Made an interesting find today...

We don't have room to keep this, so if anyone is interested, let us know!

new house colors - preview

2010-06-15T10:49:00.003-04:00

Finally our house is a new color! While we're putting on the finishing touches and writing an in-depth blog post, take a look at a preview image...

--Zach--

it's new to us...

2010-05-12T18:39:00.007-04:00

Hand-me-down furniture is nice. A hand-me-down Viko swivel chair is even better. My grandmother bought this chair around 1964. While moving recently, my great aunt found it and passed it along to us, knowing how great it would be in our house. Thanks, Sis! It's the perfect addition to the office!

The side table was also from my grandmother's house. This table proves that my wife is much more forward-thinking than I am. I didn't immediately see its potential, but as it sits in our house, I must admit that I really like how it fits. Once we replace the old contact paper on top, it will really be a great piece.

We also found this footstool in the garage that was going to be sold. Turns out my dad made it in high school shop class in the 60's. It does seem to have some MCM characteristics. I guess there must be some Danish genes in our line somewhere.

It's always tempting to spend a lot of time and money on furniture. But by waiting for things to come to us, we've been very lucky in finding some furniture that not only fits our house and style well, but also has an interesting back-story.

-- Zach --

Now. About those shelves...

2010-05-06T22:49:00.000-04:00

We made some pretty kickass shelves for our living room a month or so ago. Here are some pictures.

First, we chose some beautiful wood. I picked each piece. The guy at Lowe's thought I was nuts. He did not have my vision.

Then we chose a dark walnut stain. It took about 3 coats to get the look we wanted. I enjoyed it immensely.

I look really stupid in the following picture (which almost never happens. cough) BUT I think it's a cool pic by Z.

Thanks, Minwax. For making our shelving dreams come true.

While the shelves were drying, we were getting cold feet over the chosen brackets. Always budget conscious, we picked a style that best appealed to our modern sensibilities, but also fit our price point. Which is usually almost free. Then we painted them black.

In the end, we took the leap and it turned out fantastically. Here's Z installing them with a "little" help. Puns always win!

And you can see the final results in our MCM baby post. A classic ZDP image.

All of them level, in line, and beautiful. And extraordinarily affordable.

North Magazine

2010-04-24T11:15:00.000-04:00

North Magazine's Sherri Cullison wrote a nice little story on Christie's Thornhurst in the home and family section of the April/May issue.

You might recognize the home featured here. It's ours! You can read the article at North Mag's Site or buy a copy at the northside Barnes & Noble store.

Special Thornhurst friends also made an appearance: Baz MCM of the ever popular Atomic Indy blog shared his expertise. And Joe Shoemaker, of MacDuff Realty Group, is a modern home real estate machine and honestly a real treat to be around. And not just because he brought cookies.

Zach did the pictures of course. We used a few of them to update the scenery of the blog. We hope you'll find an issue to peruse. Enjoy Thornhurst readers!

MCM Baby

2010-03-09T09:11:00.001-05:00

A Mid-century Modern baby...

We'll be posting more detail soon about the new built-ins.

New Old Lights in Kitchen

2010-03-07T11:46:00.000-05:00

We had been without a light above the sink for about 10 months, which didn't seem like a big deal until you found out in the morning that those pots & pans you washed the night before weren't quite as clean as you remembered.

On Saturday I realized that we had these old lights sitting in the basement, so might as well clean them up and use them.

I had hesitated to do anything with these because I thought they had rust, but it turned out to just be a little dirt. This was already looking easier than I expected.

Disassembling the lights went quickly in spite of some hard-to-reach bolts.

Old wiring. Gross. The sockets were still in good shape.

Note: Ace Hardware has these in stock for $4.50 ea. I opted to keep the originals, though.

After a quick sanding, the lights were ready to go. I wanted to make sure I didn't get paint inside the lights since the bare metal has a nice look. Solution: Roll up a cereal box and put it in the cone. It was much easier than taping would be and still allowed me to get the bottom edge of the light.

I finally bought myself some wire strippers, which was a worthwhile purchase. $7.50 at Ace.

Success! Ace Metallic spray paint: $5.99. New wiring: 60¢

Looks pretty good! Finally, we'll have some clean dishes.

The Ace Hardware in Carmel is a fantastic place. Every single person there knows what they're talking about. Even though they're 1/20th the size of those larger places, they have just as many staff there and everything you could need to complete a project. If you live in Carmel, go to Ace for everything. If not, find a locally-owned hardware store in your area. You'll find a much more knowledgeable staff.

--Zach--

Sledding at Thornhurst

2010-02-12T15:00:00.000-05:00

Super fun sledding madness with 9 month old. Awesome!

Life Lessons Through Plumbing

2010-01-18T08:48:00.000-05:00

In my inaugural post to this blog, I plan to write not a step-by-step tutorial on how to fix a leaky faucet, but to talk about the greater life lesson I learned through the experience. We've all heard the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Typically, people use this phrase in the figurative sense, like when talking about a sitcom formula or mortgage-backed securities. However, I've learned to think of it in the literal sense.

It started with a leaky hot water faucet stem in the bathtub. A Google search lead me to various sites that showed me it was probably a failed faucet washer. At only 59¢ I decided to buy two in case the other side should decide to go out. 10 minutes or so after arriving home, the hot water side is fixed. No leaks! "That was easy," I think to myself. "I might as well replace the the cold water side, too." [pause for audience groans] This is where Mike Birbiglia would say, "I know... I'm in the future also."

The details are a bit hazy, but suffice it to say, after a severely magled bolt (see Exhibit A), a new tool (Exhibit B), and a new valve stem (Exhibit C) - by the way, did you know there are multiple companies that make faucets, and therefore, faucet stems? - we're back to where we started minus 2 hours, $20 and 50 sanity points. Well, this investment of time and money was worth it to learn the literal meaning of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Exhibit A - The item formally known as "Faucet Stem Bonnet."

Exhibit B - Shower Valve Socket Wrench - a very handy and inexpensive tool

Exhibit C - New faucet stem - $13.97 at Lowes

Scene setter.

Dobson, Zach. Mistake!. 2010. digital file on blog.

The only part that actually needed to be replaced.

Dobson, Zach. Relief!. 2010. digital file on blog.

--Zach--

christmas at thornhurst

2009-12-21T09:57:00.000-05:00

so looking forward to our 2nd christmas in our house. we started the tradition last year of having a live, giant tree in our living room & a second flocked christmas tree in the dining room. that is all the lights we did this year. couldn't come up with a plan i felt worthy of the outdoors. our flocked tree was actually a gift from avriel shull to the original owners so it's always fun to have that one here. I'll add a pic of the flocked tree later. but here's a beautiful view of our live one, courtesy of my hubbs zach.

merry merry days ahead to all of you!

Remembering Charlie

2009-11-10T10:21:00.000-05:00

The original owner of our home passed away about a week ago & I wanted to take a moment to write a little about him. He was such a kind man who took such an incredible pride in his home.

Mr. Hubley & his wife, Ethel built this house in 1956 with Avriel Shull. They were the first couple to purchase a custom built home from her. When we first met, he invited us over to see his house, but not because he was interested in selling. Just because we might like to see it.

We WERE seriously interested in buying it from the start & had actually approached him for just that reason. But he was steadfast in his desire to stay in his home of 52 years. As weeks went by, we made multiple visits to his (our) house. Over time, he and his family decided it might be time for him to move.

I sincerely feel that we were "chosen" to by Mr. Hubley to be the next owners of our house in Thornhurst. He seemed to trust that we truly appreciated the architecture & history of the neighborhood. He was not entirely unique in being the original home owner of this house. Many of the original home owners have only recently passed or moved from the neighborhood. They all take great pride in their place in local history.

Buying a house directly from the previous owner is a unique experience that could certainly go poorly - but we were incredibly lucky in that our experience was a good one. Mr. Hubley left us a ton of useful stuff to get started as new homeowners. And he had an open invitation to visit our house. It was always fun to have Charlie visit & he was so happy to be here. My favorite visit was when I looked out the bedroom window one morning to find him checking out the shed.

As a final gesture, Mr. Hubley apparently told his sons that he had seen we were using his front porch furniture & he had taken a few pieces with him to his new home when he moved. He asked his kids to be sure that we got the remaining furniture to complete our front porch set. And these were the best pieces so we are thrilled to have them displayed on our front porch.

I hope he did feel he made the right choice, to pass on this home to us. We are so lucky to have our home!

I know I'm a terrible blogger but

2009-11-09T14:27:00.000-05:00

BAZ MCM is not. If you haven't visiting Atomic Indy ever or even lately, you should. He's got a real blog with everything a blog should have. Have a looksee & if you likesee, then you should totally vote for Atomic Indy as Indiana's Top Blog.

That's all for now. Except, have you ever seen this many leaves i

n one place? It's like my trees are out to smother me in a slow & soft cushiony fashion. Woah! Props to the big Z for picking *most* of these up. I did some too - as demonstrated in the picture below.

July is flying by

2009-07-20T12:55:00.000-04:00

After a long weekend of work in the back yard I realize that I have once again failed to update the blog! And so, I'll have pics of my snazzily upgraded patio shortly but for now, I'm going to back track and share some fun projects from the past few months.

First up: the mid-century modern dresser come media center. We took up a friendly free-cycler's offer to utilize this dresser sans drawers as we saw fit. The before:

I have decided on royal blue as an accent color in our living room (I'll show you the pillows, throws, & tchotchkes another time). So we went for blue interior on the case. Here's the after:

And here it is in use in our living room:

I know, I know. It's been a long time!

2009-06-25T13:05:00.000-04:00

Thanks for all your friendly reminders about the lack of updates to my blog. In case you were unaware, I had the small task of bringing a new person into this world just 6 weeks ago & therefore was a little busy for a while. Give me a break! Geez!

So here's a picture of the new addition & I'll get back to the all important house updates shortly!

the garage has benefitted from my nesting instincts

2009-03-19T10:16:00.000-04:00

Finally! I have a place for our tools & paint supplies & all the stuff we use all the time updating this house. Here's the after photos from a long day of hard work. It only took me 3 days to recover. At least everything is off the floor! Once I get the work bench cleaned off it will really be organized...

Baby on board

2009-03-10T16:07:00.001-04:00

The first of our spring projects, we have finally started the work on the baby's room.

Here is Zach prepping the wood work & walls.

Bowski holding down the drop cloths.

Greta picking the paint colors & testing out the bedding.

And here is the color we chose. Ocean Wave by Valspar. It is even brighter than it looks but should be great with the furniture we have ordered. Zach wanted a super fun environment for his baby boy :) Very exciting!

little ado at thornhurst

2009-01-15T14:51:00.001-05:00

the holidays were lovely in our new home and we added a new member to the family: the big dude pictured below is NUTS!

here you can see exactly how our cat feels about this new guy.

and here are some pics from yesterday's snow. the house really stands out from the road with the pine trees down. we're looking forward to the spring when we can add back in some landscaping & vegetation and remove the ivy (keeping fingers crossed).

oh pine trees, oh pine trees...

2008-12-01T18:36:00.000-05:00

...we tore you down just in time for chistmas.

Watch as Richie chops & my dad pulls then runs. In my nephew's words, "That's the fastest I've seen Grandad move in a long time."

it's official - zach's floor is done

2008-10-29T19:08:00.000-04:00

First things first, we did finish the dining room to match our living room. Here's Zach working & the final product. Now all we need is a dining room set. Until then, Grandma's formica will do!

Zach worked on his floor in his office last week too. This is so exciting because the floor makes such a difference to the room. The original floor was cork tile, all brown and laid in a random pattern.

We stuck with a random pattern to be true to the house. Then chose composite vinyl tile made by Congoleum to keep with the feel. To liven things up a little though, we chose a contrasting color scheme to match our slate tiled entry.

Here's my dad replacing the floor boards once they'd been sanded & patched with matching wood filler. There was carpet installed when we moved in & a glue residue had remained.

And here it is all complete! This was midnight project for Zach. Greta & I awoke to a gorgeous new floor :) Again, she offered her paw of approval.

a living room all our own

2008-10-26T18:45:00.000-04:00

Nothing makes you feel more at home than a living room set up like it's actually YOUR living room. I was really excited to get this room done, since this is where we do the majority of our, you know, living.

Here it is all prepped for some color:

Zach's mom came to help and we got a huge amount of work done while she was here. Also, my mom & dad put some time in too!

Here's Zach relaxing at night with our newspaper "curtains" since we took down the old ones. Not sure what we'll do until I make the new ones...

And here is our first really ugly color. I tried for one shade lighter in the living room than what we'd be using in the dining room. Most of the time, this tactic works beautifully, this time not so much. It sort of looked like mint tums or a hospital ward. Not exactly the feel I was hoping for.

Thankfully, that was the first coat and because the other color was only one shade darker on the same paint strip, we were able to coat the room with only the already anticipated second coat. Porter Scarborough was the ultimate shade.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that on the season finale of "Mad Men" that Trudy & Campbell have the same color in their Manhattan 60's living room. Snazzy!

guest bedroom, more than meets the eye

2008-10-16T17:22:00.000-04:00

Well, we kicked it back into high gear in October & got a ton of stuff done! After removing the wallpaper early in the month, we were ready for painting. My dad volunteered his help to get things done before Zach's mom was scheduled to visit.

In order to paint these rooms, it really took a lot of prep work so each room really took quite a bit longer than you might think. However, in this household, we do things right the first time. (This may be of particular interest to any future buyers - if this blog still exists at that time in the distant future.)

Anywho, after the wall paper peeling, wall washing, woodwork fixing, wall patching, & priming, we were ready to paint. We've found a particularly good sequence of painting when doing these rooms: trim, walls, walls, trim.

And when all was said & done, we had a cozy little guest suite for Mom-in-Law. Note how Greta took to it right away. We chose another porter paint color, Tempered Steel.

Long Time Coming

2008-10-12T13:35:00.000-04:00

This post is waay overdue. And just when I'm starting to gather some readers. Well, after we spent most of September removing more & more overgrown bushes & itty bitty trees we have finally moved inside. First, a look at all removed in the month of September. You can now see our house!

Our cars were nearly trapped in our garage:

Then we had a storm & helped our neighbors by adding the wreckage to our pile for pickup. Enormous tree limbs were all over their driveway. Luckily, they park in the garage!

Zach got some extra use out of the chainsaw that day. We had to chop up the branches to be able to move them off the driveway.

Our efforts inside this fall have gone more smoothly. And, it's much better for the renovator's spirit to be able to start a project and see it finished within a reasonable amount of time. Our goal for the landscaping & curb appeal of our house is fall of next year, 2009. Our goal for the main floor inside is much sooner - spring!

So we begin with another bedroom. More wallpaper to be removed & it actually came off quite smoothly. Here's me working the steamer.

Then Zach:

We also decided to remove the top layer of wallpaper from our small bath to let the original show for the time being. Way far out - I'll be imitating something similar with paint when we get to the refurb here. Unfortunately, the paper isn't in good enough condition to leave it up long term.

And finally, I updated my snazzy little desk, donated to us by the former owners with some pretty turquoise fabric. Very easy & makes me smile. Again, a project sort of complete. It feels good, no just for some newer pulls & it will be quite a desk to see!

nobody's house is going to change.

2008-09-12T21:10:00.000-04:00

Budget, time, & energy constraints seriously limit the development of my home's renovation. In my mind, I have the plans made. But in reality what I see are only tasks undone. This tree, along with its siblings are the just pangs in my heart when I arrive home. I walk outside to take in the wonder of owning this fabulous home on this fabulous lot in my own hometown and then I see the trees. There they are.

anti-climatic yard work

2008-09-06T22:51:00.000-04:00

We took on the unbelievable task of finding our yard this weekend. After a summer of focusing on the inside of the house, the outside went out of control. Seriously, it's complete anarchy.

So we went tyrant on this place & borrowed my dad's chainsaw. Here's some of the fun:

our backyard before

(please ignore the mysterious, perfectly rectangular brown spot in the foreground. we have no idea where this came from. we even tried to think about it & came up with nothing. we thought, "was it from a tarp?" but no, we can't find our tarps. then, "was it paint?" but why would there be paint in our yard. finally, we considered the possibility that it was some sort of bomb shelter. ala "blast from the past", unfortunately, the ground was soft. and after a good de-thatching (i'm becoming quite the gardener) we have new growth.)

our backyard after. see our house? wow!

"yew" bed before

our garage after.

and this is the pile we started with. wait until you see it in my next post.

It's a Jungle Out There. And Over There. And Over There Too.

2008-08-20T10:52:00.000-04:00

Finding a giant Katydid last night reminded me that I have a slew of pictures of our jungle yard. We've been blessed so far with multiple praying mantises that eat our insects (and each other incidentally) and cicadas. The cicadas & crickets are so noisy that almost every night I check our window to be sure it's actually shut. It is, but they sound like they're right inside the room.

We've removed quite a bit of brush from around the house. We have a LOT of plant life to maintain & because the house was pretty much unoccupied during the busiest plant growth season of the year, we had a lot of work to do.

On the bright side, I got to use our snazzy turquoise wheel barrow.

Where can you find one of those these days? I also have a matching turquoise wall paper smoother (or whatever they're called). And! They both match my grandma's table.

Well, as I mentioned, we live in a virtual suburban jungle. Ivy galore:

Much of the brush we pulled out was actually ivy we've removed from our trees to keep them healthy and strong. Ivy doesn't get nutrients from the trees but the vines are heavy and weigh down the branches and block much needed sunlight from the lower parts of the tree. We were able to get off the bottom portion of our tree's ivy, but on one, we had to wait until it died to remove it any further. Some of the vines were literally inches thick.

Finally we pulled out most of our wood ties. The plan is to remove them all, but some have completely melded with the dirt below & require some surgery.

There's still more to do, but we got off to a great start. Thanks to our buddy Andy for hauling this junk away & removing of it so that it didn't go to a landfill. If you'd like his number, he does all sorts of lawncare & is very good at maintaining yards all over our city.

Thornhurst Friends & Milk

2008-08-18T20:39:00.000-04:00

We've been busy the past couple of weeks with visitors to our new home. First we had the crazy monkey triplets in their family van. We had a picnic on the front lawn & experienced ants in our pants first hand.

Posing for their big Thornhurst debut...

Then we were graced with Zach's long time friend, Jake, for a two night visit. We didn't have a room for him ready but luckily we found him a place to stay. Here they are enjoying the olympic girls gymnastics team competition.

And finally, what would our blog be without an update on the CAT. She is my absolute best & until I have children, my reason for being home on time every night. Here I am (making a rare appearance on the blerg) viewing her lovingly while she emminently domains the clean laundry basket.

As Zach says, a cat bed cannot be made, it must be found.

OH! And how could I forget the milk cat. Seriously. This has nothing to do with our house, but I had to share it.

cat in bathroom

2008-08-05T13:11:00.000-04:00

Greta has officially manipulated her way into having her own bathroom. She likes it so much she took a nap in there last week.

After much ado, she decided that she would much better like it if she did NOT have to go all the way to the basement to potty. At the advice of our vet, we're letting her get to know the first floor before she's relegated to the basement.

We're parking in the garage.

2008-08-01T21:28:00.000-04:00

That is the big news for tonight! I realize that I am long overdue for a post, but we have been hard at work getting the garage & yard into working order. And the yard has a loooooong way to go! So, I'll focus on the garage for now.

To begin with, we had a very sturdy, solid wheelchair ramp to contend with before we could even think about parking our cars in the garage. (Oh and a bunch of our own crap too.)

I grew up with meticulously maintained garages - moms that dropped me off were always asking, "Is your Dad reorganizing the garage?" or "Did your parents just paint the garage?". It was strange, because they always looked so good. No matter, it's what I learned to expect & so one of our first projects has ended up being the garage.

So this tiny doorstep was residing underneath the big ramp & stairs, thankfully. Our only carnage was a small piece of molding that tore off in one strip - soon to be restored.

Here's Zach working on cleaning up a light.

And then my dad, vaccumming up the considerable sawdust created from removing the steps.

He's only asked me about 16 times if we had the garage painted yet. I was pleased to report that tonight, we finally had it painted & cars in their rightful spots.

So in the end, we had nice white walls & ceiling (I did paint the peg board to start with a clean fresh look). It took almost 4 days of painting & cleaning, 2 gallons of primer, & 3 gallons of paint. That does not count the afternoon of demo in early July. Or the 2nd coat I honestly need on the ceiling.

Close to finished product:

painted rooms

2008-07-16T18:59:00.000-04:00

Well. We have finally completed the painting in a couple of rooms...the hallway & entry AND the master bedroom. Hooray! Here are the results:

These photos do not accurately reflect the color of the rooms. Please don't write to me about how I'm ruining this mid-century modern house with my paint colors. I believe in preserving the house as much as possible but I also firmly believe that most architects want their house to be LIVED IN. And enjoyed.

That being said, I did pick colors that I think will do the house justice. The gold hallway being one. This color is porter paints' "spiced vinegar".

And here's the nook. I love the nook.

And here's my hubby. I love my hubby. He's doing the 2nd round of paint of the hall closet. I roped him into it after I did the first. I don't think he had previous closet painting experience. I'm not sure I'll be able to trick him into it again.

Our master bedroom now boasting gorgeous red oak floors, fresh white trim paint, no curtains, & a new paint color ("stonehenge greige"). It's a whole new look and one I can actually sleep in. Please note the former orange paint shown below. It only took 2 coats of primer & 2 coats of brown to cover it!

Phew.

some snazzy stuff - courtesy of zach dobson photography

2008-07-09T09:30:00.000-04:00

our basement bar stools & bar.

2nd bath tile & entry to bedroom with marble threshhold

hallway lights (there's two) & they match our new paint remarkably well.

our phone nook with fresh paint. send me a picture of a pendant light for my nook if you know if one!

master bath tile floor.

our skylight on a stormy evening. no, our ceiling is not yellow - it's just my hubby's masterful use of light.

our slate entry

Zach's office is white oak paneling on all sides.

original artist's rendering of our living room. if you know where i can find a light like this (an original not a remake) PLEASE let me know!

many of the light plates in our house look like this, but some are even fancier. jealous?

zach's office light is bad ass.

our master bath has dual blue & aqua sinks.

as my husband calls it...

2008-07-09T09:16:00.001-04:00

Our BASSment.

Hardwood Heaven

2008-06-30T22:13:00.000-04:00

I can hardly describe the feeling of happening upon a houseful of hardwood floors. After some discussion about why a certain bathroom was carpeted, we determined the situation deserved a further look. And under those carpets Richie so diligently cleaned just the day before we found hardwoods & tiles and good old fashioned fabulousness.

My father-in-law untacking the "tackless" carpet strips in the hall closet. Our first taste of our beautiful red oak floors.

The afore-mentioned tile in the jack 'n' jill bath. It matches the blue bathroom's flooring perfectly - only in brown.

Under the old carpet in Zach's office we found "cork" tiles. We're still not sure whether they were actual cork or faux cork. Modern cork tiles are much more flexible & a little thicker but the architectural records call the den flooring cork.

Unfortunately, we had to make the tough decision to sacrifice these tiles to the sands of time. There just wasn't a good way to salvage the tiles once we began to remove to the staples & tacking from the carpet.

Don't fret mon frere! We've got an exciting substitute that is era appropriate & just might match our slate a little better.

In yet another visit from fate, my husband found a letter dated exactly 50 years ago today. June 30, 1958 addressed to Avriel Shull from the original owner listing the last items of action on the construction of the house. Too fun.

After an exhausting day (demonstrated here by Maureen, my mother-in-law), we retired to the porch.

Well, all of us except my sister Missy, who actually offered to drag her lawn mower over to attend to my overgrown lawn. HOORAY FOR BIG SISTERS!! It really helped our house start to feel like a home!

Rachel brought over dum-dum pops to share but sort of forgot to actually let any of us have any. But you can't stay angry at that face!

thank you thank you!!

2008-06-29T23:10:00.000-04:00

thank you so much to all of our volunteer movers today! they are: Mom & Dad, Mom & Dad, Betsy, Tyler, Trey, Abhi, Nikki (not even related!!!), Richie, & Veronica.

and thank you too to Veronica for covering every last inch of those shelves for our linen closet. you did a fabo job baby!

Cleaning House

2008-06-29T00:00:00.000-04:00

Oh my gosh. What a day we had Saturday.

My initial plan was to only come in a remove contact paper throughout the kitchen & closets. Then steam clean the carpet & move onto wiping the whole house down so we could move right in on Sunday. WRONG-O buddy-o. Our kitchen has wood doors on the cabinets because it was renovated in the mid-80's but the original pink metal cabinets & silver metal shelves are still there.

We had a minimum of 2 layers of contact paper to remove on each of the 22 shelves & 6 drawers under which we found that many had considerable rust damage.

We decided that it would be best to get the rust under control in case we decided later on that we wanted to salvage any of the cabinets for a later redecoration. It took all day to get the shelves & drawers un-gooped & that project went well into Monday afternoon before the shelves were lined with (non-sticky) shelf liner to protect the fresh paint (and our taste buds).

We stuck to the original color scheme & fixed up the silver shelves with snazzy, shimmery Rustoleum paint. The drawers we matched with pepto-pink Ace Hardware spray enamel. Not an exact match but the best we could do considering!

My mom & I spent all day on the floor trying to peel this nonsense off. I do not recommend contact papering any metal shelves. I believe (after about 8 hours of consideration) that because the metal in non-porous, it really gets shellacked on there over the course of 50 years.

We DID, however get the carpets cleaned all thanks to my brother-in-law Richie.

Thanks, Rich!

ready or not, here we come!

2008-06-25T17:20:00.000-04:00

This has been such a serendipitous experience from the very beginning. It's hard not to feel like this house was always destined to be ours. The sellers have worked hard to clear out what is pretty much 51 years of accumulation and they've even done it ahead of schedule. So we'll be getting in there on Saturday to start cleaning & making the place our own.

It's going to be a task. It also looks like we're going to need some more electrical work done. At least some of our house has grounded wiring which is great. However, a lot of it doesn't including the den that will soon house Zach's equipment & computers. That means we have to get it done to cover our butts & keep his stuff safe from power surges. Just the first of what will be lots of little repairs on the way to having an up-to-date house with all the charm of the 1950's.

Can't wait.

old photo

2008-06-24T10:39:00.001-04:00

We got this picture from the former owners when they were packing up. They believe that the photo was taken by Avriel Shull (our architect) not long after the house was built. You can see that there aren't any trees in the picture. Amazing considering the current state of our yard!

We're down to just a few days until we move in and I cannot wait! The family who lived in the house for the past 51 years have gifted us a whole slew of furniture, tools, and gardening supplies. I'm especially looking forward to showcasing a perfectly wonderful sunburst clock that he got from LS Ayres way back when.

avriel shull mutimedia story

2008-06-13T11:11:00.001-04:00

Zach & I are very excited to start work on a story about Avriel Shull. We realized that everywhere we go people seem to be learning about her work & the impact she had on Indianapolis architecture. Of all the people that know about her, no one has ever put together a compilation of her works. So we thought, why not us?

To begin, we're thinking we'll put together some multimedia stories combining pictures with some audio interviews. As we move forward & things begin to unfold, I'd like to put together a book that will showcase her work with stories from her clients & colleagues, as well as those of us that never knew her but can respect her work & make an effort to restore & revitalize her homes. I'll keep you up to date with the postings so stay tuned.

the closing

2008-06-04T16:46:00.000-04:00

Went perfectly fine. We now know that we will get possession on the 30th & I cannot wait! In my perfectly nerdy fashion, I have compiled all the important things we need to move & put them into a bright pink binder. I have also scheduled out our packing & mapped out the location of the furniture in order to ensure a quick & efficient move.

If you're looking for something to do the 29th & 30th, let us know & we'll add you to the calendar! Finally, I'll have some real stuff to blog about on my blerg.

Closing June 2nd

2008-05-29T08:47:00.001-04:00

Very much looking forward to this big day. We got our final loan approval & all the paperwork filed. We should receive our HUD settlement statement today & once we've reviewed that we just have to hold our breath until about 11am Monday. That's the update for today.

Are we there yet?

2008-05-22T09:09:00.001-04:00

No. The answer is no. Not yet. We still have 11 days until we close & no word yet on a final move-in date. I am getting pretty anxious and just want to get in there. We sent in for final loan approval yesterday & expect to see it by Friday. I think I may be getting on my mortgage broker's last nerve. But really, it's not my fault. It's just nerves keeping me from getting rest until we've actually closed on this house. I'm going to set up a time for our closing today. Hopefully they've gotten a little closer on the decision of when they will be out. Are we being too nice here? Hope it doesn't bite us in the ass.

falling for a house facing south?

2008-05-12T09:19:00.000-04:00

I ran by our house this morning to see what sort of light it would get in the morning hours. And if I'm being honest, I just wanted to make sure it was still there. As I made my way, I got to thinking that I have never lived in a house that faces south. I have never even had a family member live in a house that faces south. In fact, every house I have ever really loved has faced north or east or west! Never south. Missy's: east. Emily's & the house I grew up in: west. Emily's old house: north. Missy's old house: west. Lake house, Betsy's house, Mom & Dad's house: west. Florida condo: west. Nuts.

I had to wonder if this should be a deal breaker. Did I make the wrong decision? Did I commit too quickly? Is this really the right house for me? But I really loved this house. And it seemed to be the exact right house for us. It had all the right features. And just as I started to get all worked up, I thought that technically, part of the house does face west; just not the living room. Our garage, driveway & dining room face west. Our address is on the west side of the house. It'll just have to be good enough.

And upon arrival (well from the opposite side of the street - I'm not trying to get arrested for harassment here) I noticed that because our house faces south, the patio gets the morning sun. That'll be wonderful for summers. And who wants the summer sun coming into the house in the evenings anyways? I also noticed that it's fantastic to want something so badly that you'll just spin information to suit yourself. It's like falling in love. With a house.

Another thing I'm happy to report is that each time I see the house, I feel just a little bit more that it really should be ours. This was a lot the way I felt about my husband when we were dating. When he was out of site I would worry myself over whether we should get married, but then I would see him & it would all be so clear. He was perfect for me. He had everything I wanted in a man. Of course I should marry him. Of course our house should face south.

I have decided that with commitment comes responsibility. If this house were my husband, I would smile & listen & wait for things to play out a little further when I get nervous & love it unconditionally, even when it left me a mess to clean up. Since it's not actually a person, I'll adapt this approach to caring for a house: I will smile & listen & wait for things to play our a little further when I get nervous & love it unconditionally, even when it makes a mess for me to clean up. You can hold me to this when things start to get hairy.

Tag (And Inspection Response)

2008-05-11T11:35:00.000-04:00

What was I doing 10 years ago? That was May 1998, so I was up to no good with my girlfriends at IU - we stayed in the villas for the summer & took almost no classes & had no jobs. We went to concerts, took roadtrips, laid out in the sun, drove all over Bloomington looking for a place that would pierce Jenni's belly button and eventually got in trouble. It was so fun and the quintessential summer of my young life.

Five things on my to do list for today? Grocery store for the cookout at my sister's, finish a painting project I'm doing, shower, go to the cookout, put the dishes away.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire: I would pay for all of my nieces' & nephews' college educations. I would pay for our new house in cash and do a kitchen renovation right off the bat. I would give our parents the biggest presents they would accept. I would buy Zach the best & newest equipment that he wants. I would have kids because I wouldn't need to worry about saving up first. I would start going to yoga & masters swimming because those luxuries are too big for my britches!

5 places I have lived: Bloomington, IN, Bozeman, MT, Chicago, IL, Bemidji, MN, Baton Rouge, LA.

5 jobs I have had: Lifeguard, waitress, camp counselor, barista, barista, barista. I did something once that was something supposedly about purchasing. I don't know what my title was.

As for the inspection response...They're on it & we're pretty comfortable with what they came back with. They'll look into the air conditioner, but technically we can't get them to update the wiring because it's a little better than code. Oh well, we'll take care of it I suppose. Still just going nuts wanting to get going. I found some great furniture online yesterday that I would love to get. But we're still holding on spending until we get through closing. Hurray!

when are we ever going to move in?

2008-05-08T00:00:00.001-04:00

I can't wait. I spent all this time tonight revamping the look of my blog in lieu of revamping my house. Really looking forward to it.

first time nerves

2008-05-06T12:36:00.000-04:00

I feel really nervous as we're wading through this process for the first time. It's hard to believe that I've helped other people buy homes but have never done it myself. I think the hardest part is waiting for all the pieces to fall together at once for closing. I'm sincerely hoping that it is a completely uneventful closing day - we certainly deserve it.

Well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed, just for good measure as we head into the final weeks leading up to the purchase of our home. I'm so happy & excited about the place & love it more every time I walk in. After we sort out the few issues from the inspection, we'll be one step closer to moving in. Wish we were taking possession on closing day - but at least we will have the house in our names, making it a lot better than the alternative!

inspection retrospection

2008-05-05T14:01:00.000-04:00

Oooh yeah. Inspection went well - only a couple of issues we need to resolve before move-in. Our inspector even told us that he thought it was a great house. How nice! The a/c might be on it's way out & the electrical wiring may or may not be grounded. That's all. We're in in just a few weeks. Woo Hoo! We can officially celebrate.

offer accepted

2008-04-30T11:47:00.001-04:00

hooray! our offered was signed & returned to us this morning. so excited & ready to move forward with the inspection, home owner's insurance, and warranty. hazzah!

patience is a virtue

2008-04-30T10:23:00.001-04:00

Well, we are still waiting for our offer to be signed & returned to us. It's just about killing me. I'm really excited though at the prospect of owning our own Avriel Shull home. We are going to amazingly good care of it & build a story around it.

2008-04-29T09:21:00.000-04:00

We're the happy couple on our way to buying our first house! Don't we look deserving of a cool house? Come on!

waiting for approval of our offer

2008-04-29T09:16:00.001-04:00

Last Tuesday, we came to terms with our seller on price. However, in order to get everything settled on their end, they requested 7 days to have it signed & back to us. I am getting antsy! We have already applied for our loan, in order to lock in the interest rate, and we are ready to go from our end, but just waiting on their end.

It's maddening at times, but we've been in contact so I know that it will all be alright. I'll just feel better once we are officially under contract. We can get our inspection & home owner's insurance ordered & be on our way. Hooray!

The house looked great the last time we visited & I'm really looking forward to moving in. It looks like we're going to have to give them possession until the end of June, which will feel like forever. Fortunately, we're closing June 2nd, so that will come up soon & it will be our house from that point forward.

second visit to the house

2008-04-17T15:45:00.000-04:00

Tuesday we were lucky enough to have another good visit to "our" house. The current owner was so inviting & really proud of his home. We got to see everything from his wife's baby doll collection to his LS Ayres sunburst clock. It was a prosperous meeting because while we were originally fearsome that the owner would not want to sell us his house just yet, he seems to be coming around to the idea. We're going to sit down next week to talk more about a price and a closing date.

Hooray!

waiting for a home

2008-04-12T14:00:00.000-04:00

I feel like we've been waiting to hear about this home forever now. It's been on our mind for weeks! We started out mid-century modern education about 6 months ago, when we first noticed the fabulous redo's in an old neighborhood in Carmel, IN. I grew up here, ran by these houses millions of times, and never really appreciated them until I moved back about 3 years ago. When I did notice them, it was probably because I saw the updates being made to one of them on Main Street.

A couple started a company refinishing houses in the Thornhurst neigbhorhood, a nook of about 15 homes built and designed by Avriel Shull in the late 1950's. There first remodels were what originally caught my eye. So, as we're fast approaching our first time home purchase, we kept our eyes open for any homes in Thornhurst that might become available. Low and behold, two of them did, but unfortunately they were both already remodeled in a contemporary fashion and as a result, our of our price range.

So, we took matters into our own hands. We wrote a letter describing our interest in the homes there and sent one to each of the houses in the neighborhood. Many of the homes, we've since learned, are still in the the original owner's hands. We got one lucky phone call and now we're well on our way to purchasing a house!

Hooray! Well, we're not there yet because while we've visited the home once, the owner is a little reluctant to sell just yet, thinking he might like to wait a while. We're going for a second visit next week & I hope to be able to report that he's coming around on the idea. It's been suggested, by his son, that we go ahead and make an offer. Once we've got our funding in place, that's exactly what we're going to do.