Are You Happy?

01/27/2010

I found this poster through INK & WIT and followed the blog trail until I could eventually find how to purchase it from the designer.

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Flow charts are always fun and I love the philosophy – if you’re not happy, change something! Jason noted that if you either always say yes or always say no, you get “Keep doing what you’ve been doing.” And, if you don’t start saying “yes” you’ll never get to happiness.

Side note: Have you ever seen Yes Man? Good movie.

I finally got the poster in the mail and found the perfect spot to hang it. We’ve got this funky angled wall in the kitchen. (Someday I’m going to cover it with pegboard & cork.)

It can also be seen from the living room, which is the temporary home for our mid-century modern credenza that’s destined to become our master bathroom vanity.

And, most importantly, it’s in a place where I’ll see it every morning as I head out the door.

(Click • for source.)

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Concrete Shower Pan Goes Down Smooth

01/26/2010

Last weekend we tackled the most intimidating part of the bathroom renovation (in my mind, at least): pouring the concrete shower base. I’ll just show what we did through pictures. And of course I use “we” very loosely here.

Shower all cleared out and ready to go.

Mixing up the concrete mix and water in our pitiful, rusty old wheel barrel. (See the broken wood handle?) I was going to do this part but it turns out my arms are too weak. Each bag of mix was 60 lbs dry.

I prefer to watch this guy in action anyway. I’m excellent moral support.

First bucket full of concrete gets placed. That float is named the Task Force.

Second bucket down. Creating a slight slope toward the drain was very tedious. And important. Jason and his task force can handle it.

The consistency is like wet sand. Not as liquidy as I had imagined.

Four bags/bucketfuls down. 240 lbs. More of the very meticulous smoothing and creating a slight grade toward the drain.

Some days I am very grateful to be married to a perfectionist. Another half a bag to finish it off and get that slope just right. (4.5 bags of sand mix, 270 lbs, 4’x5′ base at 1-1.5″ thick in case you want details.)

All done. Just needs 24 hours to dry. Phew! The whole process only took 3 hours but was very labor-intensive. I’m so glad it’s done. Thank God it all went smoothly. Now on to finishing the rest of the tiling … another update coming soon. I HOPE!

Keeping up with our progress?

Bathroom Renovation Stage 1

Bathroom Renovation Stage 2

Bathroom Renovation Stage 3

Bathroom Renovation Stage 4

Bathroom Renovation: Tiling!

Bathroom Renovation Stage 5

Bathroom Renovation Stage 6

Bathroom Renovation Stage 7

Bathroom Renovation Stage 8

1 Comment | Art, Art: bathroom renovation, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Jason | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Renovation Stage 8

01/21/2010

Tile is officially HALF done! Yay! We’ve been working hard on it and our goal is to finish the shower this month. (Sorry for the pieced together photos. Couldn’t get it all in 1 shot.)

We started putting drywall up to close off the laundry area with some leftover pieces from another project.

We designed built-in shelves into one side of the shower wall. In order to finish them with cement board so we can tile, we had to put drywall up on the laundry room side.

Jason bought the concrete for the shower pan today. Saturday is the day we mix and pour and level and pray. I’ll try to remember to keep my camera handy during the process.

Phew! We’ve come a long way! Need to catch up?

Bathroom Renovation Stage 1

Bathroom Renovation Stage 2

Bathroom Renovation Stage 3

Bathroom Renovation Stage 4

Bathroom Renovation: Tiling!

Bathroom Renovation Stage 5

Bathroom Renovation Stage 6

Bathroom Renovation Stage 7

4 Comments | Art, Art: bathroom renovation, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

A Teapot, Short & Stout {MCM thrift store find}

01/19/2010

Not technically from a thrift store, we got this funky, mustard-yellow, wood-handled teapot from Stu on our trip to Cincinnati. (We met him at a thrift store so it’s almost a thrift store find.) This was one of the first things Jason spotted when we walked in the door.

It’s definitely vintage and the inside was really cruddy. It had some caked-on calcified minerals stuck to the bottom and insides. (I made that up but it was something hard and gross!) Thankfully my amazing, persistent, determined husband spent hours soaking, scrubbing, soaking, scraping and washing it until the speckled cobalt blue insides were restored almost back to their original mid-century modern glory.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Drive-By Shooting (MCM Architecture)

01/18/2010

Location: NW Nashville/Bordeaux

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Blue & Yellow Big Box Store

01/11/2010

Vintage shopping is fun but IKEA has some nice, practical, well-designed things, too. A few things we picked up from our recent trip:

Kitchen storage shelves for the Penzeys Spices we got for Christmas. (BYGEL)

Machine-washable, rubber-backed door mat! (TOFTBO)

Bigger flower pot for our growing jade plant

Stainless steel waste basket (HULINGEN)

Pillow case for Lucy’s new bed (26″ square pillow GOSA TULPAN) (GÄSPA)

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Renovation Stage 7

01/06/2010

Our master bathroom makeover has been slow moving, mostly because of the busyness of the holidays. But now we’re back at it full steam with a goal of finishing the shower this month. It’s going to be a challenge since we’re averaging about 4 sq. ft. an hour with these little .75″ unglazed porcelain tiles. One wall is almost done.

We’ve got a good system going now where I pop half the tiles off of each sheet in a random pattern at about the same pace as Jason can stick them up on the wall. If I crop out the unfinished parts and you use your imagination with the grout (we’re thinking gray) this picture gives a pretty good idea of the finished look:

Lost? Here’s the process up to now:

Bathroom Renovation Stage 1

Bathroom Renovation Stage 2

Bathroom Renovation Stage 3

Bathroom Renovation Stage 4

Bathroom Renovation: Tiling!

Bathroom Renovation Stage 5

Bathroom Renovation Stage 6

1 Comment | Art, Art: bathroom renovation, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Christmas at the Ranch

12/03/2009

Christmas has arrived at our little mid-century modern ranch. I was pretty excited this year when I asked Jason if we could get down the Christmas decorations and not only did he have no objections but he had an idea for a creative modern West Elm inspired Christmas tree! (Apparently, his Christmas spirit returned when he quit Starbucks. Yay!)

My cherished Shiny Brite ornaments my Granny gave me a few years before she passed away. They’re from the 1950s or 1960s.

We’re minimalists even at the holidays.

Our neighbors on either side have icicles draped across the front of their ranches. I’m afraid this wreath looks a bit Grinch-y in comparison. I’m thinking of lining the big front windows with white lights from the inside (if I can find some working strands.)

2 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Jason | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Our Home & Garden in November

11/30/2009

These photos were taken November 21, 2009.

We haven’t/hadn’t yet had a frost so our banana tree is still alive and at least 12 feet tall.

All the rain has caused some beautiful moss to grow in one of our bamboo plants.

Our fire pit has seen some good use this year.

The giant pine tree in our front year provides an endless amount of pine cones, pine mulch and shade. The lavender is still going strong. Although I’ve seen a few birds go in and out of our birdhouse, no one has made a permanent home there.

I love this frosty blue-green sage. Lucy, our chocolate cocker spaniel, just turned 5 and has been scaring us a bit with some strange health episode.

We are so crazy about her. Isn’t she just adorable? She’s as sweet and as soft as she looks. (She found a new “bed” in the throw blanket storage box behind the couch.)

The heavenly bamboo out front is producing lots of pretty red berries.

1 Comment | Art, Art: God's creation, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design, Family: Lucy | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Renovation Stage 6

11/25/2009

Moving along on the bathroom renovation one Saturday at a time. Last weekend we put up more of the tile. Eight sq ft are now up. Only 112 more to go. Can you see why this is going to take a while?

Also, we finished up all the concrete board. (I use “we” very loosely here. I wasn’t feeling great but I am excellent at providing moral support.) We covered the curb so now the concrete shower pan can be poured at any time:

On one side of the shower we built in 2 shelves for shampoo, conditioner, soap, shaving cream, etc. (As the woman of the house and the obsessive organizer, I’m taking credit for this idea.)

Things to do in the near future: pour shower pan, install rain shower in ceiling and plumbing in wall, install recessed light in shower, install ceiling shower fan, put up 112 more sq ft of tiny tiles.

Trying hard not to lose momentum here!

Where we started:

Bathroom Renovation Stage 1

Bathroom Renovation Stage 2

Bathroom Renovation Stage 3

Bathroom Renovation Stage 4

Bathroom Renovation: Tiling!

Bathroom Renovation Stage 5

2 Comments | Art, Art: bathroom renovation, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

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