Go On – Touch the Screen

11/24/2009

Have you seen the commercial for the new HP TouchSmart PC? As a devote Mac-user, normally an HP (or any PC) commercial would not excite me. But this got my heart a-racing! Mac has been using touchscreen technology with the iPhone for years now so I don’t know why a touch screen computer like this caught me by surprise.

Can you imagine the possibilities for an artist/designer? Envision Photoshop that you can manipulate with your fingers on the screen. After years of doing art and graphic design through a mouse cursor controlled by one hand, I’m so excited about the idea of getting both hands into my work, so to speak. We’ve perfected the scroll ball, the subtle right hand movements and fingers on the track pad; how cool would it be to get to use our fingers to actually draw, paint, cut, smudge, shadow, enlarge/shrink, turn …

Does this potential excite anyone else??

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Renovation: Tiling!

11/18/2009

I’m not calling this a stage because it’s not really a stage change in the bathroom. The tile arrived over the weekend and on Monday, Jason and I decided to put up 2 square feet to see how it looks. We have 2 different colors of .75″ x .75″ tile that come in 1 sq ft sheets and it’s up to us to pop off 50% of the tiles (112 per sheet) to make a random pattern.

Let me just say that this process sucks. It takes a lot longer than I anticipated and the mesh is like sandpaper on my fingers! But I know it will all be worth it. Jason and I are really pleased with how it looks once the 2 colors are randomized together:

It took us 20-30 minutes to make 2 sq ft. So … multiply that by 60 (120 sq ft total) and it looks like we can plan on 20-30 hours of tile popping. That’s not counting installing the tiles on the wall.

… Putting each tile we popped off back into the other color sheet …

… And making sure they’re all straight and flush. But it’s going to be SOOOOO worth it! I can’t wait to see how it’ll look when the whole shower is done.

Meanwhile we still have a couple of sheets of concrete board to hang and the shower pan to pour. Once we realized how long the tile is going to take we figured we’d better get started right away so we can takes breaks to do other parts of the process.

Yes, I know we’re crazy. Did I mention we got a really good deal on the tile?

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Posted by mahlbrandt

The Tile Arrived!

11/17/2009

We had a great weekend with our friends Dave and Emily visiting from PA. I didn’t take any pictures over the weekend, though. Whoops!

Here are a few highlights:

• Hatch Show Print on Friday afternoon

• Buca di Beppo for dinner

• The guys jammed together while the girls enjoyed the almost 80º weather with a walk Saturday morning

• Lunch at Baja Fresh

• Mac store, mall, thrift stores* and chillin at Dan & Ginger’s house
* got 2 new MCM treasures! I’ll share later this week

• Party Saturday night with bonfire and games. Lots of yummy fall food: hot dogs, smores, cheese dip, homemade soft pretzels, homemade donuts, hot spiced apple cider

• Sunday church and then lunch at another friend from PA’s house

• A restful evening at home Sunday

We said our goodbyes on Monday morning. Hopefully D&E will be back to the promised land soon! I’m thankful I took the day off Monday to get caught up around the house and get a nap after a fun but busy weekend!

More about our tiling adventures tomorrow!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

For the Mod Kitty

11/16/2009

I’m no longer a cat owner but if I were, I’d totally want one of these:

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Certainly more attractive than the Rubbermaid tub with the hole cut in the lid that we used in order to keep the dog out!

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Also would be great for a cat that kicks her litter everywhere. (Are you reading mother-in-law?)

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First seen here. Available at modkat.com.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Picking Out Tile!

11/10/2009

The most creative part of the bathroom remodel so far is definitely picking out the tile. We fell in love with .75″ x .75″ unglazed porcelain (or ceramic) tiles but they can be a bit pricey. Local stores and online retails both sell them from around $6 / sq. ft. all the way up to $12 or more. That adds up quickly when you’re buying 120 sq ft.

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The look we’re going for is something like the picture above. We wanted to do all 1 color but we found a fantastic 40% off sale online with limited quantities. They only had around 50% of what we needed in our top color choice, Mint Julep, so a combination in a random pattern needed to be created. Jason picked out some color ideas (based on price and availability) and I made mock ups so we could decide:

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1: 50% mint julep, 25% fog, 25% cascade

2: 50% mint julep, 50% cascade

3: 50% mint julep, 25% fog, 25% camo

4: 50% mint julep, 25% fog, 25% topaz

The tile has been ordered EEEK! Biggest expense of the project is out of the way.

What is your favorite? Anyone want to take any guesses which combination we decided?

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Companion Lamp {mcm thrift store find}

11/09/2009

In September we found a mid-century modern Paulding lamp at a Nashville thrift store. While we were in Erie, PA a few weeks ago, we found a companion lamp for the other side of the living room. The styles are different but they’re both blue-green, retro and fit nicely in our atomic ranch.

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Here’s a side by side comparison of the lamp buddies. They have matching shades from Target.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Installing a Shower Fan

11/05/2009

A few months ago I replaced the hard drive in my macbook pro. Apple considers this part not user replaceable. I think I would consider installing a shower fan not homeowner installable, unless of course, your husband is awesome.

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Installing a shower fan in the bathroom seemed easy enough to me. You just pop the sucker up in the ceiling, right? (Doesn’t it look so cute and simple?) It turned out to be a most-of-the-day project cutting a hole in the ceiling (making a huge mess)…
Jason squeezing into a tiny space in the attic between the ceiling joists and roof joists to mount the fan motor enclosure to a joist, attach the ducting from the motor to a vent in the roof and running electrical wire from the motor and down through the wall…
Cutting a hole in the wall to make room for the new outlet/switch box (another big mess), making sense of the old wiring (which is not grounded, by the way) and figuring out how to wire the light switch for the fan off of the GFCI outlet next to it.
Then there was a lot of cleaning, a little drywall repair and some paint touch-up.

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I must say, I learned a whole lot about running electricity and ducting. And best of all – it works! We now have a fan in our bathroom to suck up all the shower steam. No more open window in the winter! And, now it should be much smoother process when we install the same fan in the new master bathroom. (This one is in our “hall bathroom” which will someday be the kids bathroom.)

Catch up on the adventures of our master bathroom renovation here:
Bathroom Renovation Stage 1
Bathroom Renovation Stage 2
Bathroom Renovation Stage 3
Bathroom Renovation Stage 4

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Renovation Stage 4

11/04/2009

Ok, so I’m reluctant to even call this a stage because it’s kind of in-between two stages. We did demo 2 weekends ago and last weekend we started reconstruction. It’s so fun to start framing the walls! I already feel like I have a laundry “room” and we can finally get a sense of the size of the shower.

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We got this far—framing the walls that divide off the laundry room and walk-in shower—using only the repurposed wood from the toilet closet Jason tore down. Talk about reduce, reuse and recycle!

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We need at least 4 more 2×4’s, maybe more depending on what kind of built in shelves we decide on in the shower. That’s not bad, though! I’m sorry these pictures don’t give you a scope of the whole space; they were all taken from the doorway.

I’m excited to get back to work on the bathroom this weekend. First priority: clear out all the debris we can’t reuse (door from toilet closet, wood door jam, broken slabs of drywall…) We still need to move the HVAC air vent on the floor before we can finish framing the shower. Then on to more fun stuff: pouring the concrete shower pan. Not sure if we’ll get that far this weekend.

In case you missed it:

Bathroom Renovation Stage 1

Bathroom Renovation Stage 2

Bathroom Renovation Stage 3

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Weekend Update

11/02/2009

Hot date with my Jason on Friday night! Hardware store, dinner at an Indian restaurant and a movie (Away We Go) cuddled up on the couch at home. This is what happens when you’ve been married a while I guess. I love it though.

Home projects Saturday! We installed a shower fan in the hall bathroom (mounted in the ceiling, installed ducting to vent through the room, ran the electrical wiring … big deal!), fixed the vent duct above the stove which had been blowing food steam into the attic, AND framed the new walls in our master bathroom! (More on the last project later this week when I get some better pictures.) Here are 2 sneak peaks:

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Sunday after church and a lunch at Blue Coast Burrito, I hit the road with my work buddy Lindsay toward Evansville, IN for a Leeland, Brandon Heath and Francesca Battistelli concert (“Follow You” Tour). It was really good but a looooong drive and we didn’t get home until the wee hours of the morning. This rose has nothing to do with that but isn’t it lovely? It been hanging on for almost 2 weeks now!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Renovation Stage 3

10/29/2009

Demo has begun! This week Jason started tearing down the wall and door frame around the toilet closet and the wall behind the former sink. It’s a dusty mess—which makes doing laundry interesting—but it’s so nice to see major progress!

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What’s next: clean up the debris, move the air vent in the floor (over about a foot) and then build the new walls!

In case you missed it:
Bathroom Renovation Stage 1
Bathroom Renovation Stage 2

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Posted by mahlbrandt

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