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

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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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Drive-By Shooting (MCM Architecture)

01/18/2010

Location: NW Nashville/Bordeaux

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Phone Photo Friday

01/15/2010

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Good thing we had bread and milk

01/12/2010

We had a “snow storm” last week in Nashville. Thank God it’s just about all melted away now. I may be a former Pennsylvania girl but there is a reason we moved South; I can’t handle this cold! I recognize those clouds …

It’s all about the layering. Seriously, for the past 5 days I’ve been wearing 2 pairs of socks, tights/leggings under my jeans and sometimes 5 or 6 layers on top (tank tops, t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, sweater, 2 zip up hoodies …) Have I mentioned I HATE being cold??

Because it’s a novelty and this is the most snow Nashville has seen in the 6 winters we’ve been here, I did take quite a few photographs. I guess I can appreciate the beauty of it a little bit.

The frost on my car windows when the sun shines on in the morning is particularly charming.

There is a joke around these parts that anytime there are flurries in the forecast, everyone runs out to the grocery store to stock up on bread and milk in case they’re snowed in for days. It’s true – avoid gas stations and groceries stores!

I’m very thankful for the new down puffer coat I got for Christmas. Thanks Mom.

Cute rain boots – zero insulation but 100% water proof.

Ok. I’m ready for summer now. Bring on the heat!

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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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Phone Photo Friday

01/08/2010

We got snow in Nashville yesterday. For real. And it actually stuck on the pavement.

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Floor lamp & glasses {MCM Thrift Store Finds}

01/07/2010

Technically the floor lamp is not a thrift store find since it’s from a legit vintage shop in Cincinnati called Red Polly. But it’s mid-century modern and we found it. A lovely addition to our living room, we think.

At a real thrift store in Cinci we found these OJ glasses that match a pitcher we got here in Nashville a few months ago. They might not be from the same set but they’re pretty darn close. The glasses are Anchor Hocking but the pitcher is unmarked. Cute, huh?

We also found these smokey yellow glasses that reminded us of our grandmothers. I like the shape. There are 4 total but 1 was in the dishwasher when I photographed these.

That’s all for this household but our shopping buddies picked up a few cool things, too:

Retro blue canister set

Blue starburst glass vase

Corning Ware “Spice of Life” canister

Glasbake navy blue star / snowflake casserole dish

Curtis Jere wall sculpture of wheat (from Stu)

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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

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New Years MCM finds

01/05/2010

We had a wonderful New Years in Cincinnati with our dear friends and fellow MCM enthusiests. We ate some delicious food: lobster, pork ribs and sauerkraut, Cincinnati chili, Cheesecake Factory. Some new—from IKEA and H&M—and “new” mid-century purchases—from Red Polly, SA family store and Stu Nizny‘s house (oh the stories!)

I’m so excited to report that we finally found the perfect vintage MCM cabinet to use for our master bathroom vanity. Wow. After a year of searching it’s going to take a while to sink in! (Pun intended that time.) And it fit in our car!

While we were poking around at the thrift store I pointed out a table that looked mid-century. Out of nowhere an  eccentric silver-haired guy in a hot pink down puffer with a saucer-sized belt buckle and white silver-tipped cowboy boots was giving us his business cards, inviting us back to his house to check out his vintage collection, offering us wholesale prices, and listing off his résumé of famous clientele. We shopped around a little more than then took him up on his offer.

Stu’s house was a museum of mid-century and vintage furniture, housewares, glass art, Jeres, vintage t-shirts, suitcases, light fixtures, art … and he was right: he did have several mid-century modern cabinets that fit the very specific dimensions we needed. Thanks for the great deals, Stu! We’ll definitely be back.

I’ll share more about our other finds soon.

1 Comment | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

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