Drexel Declaration Hutch

08/12/2013

I’ve been plowing through my to do list, including selling off a bunch of stuff to clear out the garage. We have this one big item left that needs a new home. Any local readers interested? It’s the top half of a china cabinet hutch, part of the Declaration series by Drexel. It’s big and heavy. We haven’t done anything to clean it up or refinish it. I have it marked down to $20 on craigslist and I still can’t get anyone to buy it. Dimensions: 52″ wide, 55″ tall, 13″ deep. It comes with shelves.

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Pretty soon it’s going to be sitting by the curb for free…

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Mid-Century Modern Birdhouse

04/10/2013

Jason and I built this birdhouse a few years ago. It used to hang from a dogwood tree in the back garden at our last home. We didn’t realize at the time that it had a major design flaw: it couldn’t be opened to clean it out. Apparently birds like to move in, build an intricate nest, and then move out. Eventually the bottom boards started to get loose so I decided to give it a little TLC a couple weeks ago. I took the bottom two pieces of 1×4 off and reattached them with hinges and a brace that can be unscrewed when I’m ready to clean it out again. I also added a little perch under the front door. All of these were just bits and pieces we had in the tool box. I was planning to hang it up in a tree but I wasn’t happy with how much it moved when the wind blew. I ended up nestling it in this bush along our back chain link fence.

Mid-Century Modern Birdhouse - myMCMlife.com Mid-Century Modern Birdhouse - myMCMlife.com Mid-Century Modern Birdhouse - myMCMlife.com Mid-Century Modern Birdhouse - myMCMlife.com

It was important to me that it was located where I could watch it from the living room. One morning while I was having a cup of tea, I spotted some little birds hopping around near the house and then one went it! I was so thrilled. There were two of these little birds and they ended filling it with twigs and making a nest.

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I’m glad I made it openable because these cute little birds have already moved on. This ugly black bird decided to investigate but passed. Either he was too big or unhappy that the previous tenants moved out and left all their furniture inside. I guess I need to do a little more Spring cleaning.

Mid-Century Modern Birdhouse - myMCMlife.com


Help Us Pick a Paint Color for this Brick Ranch

07/18/2012

Our good friend and real estate guru, Jeremy Hundley, is in the middle of remodeling a sweet brick ranch our here in East Nashville. It’s getting a complete makeover inside and out and will be for sale in the next couple of months. Jeremy asked me to mock up some paint color ideas for the exterior of the house, which is currently an ugly peach-colored brick. I went a little crazy and came up with way too many choices. (I had a hard time choosing the top 6 to post here!)

Can you help us narrow it down? What is your favorite color combination?

Don’t get hung up on the front door design. It’s solid now…I was just experimenting with options. Also, it looks a bit naked without any landscaping. That will be remedied after it’s painted. Please choose your favorite overall combination in the poll below, but feel free to get specific in the comment section.

Thank you so much for your help!


New Home Update

07/11/2012

In my previous home update the concrete block foundation was done and they workers were just starting on the front wall and fireplace. Now both of those are done, too. We had a couple of hiccups. The fireplace was about 1/3 of the way up before some errors were discovered and they had to knock it down and start over. There was also a spot of foundation near the garage entrance that needed to be redone. No big deal in retrospect but it caused a bit of stress between our (Jason’s) discovery of the issues and getting both places fixed. Here are some pictures of dirt and concrete blocks, in progress:

This cutie pie strolls down with us to check out the house sometimes. She was so adorable with her pink frilly skirt and flushed cheeks, that I couldn’t help doing a mini photo session.

A couple days later we went back to check out the finished concrete block. Jason and Precious are standing in the garage.

It may not look like much yet but when I see these pictures, I see the office and laundry room…

the courtyard and front door…

the kitchen and dining room…

the living room…

the master bedroom, bathroom and closet…

the kids rooms, bathroom and den…

When Jason and I see the front wall and fireplace, we can envision the whole house built around them.

But, I can imagine it looks pretty strange to someone who doesn’t have the finished house design in mind.

A neighbor we haven’t met stopped by the other day and asked our site supervisor what we’re building.

“A house,” Scott answered.

“What’s that wall for?” the neighbor asked.

“It’s part of the house!”

And that was that.


Mid-Century Sectional Sofa

03/19/2012

Jason and I got a tip from my co-worker about an estate sale in a 1960s ranch. We went on Saturday when everything was half off and I was surprised to see that the couch I had spotted in the online preview was still sitting in the living room.

The sofa was covered with junk but we loved the shape and decided to go for it. It was marked $200 so we got it for $100. It was set up in the living room as a straight couch without the rounded corner piece, and we might end up using it that way in our new house. It’s in desperate need of new upholstery and new foam for the seat cushions which were…crunchy, dry-rotted. Gross. One end of the sofa doesn’t have an arm rest, like a chaise, which is pretty sweet. We set it up in the loading bay of our storage facility for a quick photo shoot before we packed it away.


Mushroom Shakers

02/27/2012

Look what Jason brought me back from his journeys around the country—thrifted vintage salt and pepper shakers shaped like mushrooms. And they’re green! Carved on the bottom is “Pat ’76.” There is nothing in the photo for a good size references; they’re about 5 inches tall. I love them.


Front Elevation Photoshop Mock Up

02/23/2012

We’re waiting for our architect to finish up the construction documents so we can find the perfect contractor and get started on our new house. In the meantime, I decided I’d take Ryan’s front elevation drawing into Photoshop and have some fun with it. I used a photo of the property from October (when the trees had leaves) and then added colors, textures and landscaping.

I don’t know how accurate this mock up will end up being but it sure does get Jason and me excited!


Vintage Floor Lamp

07/18/2011

Jason inherited a few unwanted furniture pieces from his late Grandma Joan. We made a short list of things in her house that we liked but didn’t expect we’d get unless no one else wanted them. We just didn’t want to see them get discarded. This floor lamp was one of them.

By the looks of it, it had been down in that basement for years, tarnished and covered with cobwebs. We decided to spray paint it to cover the tarnished areas with Rustoleum Antique Bronze. Each of the three lights has a (teak?) wood handle that we love. We wiped the wood clean with damp rags and then Jason rehydrated the wood with lemon oil. He sanded the rough spots on the metal with steel wool before spraying it. (I didn’t get a true before shot.)

We’re not sure where we’ll end up using it but for now we’re enjoying it as a piece of art in the living room and we’re thankful it’s no longer rotting away in a basement in PA.


Pretty Old Drill

02/22/2011

Jason and I were working on some outdoor projects this weekend to take advantage of the beautiful spring weather we’ve been getting in Nashville. One project prompted Jason to dig out my grandpa’s old drill. This is probably from the 50’s or 60’s. It still works and is more powerful than our cordless Ryobi. Isn’t it a lovely color shade of bluish green metal?

By the way, that’s not a small drill—it’s big and super heavy—that’s a gigantic 4″ concrete bit.


Modern Gingerbread House

12/21/2010

I wish I could take credit for this but alas, I cannot. I saw it on a blog last year and saved it in my inspiration files. (The blog is now private so there is no point in citing it.)  Maybe it will inspire someone else out there, too!