yet more light

Been a while since either of us have posted here - that's because we haven't done too much with the house lately. However, spring is in the air and that means we'll be busy busy busy, so get back in the habit of checking in here to see what we do next.

My first (even remotely) significant home improvement of '09 came just yesterday. We had gone to Ikea last weekend to do a run-through after an extended absence and, amongst a whole bunch of other things, I noticed the cabinet-mount lights that work perfectly for our kitchen counter!

Nuthin' a little paint can't fix

While the entire building needs a sealant and paint job, we figured we'd start by getting our garage door cleaned up and repainted. Once that was done we plowed forward and repainted the front door.

So we went from "not bad":

(tall blonde sold separately)

To "Hell, yeah!":

Rex Ray Carpets

Newsflash!
Rex Ray also translates his designs to carpets!


See them all here.

Design Groupie Series 01: Rex Ray

In between house projects, I'll be posting the work of artists and designers I gush over. Past or present, they all make up my fantasy world.

01: REX RAY | rexray.com
I got this shot with my iPhone (taking notes for the wish list and blog) in a Jonathan Adler store in San Francisco in February. Instant obsession with his resin panel work. He also did graphic design for some of David Bowie's posters and the album, Hours. How cool is that???

copyright rex ray


Here are additional works from his site.
copyright rex ray 2006 all rights reserved

copyright rex ray 2006 all rights reservedcopyright rex ray 2006 all rights reserved


copyright rex ray 2006 all rights reserved

You break it, I fix it: Part II

So, a few months ago I wrote about the number of things that were broken in our place that I've been able to fix, thus improving our "QoL index." Allow me to toot my own horn and highlight a few of them (Because it's vaguely interesting. To me.):

1. The Refrigerator.
   
   I've never had an ice maker before, nor a filtered, ice water dispenser. The fridge we inherited has both but neither were working. Maybe it was because the water feed to the fridge was broken and nobody bothered to look. Or maybe it was the Ziploc bag full of rotted fish guts that had been jammed into the ice maker that nobody bothered to clean out (!).
   
   
   Regardless, all it took was a little time (to pull apart the ice maker, clean out each part and order those that were unsalvageable at minimal cost) and a little plumbing power (to pull out the fridge and install a new, flexible feed tube).
   
   Voila! Fresh, cold water and near-limitless ice cube action!
   
   
2. The Clothes Dryer.
   
   This one, I must admit, involved little on my part - just writing a check to the guy who came in and cleaned out the 8,000 pounds on lint that had clogged up the dryer's vent pipe.
   
   Duh.
   
   
3. The Jacuzzi Tub.
   
   This one really irked me - our master bathroom has a jacuzzi tub that didn't seem to work. Now, I'm not much of a "jacuzzi guy" but, as has been previously stated, just becuase I probably won't use something doesn't mean it's OK that it doesn't work. Because you never know when the urge may grab you to take a jacuzzi bath (!).
   
   Again: easy solution. The trip switch plug that the jacuzzi's motor is plugged into was faulty (wouldn't reset). A quick trip to the hardware store, five minutes of darkness as I turned off the circuit breaker and voila! A noisy (and, as a result, less-than-relaxing) jacuzzi!
   
   BTW, I can't help but to think of Eddie Murphy in "Trading Places" whenever I think of jacuzzi tubs...
   
   
4. Home Security System.
   
   This is my most recent triumph. We have one but it was deactivated and, even if we decide not to use it, I want to know that it works. First, it took a bunch of research to find documentation and programming instructions. Then I realized that one of our window sensors didn't work, so I had to track down that part. Then it took me ages to figure out why the thing insisted on beeping at random after being turned on - it was because it was looking for it's former connection to a monitoring service.
   
   Here's where it gets interesting: in order to re-program that connection you have to have the "programmer's code," which, of course, nobody knows, meaning that I have to sit down with a six-pack of beer and induce carpal tunnel syndrome by punching in 10,000 possible combinations 'til I get the right one.
   
   Well, wouldn't you know it - I picked a random starting point and managed to hit it in the first 400! So after a few hours of fiddling with programming (and freaking the dog out to no end with all of the beeping, burping and false alarms I incurred) I got the thing all set!
   

What's the point of all this? Not to toot my own horn but to re-iterate how odd it is that so many simply things were left to languish for so long by the former owners. I just don't get people sometimes...

And then there was light!

The light fixture in our kitchen has never worked. On top of that, it was this Miami Vice-looking, 80s Italian design that never appealed to us. So we agreed to score a new light fixture, a fantastic Nelson cigar pendant lamp.

When it arrived at my office, I got it home that evening and decided to surprise Jodi by installing it before she got home. That is, until I got out the ladder and realized that being that high up, working on an angled ceiling, was just asking for trouble. Recognizing that I'm a Scott (we have a penchant for being a little reckless), I decided to hold off until I recruit the help of our friend Stefan.

We successfully removed the old light and got the new one mounted. Now, my hope was that it was the old light's socket that was at fault. Unfortunately, the new light didn't work either. This pointed towards a fault in one of the two switches or a wiring problem (ugh).

So I replaced the first switch. Of course, I wanted to change the switch style at the same time and, since this switch is one of four on the panel, I had to rewire ALL of them!

Then the light still didn't work. So we crossed our fingers and replaced the second switch (as well as the one adjacent to it because they've got to be matchy-matchy, don't you know?). And wouldn't you know it? THAT did the trick!

Can you tell by now that I'm damned proud of myself???

Off the Wall

I just completed this new homasote pin-up board for my home studio office. It's great for throwing all of your ideas and inspirations for a project up on the wall or to look over a project in-progress. It's a given in design schools and cool offices everywhere, but extra cool to have one of your own...woohoo!


In case you are interested, Homasote is a type of wallboard made from recycled paper compressed under high temperature and pressure and held together with glue. You can find it at Home Depot (insulation aisle).


Also, you can easily paint homasote to match your wall but the pin holes start to add up over time making for an ugly surface, so I recommend covering the board in a self-healing fabric (anything beefy enough to recover from pin holes). I used a heavy cotton twill found at most fabric stores. Choose a very neutral, solid color (beige, natural canvas or any grayish version of a solid color as I did here) so that it doesn't compete with all the great work you'll be posting over it.

Just ordered this wall-mount magnetic thingy from The Container Store for the pushpins> I like the bubbly 60's vibe of this, it reminds me of the cool, yet ridiculously expensive, molded plastic organizer, the Utensilo. Next up in the home office : a new desk chair.
I really want this one: The Eames Aluminum Management chair.
Buuuuut since that one is about 2grand, I think the budget is pointing to this fairly similar one, also in leather, I saw on cb2.com (Crate and Barrel's funkier sister store) for A LOT less:



Now, hopefully this serves as motivation to get going on that long list of personal design projects...