All four of us need a weekend. Right now. Not to relax, but to catch up. So that some day, years from now, we can relax. The plumber is coming tomorrow to fix a leaky spot, and then we’ll be able to finish up the kitchen pantry. I’ve been living without adequate kitchen storage for the better part of a year, and I’m getting desperate to have those precious 9 square feet back.

Other weekend plans include preparing the garden (Remember the garden? Yeah, me neither) for some sort of patio-type thing, finishing repair work to the windows in the scary, unused back room (yes, it still looks like that, minus the tub and sink), repairing a chew-hole in the sofa (I do NOT want to talk about it), and maybe a trip to IKEA to start picking up some of what we’re going to need for the downstairs bathroom (and possibly taking a peek at what’s hiding under the 27 layers of tile we have to pull up).

If there’s time left over (!), it would be nice to go out for breakfast.

I walk past this house every day while walking the dogs, and I adore it. I love the wraparound porch, the clapboard siding, and the stained glass windows. It even has a driveway (a rarity here) and a cute, fenced-in yard. It’s a block away from the bluff that overlooks the Hudson River. Such a special house.

Oh yes, it needs work, sure—plumbing, electric, and heating to start. The interior looks like it was subjected to a really slapdash sheetrock-fest “renovation” once upon a time, but those angled ceilings make me think that there must be fabulous crown moldings hiding underneath. I’ll bet all of the window casings are under the sheetrock, too. A good plumber, a good electrician, a lot of sweat equity (OK, and maybe a really good plasterer!), and this house would be absolutely stunning.

I hope someone comes along and saves this house before it falls into total disrepair. At the moment, the roof is intact and the house still looks sound. The longer it remains vacant, though, the greater the possibility it will just rot and fade.

Yours for $95,000.

I am woefully behind on everything right now, from emails I need to write to blog reading (according to Google Reader, I have 261 posts to catch up on…) to blog writing to painting to patching to sanding to sewing to working on book covers to sleeping to breathing. I’m desperately looking for a spare day somewhere that I can use to dig myself out. I hate this feeling; it reminds me of being in school. (In a bad way.)

Little pockets of time irresponsibly spent doing things like eating ice cream are saving me from going crazy. One of my favorite things in Newburgh is Dairy Island, an old-school ice cream joint in an area that’s still comprised mostly of industrial buildings (some occupied, others not) and empty lots. It’s less than a mile from our house, but we didn’t discover it until this past summer—we were experimenting with shortcuts, and there it was.

There are disadvantages to living in a city that has fallen many years behind economically, but the upside is that there are still places like this (we have a bunch of old hot dog counters, too) hanging around. Dairy Island feels like an endangered symbol of everything that is good about America. With so much to be worried about in this country right now, it is a relief to feel a sense of patriotism and trust over something as simple as an ice cream cone.

p.s. Dairy Island somehow has access to the freshest Oreos ever. It’s like Nabisco rolls them off the production line directly into their kitchen. If you go, get vanilla soft serve with Oreos (I like it with warm butterscotch, too, but that’s optional). Trust me on this. They also have great counter people who make you feel like a regular after just one visit.

I finally got a new camera. Here I am in the bathroom at work (always my favorite place for self-portraits—the lighting is perfectly depressing/clinical, and there are those great Mart Stam chairs in the entryway) upon arrival this morning. So far, I like it. I’m not a very good photographer and I don’t have patience for adjusting settings, etc., so I need all of the automated help I can get. I’m also excited to have a wide-angle lens for taking photos inside the house!

The temperature outside is rapidly dropping. I’ve been wearing my new Wrist Worms from Sandra. Love them! I know fall is going to pass too quickly, and soon it will be colder than cold. I’ll try to savor my favorite season every day in the mean time.

Do you inscribe the books that you give as gifts? It’s a practice I think has fallen out of fashion, but I’d like to see it come back.

I found this little Modigliani book while I was reorganizing my work area, and I opened it to find a note written to me by my father in 1979. I was not yet four years old, and I had taken the Amtrak train from Rhinecliff to the art school in Manhattan where my father taught (and still teaches).

I’m not sure I would have remembered that day (29 years ago!) as clearly as I do now had I not found the book. Memories rushed back to me instantly—I know exactly how soft those seats were, I know that I tucked my box of markers into the pocket on the back of the seat in front of me. I can see so clearly the cook in the bar car giving me that orange balloon, too! Most importantly, I remember being at work with Dad, feeling special like you do when grown-ups are excited to meet you, even though you’re only three years old.

My desk is comprised of the top of my father’s huge drafting table and two pairs of steel legs from IKEA. The original adjustable legs weren’t stable, and I needed it to work as a computer/sewing machine-friendly surface. The replacement legs have worked out really well, and I have no regrets about removing the old base (it’s safely stored in my basement, in case I ever change my mind).

One thing I had been worried about, though, was the condition of the top of the table. My father used it for many years, and I then gave it a real beating while I was in art school—I ate my meals at it, did all of my drawing and design projects on it, and even fell asleep with my head on it more than a few times. It was dirty, and really needed to be cleaned with a stronger method than soap and water.

I had put off sanding it because I was concerned the desk would lose its time-earned patina (which really is the best thing about it), but it turned out I had nothing to worry about. I went over it with my orbital sander, and as you can see, all of Dad’s pin-holes and all of my cut marks are still beautifully evident. I gave it a good rubdown with Feed-N-Wax (I’m not a fan of finishing wood with polyurethane unless absolutely necessary), let it dry overnight, and it’s ready to go.

I also sanded the peeling brown paint off of the front of the drawer and coated it with an opaque black stain. While I was polishing up the handles, I discovered this pegasus griffin (wait, maybe it’s just an eagle?) engraved in each one. How funny that I have known this table for literally my entire life, but I never noticed them before. Huh.

I just got an email from Ferm Living announcing that their entire Collection No. 1 (now discontinued) is on sale for $30 A ROLL while supplies last. That’s 70% off!

You’d better believe I hustled over there and ordered two rolls of Berry Black, which I’ve been admiring for a while now, but hadn’t yet gotten around to ordering.

(Yay!)

ASPVIK Wall Cabinet, $99.00
These cabinets would look great hung in a long, low row on the wall for hidden storage, creating a display surface on top. The entire ASPVIK line is well-designed and nicely made. I’ve tested them out in person, and the movement of the doors is very smooth.

JORUN cushion, $14.99
It’s so big (20×24″)! I never know what to do with cushions that huge, but I always want to buy them anyway.

BOHOLMEN rinsing tub, $14.99
Made for washing dishes, but this would be great to toss magazines in, or to use as a dog toy box (I need one!).

365+ LUNTA pendant lamp, $39.99
Steel shade with an epoxy coating. IKEA has really been hitting the mark with lighting lately. These are so simple and pretty.

FIALENA fabric, $7.99/yard
Okay, this isn’t new (and it’s not even the first time I’ve mentioned it), but it looks good with this post! I’m obsessed with this fabric. I have about 10 yards of it, but I can’t decide what to use it for. New curtains for the dining room? Maybe…

There are twenty-two (yes, 22) doors in my house, and, with the exception of the two that are contemporary replacements, each one of them has its own set of damages and defects. Six months ago, I started working on this door with the missing panels/creepy screening/interior sliding lock, and then stopped and forgot about it, probably because of the endless bathroom renovation. Last weekend, I came back to it.

As it turns out, the door had been hanging in the wrong spot when we bought the house. I think it’s actually supposed to be between the front and middle rooms on the second floor, and not on the closet. That makes a little more sense when it comes to the ventilation screens and lock. Phew! The closet was not used for pre-war troll storage after all.

So, the screens have been removed (it wasn’t clear in the earlier photo, but the trim pieces on the back of the door had been removed by whomever installed the screening), and the door has been scraped, sanded, patched, caulked, primed, and painted. I was originally planning to put new wood panels and trim in to restore the door, but looking at it now, I wonder if this isn’t a prime opportunity to do something different. I tend to not want to do things to my house that are “quirky”, but it did cross my mind that maybe I could, say, upholstered panels in this door. Or linen screens. Or wallpaper. Or…something.

Am I just being silly? I really don’t want to do anything that’s going to look gimmicky or cutesy. Maybe I should just put wood in and call it a day. Or leave them open, and laugh when the dogs stick their heads through.

Ideas?

ETA: The missing panels are on the bottom half of the door, not the top!

Now that the upstairs bathroom is nearing completion, we’re starting to think about what we want to do with the second bathroom downstairs. It’s really, really ugly right now, but clean and usable (I don’t even want to post a photo—it’s a bad ’80s renovation with floral wall tiles and a beige floor), so we decided to do the upstairs bathroom first. Hopefully the downstairs bathroom won’t be as much of an ordeal, since we won’t be dealing with crazy underfloor clawfoot tub nightmares. It’s a pretty straightforward renovation job (famous last words, I know).

We’re keeping the bathtub—a cast iron, apron-front corner tub—but everything else is going. I threw together a collage of what we’re planning on using. Some of it we already have (the Componibili, the Hook Box, the shower curtain, the mirror), and the rest of it is still up in mid-air. I want to get going on it! Having one nice bathroom is making the other one look really shabby and sad.

Just a quick late-Saturday-night post…

A few people have sent me a link to Melissa’s stairs over at Sugar City Journal (a lovely post, too). She actually didn’t use wallpaper, but instead scanned fabric, printed on regular paper and adhered it with Mod Podge. Very nice!

(You can find my previous post on wallpapered stair risers here.)

First things first: I need a new camera, I know. Mine is having trouble focusing, adjusting to low light, and generally being crabby and dumb. Its problems combined with my general lameness as a photographer are making it tough to document stuff I’ve been doing around the house. I apologize in advance for having crummy photos to accompany this post!

I finally got around to putting frosted film on the bathroom window. It came out beautifully! It was a bit nerve-wracking trying to get all of the little bubbles and flecks and such out (if there were ANY imperfections in it at all, I would never have been able to live with it), but once it was done and dry, it looked PERFECT. I trimmed out a 2cm border all around (AFTER it was fully positioned), which makes it look a little more finished. There’s actually no way to see into this window from outside the house, but for psychological reasons, I needed something covering it. I didn’t want to block out any light, though, and I’m not a huge fan of curtains on bathroom windows, so this was just the right solution.

(And yes, I did consider the beautiful Emma Jeffs window films, but I didn’t want to introduce any additional patterns into this room. I may use them elsewhere, though!)

Oh! I forgot to mention that the new sink faucet escutcheons are finally in place! Yay!

In other bathroom privacy measures, there is at last a DOOR on the bathroom!!! Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like a doorless bathroom. It was a big project, though, and one that was easy to put off until the end of the bathroom renovation ordeal. The door was in rough shape, but after lots of sanding, patching, caulking, priming, painting, and stripping of hardware, it is truly beautiful. Old, solid wood doors are just the BEST. I’ve lived in apartments with hollow-core doors (or worse, those engineered wood doors with the embossed panels and the faux wood grain texture), and they just don’t have the same pleasurable weight to them. These old doors are heavy and satisfying to open and close.

I painted the little stool next to the tub, too. I used an opaque black stain that I had left over from a garden project. I like the weight it gives to the bottom half of the room—it’s a nice compliment to the wallpaper above the tub. (You’ll see it eventually, I promise!)

Months ago, I added Shawna’s wallpapered stair risers to my inspiration files, thinking that something like this would be a great way to bring pattern into my hallway—and to use up some of the leftover Bindweed wallpaper from my bathroom renovation.

And then, in the midst of a million other house projects, I kind of forgot about it.

Just a few minutes ago, though, I was taking a look at Ferm Living’s Clever Spaces blog, and lo! Christiana has wallpapered her stair risers, too! It looks really great, doesn’t it? She’s written up instructions for this and some other fab wallpaper projects over at Sunset magazine’s site.

I think my hallway is going to get a sprucing-up soon…

A set of four Eames DKX chairs came home with me over the weekend. I’ve long dreamed of having one of these—they look like drawings, like model drawings for the more ubiquitous fiberglass DSX chair (of which I have…many). They’re beautiful and sculptural. I love the shadows they cast. I almost feel a little bit teary-eyed looking at them.

Three of them are in near-perfect condition. The fourth needs some spot-welding on the seat and a couple of foot glides, but nothing major. They came with a set of orange 2-piece bikini pads (which need some repairs—it’s almost impossible to find a vintage pad set with the joining button intact), but I think I like them better naked.

My chair collection (which I never intended to be a “collection”!) is now totally ridiculous. Someday I have to corral them all into one room and take a photo.

I’m so happy I was able to find a full, vintage set of these chairs (from, once again, Iron Fish in Beacon—thank you, Mark). At $1200 (!!!) per chair for the current production by Vitra, it’s doubtful that I would ever be able to own a single one otherwise.

It was a long, long weekend. Some good finds, some progress in the house. Photos to come…

(Hello, September!)