Monthly Archives: January 2009

Soup for lunches.

70
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 29, 2009 – 11:45 pm
Filed under food, health

I do my best to cook most of the food Evan and I eat (we do make an exception on Friday nights, when we go out to our favorite restaurant, the Neptune Diner—we’re not fancy), including our lunches. We both work in midtown Manhattan, home of the $8.00 Tossed Salad of Unknown Origins. We like to eat organic and/or local as much as possible (again, Neptune is the exception…), keep our fat/calorie consumption under control, and be a little frugal, so it just makes sense to plan ahead a bit and bring lunches from home.

On Sundays, I generally cook two big pots of soup or stew. I divide them up into individual portions and put them in the freezer. Packing a lunch bag becomes so easy—just grab a container from the freezer and an apple or carrots, and that’s it. I know if I had to prepare a lunch every morning (or the evening before), we’d wind up buying lunch every day and easily blowing through $100 a week.

This week, I made Curried Black-Eyed Pea Soup (I started with this recipe but made many modifications based on the reviews) and Vegetarian Chili. Both were delicious, but my chili recipe really can’t be beat. It is SO GOOD. Trust me on this. Make a pot this weekend—you’ll love it. (And don’t skip the balsamic vinegar!)

Spice jars.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on January 28, 2009 – 4:34 pm
Filed under food, house

This is one of those things I’ve been meaning to do for years, literally—I finally got my spice situation organized! I bought three RATIONELL VARIERA spice racks from IKEA, mounted them inside of a kitchen cabinet door, and transferred my 18 most commonly used spices to them. And look, labels! I bought a 3-pack of Martha Stewart labels to make life easy (I had planned to design my own labels, but for some reason, graphic designers tend to be really lazy about designing things for their own homes/lives—I’m not sure why this is…), and it’s done. Bulk and seldom-used spices were moved to a tray in the pantry (with labels on the TOPS of the containers, because I am smart).

I can’t even tell you how much better this makes my life, seriously. For years I have been digging through shelves of spices; buying 3 duplicate tins of cumin because I thought I was out, neglecting to buy nutmeg because I was sure it was in there somewhere, etc. The hour or so it took to get this done was totally worth it.

Inside the closet.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on January 27, 2009 – 10:16 am
Filed under house

I was so excited about the floor yesterday that I forgot to show the inside of the closet! I like to make the small spaces in my house (like the vestibule and the pantry) a little extra special. It’s just a nice thing to see every day.

(Yes, I still need to put the doorknob and rim lock back on the door, and I have to do something about the bottom panel—the whole thing had been cut out, and I have a lot of work to do on it to make it match the other doors in the house. I’ll get to that eventually!)

I painted the walls inside of the closet a pale gray—it’s Valspar paint in Filtered Shade, a color I fell in love with when I saw it in Amy Shutt’s bedroom. I bought a gallon of it months ago, but didn’t find the right use for it until I started working on this closet.

The old shelf in the closet was covered with contact paper that had been painted over (why do people do things like that?!), so I replaced it with a plain pine board. I don’t think I’ll paint it; I like the bare wood. Depending on what this room winds up being used for, I will either add more shelves (for linens) or a clothes bar (for coats).

The dresser is being used for bathroom storage. Our little bathroom is next door, and it has no space for things like spare towels, soap, and extra rolls of TP. This is the RAST dresser from IKEA, and it’s the perfect size for going inside a tiny closet since it’s only 12″ deep. It’s sold unfinished, and I chose to paint it BM Simply White to match the trim (after priming, of course). The knobs are BM Toucan Black, just like the window sashes. I had to notch out the back and shorten the bottom drawer a bit to accommodate the baseboard molding so it would sit flush against the wall. Most solid wood IKEA furniture is easy to modify if it’s not exactly the right size—just make sure to mark where any holes will need to be re-drilled.

Finally, I lined the drawers of the dresser with some leftover wallpaper from the bathroom. I try to line drawers whenever possible—I just use a little double-stick tape to hold the paper in place.

White painted floor, back room.

91
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 26, 2009 – 12:05 pm
Filed under house

The floor in the back room is finished, and it is beautiful. I couldn’t be happier. What used to be the dirtiest, most neglected and depressing room in the house is now unbelievably peaceful, clean, and fresh. I saw the floor in the daylight for the first time on Saturday, and it was like one of those dreams you have where you discover a room in your house that you never knew was there before. Amazing.

This is the wall that I’ll be using the black-on-black Fir Tree wallpaper on.

I’m still not sure what this room will be used for (our bedroom, maybe?). Part of me wants to just leave it empty, but I know that’s ridiculous. I will say, though, that after living in our house for three years with this room essentially being dead space, I feel very pressured now to figure out exactly what purpose each of the four upstairs rooms should serve. In many ways, I found it much easier to manage space properly in a 600sf apartment than I do in a 2000sf house. I don’t want to waste!

Now we’re ready to have our radiator (which we had sandblasted and powdercoated back in June) reinstalled. It will go between the windows—that’s what the pipe sticking up out of the floor is for. I can’t wait to have ALL of the radiators in the house refinished! I’m so tired of peeling silver paint and rust.

For those of you wondering what I used to paint the floor, this is the product lineup, and these are the steps I followed:

(1) Pull all carpet tacks, staples, etc. from floor. Use nail set to recess any protruding nails.

(2) Patch all holes with wood filler. I like Zinsser Ready Patch.

(3) Dig out all rotted areas of floorboards (there was a significant amount of old water damage along the wall abutting the bathroom) and repair with a 2-part epoxy consolidant. There is a good description of that process here (I have used this method to repair rotted trim and window sashes throughout the house with great success).

(4) Sand floor. Because this is a small room and this floor had no existing finish on it, I used a hand sander. I have a Bosch 5-inch Random Orbit Sander, and I’m very happy with it. I started with a medium-grit paper, then did another pass with a finer grit. (Hang a tarp over the door and wear a mask. Sanding floors is very dusty!)

(5) Install shoe molding at baseboard. I generally am not a fan of quarter-round in old houses, but the gap between the baseboard moldings and the floor was too large to caulk effectively.

(6) Vacuum well (I did a first pass with a ShopVac, then finished with an Electrolux with a HEPA filter), and clean all surfaces very well with TSP substitute.

(7) Apply primer. I used two coats (applied with a roller), since this floor had a lot of staining and had never been sealed before. Throughout the house, I have used Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 to prime EVERYTHING. It’s wonderful stuff if you have a lot of imperfect surfaces to cover. The gripping/sealing power is amazing. I highly recommend all of Zinsser’s products.

(8) Apply a shellac-based spray to any knot holes, etc., still showing through the primer.

(9) Apply three coats of paint. I used a brush, because I sometimes find I don’t like the finish of roller-applied paint on wood surfaces. I like Benjamin Moore paints and have used them throughout the house. I didn’t want to deal with oil paint, so I went with their latex-based, epoxy-reinforced Floor & Patio paint, waiting 24 hours between coats. Two coats might have been enough, but since I noticed a couple of areas that seemed a little thin, I went ahead and did a third to be on the safe side. The consistency of floor paint is quite different from wall or trim paint—it’s very thin, so it goes down smoothly and quickly without any brush marks.

I opted not to fill the gaps between the boards. I like the lines the gaps create, and I’ve noticed that in almost every photo of a white-painted floor that I’m drawn to, the gaps are visible. I’m happy to see the imperfections of this old floor!

Grouting done, sleep pending.

29
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 26, 2009 – 12:45 am
Filed under house

The grouting is FINISHED. (The gaps in the corner and the around the tub will be caulked later.)

I’m exhausted. What a weekend! I need to sleep.

p.s. Photos of the painted floor tomorrow, I promise. I would post them now, but I’m so tired I could cry, and I have to get up for work in 4 1/2 hours.

The wall tiles are done!

20
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 24, 2009 – 11:14 pm
Filed under house

Well, almost done. Tomorrow we have to grout them. So far, this project has gone much better than I expected it to.

Still to come in the bathroom:
→ hang drywall in shelving area
→ prime & hang beadboard
→ repair ceiling/upper walls
→ repair window & build screen
→ paint door, rehang
→ set floor tiles (matte black pennyrounds)
→ add baseboard moldings and cap rail to beadboard
→ stain threshold, install
→ paint beadboard/trim (white? black? or…?)
→ plumbers in to finish work
→ build shelves
→ hang mirror
→ install overhead light and sconces
→ install towel radiator
→ mount shower curtain rod
→ …details…

I figure we’ll be done by June. Sigh.

Wallpaper sale at Ferm Living.

25
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 22, 2009 – 9:40 am
Filed under greed, house

Ferm Living is having a recession remodel sale (60% off!) on many of their Collection 2 wallpapers! Yay. I may be running out of things to wallpaper, but that didn’t stop me from ordering two rolls of their super-lush Fir Tree paper in black-on-black. I’m thinking it might look very nice on the back wall of a certain room in my house with a freshly-painted white floor…

(Pssst: Don’t wait too long to order. Last time they had a big sale, stuff went really quickly!)

Fritz is a year old!

36
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 20, 2009 – 11:42 pm
Filed under four legs

I didn’t want Fritz’s birthday to overshadow the inauguration (it’s difficult when two events of equal global importance fall on the same day!), but it’s almost midnight, so I have to hurry up and beat the clock so I can wish my little guy a HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY!

In honor of the event, Fritz was allowed to eat half a tin of dog-friendly carrot cake on the table. (Bruno got the other half, but he had to eat on the floor.)

I can’t believe Fritz is technically no longer a puppy. He’s just a little speck! A baby schmutz! My Fritzy Doodle Dandy! He’s a problem child, yes, but he’s so completely full of love and sweetness and I love him to pieces.

Here’s to you, Fritzy! Happy birthday.

Tile, tile, tile…

33
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 20, 2009 – 2:04 pm
Filed under house

Hey, look what we did! It’s tile! (Sorry the photo is so crappy, the only light in there right now is a work lamp.) Up until the last second (literally!) we were debating whether to set the tiles in a traditional running-bond pattern or in a more modern horizontal grid. In the end running-bond won out, mainly because the less linear a pattern, the more it hides irregularities like slightly off-square wall corners and unleveled bathtubs. You have to know the limitations of an old house!

And yeah, we only got this wall done—the other will have to wait until Saturday. Cutting the holes for the fixtures proved challenging (we only have a manual tile cutter and a pair of nippers), so it took longer than expected. The other wall is just a big rectangle, though, so I expect it will go very quickly, especially now that we have a good feel for the right ratio of thinset to water, etc.

Aside from the fact that my fingertips now feel like cat tongues, the whole experience was pretty painless. I highly recommend tiling as a DIY project. This was way easier than hanging wallpaper (or even painting, in some ways). A lot of advance research/reading was required, but doing this ourselves (including all of the prep work, which was extensive) saved us thousands of dollars. It’s all about having confidence!

I also got two coats of primer and a coat of paint down on the floor in the back room. It looks AMAZING. It’s like a giant, fluffy cloud of brightness in there! I’m holding off taking photos until I get the second coat down (hopefully tonight) and have a chance to hang the doors (probably this weekend). I still don’t know what we’ll be using that room for, but at least now it’s not wasted space.

Today is the day!

28
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 20, 2009 – 9:42 am
Filed under inspiration


Do you know how much I wish this were the official White House Presidential photo? Go here to read more about Baby the 3-legged poodle.

It’s funny—over the course of the past eight years, I have spent so much time counting down the months (days, minutes, seconds) until G.W.B. would be leaving office. That was what mattered to me for a long time, seeing him gone. (And today he leaves office with a 22% approval rating—the lowest in history.) At a certain point, though, my focus and concern shifted to where we were all headed once he left, and who was going to take his place. By the time Obama won the primary election, it was almost as though G.W.B. didn’t exist. And so, the celebrating I do today will not be to mark the end of Bush administration’s reign of terror, but to welcome Obama and his team to their new positions, and to mark the beginning of what I believe is the right path for this country.

Yesterday on WAMC I listed to Clarence B. Jones, a former speech writer and advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr., speak about his book, What Would Martin Say?. He concluded the interview by saying that the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States is a reflection less of Obama’s personal accomplishments than it is of where we have come as a country, together. He said this not to diminish Obama’s capabilities and potential for excellence as a president, but to remind us all of just how historically significant this moment is, and what it says about us as Americans. What a joyful thought!

Let’s savor that feeling today—we have a lot of work to do tomorrow.

Almost finished with the back room! (& a bathroom bonus)

40
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 19, 2009 – 9:58 am
Filed under house

Remember my horrific to-do list for the back room? Well, here’s all that’s left on it:

→ prime floor (2 coats)
→ caulk any large gaps/cracks in floorboards
→ paint floor (2 coats)
→ live in fear of walking on painted floor

Yesssssss. I think I may actually be able to finish this today, depending on how quickly the first coat of paint dries. I’m SO EXCITED to see the room with the floor painted!!!!!!! (!!!!!!!)

By the way, if anything about the photo above looks appealing or refinish-able, it’s either the light or the fact that the floor is wet making it look that way. The floor is gross. It’s the original pine plank subfloor (the rest of the upstairs has wood floors on top of this subfloor—this room was at one point a kitchen when the house was a 2-family, and the wood floor had been removed) that has never been finished. It is stained, grimy, warped, cracked, and splintered. There were areas with rot and water damage, too—I had to dig out the rot and do major patching/sculpting with epoxy.

When we bought the house, there were two layers of glued-down carpeting directly on the floor. Even getting it to the point of being paintable has been a chore, so don’t come down on me and try to tell me I’m “ruining” beautiful old wood and I don’t deserve to own this house. (You can save all of that for when I paint the rest of the floors upstairs! Hah.)

Anyway! Guess what else is amazing? WE STARTING TILING LAST NIGHT!!! We wanted to get the first row up (we just back-buttered them, we didn’t spread the thinset on the wall) and give it time to dry so the rest of the tiles will have something to rest on and not slide down the walls and make us insane. The shimming situation was kind of frustrating, because our tub isn’t precisely level (and there’s nothing we can do about that). Each shim had to be a slightly different thickness so we could get the tile perfectly level. Once we got going, though, it was actually kind of fun. I’m excited to do the rest today. (This is the first time either one of us has tiled anything!) I want to grout next weekend, so I hope we finish!

Office bathroom, winter edition.

39
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 14, 2009 – 9:55 pm
Filed under vanity, wearable

This is the first winter that I’ve really felt prepared for the cold weather, and it’s great! In past years, I’ve shivered and suffered in thin, wool coats (and, once upon a time, stockings and heels every day—but I got over that), but this year I planned ahead and bought a knee-length, super-warm down coat from Soïa & Kyo. Ahhhhhh. It’s like a sleeping bag with a belt, only more flattering. I have to ride a ferry across the Hudson and stand on an outdoor train platform every morning, so this is serious business.

Also, did you know that wearing a hat that covers your ears keeps you much warmer than not wearing a hat at all? I know, I know, that seems crazy, but apparently our mothers were right about that. Huh.

New IKEA PS collection!

44
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 14, 2009 – 2:56 pm
Filed under greed, inspiration

The new IKEA PS collection is completely amazing. I think I want everything! (The blanket!!! The long bench!! THE LAMP!!!) I really like the direction IKEA has been moving in lately overall, but this is the most excited I’ve been about the PS collection since the vases Hella Jongerius did for them in 2005 (I own all but one of them). So exciting!!

Hop over to emmas designblogg to see more from the collection and to get the details on some of the pieces. (Available in Sweden next month, and elsewhere in April.)

(via emmas designblogg!)

Year-round menorah?

40
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 13, 2009 – 3:47 pm
Filed under house

Evan gave me Jonathan Adler’s ‘Skyline’ menorah for my birthday, and we managed to remember to light the candles at least 5 nights this year (a record for us!). Now that the holidays are over, though, I don’t feel like packing the menorah away—it’s too pretty.

Is it weird to leave a Hanukkah menorah up all year round? I’m on the fence with this one.

p.s. The horn penguins are from Feel Design in Beacon (RIP). I don’t know what they’re talking about, but it sure is juicy!

Orla Kiely for Target!

67
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 12, 2009 – 1:29 pm
Filed under greed, inspiration

Um, this is going to be ALL OVER every blog in about 20 minutes (and I apologize if you’ve already heard), but I’m so excited right now I think I’m going to choke, so I’ll just get this out of my system now: ORLA KIELY IS COMING TO TARGET! Stuff will be in stores (and will promptly sell out) at the beginning of February. Wheee!

(via AT:NY)

UPDATE: See more photos of the collection at sfgirlbybay!

UPDATE #2: The full collection will hit stores on February 15th. Thanks, Holly!

Year to year.

54
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 9, 2009 – 12:30 am
Filed under house

In case you didn’t realize it, the photos I’ve been posting over the past week are some of the first I’ve shown of the first floor of our house in nearly a year! I can’t believe that much time has passed, but it’s fun to see how much the living room has changed.

This is now:

And this was last year:

The rug has been removed (we still have it, but Fritz wants to eat it, Bruno wants to pee on it, and to be honest, I like the way the new coffee table looks better without a rug—so everybody wins), the old TV cabinet has been replaced with a shelving unit that feels much airier and brings some much-needed vertical interest to the room, the sofa and coffee table are new . . . I really feel like this room is becoming what it’s supposed to be. It’s been a gradual process, just trying to figure out what feels right and what works in our lives.

These shelves need better curating, but that will come in time.

Did you notice I still haven’t properly upholstered the chairs?! We bought them in September 2007 and “temporarily” wrapped the cushions in unbleached linen. Shameful! Interestingly, Fritz has no interest in chewing these cushions. Hmmpf. I’m thinking a cream-colored, nubby wool would be nice for these chairs. I’ll buy the fabric in 2009, the foam in 2010, and by late 2013 the covers should be all ready! Really, why does it take me so long to get things like this done?

Uh-oh, I just noticed it’s 12:30 AM, and I have to get up for work in 4 1/2 hours. Night-night!

The dining room.

46
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 7, 2009 – 4:59 pm
Filed under house, scavenged

A few months ago I got a good deal on a set of four Eames DKX chairs and immediately put them around the dining table, thinking that four chairs should really be enough for two people (this from a person with at least two dozen “extra” chairs scattered around the house and hiding in the basement). The table is quite long, though, and four chairs just didn’t look quite right. I half-heartedly looked for two more DKX chairs, but couldn’t turn up a bargain. I also thought it would be nice to have something different at the ends, and I considered using a couple of Eames shell armchairs, but that didn’t seem quite right.

Then I remembered the Bertoia chairs I got for a steal back in March. I had been storing them in the basement thinking I’d eventually use them in the garden, but the longer my garden remains a dirt rectangle with two dying rhododendrons and a pile of gravel bags, the more I think it would be nice to try them out INSIDE the house. And what do you know? I actually think they look quite nice together, these two alike-but-different wire chairs. It’s a nice contrast while still being in the same family.

Speaking of Bertoia chairs, look what I found last weekend! Yes, another one, reduced to $50 ($50!) because of some rust. I’ll take it! I’ll take it! I don’t need it, but I’ll take it! (This is how you wind up with a chair “accenting” every free bit of wall space in your house.)

While I’m on the subject of the dining room, I have to give props to the table, which is awesome. We bought it four years ago (about a year before we bought this house), and subsequently our home search was dependent on finding a house with a big enough dining room to accommodate this table. It’s the NORDEN dining table in solid birch from IKEA, and it’s 105″ long with the leaf in (87″ without). Enormous! It can seat 10 people easily, 12 if you really like each other.

And after all that, we usually just eat dinner in front of the TV.

Sometimes the dogs win.

99
Posted by Anna at D16 on January 6, 2009 – 2:38 pm
Filed under four legs, house

As I’ve alluded to (more than once), Fritz likes to chew. A lot. His teething “phase” has gone on for about 6 month now, despite bitter sprays, plenty of chew toys, and good, old-fashioned rationalizing (more effective than anything, frankly). He especially likes piping, which our old (and by “old” I mean we bought it a year ago) sofa had a whole lot of. It’s too depressing to photograph, but suffice to say the sofa I spent months agonizing over and then finally finding and buying at the DWR Annex now looks like a hobo should be sleeping on it in a shanty town under the Manhattan Bridge.

Enter the $500 replacement sofa from IKEA:

Not bad, right? It’s the KARLSTAD, with the Sivik dark gray slipcover. I went with the optional aluminum legs instead of the included birch ones, because I prefer a less blocky base and there’s already a whole lot of wood going on in my living room. Now, if anything horrible happens, I can just replace the slipcover. I’m trying to avoid that, though, and have been covering the sofa with a canvas tarp (yes, this is my life) whenever I have to leave the house for an extended period of time. So far, so good (though the tarp has seen better days!).

It’s actually very comfortable, and I don’t have any concerns about the durability. I had an IKEA sofa (the now-discontinued FALSTERBO) for years, and only gave it up because a sectional doesn’t work in this house. No, it’s not an heirloom piece, but that’s okay. I’ll have a slipcover made for the “old sofa”, and it can go in the forthcoming 2nd-floor lounge. All is well.

And yes, that’s a coffee table. FINALLY. It only took me 3 years to make a decision, and this is definitely the right one. It’s the Urban coffee table from CB2 (discontinued; I think I bought the last one), and it’s made of steel—which I’m pretty sure is Fritz-proof.

Always remember: Pets (and children, or so I hear) are more important than furniture. Sometimes you have to adjust your life a little, and settle for a compromise. (I’m not sure what Fritz is giving up, of course, but that’s beside the point.)

GOOD BOY!!!

Another Door Sixteen!

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Posted by Anna at D16 on January 5, 2009 – 4:54 pm
Filed under inspiration, real estate

I still daydream about having a vacation home that’s the complete opposite of the house I live in now (like this one in the Catskills which, as far as I know, STILL has not sold). Imagine my delight when I came across this amazing Swedish cabin on Remodelista the other day . . . and then saw the door number:

Hmmm, I wonder if the homeowner would like to trade houses every so often? It seems meant to be! The address labels would only require minor tweaking! Perhaps they dream of taking vacations in a Victorian rowhouse in a small, riverside, urban town in upstate New York. Hey, you never know!

Yeah, I could definitely feel at home here.

Does your house have an alter-ego? Do you dream about living in a space totally unlike your current one, even if you love your home?

(Cabin designed by PS Arkitektur, Stockholm)

Lance Wyman poster & New Year’s bunting.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on January 4, 2009 – 4:47 pm
Filed under art & design, house

I bought this silkscreened Obama poster several months ago, and had been meaning to have it framed since then. I even made an appointment to meet with a framer, which I had to then cancel because I was just too busy with work. I decided I HAD to put it in a frame before Obama actually takes office (16 days to go!), so I went ahead and stuck it in a $30 RIBBA frame from IKEA. Perfect! Sometimes you just have to settle for the easy/cheap route, and I’m totally happy with how this turned out. (FYI, I used acid-free photo tabs to fix the poster in place on top of the mat, since it wasn’t a good fit to put the mat on top.)

Lance Wyman is one of my favorite graphic designers of all time (you’ll probably recognize his incredibly, amazingly, ridiculously fabulous branding for the 1968 Mexico Olympics), and I’m really excited to have this poster. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by Shepard Fairey’s wildly popular Obama poster, which, while unquestionably iconic and beautifully designed, just isn’t my personal cup of tea. (By the way, you can see all of the DNC-commissioned Obama posters here. They’re all sold out now, but it’s still an exciting reminder that the US is about to get a president who understands the value of good design!)

Here’s a detail of the triangle bunting seen in the top photo—the extent of my decorations for my New Year’s Eve party. I downloaded the calligraphed lettering from Hello Handmade Paperie, printed it on silver-foil coated card stock, and joined the cut-out triangles with black twine. I have a thing for triangle bunting (I still have to find a use for the FIALENA bunting-print fabric I bought almost a year ago!), and I’m thinking I might make various seasonal buntings to hang across this doorway all year long.