DC Design House 2009 - Bare Bones Tour

So I realized it's already Thursday and I haven't posted any of the pictures I took of the DC Design House. As I mentioned before, on Saturday boyfriend and I rode our bikes down to Georgetown to check out the DC Design House, which is being renovated by 16 designers to raise money for the Children's National Medical Center. I had heard about it previously, and was surprised they were done already, but then I took a closer look at the website, and it turns out it is a pre-design house tour. Basically, the house was empty and the designers had set up their boards in each room and several of them were around to answer questions. It was pretty cool to see it all prior to the work, and nice that there weren't tons of people around, so I could actually ask questions.

The house itself is the rectory for St. John's Episcopal Church in Georgetown. Designers submitted their designs for 16 different spaces throughout the house and yard and were selected by the charity board and the church board. They have six weeks to complete their designs and it will be shown to the public starting April 18th.

First Floor Plan

Two spaces on the first floor (the front porch and the living room) did not have boards or designers to explain what was going on, so I will be curious to see what goes on there. The hallway area, which includes both the first and second floors, will have a gorgeous wallpaper covering sections of the wall, and I'm really tempted to get some of it myself, even though I have no idea what I would do with it. The whole pattern is on the postcard in the lower right of the picture, and it's fantastic.

Front Hall Design Board

Taking a left out of the hallway, next is the Library. The designer in here actually got to start a little early because she is putting in custom bookcases around the front window, and had to rip out some existing shelves. My favorite part of the library is the gorgeous Scandinavian Grandfather clock...I've dreamed of one like that for years and there are several examples in my house books.

Library Design Board

Walking out of the Library, next is the Dining Room. I'm curious to see how this one turns out, as the Designer indicated there will be lots of surprises. I think there will be some nice touches, such as the purple and clear crystal chandelier, but also think it will be a bit dark, as there wasn't a lot of natural light in the room. I felt it deserved a lighter color palette. The round design on the right side of the board is the pattern for dishes which she will set the table with, and the inspiration for the colors in the room. She does plan to paint the floors, which are currently a dark wood, with a white-washed kind of checkerboard pattern, so that should lighten it up a bit in the room.

Dining Room Design Board

Walking back into the Kitchen from the Dining Room, I see what in my mind will be the biggest transformation. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the actual rooms themselves as they currently are, but it will be a huge change. The main idea is to retain the functionality of a rectory kitchen, while creating a sort of Victorian, non-built-in furniture feel. It will be totally gutted, with the cupboards and the stove, fridge, and dishwasher fitting more gracefully into their surroundings. I noticed that the wallcolor, a pale blue called Skylight, was the same as the Library, so I asked if they had coordinated, and they hadn't. It will have a different effect in the Kitchen though, with the accent colors being red and green, as opposed to the beige and creams of the Library. The island, the centerpiece of the Kitchen, will look more like a freestanding piece of furniture, despite the sink and dishwasher being incorporated into it, and will be painted a deep, vibrant red.

Kitchen Design Board - Sketches and Floor Plan

Kitchen Design Board - Fabrics and Paints


Kitchen Design Board - Breakfast Nook


Kitchen Design Board - Island Concept

Just off of the Kitchen is a small space that will house the washer and dryer, designed in an English Garden style. I didn't get a picture of the design board, but it will look nice, with cabinets to hide the washer and drying themselves.

Back in the Hallway, there is a little powder room overlooking the garden. The design takes advantage of this fact by pulling in fresh tones of green and white. It isn't totally my style, but it suits the house.

Downstairs Powder Room Design Board

The garden is accessible from the Living Room and will have a facelift as well. It will have a couple of additional seating areas, but I'm a little skeptical about the way the three blue chairs are lined up along the fence. While aesthetically it's nice, I can't imagine having a conversation while sitting in that configuration.

Garden Design Plan

Shade Loving Plants for the Garden

As this post is getting quite long, I think I will leave the second floor for tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Exterior photo and floor plan courtesy of DC Design House.

A Completed Project! (mostly)

So I actually have a completed project to report. I have had a bookshelf for a while that I no longer had any use for, and on one end the veneer was pretty chewed up.

Bookshelf in its pre-project form

I was thinking to myself what I could do with the bookshelf, and it popped into my head that I could turn it into a bench. But it was way too long to just make it a bench the way it was, and the one end was crappy looking anyway, so I thought it should be cut in half.

I sanded down the end I wanted to keep, marked off where I wanted the cut, and let boyfriend cut away with the circular saw. This is where it gets a bit tricky, as it's a somewhat cheap bookcase, and it's hollow. So that left two openings in the end where the cuts were made. More on that later.

Ready for the first cut

Obviously, if I just painted it and left it like it was, it would just look like a small bookshelf on its side. So I wanted some feet for the bench. This part turned out to be more difficult than I thought, as my normal supplier, the Home Depot, did not have a good supply at all of feet. I did a little internet research and came up with some gorgeous feet, but couldn't stomach paying $25 per foot, considering I paid like $15 for the bookshelf on Craigslist. This was all shortly before going home for Christmas, so I thought I would just wait until then and make my parents drive me to every home improvement store in northern Michigan until I found the perfect feet. That turned out to be the trick and Lowes had some great feet for $6 apiece.

The feet came with nifty screw things in them, so boyfriend got out my cordless drill and drilled some holes in the bottom. I then glued and screwed them in, and got to work painting. I was originally going to paint the bench red, to match my dining chairs, but I decided to go more neutral and paint it glossy white.

In the midst of painting

So it looks all pretty for the pictures, but remember how I said there were two holes on the end? Those still aren't quite fixed, so I have some work to do, but it looks nice for now. The plan is to cut two pieces of wood perfectly sized and insert them, but we'll have to see how that all turns out.

All painted up

Project Number 2,345,583 and Counting...

So it's not really project number 2,345,583, but the list is getting rather long. I had been wanting to get a chair for my bathroom/dressing room for a while now. Despite the fact that most pictures I show on my blog of my apartment are quite neat and clean, this isn't necessarily the natural state of my apartment. The second law of thermodynamics rules in my apartment, unfortunately, with entropy tending to increase exponentially. Due to my nature of indecisiveness, I typically wind up with a large pile of clothes on the bathroom floor every morning, and I know I will never change, so a chair to put them on is the best solution for me.

Boyfriend and I made a Goodwill run a couple of weekends ago in an attempt to clear out some random stuff no longer needed. This is an admirable effort, but I always end up bring home stuff any time I go to Goodwill. On this particular trip, I ran across a cute little wooden folding chair for $10, which I couldn't resist. You may have looked at the pictures already and noticed that the chair is not a cute little wooden folding chair. Well, we brought all our goodies back to boyfriend's house first, and lo and behold, boyfriend's neighbors had some chairs out in front of their house for free. I cannot resist free things. So despite the fact they were hideous, I felt the need to take one of the chairs home with me, or rather to boyfriend's house.

I set up my cute little wooden chair up in boyfriend's room when we were redecorating, which turned out to be a mistake, as now he is attached and won't let it go away. So ugly chair for the bathroom it is. The current plan is to lacquer it white, as boyfriend has been wanting to lacquer something for a while now, and then to reupholster it, and add an upholstered back as well. I haven't gone material shopping yet, but I was thinking a white background with the reddish-coral color in the curtains as polka dots. It may be a bit much, but hey, I have a pink bathroom. Might as well go big.

Its natural state

The ugliness waiting to be transformed

A Hidden Georgetown Enclave - Pomander Walk

Saturday, boyfriend and I rode our bikes down to Georgetown to check out the DC Design House, which is being renovated by 16 designers to raise money for the Children's National Medical Center. More on that later, but while we were there, I happened to remember a house tour on Apartment Therapy that had looked at a house on a tiny little walk in Georgetown named Pomander Walk, which was quite close to the Design House (St. John's Episcopal Church Rectory). I wanted to check out the street myself, so after riding around in circles and trying to figure out where it was on my map, we wound up on Pomander Walk. It was starting to get dark by the time we found it, so the pictures not great, but it was a neat little street.

Dinner for Two

So I've decided to expand the focus of the blog even more, and continue the food coverage. On Sunday, boyfriend and I headed down to Eastern Market, because we hadn't been in a while, and I was craving my favorite pupusas, which are the best in the world. At least the best in my world. Unfortunately it was freezing and there was barely anyone there, but we planned out a fabulous dinner in the farmers market section.

We had a bit of inspiration from our meals at PS 7s, including a spicy cucumber salad and parsnip puree. The pièce de résistance though was prosciutto wrapped scallops, and for dessert we had raspberries and freshly whipped cream.

Fridge Makeovers

So as you can see below, I have a hideous kitchen:

It's blah and boring, and I don't really like the blue and white backsplash, because it doesn't go with my color scheme at all (it's actually just contact paper, not tile). So today I ran across this idea of wallpapering/painting the fridge and I'm sorely tempted. Obviously all of the examples below are pretty extreme and I wouldn't go quite as crazy, but it's now fermenting in the back of my brain, along with the 101 other projects I'm thinking about. Ideally, I would like to paint the cupboards, because they are hideous and really need a refinishing (you can't tell from the picture, but the finish is really coming off of the drawers). Considering the vent doesn't even work and is covered in years of grease nastiness, I would like to remove that as well. The cream-colored appliances aren't the greatest looking either, but there isn't a whole lot that can be done about that, except for wallpaper, of course!

Random Fridge Inspiration

(pictures courtesy of shelterhome)

Massive Winter Weather Alert!!!

That is what any forecast for over 0.0001" of snow is called in DC. Which, despite the fact it was like 75 degrees a couple of days ago, we now have. Rather, we have about 5" of snow. Which is quite pretty actually and I'm not too sad, despite the fact it causes for massive commute disruption. You would think relying on my feet and an underground train to get me to work wouldn't be a problem with snow, but no. Everyone who normally relies on their personal 4 wheels to get them to work decided to take the Metro in, leading to me not getting a seat.

Oh well, whatever, that's not the worst part of the snowstorm. The worst part is that I was at Target with boyfriend last weekend, and I happened upon saucer sleds that were on clearance for $1.46. As anyone who has lived in a remotely snowy region can tell you, saucer sleds are the best. They are the ultimate sledding experience. Despite the fact I ran into too many trees to count as a child, I still love them. Flash forward to last weekend, when it appeared spring was on the horizon. Boyfriend kindly talked me out of buying what would only be a ridiculous purchase that I would have to store in my tiny apartment, as there was no way I would ever use a sled in DC. After regretting not following my instincts and purchasing something that would bring me great joy, I may be making a run to Target after work and then locating the closest hill. :)

If my feet had wings...

This has got to be one of the coolest tattoos I've ever seen. I ran across this at ACL a couple of years ago, and if I were to ever get a tattoo (don't worry Mom, I won't), this would be it. I guess it's not quite as applicable, as I'm becoming a slower and slower runner lately, but maybe it would speed me up a bit.

Restaurant Week Goodness

So last night Boyfriend and I took advantage of the extended Restaurant Week deal at PS 7s, which was by far our favorite pick from the last Restaurant Week. It's one of those restaurants that I just can't afford normally, and even during the Restaurant Week special ($35.09 for 3 course meal), by the time you add drinks and tax (seriously, I don't understand why DC has a 10% food tax), it's not exactly nice to the budget. So it's a once a year kinda place, but definitely worth it.

Both Boyfriend and I started off with the poached mussels in coconut milk and red Thai curry with crispy rice noodles, which was a really unique approach to mussels and completely delicious. I think I would have been completely happy just eating that for dinner.

For the main course, I had the soy glazed cod with black rice, shrimp and sweet potato fritter, and a spicy cucumber salad. The black rice wasn't the most interesting item on the plate, but the rest of my food made up for it. The cucumber salad had a bit too much seasoning for my taste, as it was really overpowering, but it was a good salad. The cod was amazing, as well as my favorite part of the main course, the fritter. I'm seriously going to have to figure out how to make them, because if someone can make sweet potatoes taste good to me, they have talent.

Boyfriend ordered the pan seared salmon with endive, walnuts and watercress salad, parsnip puree and orange reduction. Once again, the starch won it out for me on his plate, as the parsnip puree was smooth and deliciously rich. The salmon was a tad bit overcooked, but the sauce was really good.

For dessert, I opted for the banana crisp with rum and coke ice cream, and I was not disappointed. The combination was quite good, even though the ice cream didn't have a very strong flavor. Boyfriend got his ice cream maker for Christmas, despite the fact I had made fun of him for asking for it, and is now inspired to try and make something similar. He went for the pineapple polenta cake with ginger spice syrup and red currant gel, which I thought was a bit dry, but a tastier version of a pineapple upside down cake.

All in all, two thumbs up.

Boyfriend's Room Gets a Facelift Part 5

So I figured I should update everyone, rather than just leave it hanging as to what all is going on in the Boyfriend's room. My part is pretty much done, as we've hung most of the artwork, purchased the end tables and rug that I picked out and moved everything around. The current list of things to do is:

1) buy big frames, pick out photos to put in current little frames, and finish hanging all the artwork
2) build the workbench/desk
3) dismantle current desk and put everything away in its new home
4) build the benches to go in the alcove (this one probably won't happen for a few months at least)

As you can see, most of those are issues that Boyfriend has to deal with, because despite my skill with a handsaw, I haven't quite graduated to power tools yet. I've owned a cordless drill for about a year now, and haven't personally used it once. But it's handier than Boyfriend having to haul his down every time he has to use a drill.

So anyway, it will probably be a while before I can actually post the final after pictures, but stay tuned in the not so near future for them.

Wallpaper Headboard

In the interest of saving space and creating a cheap and easy headboard, I thought I would pass along this nifty idea I picked up from Martha today. All it requires is a small piece of fancy (or not so fancy) wallpaper and an exacto knife to cut along the patter and then paste that bad boy up on the wall.

I've also seen several times lately that it is possible to use fabric as a temporary wallpaper of sorts, by attaching it to the wall with liquid or spray starch. I'm not sure how well this works, as I haven't tried it, but I can definitely see it being applicable in this case as well. It might be kind of fun to just cut out a medallion or different shapes out of fabric and apply them to the wall, rather than entirely covering the wall. Hmm....I'm giving myself all kinds of ideas now, I'll have to get back with you on what I end up trying.

(Photo courtesy of www.marthastewart.com)

To each his own - or more likely to each her own, in the case of pink bathrooms vs. the world

I have a pink bathroom, as many of you are aware. And I mean pink.

I managed to make it as stylish as I could, but still, I wouldn't mind eliminating pink bathrooms from the face of the planet. Turns out, not everyone feels the same way I do. Apparently, there is an entire website devoted to promoting the pink bathroom. Like I said, to each her own (as there is no way a guy would back this).

Pepsi Ad Addendum

So I was cruising the blogosphere this morning, and I came across a picture of the actual Pepsi ad on the bus on www.dcblogs.com. On the bus itself I think it's harder to tell that it says optimism, in my opinion at least. Ok, I know it's a mildly pathetic attempt to defend myself further, but it still stands. :)

(Image courtesy of www.dcblogs.com)

Talking to Oneself is the First Sign of Insanity

I used to play a computer game called Hugo's House of Horrors where you had to type in what you wanted Hugo to do. Whenever the computer didn't understand what you asked of it, which was frequent, considering the game was released in 1990, it replied by saying "Talking to oneself is the first sign of insanity."

Well, if that's the case, I must be insane. My office is arranged in a square around the elevator shaft, and my corner of the office is sparsely populated. This has led to me whispering things to myself all the time, as I get lonely over here. That is, until someone moved into the cubicle two down from me, and now she gets to hear me muttering all day. I really should learn to curb that habit.

I promise I will stop posting about the Pepsi ads when they stop running them

I really can't help it that Pepsi has essentially bought the DC transit system, so you'll just have to put up with it. Today I was walking to the metro, and I saw a bus with this ad on the side:

(Image courtesy of Pepsi - http://www.refresheverything.com/)

Obviously I recognized that it was a Pepsi ad, but I was really confused as to what it was trying to say. I sounded it out out loud - Pt im ismmmm? What does that mean? Are they trying to just make a random sound? Ah, that was when I realized the O in front. Somehow this ad didn't quite translate as well in my head as the ones with the O in the middle. Am I the only stupid person here, or did you see optimism when you first looked at it as well?