Articles from May 2010

Internets II: Craigslist

I love craigslist. It is very useful if you do not have copious amounts of money to spend on your house. We have gotten great things on craigslist, like a pair of matching city bikes made in Austria. or a pullout couch that has seen many guests and will see many, many more.

As anyone who has ever used Craigslist to search for something either really popular: for example, free couches tend to go within minutes of the initial post – or something really obscure: I am currently attempting to secure real wood doors to replace the plywood ones that we have in the house – it is really all about timing.… Read the rest

We Have Come a Long Way As I have

We Have Come a Long Way

As I have mentioned several times, painting kitchen cabinets was a huge pain, but in the end, I am happy with a result and am very happy to live with them until a major kitchen re-model.

my materials:

painter’s tape
Sergey + drill (to take off cabinet doors)
brushes
sand paper
TSP substitute
primer
paint (True Value Marquee (blue) and Doli (white) in semi-gloss)

my steps:

Remove doors from the cabinets — this went pretty fast the power tool, but i think can be done with just a screw driver as well.… Read the rest

Kitchen is complete (with the exception of the curtain for the window, which I can’t figure ou

view from entrance

kitchen cart storage has been priceless

curtain cover for basement entrance

Kitchen is complete (with the exception of the curtain for the window, which I can’t figure out just yet). Sergey actually put up the hardware for the cabinets a few weeks ago, but I waited to write the post because I needed to reorganize cabinets/storage, which still refuse to house as many things as I would like.… Read the rest

Shashlik and such This weekend we made use of our fire pit again to make a traditiona

shashlik

and we are going to do this

can you see our neighbor?

operation ‘lower the branch’

let there be light!

Shashlik and such

This weekend we made use of our fire pit again to make a traditional Russian –well more like Caucasian/ Central Asian– repast, shashlik. It was delicious!

At some point between portion one and two of meat on the grill, Sergey and our neighbor decided to take care of the tree branches that have vexed me since we moved into our house two months ago.… Read the rest

Internets

Internet is a great resource. As much as I sometimes dislike how much time and effort technology requires, I realize that that is because resources are readily available. So here are my internet resources –amazingly all free of charge –that help to create the VIB vision:

Flickr: The *future* photo stream on VIB online. We generally upload all the pictures straight from the computer, but Flickr will come in handy for use with Polyvore (see below) and for additional pictures that would take up too much space on the blog.… Read the rest

Fire PitThat’s what we have after a weekend of hard work!Sergey sawed

working on the pit

Fire Pit

 

That’s what we have after a weekend of hard work!

 

Sergey sawed and sawed and sawed – now we have a bunch of branches/old fence board for the fire (and a clean yard). Here’s to the tree that was freed from the vines. and here’s to hoping that the weight of the dead vines won’t pull it down (just a slight worry). The thinking is that after they are all dead we can just pull them down.… Read the rest

per previous post on pocket door railings. as you can see, someone simply ripped up 2/3 of the po

full railing – dining room side

2/3 railing missing – foyer side

with 2 new/old railings on foyer side

per previous post on pocket door railings. as you can see, someone simply ripped up 2/3 of the pocket door railing on the foyer side. apparently the railing that we got from the brass knob backdoor warehouse is extremely rare as cast iron breaks easily and plus no one really ever thinks of taking an old door rail to a salvage shop.… Read the rest

Yesterday, we stumbled on The Br

stacks of ceiling tile!!

Yesterday, we stumbled on The Brass knob Backdoor Warehouse. its just a few blocks from our house and it is amazing. incredible. jaw dropping. i don’t think i have anything to add to the pictures really.

we also were extremely lucky to secure a floor rail for our pocket doors – the pair that lead out to the foyer are missing part of their railing (probably butchered it during the carpet installation or some such).… Read the rest

Bathrooms Part II As I mentioned, when we purchased the house, upstairs bathroom was

half bath original medicine cabinet

half bath new mirror

rusty old medicine cabinet

behind old cabinet

new placement

Bathrooms Part II

As I mentioned, when we purchased the house, upstairs bathroom was pretty gross. In addition to the pealing bathtub, there was a rusted medicine cabinet and a badly water-damaged sink vanity. We also had a half bath downstairs that was by all appearances done for the sale of the house, so it had all new fixings, even if they were on the cheaper-side of options offered at home depot.… Read the rest

Bathrooms This was a two-part, mini make-over that nevertheless paid at least some sp

before

after

Bathrooms

This was a two-part, mini make-over that nevertheless paid at least some space saving dividends, and decreased the yuck-factor at least ten times. Part one actually took place before we moved in and involved an FHA-required bathtub clean up. It was dirty with pealing paint, and the bank/FHA inspector deemed it unsanitary at the time — meaning that we couldn’t get the loan unless we fixed it.… Read the rest