Through the eyes of our three year old…
All posts in Catch All
Mid Century Modern Play Set Confession
This is our backyard -
And those pictures? Don’t even do it justice. It’s big, a big yard. A yard that when you’re three-almost-four? Screams for a playset. So the search was on.
Almost all links, blogs, websites point to this awesome playhouse by Atomic Ranch – Pretty sweet right? Prayse could totally set up shop here.
Design Milk showed a few sweet ones. A few of my faves:
Grass Roots Modern also had a few examples:
Then there’s the originals, the ultimate play houses. Beyond awesome in my opinion.
But see, my kid? My kid doesn’t ever stop moving, and she pulls sweet moves like this:
So we need things that move, play house appendages if you will. They are a necessity not only for the kid, but for us when we really need her to be worn out just a bit more at night 
(what? you wish for it too). I was stoked when I found MetroPlay by Metroshed. (sorry for the smaller size, looked for a larger one and was unsuccessful)
Talk about falling in love, this is perfect. I was hooked, emailed for the order form and everything. Until I saw the almost $6,000 price tag that halted me in my shoes and wrecked my dreams. If we had the money, if the money tree we planted had matured enough, it wouldn’t even be a question of “if”, we’d be asking “when?” When can it get here? Unfortunately we can’t justify the year’s worth of college savings for the play set.
The result? I sold out. I confess. I talked the hubs into it, it was all me. She needs the swings, she needs the slide.
R is already thinking of ways to farm rig modernize this. However, listening to the comments as he reads the instruction book (book, not manual) I’m guessing the first step might be to find someone who sets these things up professionally!
And The Letter of The Day Is P
We like the letter “P” around here. We refer to our daughter as P, Missy P. Princess begins with “P”. A dominant color scheme in our life whether it’s birthday parties or dresses picked out for playtime is Pink. Yes, the letter “P” is a wonderful letter.
Other reasons “P” is the letter of the day?
Potential.
Yes, potential. It’s a common theme running through our conversations. It was the dominant word in every aspect of looking at this house pre-purchase, dreaming about our mid-century modern domain, and even now. “Just think of the potential this has!” As we would look at one random bathroom layout, hideous wallpaper and a scary basement we’d say with stars in our eyes, “But think of the POTENTIAL!”
Yes, dreaming. It’s also been the saving grace of this house. As we learn the electricians did shoddy work originally and it’ll cost us $4,000 to get fixed that we hadn’t been planning on, the roof that has more and more moss blowing off of it from every storm, etc… “It’s a good thing this house has so much POTENTIAL” you’ll hear me grumble.
See, the thing about potential is that it’s a journey, not a destination. One we’re slowly experiencing.
Coming soon, part 2: Patience.
We’ll be back!
We had to take a break to you know, have a baby! Oh, and move into our house… FINALLY. But I think we’re finding our groove in a world with 2 kids and a new house. We’ll be back, just a brief hiatus, promise!
Mid Century Modern Renovation – Progress Report
Okay, okay, so this is more of the “renovation” phase with the “Mid-Century Modern” phase coming shortly. Although I will say, I truly feel our renovations are setting the stage for MCM. We’re creating the slate, the pallet so to speak. We’re not done yet, it’s truly a mess, and I’m still crossing my fingers and trying to keep the faith that we will in fact be moved in by mid-May.
There are changes in almost every square foot of the upstairs, but some areas are more impactful than others. Let’s start with the kitchen. I have referred to our house as “Soffit City” – the kitchen being the Capital. Oh my goodness, soffits everywhere you look (those and the three towel racks per bathroom, even the 1/4 baths).
The kitchen wall that cut off this room from the living room.
And the mini built-in desk that’s in my kitchen, notice the soffits, again.
So let’s talk about renovations. Messy renovations, thank goodness for my hubby. Soffits? What soffits? Granted – we now have messy, sloppy, lazy electrical work, and an opening into the attic which prompts some city code that now requires our house to be hard wired for smoke alarms.
Wait! What is this?? What is this random opening? Ooohhh yeah, it was the wall that would have kept me separated from my family. Now? No wall! It’s gone!
B/c I’m so tickled about this, here are a few more viewpoints of the former wall. Can we say “open”? Why yes we can. First, a view from the living room into the kitchen? Whaddya mean kitchen? Squint your eyes and look over to your left. See the blue way back in there? That’s the kitchen.
Aaaaaand…
A bit of a difference maybe? Yes. A few more for your viewing pleasure. The opposite view, looking from the kitchen into the living room.
Same view, but notice a slight difference? Hint: look up. Electrical work done, dry wall up. They are mudding/patching stuff right now.
And of course our cute model who seems to appear out of thin air whenever the camera gets pulled out. But I’m certainly not complaining, because she brightens up the entire space.
Our foyer, as you walk in the front door looking through the living room into the back yard.
Now the view…
Slight difference right? Apparently the contractor told my hubby that every single one of his guys was questioning this move, saying there was no need, didn’t make sense to them (by now we’ve gotten semi-used to contractors questioning every move my hubs makes – but that’s another post for another time). Once it was down there was apparently a collective, “Oohhhhhhhh, we get it.”
Our lovely living room. From the moment we first looked at this house last June, I wondered about the bar in the living room. Why was it there? Why take up an extra 2.5 feet in the living room? The kitchen was right there, why a bar?
The bar has been removed, but if you can see through the scaffolding you can see the beams still going into the floor. That’s because the wall behind the bar that we assumed was the supporting wall, is not in fact supporting anything. What is supporting is the beam on top of the bar and those others going into our floor. The floor that is supposed to at the end of the day have bamboo flooring on. 
The bar is gone, but we still aren’t able to use all of our living room.
Enter your standard 800 lb beam…
And voila!
“Hi guys, welcome to my bathroom.” ~ Prayse
Walls separating the sink from the toilet and shower (half walls anyway), and of course… a soffit!
One more soffit going down baby!
“Surprise honey! I took down the wall!” ~ Raymonn
What soffit?
Lookin good, walls are getting patched up.
Slightly messy, a bit of construction – but I do believe there is an unobstructed view from the shower!
Now I won’t go into the boring wall paper details, the wall paper over paint over wall paper, the multiple levels. But what I will do is leave you with a shot of my favorite wall paper remover. He’s phenomenal and not for hire, because he’s all mine.
So overall, there’s progress. Progress to your Mid Century Modern mind? Maybe. Maybe not. But we’re getting there. We have a long way to go but we have to start somewhere right? We’ll make this Mid Century Modern, but you must start with the basics first! Foundation. That’s where the magic starts to happen.
At The Knolls, Mid Century Modern: A Start
I’ll admit it. I’m new to this, call me a “mid century modern virgin” if you will. Oh my husband and I have discussed it, multiple times. I’ve been introduced to Eichler homes. We have the book, and we’ve looked through it too many times to count. R has sent countless links as he patiently has taught his wife.
I’ve been stuck in reality however, making our reality work for us, not a lot of time to simply dream. Now, however, the time has come. The time has come for those dreams, even the small ones – to start to become our reality.
At the Knolls, we have a chance. A chance to create our home, slowly but surely, on budget so that we can enjoy our home and our life. I’m learning as I go, having fun with my husband – and venturing into this new world of Mid Century Modern.
