Christmas in New Orleans (the House Highlights)

Merry Christmas, from beautiful New Orleans, Louisiana! Instead of flying to Florida to spend time with Garrett's mom, we all decided to meet in New Orleans and have a little Christmas vacation together. None of us had been here before, but we had our preconceived notions - I envisioned the whole city looking like Disneyland's New Orleans Square, and people partying in the streets all night long.

Not that I was entirely off. The French Quarter is beautiful and very Disney-esque, but it's only a very small portion of the city. And yes, there are people partying on the streets, even two days before Christmas, but we're told it's a very small crowd, compared to the onslaught of people they're expecting for the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras this year.

Nevertheless, getting out of that part of the city felt pretty good. We hopped in a cab, and told the driver to take us to Chartres Street - where we'd heard the fancy people live. It did not disappoint! Check out some of my favorite houses from our impromptu tour...

You know I have a weakness for yellow houses, and check out that turret! Even the carport is adorable!

But there were many others that were arguably more grand...

Porches are definitely a big thing here, though we didn't see anybody rocking on them, or drinking mint juleps while fanning themselves. Maybe it's just not the season... 

Disaster Watch 2012: Um, what?

I may have mentioned that I sometimes find evidence that people have been traipsing through our yard. Sometimes it's that things are moved, sometimes it's beer bottles or cigarette butts. But today I saw something that made my heart stop a little bit. 

My first thought was "how did my crutches get out here?" Then I looked closer, and saw that these were not my crutches. Just to be sure, I went inside and checked - my crutches are in the closet, right where I left them.

So someone entered my yard with a pair of crutches, possibly used them to vault up the side of my neighbor's garage, and then left them behind, laid neatly in a little stack.

Is it just me, or is this a little chilling?

What to Do With an Ugly Floor Heater

This week has been filled with highs and lows. And I don't just mean the artificial highs I've been getting from prescription pain meds. 

Last week I went under the knife (and some lasers) to get a torn tendon repaired in my ankle. It ended up being a lot more painful than I had anticipated, and I'm supposed to be couch-bound for at least two weeks. Not exactly a vacation, but my dad and Monty did decide to get in a little housework while I'm laid up.

The biggest job will be installing the ductless heater / air conditioner unit that I purchased in a moment of heat wave induced desperation. And they couldn't have picked a better time - with these bulky bandages on my leg and not being able to take a real shower, things are going to get ripe really fast!

Now that I am getting a brand new heating system, I figured I could finally stop procrastinating about removing the horrible floor heater in my living room! I wish I had a picture of the gross metal grate that had been covering it for probably fifty years. Under that grate was a hulking old beast of a floor heater that probably hadn't worked in over a decade. How did the last owners live without heat??

Anyway, I had Monty work his magic with some scraps of hardwood flooring we had left over from the garage renovation, and look how it turned out!

Monty used his planer to take off the top layer of stain, which was a heck of a lot quicker than sanding them all down, and then measured and cut each piece individually before laying it. Pretty cool!

I rubbed on a walnut colored stain and then immediately wiped it off, to get the grain to darken like that, and then went over the patch again with a golden pecan stain and varnish in one product. The match is pretty darn close!

I knew we'd never be able to seamlessly patch the hole, so figured why try? I think this is a little more interesting anyway, and no one is scared to walk on it - what a difference!

A Very Chair-y Seating Situation

It wasn't very long ago that I was on a desperate search for dining room chairs. The two that I pulled out of the dumpster didn't quite cut it in my new, larger, dining room. And buying them new is expensive! So I did what I do, and went to the flea market.

There, I found a set of four chairs in reasonably decent shape, just needing new seats - piece of cake! That same weekend, my mom showed up with two more chairs, of a similar style but with higher backs, also needing new seats. Presto, I have a set of six dining chairs!

A few weeks later, I wound up the lucky recipient of four more dining chairs that had previously been owned by my grandmother, and were not only in perfect condition, but were also delightfully Mid-Century Modern. Now I have ten dining room chairs in two very different styles. I think this is what they mean when they say "an embarrassment of riches."

But while I had a plethora of indoor seating, I was sorely lacking in outdoor seating. That is, until I had the idea to combine three of the chairs into a bench for my back porch! Here's what I did...

First, of course, I removed the existing seats, gave the chairs a rough sanding, and cut down the legs on the middle chair a bit, to make the heights all even.

I'm going for a shiny metallic finish, and I read somewhere that a coat of black paint underneath the metallic will help it shine. They don't really make black spray paint primer though, so I just used regular black spray paint. We'll see if it works! 

Then I had Garrett help me cut a piece of plywood to the right shape to stretch across all three chairs, including the little notched out piece in the back of the middle chair. 

Looking like a bench already! There are some reinforcements under the seats that you can't see - the plywood wasn't a sturdy enough base to keep the chairs from wobbling around when you lifted the whole thing up. We cut wood blocks and used them to attach the bottoms of the chairs together with long wood screws.

Once the seat was cut, it was time for the fun part - upholstery! I bought the fabric on etsy, and ironed on this vinyl coating, to make it waterproof. I didn't want to simply use outdoor fabric as I knew it would get dirty really quickly, living outside. And I didn't want the foam to get wet and deteriorate. With this iron on stuff, you can just hose off the seat when it gets dirty! The only bummer is that the vinyl only comes in 18" widths, so you have to cut two pieces and overlap them a bit. It's not hard, just a little time consuming. 

I used three inch high density foam (also from amazon, which was way cheaper than Joanns), spray adhesive, and my trusty staple gun to attach it all to the plywood backing.

I attached the seat to the newly assembled bench through the original seat screw holes, and voila! A totally cute outdoor bench that seats three!

Now all I need is a cute outdoor space to put these in. 

My Friendly Neighborhood Lowe's!

After a year and a half of trying to figure out which Home Depot is less painful to get to from Mid-City (jury is still out, though our most frequented location is Marina del Rey), a gigantic, brand-spanking new Lowe's store has opened about 4 blocks from my house! This is definitely cause for celebration!

You remember that commercial from ages ago, where the woman is tapping on Mervyn's door chanting "open open open"? That was totally me, at Lowe's this morning. I dragged my dad out of bed, and we went to discover the wonder that is a real home improvement store (sorry, OSH) within spitting distance of where you're doing ongoing renovations.

They might have thought I was strange for taking beauty shots of their store, but they were nice enough not to mention anything.

Ooooh yeah, cut that plywood!

Look at all the colors! 

The store did spark some local resentment, as the big cement walls blocked the city views of nearby homes. Believe me, I would have been pissed about that too. But the damage has been done - would it be fair for me to boycott Lowe's now that there is nothing that can be done about it? I think not!

They told me that they're having a special community outreach day next week, with activities and food and discounts - see you all there!

Starring: The Rosenfeld Cottage!

Okay, maybe HGTV didn't work out, but my little house is finding its fame and fortune, nonetheless! A friend of mine is shooting a short film, and needed a location that could pass for two different houses, one of which would be destroyed.  Luckily, my garage was on deck to be destroyed anyway, so looks like we're in business!

Here's a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Director of Photography shooting the main character in my bedroom. It was more than a little strange to see a man who is not my boyfriend in my bed! 

The garage was previously just being used for storage, but got a lot of set dressing to make it look like a living room. And since that wall with the shelves is going to come down eventually anyway, I told them they could go to town on making it look like it was crumbling. There is even a "gas line" sticking out of it, that was rigged to look like it was on fire during filming!

I'm also planning on tearing out the ceiling, so the set dec crew ripped a big whole in that too.

Then they made it look as though a pipe had fallen from the ceiling, and water poured out while the cameras were rolling. 

The destruction continued on the other side of the wall, where they actually set things on fire! I was standing by with a fire extinguisher the whole time, don't worry.

The best part of all of this, is that we don't have to clean it up! It's all going to be demoed soon anyway! 

The glimpses I caught behind the camera looked really great, I can't wait to see my house on film! I will definitely post the link as soon as it pops up online.