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.

Disaster Watch 2011: Hope was a False Alarm

You guys, we heard back from HGTV. It's not gonna happen.

They said they loved us both, but that the job was simply too big for their budget. I'm more than a little heartbroken about this, let us all have a moment of silence for opportunities lost...

...

Maybe the saddest part is that I'll never get to meet Spencer, my favorite HGTV personality of all time.

Spencer Anderson: this might be the first time he's ever smiled for a camera.

Disaster Watch 2011: Is there hope?

Since finishing my kitchen a few months ago, I've been getting the nagging feeling that something must be done about the backyard soon. In a moment of pure desperation, I logged onto HGTV.com and applied to be on any and all shows that could possibly result in a backyard makeover. And guess what... I got a response!

Last week, a couple of scouts from Design on a Dime came over to look at my house and yard. As soon as they walked in, they said my house was "adorable" and that they certainly didn't have to do any work on the inside! Is it weird that I feel like I now have a blanket endorsement from Genevieve, Vern, Sabrina, et al?

The guys took some measurements and filmed a few quick videos of Garrett and me talking about what we'd like to do in the yard (destroy everything). They were super nice, and told us we did a great job. Fingers crossed, we'll be getting some good news in a few days!

If you want to apply to be on HGTV, check out the shows that are casting, here!

Kitchen Update: Finally Finished!

The day has come! It's over! The kitchen is finished! Exclamation points for all!!

It was quite the push to the finish, especially since I stupidly invited some people over for a reveal a little later this afternoon (way to give myself a deadline! why didn't I just do it next weekend??). But in reality, it's nice to have something to aim for. If you I don't have a real motivation to wrap things up, projects tend to stretch into the "I'll get around to finishing that eventually" category.

Alright, enough of my jibber-jabber! You want to see the finished product, don't you?! Let's do a before and after!

The craziest part is how clean everything looks, haha! That was no easy feat. But just check out the new sightline through to the rest of the house...

Three weeks ago, that picture would have been of a wall! It's truly an amazing transformation. Now that it's done, I sort of want to do it all over again!