Budget Minded Modernist
Hey guys…guess what? I am shocked and very excited to report that our exterior makeover made the Design Sponge Before and After Best Of: Outdoor Spaces round-up! Check it out here.
Minor detail, they called me Karen, but I can understand why…3 of the projects in the round up are hers…and I am a TAODS fan, so I’m flattered they could even consider confusing us. Poor Karen.
Anyway, that’s made my day, so, thanks Kate/Grace and I”ll see you at the Nashville D*S book tour stop!
I’ve been mixing some things up around here and forgetting to share. Remember how I knew there was too much tulip going on in the living room? I think I might have solved that little problem.
That’s right, he SWIVELS his layers….shall we call him the Swinger?
I also found a place for the Sexophone…..
Oh, and remember my pair of vintage chairs that I love love love so much? Turns out they are a bit dangerous in the house.
Yup. Those front support bars blend in with the dark floors and had become a huge maiming hazard. I can’t have pretty chairs that hurt my people, so they moved out and we have enjoyed them on the deck where we can see those bars better.
In their place is a pair of swiveling rattan chairs that had been in Thing Two’s bedroom. Not as pretty as the others, but far friendlier on the toes and way more practical for the upcoming fire season. Now we can swivel towards the flames, or the couch…flames, couch…
So, I think that’s it for now. I’ve updated the tour with the latest changes.
I’ve always been attracted to geometric string art, and when this photo started making the rounds, I filed it away for a rainy day.
Photo via sub-culture via Apartment Therapy
I absolutely loved it just as it was….until I read the comments…where the consensus was, it isn’t really a cardioid, it’s just a big butt. Well, after that, it’s all I could see, so I began searching for other circular designs. It’s a dreary weekend and we are stuck inside…let’s do it!
I wanted it to have a feel like these images, where the pins are part of the design. On a side note, I think I will adapt a combination of these 2 styles for the tree house numbers this fall.
I also wanted it to feel a little less rustic and a little more glam, so we found a scrap piece of Abstrakt/Perfekt cover panel left over from the kitchen renovation for some high gloss action, and I used galvanized roofing nails since they had a big, fat, shiny head.
Armed with the letter turner’s skein, I started off trying to make up my own patterns to avoid buttage……
But you know what? I kept coming back to the butt.
There are so many cool designs out there, but there was something I didn’t like about all of them. Too busy, too much like a spirograph drawing, too hippie, too much like a wreath, etc…I had to somehow, come to terms with the fact that I like big butts.
So I decided that would make a cardioid butt, and I will OWN it.
The instructions are found here at String Art Fun, and it took me a few tries before I got it right, but eventually, I finished it and the CC and I couldn’t stop giggling like kids.
Yup, even at the diagonal, it’s STILL a butt. We liked it though, so we kept the design (for now) and finished the edges of the panel with some iron on veneer we had, and hung it up…snickering.
So we decided to ask the Things what they thought of it. “It’s a turnip! An onion! A heart? A fan!!” They didn’t see the butt! But we just kept laughing harder and harder that they didn’t see it…so of course we had to ruin it for them.
Now, when they look at it, they give themselves a little pat where the sun don’t shine as they walk on by. Go on, call social services on me. We are clearly a bunch of immature morons.
But we are a childish house divided! The CC and Thing One like the red, and Thing Two and I like the silver….the nice thing is that it can change when we get sick of it. For now, I’ll let them have their way……
I know….some of you can excuse yourselves to go throw up while I discuss my metamorphosis into a Trendy Mindy. Don’t forget to brush your teeth.
Still here? OK, well last year’s CSA gave us fresh eggs on a weekly basis, and we desperately miss them. We opted against the CSA this year after our 9th week in a row of zucchini exclusive boxes brought the entire family to tears. The Things were begging for it to STOP. “Can’t we just compost them? I can’t eat them anymore!!! I’m even sick of the fritters!!” I digress….
Eggs. We can go to the farmers market and get them, but some weeks I just can’t get there. We’ve got a few friends who have been keeping them and we are fascinated. Replacing our beloved pooch doesn’t seem likely, and a pet with such a tasty habit might be nice?
My Pinterest followers will recognize some of these images from my growing collection of coop inspiration.
So many beautifully designed coops out there! If money were no object and we weren’t planning to build it ourselves…then these might dot our landscape.
This is one of my faves…and we could probably make something similar, but I think we might like a walk-in coop? Dunno..details, details.
So, if we are to build said structure, would it look more like these?
And we have all loved and admired this couple’s super coop….
So why am I talking about chickens anyway?! Don’t I have the interior of a treehouse to paint now that the temps are cooling? Why, yes. But finishing up pesky details isn’t nearly as much fun as planning something new, that may, or may not, ever happen.
August 24 UPDATE:Â Oh my GAWD..I just saw Karen’s coop over at The Art of Doing Stuff…and that is the mac damn daddy of all coops…..go check it here!
Safety first kids….er, um, in our case, almost dead last. At least we got there, right? RIGHT.
The hog panel railings are in, as is the handrail on the looong ladder.
We are debating the pipe finish. I’m in the camp of letting it rust and age a bit, then clear coat to seal the patina.
So what does this milestone mean? More than it looks like because now, I feel it’s OK for the Things to have friends come and play in the treehouse. Without these key safety features, there had to be adult supervision for friends to climb up and check out the progress.
Railings = Freedom!
It wouldn’t be a proper structure without the bucket/pulley dealio, now would it?
Just in time for the weekend. When their buddies come over, I’ll fill the bucket with their snacks so they can hoist them up for a feeding frenzy.
I know, I’ve been super lame-o with posting, but what else is new? School is finally out and all that craziness leading up to the big LAST DAY had us a bit busy.
We worked really hard over Memorial Day weekend to get the treehouse in sleepover condition, and we did it. Barely. This does not mean we are finished by ANY means, but it does mean that you can hang out in there without getting attacked by cicadas and mosquitoes. The last steps in bug proofing were to screen the ventilation gaps between the roof supports and the dormer over the screened door.
The CC then added weather stripping all around the screened door, and started caulking every. single. join. Don’t believe me? Check the fastidiousness of his entomophobic work.
He’s not done yet, but he managed to finish the most important places. I was rendered speechless when I realized why it was taking him so long to caulk the ventilation area. Dude is serious.
Come sleepover time, it was a tight squeeze, but all 4 of us managed to get some air mattress space on the floor with just enough clearance for the door to open. We don’t want to build bunks up here since we’ll have the “sleeping bunker” once the bottom is done. When it’s just the 2 of them, they have hammocks they can choose to sleep in, or just use for lounging.
We even decided to get a fan going to keep us more comfortable. We hung it in front of the window to bring in the cooler night air. When the Things saw our new addition, they said “Cool! Air conditioning!” Not quite kiddies, but this is glamping after all.
Given the floor is a bit mucky from all the dirt, despite multiple sweepings, I threw down a canvas drop cloth as some sloppy wall to wall carpeting to keep our stuff clean.
What’s left to do? A lot more than you’d think.
Porch railings. We have some hog panel left that we will use. We plan to have a barn door that will slide and lock over the screened one. We’ll just get some inexpensive hardware from Tractor Supply.
I also plan to re-do the screen door so that it has horizontal slats going all the way up over the dormer to the top. This is the way it came off the shelf. Blech.
Add trim around the inside windows, build shelves in between the studs for both structural support and general usefulness. The CC has to finish that anal caulking…and paint! LOTS of paint. Part of me is fine leaving it natural inside, but it will be easier to keep clean if it’s painted. We won’t start to build the bottom level until it cools off in the fall. It’s officially sticky out now. We’re getting there though.
