A shameless plug

I thought today I would take a different route in my posting and let you know what it is I do, besides working on this big old house.

Mostly these days I am a graphic designer specializing in branding, logos, print material and website/email images. Most of my work is in the wine industry, but I have branched out into medical, theaters, and the food business. I am always looking for more clients, so if you need my services let me know.

I also am a paper engineer... a what???   a paper engineer, or one who creates popup books. I have a small line of popup books that are photobooks, and we sell them directly to the consumer. These are some shots of the books that are available and if you find you can't resist please visit...

www.goffengelworkshop.com

The Baby Book

Add yourt own pictures to the popups

Toys and your photographs

A teddy bear to love

Climb on!

A mobile and more photos

The Memory book

Place your own photographs in the frames and add information

More space for photographs

Lots of space for adding memories

and more

This is where Phillip said he came from... "Found in a Cabbage Patch"

Locks of hair and more photographs

This where I was told I came from... "the Baby Store!"  The blocks are small photo frames to track growth for the first year

Family members go here in small photo frames, some that are part of the popup

The first birthday page

There are two more books available at sale prices on our website, and two that are out of print and out of stock, except a couple of each from my private stock. Check them all out at....

www.goffengelworkshop.com

Lifts, Beams, and Bells

Is it spring yet? The sun has been paying us an ongoing visit, the daffodils are in bloom, and the trees are beginning to flower! Still chilly at night, but this weather has finally given us a chance to get some work done. Up the ladders to build the second layer of our deck. The structure is almost complete, which means that this weekend we will be able to unbolt the upper master bedroom doors for the first time since we installed them, three years ago. Once the upper structure is complete we can begin the trim out, railings, columns, and finishes. The concept is loosely inspired by the porch of a Grand Hotel, but on a much smaller scale. Beadboard ceiling, flat baluster railing, weighty railing posts, columns, boxed beams, clean moldings,  and a twelve foot wide staircase will all combine to create the effect. Add a flock of white rocking chairs and tall iced teas and we will be ready for summer!

 

The porch of the Grand Hotel

The lower decking is installed and when the weather warms up we will be able to clean, sand and stain it. The posts for the railings are bolted inplace and ready for boxing in. The three main support uprights for the upper deck are in place, bolted down, and the simpson buckets are screwed on top awaiting the twenty six foot long, four by twelve, cross beam. To the rental company we went and came home with a gizmo called a beam lift. Simple contraption that allowed us to balance the beam on its two forks, lift it sixteen feet in the air, slide it forward and gently lower it into the simpson buckets.

Our weekend help, Brent and Fabian, making sure the lift is centered on the beam

Beam going up!

Phillip at the helm

Keep going

Fabian to the right

Brent to the left

Fabian to the right, Brent to the left, I was in the center. We pulled the beam forward on the lift and settled it down into the buckets.

Easy does it

Ready for securing

Time for the floor joists

We move on to the joists for the floor above.

Ready for inspection and surfacing

The master bedroom doors that have been sealed up

Dining room doors and Office doors

Around the corner, outside of the kitchen

Also around the corner, looking back toward the two layer end

Tomorrow the inspector comes and then we can begin the fun part, trimming it all out! We have some of the elements already and but we have a lot of things to conceptualize, details to consider, and pieces to locate and buy. But the next steps are my favorite part of the process. Making it pretty!

An Aside

A side note for today. We all watch Downton Abbey and marvel at the grandeur of an existence like that. I particularly love the opening shot of the servants bells. I would love a row of them in our kitchen and be able to ring them whenever I wanted something. Of course I would have to get up and get whatever it is myself, but its a fun thought. I just really like the look of them. Then I discovered that the kitchen scenes in Downton Abbey are actually shot on a set in a studio, and the bells are not actually real. Well they are real bells, but not actually in the house. Kind of sad. I have wondered for a while where the scenic designer found the bells and today by accident I found them!

How fun! They come with a mechanism that will pull the cord and ring the bell using a push button wired like a doorbell. Now I just need to figure out how to do that wirelessly and we would be good to go! I want to install eight of them in a row above the Kitchen triple window, with buttons in the dining room, living room, library, master bedroom, and the four guest bedrooms.

Now all we need is to import those people necessary for making this all work...
A Butler, a footman, a valet, an upstairs maid, a downstairs maid, and a cook!



#bobvila

Damn Mayans and their calendar

We just cracked open the doors on our doomsday bunker. Well wadda ya know... the world is still here. We have been holed up down there for weeks afraid to come out. Even our Facebook friends were scared and telling us to hide. CNN, Fox news, even Jerry Springer were sure this was it.
Les Mis, the film was released and the Mayans had had it... or so I heard.

So that means...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We have had a brief moment of not working on the house. Holidays, winter, short days, and rain.

Those are the excuses we have been using, and we may get away with them for a little longer.

What we have been doing is enjoying our home, unfinished as it may be, it is amazing to be able to kick back for a little while, wear some clothes without stains, and shoes that have the soles intact, pour a bottle or three of wine, and welcome friends and family into our home.

This bottle was a huge highlight. For fun, look it up.... Abacus ninth bottling!

Just before Thanks Giving we busted ass and finished the rest of the floors (the rest as in, not the third floor). The sanding and oiling of the library, the office, the second floor hall, the laundry room, the linen closet, and two guest bedrooms. The guest bedrooms were furnished with what we had and made ready for guests... just in case any came... hee hee hee he!


Thanksgiving came like a whirlwind and was so lovely. Phillips folks came out from Florida to surprise him. A few days before the day, Phillip was on the phone talking to his Mom about their plans for the holiday when she and Phillips dad walked in our front door. I admit it was my doing and it was grand!

And then came the rain

On and on it seemed to rain. We hunkered down and simply lived and entertained in our home.
Sparkle it up with lights and candles and no seems to notice the unfinished bits. A tree went up and for the first time in seven years the ornament collection came out of storage. 1100-1200 ornaments from all over the world. Hand blown glass, wood, paper, wax, and fabric. A thirty year collection that used to be a sickness was unboxed and all hung on one tree. Each branch of the natural noble fir dripping with magic had to be wired diagonally back to the trunk the support the weight...

By the way... I could not get any decent tree shots... nighttime, no good, daytime, no good, but I tried.

Our Christmas present to ourselves  was the redoing of some furniture for the living room.
The sofa was in the house when we bought it. Dated in the late 1830's dirty, nasty, but solid and sound, we decided to have it reupholstered. We chose to not redo the wood finish but leave it somewhat rough and antique looking. No one wants to be yelled at by Antiques Road Show!

We also sent out two arm chairs that belonged to Phillips Grandmother. High style, post WWII, that had been redone in the early 70's in super groovy high-gloss black frames and white vinyl alligator!!!

Can you imagine? horrifying! (sorry Mom) hee hee

Fresh out of our storage

The chairs were completely redone, frames and all. The wood is now a very dark, natural finish with a soft glow, and the fabric is a beautiful soft wool in a grey mushroom color.
They could be brand new from any showroom. Fantastic!

The sofa received a simple wood cleaning and is now upholstered in natural white linen, just be careful with that glass of red wine!

Tomorrow is another day, and it is not supposed to rain. Now that the world is here to stay we will pay our bills and get our butts back to work.

A closing note for the day... if you would like to see some of what I do for a living, I am giving myself a plug. We have opened a small online retail spot where you can see my popup work and purchase it if you are so inclined.

visit   www.goffengelworkshop.com


#bobvila

Sometimes, you just gotta cut something

Today I feel like I am on the verge of breaking one of my own rules. If it wasn't for the fact that we did this to save an immense amount of money, and yet attempt to not compromise style and finesse, I would feel this post was on the verge of posts that I despise on home restoration blogs... Gramma's famous cookie recipe, little Susie's latest potty training escapade, or the worst of the worst... A give away contest!

One Moment Please...

My apologies, after I wrote that last sentence and began to shake so badly I had to walk away from the computer.

I am referring to the cabinetry we had to cut from our breakfast room. A lovely piece designed to be a continuous flow across the thirty five foot wide space. But that cabinet was just shy of nine thousand dollars....

Click on this image so you can see it larger, the cabinet we cut is the far left side

So we let it go and moved on. I have kept my eye open for something to go there, especially as the time for closing down storage drew near. Nothing is ever perfect but I looked, and looked.
One day a picture popped up on Craigs list. Like everything else I had seen, it was not perfect, but if you squinted your eyes and looked beyond the ungapatchka

(Yiddish word that describes the overly ornate, busy, ridiculously over-decorated, and garnished to the point of distaste)

There was something there that could almost work...

Do not look at the far right of the picture... I have no explanation, hee hee, you looked!
This photo came from the man we bought the cabinet from... I think it is him... eeeeek!

We met the owner and struck a deal, and now we are the proud owners of, well, ummmmm, that southwesty thing that is eight feet tall and weighs a couple of tons.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time for a makeover!

And  a makeover we did... the following photo montage will show you the process and the finished product.

So beautiful, well maybe ten years ago, super southwest patinad molding, its gotta go

Little trim bits and corner flowers... eeeek! they gotta go too!

Piece by piece I carefully removed the moldings

A shim, a small crowbar, and a putty knife were my friends. I did not want to hurt the surface if I could help it

Small trim moldings gone, and flowers replaced with simple square blocks

Now came the time for sanding. Days of sanding every nook and cranny in preparation for two serious coats of primer and finish coats of high gloss oil to match the Kitchen cabinets.

At this point we have decided to leave the inside alone and cross our fingers it would work

Primed and ready for finishing, we decided the best approach to finish paint was to put the cabinet in position

Time for more sanding

The cabinet found its way to its new home, and I began the sanding task again in preparation for the finish paint. Hour and hours of sanding. I was in the home stretch when our dear old friend, and interior designer, Stewart Allen, visit his website here, walks in... "don't you dare paint that, your sanded primer is perfect in this room"... um... well... but... it looks so...

SHABBY CHIC!!!

You have to understand that I hate, and I know I am not supposed to use the word hate, but I hate Shabby Chic. Whats wrong with a nice clean paint job? Why does it have to look like you picked it up at the dump and you are showing off to everyone how environmentally conscious you are by using recycled furniture, even though most of it is faked and cost twice what the original piece cost new.

But, I stopped working on the piece and just let it be. I figured we would live with it for a while.

New molding and handles made all of the difference

For the moment we are done with it. All of the over flow of kitchen items found a home and we certainly have many, many other things to focus on.

But fear not... I will sneak in someday and paint it proper... Will someone please let me know when Shabby Chic goes out of style!

#bobvila