The Maiden Metallurgist

Now the dining room and living room. Here is what they looked like when we bought the house.  Notice the yellowed paint and bead board (we bought the house from a smoker) and the world’s most disgusting carpet. 

When we pulled up the carpet we found hardwood floors throughout the first floor- but they weren’t in very good shape. 

When we pulled down the bead board in the living room we found that was in pretty bad shape too.  

We had the walls skim coated and the floors repaired and refinished. 

We’ve been hemming and hawing over painting the trim (around the doors and windows) white, and I think we’ll do it… eventually. We have some more pressing projects on deck.

One day I’d like to get new dining chairs too- but we’ll wait until Ernie outgrows her use-the-furniture-as-a-jungle-gym phase.

We’ll get some shades soon, ever since we moved in I think the neighbors have been enjoying the boobie show- three times a night, and all day Saturday and Sunday!

We bought new furniture when we moved in- not really our style, and sometimes Josh and I look at each other and say “whose living room is this?” but we had some very specific needs- something cheap, as it is just going to get trashed in the next 5 years with 2 dogs, 2 cats and 1 tiny human; something washable, because Tiberius has a bad licking habit, and something big and comfortable for all 7 of us to lounge on.  We ended up finding it at this janky tent sale one day when we weren’t even out looking for furniture.  Then we found a “matching” pimp chair a month later and knew the dogs would love it. 

So yeah, we are the kind of people who make decisions about big purchases based on what our dogs would like. 

I might do a tutorial on the photo wall soon; it was a lot of fun putting it together- the hardest part was picking out our favorite pictures!

We have been working so hard on our little house, and I’m so excited to show you a few before and after pics this week!

First the downstairs bathroom.

He is what it looked like when we bought the house:

And when we peeled back a few decades of funk to begin rehabbing:

And now:

I am so proud of how it turned out!

I don’t normally make New Year’s resolutions, not really, but I’m feeling inspired. Last year my “resolution” was a redo of my failed 2009 resolution – eat dinner before going out drinking so I don’t have any more black-out caliber hangovers. Well done? I mean- it’s kind of a moot point. So… success, I guess?

In 2011 I have a few things I want to do, not baby related, things just for me.

#1 Take 100 pictures a week. This sounds like a lot- but every time I go to take a picture of something I end up taking 20 anyway- so this roughly translates to- take a picture 5 times a week- and with a newborn, I’m thinking this might not be a problem, last week I took about 700 pictures of Ernie, and got about 15 good ones.

#2 Read one book a month. Not a particularly lofty goal considering I read significantly more than that now, but I have no idea what life with a newborn is like, and from everything people tell me, getting even one book read a month might not be so easy? We’ll see how it goes.

#3 Finish 12 knitted projects in 2011. Not necessarily one a month, because two of my current works in progress have been in progress longer than a month, but I’d like to finish one project for every month of the year.

To kick 2011 off right I decided to tackle one project from my never ending queue of to-do’s to help me with the first of these resolutions. My big hang up taking pictures this past year is that I never have my camera with me. I’m always worried about it getting damaged, and I’m not about to carry an industrial sporty looking bag to keep it protected. I still have my crappy little point and shoot, but I’m loathe to use it now that I’ve gotten used to how beautiful pictures can be with a good camera (not to mention the fact that my good camera makes my eyes look amazing and photoshopped and my point and shoot makes me look like a beady eyed little badger…)

I started looking into alternatives. I can’t be the only one who would love to *stylishly* carry my DSLR out and about and not worry about breaking it. And, of course, I’m not. I found a few options.  Jo Totes, Ketti Handbags, Epiphanie,  and my favorite, Kelly Moore bags.  But… while there are options, I’d like something that has room enough for my camera, spare lens, iPad and a  small knitting project or a couple of diapers. (I am not buying a diaper bag because Josh will need one more than I will, but I’d like a little extra room- just in case.) All this, and I don’t want it to be too bulky.

Because nothing I found really truly fit my criteria (and for $200 it needs to really fit my criteria) I started looking into making my own.

There are all sorts of DIY tutorials, but I was most inspired by this one at Megan Senkel Photography.

I started by ordering my Clik capsule from Amazon.

Once it arrived I took it to my local Marshall’s and started sifting through the bags. I found several I liked, but this one looked the least boxy when the capsule was inside it.

On top of the capsule is just enough room for my small knitting bag and the iPad slides in and out with ease.

I love it, and it has already come in handy for our impromptu photo shoot at Lovely this weekend!

I’m especially glad I got it done in time for our trip to Denver next week- I’m going to take a million pictures!

I live in the ghetto. The for real, I’m actually not exaggerating for once, gun shots in our alley on the regular ghetto. But the surprising thing about the ghetto, well, our ghetto at least, is that just east of the bodega and due north of the gang house is this amazing paradise.

Hidden behind a six foot iron fence and dense hedgerows is this secret garden- the Rainbow Beach Victory Garden. 

There are at least 40 individual plots bordered by bright flowers, and in between each plot is a grass walkway.  This makes it a very beautiful and serene place to walk around before and after gardening.

Each gardener has a large plot to do with as they wish.  We have a half-plot, which is more land than we need. 

We filled it with peppers and tomatoes.  Because we also have our weekly CSA box, I wanted to grow veggies I could put up for the winter. 

One of our neighbors convinced us to take three of his zucchini plants, so come August I’ll surely be sick of them.

I also planted one sprawling watermelon plant- watermelon margaritas?  Yes please.   You can see our strawberry patch to the left bursting to get our from under the wire cage designed to protect it from hungry bunny rabbits.

Considering we spend a fortune on San Marzano tomatoes all winter long, a million cans of bright garden tomatoes will be a bounty we can enjoy all year long.

I love wandering around other gardeners plots and admiring their beautiful flowers. 

Every color you can imagine is represented in flora somewhere in the garden.

Some people even have fruit trees.  Once you get a plot, it’s yours until you give it up, so some people have been gardening here for decades. 

 If we ever find a house I’d like to move our vegetable garden out back and cultivate a colorful flower garden in our plot next year. 

Or maybe I’ll keep our crops in the community garden and enjoy all those bright flowers in a garden at home. 

Plenty of time to figure that out.

In the meantime I’ll continue enjoying the perks of gardening in the community space here.

Check out our House Tour on Apartment Therapy.  Thanks Jason for the lovely photos!

I need a little focus- I’ve pretty much stopped writing, but not because I want to. I’ve just had other things on my mind.

Lots of visitors, lots of work, lots of house hunting, and lots of gardening.

We were so lucky to get a plot in our community garden this year. The Rainbow Beach community garden is the oldest victory garden in Chicago.

It has been around since WWII, and it is so special tilling the same soil that someone tilled sixty years ago.

I started my seeds indoors, next week I’ll begin hardening them off and then I’ll get my little plants in the ground.

The strawberries are already in, and I fashioned this little cage out of chicken wire to keep the birds and rabbits from eating up all of our plants.