Some things are easy and some are hard. For us, picking paint colors is relatively easy for some reason.I think I said last post that the bottom of the wall will be the darker Toasted Wheat color and the top will be Creme Brulee. The colors will be separated by wood trim (color in photo)running around the room with a few strips perpendicular on each side of the room. Think of it like a "pie" symbol on either side.
Both sides will keep the doors painted black but right now one door has obscured glass, which we are going to replace so both are consistent. I have matching curtains so it will be much more coordinated than before.
I think it will be nice, much better than before.
Steve is skimming the walls today. I spent 1/2 the day cleaning the house thoroughly- we had border collie dust bunnies and little red dachshund bunnies running around.
I gave Billie a bath. She is one of those dogs that stays clean for like 3-4 days max- she's a regular dirt magnet, but we love her anyway.
During the week we went to a really great framing place nearby and brought in some 1930's magazine ads I bought off eBay to be framed. Framing sure is expensive, but we need some art for the kitchen.
In case anyone's interested to hear about the 2-flat teardown I posted about a few weeks ago, here's an update. The neighbors around the building have a meeting scheduled for Oct. 10th with the Alderman- they have a petition going, which I signed of course.
The owners were a bit miffed that I sent a letter to our neighborhood watchdog who posted it on his blog. On that site, I am known as : RPNeighbor. Such the drama in the hood lately!
3 comments:
Boy, that is a knock-down-drag-out blog argument (blogument?) about the fate of that poor little house. It is nice to see so many people passionate about old houses. There is one thing I don’t understand. Why didn’t those people put the house up for sale on the open market and let market forces determine the buyer and the price. Regardless of whether the house gets bulldozed (and I really hope it doesn’t) it seems that are making a huge mistake. If the property is that valuable then get a bidding war going. If nothing else it will be a bidding war between 2 developers. It just doesn’t make sense. The whole thing is odd. They’ve lived there for 30 years and they are willing to just see it bulldozed? That is crazy.
How about approaching the developer and asking them to turn the existing building into 2 high priced condos by adding a third floor and building another 4 condos on the adjacent lot. While you are at it, state that it would be great if the front of the new building reflect the architecture of the street. You can tell him that his willingness to work with you could be beneficial to his future success because you can always demonstrate beside the property and get the media involved in your story which will plaster his name all over the news as someone who doesn't care about the heritage of the neighborhoods around Chicago. You can say that you aren't against people making a $$ or condominiums as homes but you are against crappy modern developments that don't blend in with existing housing stock and at the very least he should attempt to preserve the facade of the old building in his new one.
You have nothing to lose that isn't lost already.
I think Gary's comments are (as usual) quite perceptive and creative, but I do have a quibble. Much of what makes contemporary buildings so crappy is a misguided attempt to duplicate the "seeming" of older architecture in a time when the building practices and techniques have developed into a form incapable of accurately capturing it. No one can afford to duplicate 3 or four solid courses of masonry in a wall, and no technique can duplicate the look, feel, and detail. The types of brick and mortar are not even readily available. That's why so many contemporary buildings seem so thin and lifeless, like ghosts. I think we've all run into this problem on a smaller scale in fixing up our own elderly homes. The old houses we love were products of their own times, and if we ever want the products of OUR times to inspire the same love, we must follow that lead~ the spirit, not just the empty seeming. Come on~ what's sadder than a veneer brick box with it's windows pressed right up against the building envelope, and a couple of faux shutters or medallions thrown on?
So I'd propose just what Gary said, but that the new graft reflect the aesthetics and technology of it's own age as successfully as the lovely two-flat it would join expresses it's own. Our goal in new construction should not be to match, but to compliment (sometimes by counterpoint) the best of what already exists.
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