Tears on My Pillow

But not really. Latest addition to Buhaki Bungalow is this nifty John Travolta pillow, perfect on the porch swing! "Signed" and dated 1978, the year GREASE came out, which will forever kick the ass of stupid High School Musical. You kids these days WISH you were as cool as we were back in the late 70s when we wished it was the 50s but didn't quite get 50s fashion and thought it was perfectly reasonable to use actors in their late 20s to early 30s as high school students! Grease. Is. The. Word. But nice try.

Silver coverealls are genius. And this video is way more suggestive than I remember. PS, Kinnicke was really hotter than Danny. Gotta love a bad boy who doesn't wish he was anything but.

Some blooms at the Bungalow...iris, peonies, potted plants on the fence (pots painted by the kid) and on the bench by the garage. Just ordered a slew of irises since these bloomed, my first ever (lets hope I have the right touch with them!)....

Meet mini-monorail-squirrel...there is a Mommy & 2 babies that run the fence daily.

~Ang

Weekly Accomplishments

Some updates on the yard, very little done on the house (too nice out!). Finally found something to cover the hideous blue and white country checked love seat the former owner left on the screened in porch. I considered selling it (ok, failed at selling it on Craigslist, apparently only prostitution sells there) and then thought about taking it to the basement for when that space gets finished. Almost got crazy and spent too much money on 2 striped tablecloths at Target but realized there was no pink and I like the pink in the barkcloth on the door panel (which still needs finished and placed in the other corner). So started rooting through some boxes of fabric I've ammassed and found a ginormous 40s tropical print barkcloth drape panel and it was actually big enough and then some to cover the country. The country has been ELIMINATED!

Pillow cover needing pillow to cover....

Arch filling in, looking heavy, hope its got a few years left before collapsing....

Variegata Iris leaves bring some bright to a semi-shady spot in front of blooing Foxgloves....

Passion Flower vining up an old surveyors stand next to blooming flowers in a pot on the deck....

Plans to paint the patio table and some pots this week and finish cleaning the garage so we can get my/Dad's '52 Henry J into it soon!

Home.

Driving to the big box store today with the little one along (she's sick, well was, but better and I had errands to run so what the heck), and a song comes on the radio about home. And it got me thinking.....this house is her first "home", as in a roof and basement and yard and garage. Blue skies, 70 degrees and sunny, on the way to buy plants for our yard at our first home. This song made me cry a little for how utterly happy I am, and how wonderful this home and life is for my daughter. Enjoy.

~Ang

Garden Updates

Since I can't stop working in the yard!!! OK, I did paint the porch swing today after deciding to go with a green/pink 40s tropical motif out there. The fabric is a 40s barkcloth drape I'm going to staple to an old screen door (I think the original to the house) to create a panel and hang out there to be the inspiration for te whole decor....

Moved this weird wooden stand w/ a wire top (weather vane?) from a side bed to the deck, to pot some Passion Flowers to vine onto...added some plants (still in pots, need to get planted) around the pond....

This section I had buried under a massive pile of wet leaves after the snow melted, took my time getting back to it and unearthed some sad, white blanched peonies and it quickly filled in with lily-of-the-valley....

The anal/type A in me could NOT stand the fact that there was no edging to that bed, so today I made one from the wood pile for the fireplace!...

Lots more done today, and the yellow lilac came!

~Ang

Gardening

Pretty keen stuff, watching and waiting to see what comes up in the new yard. I'm giddy over having a huge, well established deep purple lilac bush just outside the dining room and kitchen windows (now if it will stay warm and not rain I could have the windows open to let the fragrance in....). There are some peonies just setting buds, something had I planted this year would take a few years to fill in that well. LOTS and lots and lots of daylilies, some irises, hostas, ferns, daffs & tulips. One lone heuchera in the back corner where Ava & I added a bleeding heart bush (her selection, she adores it)....

Ava's Dad helped me get the pond cleaned up and we got a new pump to get it back in order, I plan to plant a bit more around it to conceal the tube and soften all that rock. There is a red bud in bloom behind it and I moved a stand of rhubarb from the flower bed (hello, invasive plant) back by the daylilies. There will be more potted plants like the one on the deck for some color soon....

Fountain....

Dug out all along the house out the back door from the kitchen/basement landing to create a "kitchen garden" of herbs, some tomatoes and beans.

Unidentified woodland flower under tree by the hostas in back....

Did more in back this week than the front, it will need a lot more digging.....the bed literally is a mess of random bulbs, daylilies, a few columbine, hostas and ivy. No shrubs, no height. I'm wanting to go sort of tropical-Victorian with hot colors and bold leaves. Needs a lot of love! The clematis on the arch is filling in nicely and I believe the shrubs around the front yard are privet hedges, wonderful lime green. Had someone come put new screen doors on the porch, the old ones were L-bracketed and rigged up to where there were nearly falling off everytime we opened them. These will need painted still but are a million times better....

More updates soon!

~Ang

Wall of Horror Etc.

Been unpacking/decorating amidst an early Spring snowstorm....shot of the back yard all freshly coated....

Bar shot, on the collonade (sp?) with vintage nudie cocktail napkins....

Added an early 60s screen from an old office building (aquired at www.foundthings.com)....needs some softening and a little color/detail on the dresser holding the TV....

Bar shot, I loooove my bar....

Hallway w/ pics in original frames of my Grandpa as a baby (lower), his Mom & sister....

Hall shot w/ bedroom & bath, bedroom now with some wallhanging detail...

Kitchen....

Grandma's cermamic "bug" (which used to reside on the wooden planter of plastic flowers on the railing to the basement in her house), now under some tulips on the island in the kitchen.....

The wall of horror. Was covered with burlap strips and striped with wide bands of mustardy yellow and pumpkin-spice-orange (effective for sophisticated country meets Arts & Crafts but not with my stuff!). Pulled the burlap and got 40s wallpaper coated with orange adhesive and parts of the exposed and damaged plaster. NO idea what I'm going to do....will require extensive TLC/restoration. Grrrr.

What a mess.

~Ang

Getting There!

Color! Some things moved in, some decorating going on....lots of chaos in closets, the basement and garage 'til I learn how to place things within so much more SPACE!! So far I have pretty well eliminated the traditional, sophisticated country colour palette the previous owner had used. Working more modern/vintage pieces into the arts & crafts style architecture is a challenge but I love how it works together!

The kitchen has become my favorite room. It was a grey green that I had thought I may keep but last minute decided to pull a color from a vintage apron and go with a bold, lobster coral. I still need to paint the green parts of the mobile island, but I'm pretty happy with how the color pulled in all the various vintage linens I'd had stashed away!

A newer bay window installed in the kitchen really brings in great southern light and makes me actually want to spend time there (my last place had a galley kitchen with no natural light...hated it). This is a plaster figural lamp base I got a few years ago with a venetian shade (needs wired still)....

The dining room is a tough room, working with a late 60s uber mod dining set in bright yellow and crisp white! Add to that a wall of heavy wood built ins, a Home Depot-esque arts & crafts ceiling lamp and a wall that had been covered in burlap and painted in a country motif. The wall.....the wall is bad. I pulled away the burlap and exposed 40s wallpaper (which looked gorgeous at one point), covered in mottled dried adhesive and bare plaster in many places (holes too). I'm not sure what the plan is there yet! But with the dining set and rug I'm liking the effect, can't wait for my new curved birch wood pendant lamp to come! The far wall is the same blue as the living room to pull the color through from room to room, and the tree print fabric wall hanging will go on the burlap-free wall when its done.

One corner of the dining room becomes a record listening "nook" with space age chair and 50s TV cabinet for the stereo....

Living room was difficult as far as placing all 4 pieces of the sectional, but it worked out beautifully. The fireplace mantle will end up boxed in with a more Danish Modern-friendly structure, cleaner lines and a cherry or teak. I think I may replace the dark rug with a light shag like the dining area as the wood floor is darker than my old place!

A shot of living room to dining to kitchen. I love the bright color with the woodwork!

My bedroom was a country blue with a full on gingham country motif...now replaced with kiwi green and 40s asian chalkware pieces and asian print textiles in black, red and aqua with the same green...its coming together slowly!

Hoping to get some outside pics soon!

~Ang

Just One Pic

A look from living room through dining to kitchen, after changing the paint colors from warm country tones to brights mixed with mid century to 70s decor. Still working, more pics coming!

~Ang

Loan Hell

So when I started this process, it was nearly a whim.....at the time I was dead set on buying a swanky condo in a highrise built in the 50s. Sleek, streamlined and modern, no yard to manage, no snow removal, on site laundry and pool. The one I looked at had original metal cabinets from the 50s in white, tons of light from being nearly all glass from waist to ceiling. Once I'd looked I was smitten, imagining somehow I would have the lifestyle of a jet setting swanky Rat Pack type and throw fabulous cocktail parties in my chic penthouse 5 floors above the streets of Des Moines, Iowa. Whether that was a possibility for me in my REAL world was irrelevant. I popped in to my bank, got pre-approved and somehow in between getting the paperwork and making an offer I realized I really DID want a yard. Aside from that, they didn't allow pets and I would have had a hell of a time hiding 3 cats.

So within a couple weeks I found the bungalow. Its from the same era as the apartment building I've been in the last 4 years so it wasn't surprising that it felt like home right away. A happy perk was that it was in an older neighborhood making it eligible for funding from the Neighborhood Finance Corporation, and the house still had $10,000 in forgiveable renovation funds left on it....catch being that the financing has to go through them. As a self employed chick, my challenge then became scrounging up all the papers and documentation they require. Much more tedious than a big bank application. MUCH more. But it would be worth it, right?

Nope. My credit isn't awesome (though even the underwriter couldn't explain why, with only 2 late payments at all in the entire year of 2007). Despite great financial shape, paying rent at home and my business for 4 and 2 years resepctively on time every month and letters offering solid explanations for my 2 late payments, I was shot down. After THREE weeks of being asked for additional information, letters, signatures, appeals, being told the answer would come the next day and the next day and after the weekend and so on......three weeks wasted waiting for a resounding "NO".

So while I can go back to my own bank, I have another option which has been being looked at the last 3 days and what it comes down to now is that I *should* hear today on this one (which is way less % down up front, a good thing). My take on it is this.....the call comes today, I call my apartment building manager to give notice and get busy packing and picking paint colors, lining up help to move and get this ball rolling! Closing date is March 20th. Cutting it close.

Buying a house is not a happy time, is it?

~Ang

Buhaki Bungalow....Coming Soon.

So, assuming everything is a go with whomever the final loan ends up going through (knock wood, etc), it looks like I'm a first time home buyer. I considered a condo (a really cool condo built in the late 50s, very Rat Pack swingin' cocktail parties-esque) but they didn't allow pets and I ended up deciding I would feel too disconnected from the earth up there on the 5th floor in a swanky glass box. Maybe in 20 years.

Its a buyer's market, they say, and so with what Dad left me of life insurance I decided to do what he'd been bugging me to do anyway....buy. A house, with a garage, a yard, a porch, a basement. The whole grown up deal. I looked around a few weeks, searching within the parameters of central Des Moines and older homes, looked at everything from ranch style homes done in the 50s to Tudor styles of the 20s to earlier bungalows. And in the end, despite my love for the mid-century modern, I ended up going with a bungalow that was built probably within minutes of the apartment building I've spent the last 4 years in. Maybe it felt like home for the wood and mouldings and solid construction (I was amazed at how those 50s ranch homes feel so flimsy!)....there really is a lot to be said about concrete, plaster and lathe, brick and hardwood construction.

The apartment I'm in now, which will be re-invented in a similar setting 5 blocks away next month....

Living room, Danish Modern-ish with fantastic curved sectional from the 50s/60s, estate sale find....

Bar (scored at an estate sale for $40)...

Record listening nook, which will likely move to the built-in side of the dining room or into the den....

Dining room, based around a late 60s modern white formica topped table and yellow bucket chairs on casters, whole set from Salvation Army for $65....

Weird with 1916 mouldings and wood floors, but it works here in the apartment so it will work in the house....I rather like the juxtaposition of eras.

So the house. Sits up away from the street so the view to the east (front) and south are over the houses and street to get lots of light and maintain privacy. I'm anxious to see what that vining plant on the arch is! If the loan comes through the NFC I'll have money available to re-paint in the Spring, which it needs. I'll likely stay in the green family. Maybe....

Interior of porch, which needs some screens and new front doors, but has several outlets and a swing so loads of potential for me, the kid and cats (and I'm thinking of doing a 40s tropical/Miami pre-WWII look in)....

Living room, which is swell the way it is for the current owner but will need painted (blue again?) and I'm going to have the traditional style fireplace mantle boxed in with something more Danish Modern in a teak or cherry, cleaner lines, less busy....

Front door with french doors off to side to den where my office will be....

Dining room with fantastic built in, the other wall has been painted in warm gold and persimmon with wide stripes over a burlap covering. Should be fun pulling that down to see what's behind it. Thinking to paint it in a warm terra cotta in an almost 70s palette to set off the fabric wall hanging and tie in the bright yellow of the dining set with all the warm wood tones. Light fixture HAS to go (I'll store it as it works w/ the architecture, its not old though), I'll be moving the table off center in the room so I'll get a modern hanging light and swag it over from the electrical source....

Kitchen, may leave green, depends on how my green formica topped/chrome trimmed small table and chairs from the 50s goes with it. Its the perfect size to go in front of the bay window....

Bathroom. Years ago when the fireplace was added, the original window was taken out and used here where they then vaulted the ceiling, opening up the room to lots of natural light and adding a spacious feeling. The tub is new with whirlpool jets (!), and I love the idea of not having to mess with a shower curtain and liner. I'll leave it this color for now, hassle to paint this high and its neutral enough....

Both bedrooms are huge for a bungalow, which is a plus. Both need painted and will be starting from scratch decorating both, though one will be a dinosaur theme and its not MY room! The back yard has a low deck, water feature in the gardens and a privacy fence all around.....

Anxious again to see what grows out there come spring! New garage is big enough for 2 cars and has a nice garden bench, storage, etc. Basement is unfinished, clean and dry, and comes with washer and dryer (no more treks through an ice alley to the laundry room to spend $2 a load!).

At that, I'm off to work on sorting and pitching crap around this place and pack up more stuff!

~Ang