Relocated

Just in case you were concerned, the octagon table and yellow Bertoia side chairs have a new home on the patio. We think they look pretty nice under the Nelson bubble lamp. Smokey loves to use this table as a perch for birdwatching. Don't worry, I always clean that table before eating on it!

Menus Please!

Here is the newest addition to our kitchen. A 1950's style restaurant booth. Before Tim and I were married we talked about how cool it would be to have a restaurant booth in our house. This is another great find from Redlands Thrift for $75. The upholstery needs to be redone on the seat (we think we may just redo the whole thing in order to change the color scheme a bit) and there is no table top (the little table cloth is over an unfinished piece of wood where we will glue the formica table top - to match our formica counters of course!). We are getting close to getting the backsplash done in the kitchen so we think we will try to match the vinyl to the tile, but we are still trying to decide. Stay tuned!

I hope this does not encourage the kids to treat me more like a waitress than they already do...I am in for it!

Upgrade

We first bought these generic patio chairs to kinda match our strapped hanging chairs. Tim was not satisfied with these because they were more of an 80's style and he got a lot of heat for them when he posted them on the "Lotta Livin'" Forum (a mid-century modern message board where a lot of MCM geeks - like Tim - compare their furniture and get ideas for remodels). Anyway, they were only like $5 each at Redlands Thrift so we decided to keep them. We even thought they look cool under our new umbrella.





A couple days ago, Tim made a quick stop at Redlands Thrift and found these beauties! They are Brown Jordan Kailua Patio Chairs from 1971 (they have the original tag). Tim found the original add also. They need to be powder coated and restrapped, but they are being sold online (ebay) for $300 each once refinished. Jackpot! Too bad we like them too much to ever sell them!

Our Amazing Garden

Without much effort on my part our garden has really exploded (compare these pics to the first pics of our garden!). The drip system that was already installed for the ugly bushes that were there previously has been plenty of water (although I do soak that tomatoes once a week). So far we have harvested green onions (although I thought I was planting white onions), red and green cabbage, round zucchini (about 5 so far!), green beans, one green bell pepper, carrots (very small and twisted because we planted them too close together), blueberries, and tons of basil, mint and rosemary. All of our tomato plants are full of green tomatoes and we have a sugar snap pea plant that would reach the sky if we let it, but still no peas. We are also expecting cantaloupe, artichokes, yellow bell peppers, sweet corn, and lots of yellow and red tomatoes. Hanna and Syd had a great time "harvesting" today.

Gainey Ceramics

A couple months ago we also took a trip to the Gainey Ceramics Factory Outlet Store in La Verne. The pots in the Outlet are not necessarily cracked or irregular shaped. Sometimes it is a discontinued color or a small blemish and you cannot even tell the difference - and they are over 50% off retail. We got about 15 pots and stands for about $200. If anyone has ever seen these pots in antique stores, they can go for hundreds of dollars each. We had fun fitting everything in the Subaru with two kids!

Spring is in the Air

Our latest remodeling project was in the garden. A few months ago we tore out some ugly bushes in our raised planter out back and mixed some manure in the soil. I planted some cabbage sprouts and they went crazy! We even got three broccoli plants that were accidentally mixed in the cabbage.






This past weekend my dad and I rototilled the soil again and added more manure and planted a full fledged vegetable garden. We planted onions, tomatoes, green beans, herbs, cantaloupe, zucchini, bell pepper, artichoke, and two blueberry bushes. Syd directed us, Mason ate some dirt and we all had a great time.





Tim also put up a weather station in the garden. It has an anemometer (wind speed/direction measure), temperature and humidity sensor, and a rain gauge. We have a little computer inside the house that tells us all the info. Tim's goal is to use this info to help us use passive solar heating instead of gas and electricity. Mason loves watching the anemometer.




We also bought a vermicomposter (a worm farm) to help us reduce our waste and turn our green scraps into soil for the garden. We were all excited to get it started and our worms only lasted a week! We think we may have added too much citrus? We will try again! The picture is of our dead worms....sorry guys.

Loma Linda Mercantile

Tim found out that LLU has a huge warehouse filled with old office furniture that is for sale for cheap. We went to something similar at UC Riverside, but most of it was pretty beat up. At LLU Tim found some great stuff. The circular Herman Miller table was free because it had no base (Tim found a base on Ebay). He later found the same table online for $800. The smaller table is also Herman Miller. We also have a tall rectangular desk too. The trash can is just cool. The chairs, as Tim posted a couple weeks ago, are from Redlands Thrift.

We are having so much fun finding cool, used furniture. Our favorite stuff we clean up and use right away. You should see our garage! It is filled with stuff to refinish someday. We have even discussed getting a little side business going selling vintage furniture. Who knows?

Our New Baby

We finally got a piano. We have been talking about getting one since we got married and Tim found the perfect one on Craigslist. It is a 1950's Acrosonic in mint condition. Unfortunately, it was in Walnut Creek, up north. So we first had my dad go look at it to make sure it was real. Then we sent a deposit. Then Tim went up to Sacramento for a work conference and met some piano movers in Walnut Creek to move it to my parents house. Then Tim rented a van and drove it from my parents house to our house. Phew! Totally worth it. We will be starting Syd in Suzuki piano lessons in the Fall (once we can afford it!) and Mason will follow along as soon as he can. In the Suzuki method, the parent learns along with the child, so I am getting really excited to get started too. Syd and Mason already jam together on the piano whenever they have a free moment.

Kitchen Collectables

Here are a few of the treasures that I have collected over the past few months. Most were Christmas gifts from Tim - he totally spoiled me this year. We have had the best luck finding things on E Bay or at the Long Beach Flea Market and Redlands Thrift!

Details of Modernism Week

Here are some of the things we saw at other houses that we would like to integrate into our house some day.









This was our only purchase of the weekend. We got it for $50 at a thrift store in Palm Springs.

Moderism Week

In February, Tim and I went to Palm Springs for Modernism Week. We stayed for three nights (away from the kids!!) at the Orbit Inn, ate great food (Copelys was our favorite), rode the Tramway and attempted to see as much mid-century modern stuff as we could. We did a 3 hour double decker bus tour and did a private tour of the Frey house. We also did self-guided tours of all the antique and thrift shops. We tried to be low key so we did not have our camera at most places, but here are some pictures of some of our favorite houses.