Active as a way of living

Helle Soholt of Gehl Architects speaks to creating ways for people to incorporate activity as a way of life.
HERE

the beautiful and the terrible

A haunting and surreal beauty and fragility.  Post-war aerial photography of Los Angelos' Lakewood community from here.

Super good LEDs

ENVISION : Step into the sensory box / World Mobile Congress à Barcelone from SUPERBIEN on Vimeo.

Just viewed personally, but video itself is a bit old.  See their new videos below.
From Superbien

Basementing + Bathrooming

When R and I moved into this house, we dealt with some unforeseen issues.  Many homeowners do - especially the young, naive first-time homeowners.  Getting a pro in to see about replacing a water meter grows to a new water main to the city pipes, and eventually all new plumbing in the basement (saving up for that one...).  A small leak behind the washing machine, quickly fixed right away, is revealed to have lasted long before you ever lived at the house when you rip out the vinyl flooring and reveal all sorts of grossness. 

The first few months of owning the house included these unique circumstances, as well as defeated sights of R covered in safety paraphernalia ripping out the litter-box carpets in the basement.  Yes, the small issue of a smelly cat 'area' spread to a smelly cat 'house' when the previous owner left her poor animals to fend for themselves in her house with no human contact or ventilation.  Quite the surprise on our final walk-through as we learned what had become of what would be our first home...some tears were shed.

R, cleaning.

Realtor's before photo.

 

After old metal shower and vinyl ripped out.  Concrete floors painted with sealant, waiting until water meter replaced before we can lay a new subfloor.  New shower based installed.

Upstairs, eager to have a useable bedroom, we painted and scraped our way to remove the popcorn ceiling and found it to be way harder than it looks on tv, youtube, and whatever other resource we consulted before starting this epic project.   Hire out...it's worth it.

Our bathroom has some funny small issues (plumbing not tied in, old toilet, iffy tub with old jets) and generally was just in need of an update.  We hired this one out.


Original plan:

 

New Plan

Demo started

Drywall up

Tiles laid

Shower tiles up + painted

Window Privacy

One of the more difficult aspects of moving into our fixer-upper home is having the patience to realize we can't change it all as fast as we'd like.  We did, however, need to address the issue of window coverings asap or else provide our neighbours walking by with some nightly entertainment.  R was adamant that less is more, as the wide porch already shields a lot of light.  I was fine with sheers rather than blinds and curtains, but it would be lame to have them drawn all the time to provide privacy.  But...during one (of many) trips to the hardware store we found something that would work even better.

Rust-oleum Frosted Glass, in spray-can format.  Makes an awful mess (think dust...everywhere) when applied but cleans up fast, looks great, and doesn't harm the glass.  If you decide you don't like it or need to change it, clean the glass with nail polish remover or paint thinner.

We decided to use a modern-ish tape pattern (inspired by this design*sponge painted wall) and then taped off the rest of the frame.  We have old carpet below which we'll be ripping out soon, but if we had anything else below we'd put some newspaper there as well.

Super easy: spray, let dry, and remove tape.

And there you go!  More privacy, but still lets in lots of light.  We did it downstairs as well but don't have a great picture of it as of now.

Also...(too much?) we did it in the dining room where we have a funny small window that lines up with the neighbours.  Here I'm being a creeper as R checks something on the lap top.

great and noble tasks

In the words of Helen Keller: “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”

Spacing - London

Congrats to London for being featured in this month's issue of Spacing magazine, and to fellow Londoner Kevin Van Lierop for his successful urban intervention!