Demolition Continues

Theivery

We lived in Mesta Park for 6.5 years and never once had a criminal incident occur with us or our property. We did have a couple near incidents, once when I was in Kansas City on business, whereby Christa came home to a gentleman sitting on our porch. He then asked for money to buy milk for his kid... And then there was the time that someone stole something out of the bed of a pickup parked in front of our house. But Christa watched that happen and called 911 immediately. "Hello, I just saw a guy on a bicycle steal an air compressor and a skill saw". "What's he look like?" "He's a guy on a bicycle with an AIR COMPRESSOR and a skill saw, duh."

Some time between Tuesday at 11:00 pm and Thursday at 9:00 pm, our patio furniture was taken out of our backyard/back driveway area. The furniture was not at all visible from the street, which makes this even more disheartening. I thought I saw it at the house even on Wednesday night, but I can't recall for sure. No matter what, we're disappointed.

The furniture being gone isn't the biggest problem here; it was a gift from my parents, so that hurts, but it was getting small and we needed to upgrade anyway. By far the worst part is the emotional feeling that someone's been around and been in our space and looking at what we've got to steal.

If you're out and about yard/garage sale shopping this weekend and you happen to see this furniture, let me know and I'll come by and swoop it up. :)

Tonight/tomorrow I'll be installing some temporary security lighting with what little electricity I've left on in the house. And I'll be locking what small stuff we do have in the house even more tightly... I have been taking my nice tools with me every night just in case, so "yay me" on that.

Maybe I'll starting camping in the backyard every night. Mom, dad, can you bring the pop-up camper down here ASAP?

By the way, kudos to the Oklahoma City Police Department for their speed today in filing my report. I called the non-emergency number at 8:49 am, and at 9:00 am an officer called to take the full report. I'm sure, had a I elected the option, my meeting with an officer at the house would have taken much, much longer. This option was quick and easy.

Everyone Has Something to Say Part 2

As Paul put it so well in Part 1 of this installment, we've received a lot of nose crinkles and unsolicited advice on our new to us home.

Yesterday, while I was at the dentist office having my teeth cleaned, the dental assistant gave me all sorts of advice on what to do in my new home. Paint colors to pick, the number of shower heads to install (I'll spare you her gross story), flooring selections, and on and on and on. Her color scheme recommendation for the master bedroom you ask? Red, black and white of course, because it's "spicy".

Five minutes after that one sided conversation was had (while I sat and smiled nicely) she asked what I did for a living. I responded without any hint of smugness in my voice.

Even so, we both sat in silence for the rest of the cleaning.

Everyone Has Something to Say

I suppose it goes without saying; choose to renovate an old house, and everyone you know, plus those that you really don't know, will give you advice.

So, first off, thanks everyone for caring so much about us! I say that with 75% sincerity, 25% jest. Among the 75%, my old Historic Preservation co-worker/supervisor; the wonderful company that did our asbestos abatement and who also happened to have tips on working with the plaster and insulation; our insulation/HVAC contractor; and our roofing consultant. There are so more that could be thanked.

The other 25%, well, they can have their opinion, but I wish it would remain inside their heads. For those that see us regularly, and especially those that have worked at the house with us already, it comes as no surprise that I'm attributing the 25% to generally one person. But that person has really caused me to go out of my way to be a nice man instead of flying off and making an enemy out of a new neighbor. It doesn't help that he "owns" the houses on either side of us (I use quotes because the County Assessor does not attribute ownership to him on one house, although he uses and claims it as his own).

This nice (to our face) gentleman has owned homes in the neighborhood for over 30 years, and yet they appear more dilapidated and run down than our home. Our home, mind you, was completely unoccupied for at least 3 years, possibly up to 6. Taking renovation advice and passive aggressive "oh, you're doing that?" comments from this person has been an exercise in displaying (and believing in) Christian love for one of God's creatures.

Thanks for taking the time to read my rant... sometimes, one just needs to express their frustration to the world and let the feelings out.

Design: The Kitchen

The potential for the kitchen in SIX TWELVE was one of the driving factors for purchasing the home. In the kitchen alone there are six windows (letting in tons of natural light); and the room is just plain sizable. Since it was in such bad, grease covered, 50's remodeled shape when we purchased the home, there was no internal qualm about gutting the room and creating something just for us.

If there's a room that drives design and inspiration around our house it's the kitchen; so I figured this would be a good place to start based on the fabric I had already found.

The kitchen design came together quickly (relatively unusual for us).

Here's where we're starting to get that mix of styles, the board makes it look modern, but with the window bench and some other key elements, we'll be scaling back the modern vibe. Remember our mixture of concerns in designing a house? All of those things add up to a pretty serious mixture of traditional/modern/industrial that will end with either really, really bad or really, really good results.

1. Quartz Counters from Cambria (in Snowden White).

I am in love with this material. We prefer lighter counters but marble is such a tremendous amount of upkeep and granite doesn't get bright enough for us. Cambria is only available through specifiers (designers & architects), specific account holding showrooms or fabricators. I like that we have something different, that not just anyone can buy at Home Depot. Not knocking the HD at all. 90% of our remodel will have to be off the shelf from those types of stores to stay within our budget. But I'm thrilled that an item as large and as impactful as the counter will be somewhat unique to us. We're hoping to do a full height apron on both sides of the island. Swoon. "Hoping to" are the operative words there.

2. Subway Tile  

We're going to use USCT bright white subway tile for our back splash. For one, we had a couple of boxes leftover from our last installation and two, we LOVED it at our last house. This time however, we are installing it floor to ceiling (maybe all four walls). If it goes on one wall, it will be in a herringbone pattern (as shown). If it makes it's debut on all four of the walls? We'll be sticking with the standard running bond (based on the fact we're doing our own tile installation and an entire room of herringbone might be the death of us). 

3. Cabinets

Oh the cabinets. The cabinets are going to be some form of green. I mean, who would have thought?! We were on the hunt for some lovely french gray cabinets when we stumbled across this style/color in a local showroom. We both immediately mentioned it, that it would work well, and that it would be kind of a fun alternative. I think it's going to be awesome. We haven't selected a vendor/manufacturer yet. We're working on getting our quotes and each of the manufacturer's blue/greens are slightly different but would all work well.

4. Artwork/Color

One day, I will have enough money to have Michelle Armas paint something just as beautiful as this piece for my kitchen.

5. the Meat & Potatoes

As for the appliances, faucet and sink, nothing has been decided on quite yet. We have quite a few options but are slowly starting to narrow things down. For example, we are 100% committed to a single basin sink. We installed one in our last kitchen and I had no idea how much I loved it until we got into the apartment with your standard 50/50 sink. I cannot wait to wash Addison's high chair tray (or Addison for that matter) and fill a pasta pot in a deep singular basin again.

We're also pretty set on going with a double oven. We love to have people over (lots of people), and we love to cook. One day soon, I hope to host Thanksgiving or Christmas for my entire family and being able to cook multiple dishes at different temps is going to be killer. We'll have a gas cooktop in the island with a hood (also all yet to be determined) a dishwasher, a tucked away microwave and a refrigerator. Am I the only one that gets giddy about new appliances? We're looking to save some money here so we'll be buying last year's models in hopes to save a couple grand. 

6. Porcelain Floor Tile

We will be using a 12" x 24" striated gray porcelain tile. It is manufactured by FlorimUSA and is called Layers in the color Sediment. That's exactly what it looks like and it is beautiful (even more so in person). You'll notice a certain love for geology running through the rest of the house. What can I say? I'm addicted.



The kitchen when we purchased the house.

During cabinet dis-assembly and removal.

Walls being removed!!



With the kitchen demolition nearly complete, it's really starting to solidify our design and our excitement/anxiousness.

The cabinet and quartz orders are coming up in the next few weeks and then it will really be getting serious!