My New Wood Banister!

I did a radical thing after I got my wood floors redone. I decided, I didn't like the railing around the stairs that go down to my basement and to replace it. It was metal and the house inspector when I bought the house told me that it was not in compliance with safety laws. Apparently a small child could slip through to it's death. Oops!

So when the beautiful floor was finished, it seemed wrong to put it back in it's place - so the floor guys just left the railing in the back. I was talking to Dona - one of my many house consultants - and she told me that her brother said making some railing was really easy!

I knew darn well that having one made by a professional would cost a fortune - especially if I wanted it out of wood - so I thought, what the hay! Let's try it. So Dona and I investigated. Unfortunately, what we found was a lack of supplies at home depot and the reality that it wouldn't be so easy. Especially for two women who had never done a wood project before - bathroom fans we've conquered, but not wood.

After several weeks of living with a "death trap" (aka the hole that remained from the removed railing), I realized it would take more time and money than was worth it. I was getting up the courage to get a quote from the guys that did my floor, when a serendipitous thing happened! Sarah Robinson (still weird to call her that...) invited me over to dinner at her house on a Sunday afternoon a couple of months ago. Also over was her friend Chris Beck. During the conversation of dinner, Chris brought up something about his own renovations at his house and Sarah said, "Hey Chris! You are a wood craftsman...can you make a banister for Danielle?" I immediately piped up, "I'd pay you!"


Kind Chris responded that he would love to try the project as it would be his first. And that if I paid for the wood, he would eat the labor - if I fed him throughout the ordeal. I couldn't believe my good fortune!

I'm not sure if Chris lived to regret the decision or not. It was a big project! And after $400 worth of beautiful wood and numerous hours in his workshop as well as at my house, I now have a GORGEOUS banister to protect all from falling into my "death trap."

Now that I finally have this piece of art varnished (thanks to Dad and Stefani, my sister~ THANK YOU!), it looks fantastic!

See for yourself the beautiful workmanship of the amazing Chris Beck! THANK YOU CHRIS!! YOU ARE THE MAN!!!

Fixing up the New Old House - Phase I

So, I've done some painting and some other minor repairs on my new place. Here are some pictures of my good friends as they've helped me fix the place.
Dona sanding...
. A crack that kinda turned into a small hole...
Dona, fixing another crack we found.

Lynn working on peeling off the 6 layers of paint from the mantle.

Bret and Sarah working on the fireplace.

Alexis working on my room.
You can only see the wall paint in this shot - it's Newport Blue. When I finally get curtains up, you'll be able to see the trim: Bermuda Sand...

The house came with a lovely big mirror, but I felt it distracted too much from the original fireplace. So this is the "before" picture. (No, it's not really that bright in the house. Robert's sunglasses were used as impromptu protective eyeware for the mirror removal procedure. Clever, huh?)
"After" picture. This is what was underneath the mirror. Just a little water damage and fungus....
That's me in one of the corners of the fireplace. There were mirrors in each corner that we removed too. Ok, when I say "we," I mean Robert....
The fireplace isn't quite done yet...but it's getting close!

My pretty new doors! Thanks to Sarah, Kim, Bret, Robert, Lynn and Mark. (they needed several coats...)

Callie painting the extra bedroom.

The extra room...the wall is Slate Green and the trim is Barely Jade...I know. It looks blue, but it really does have a green tint. I love it!
The "flipper" spray painted the house and didn't cover the original wood floor. He found it cheaper to just carpet the room. I really wanted wood floors and pulled up the carpet and this is what I found.....

So I had the floors professionally redone. Here is the finished floor. They did a really great job!

Several other kind friends helped out - although I didn't get pictures of them: Marianne, Kim, Mark, Diana, Matt, Sacha, Plewe, Allison, and Samuel. I couldn't have done it without them!! THANK YOU!!!

As soon as I finish the fireplace, I'll be sure to post a new picture!

Stay tuned...

My New Old Home

I bought a house in July of this year. It was built in 1921 but has had quite of work done (by a "flipper" aka a guy who flips houses). The kitchen was brand spankin' new and the bathroom was all re-tiled. I got a GREAT deal on the place and I feel very lucky. It's a nice quiet neighborhood and the good news is that my great friend, Sarah Ward is right around the corner!
I decided to do a little work on the place - some painting and removing of some mirrors. I ran into a little damage on some of the walls, which will delay me getting everything completed as soon as I wanted. People say that a work in progress is fun - unfortunately, I'm not always good at enjoying the journey - but I'm learning.

Here are some pictures of my new place and the work I've done so far - with the help of MANY kind friends. There is much more to do, but it will take a little while. The housewarming is planned for Fall of 2010. No, I'm not kidding....

I hope you like the pictures!

Canal Street and the "Illegal" Wallet: NYC Part 2

NYC Trip: December 2008 continues...

Mark desperately wanted to go to an honest-to-goodness "back room." You know, rooms that contain stolen goods or illegal knock-offs made with poor materials and even poorer spelling on the imitation labels. (can you say, Praba??)

Mark had heard of someone going to one of these back rooms and really wanted to have the experience. I saw it as a chance to get arrested! And at first was adamant that it was a BAD idea and I would take no part in it. I have found that any time I do something close to illegal, I get "found out" and I wasn't up for that in NYC.

After walking up and down Canal Street and being accosted by several individuals trying to persuade us to go to these "back rooms," I'll admit, I became curious. And I figured if 10 people in 10 minutes are trying to convince you to visit their special "back room," the police certainly can't be everywhere...yes, the logic is silly but it seemed not-so-illegal-and-dangerous with all of individuals hounding us. Because really, would criminals be lining the streets trying to get innocent bystanders in trouble with the law all in the name of a good deal? Ok, well, yeah...they would...

And so our real adventure would begin...but first you have to look at a lovely nativity scene found when we first arrived to Canal Street. (Remember it was Christmastime.) I especially liked the fake AstroTurf on the ramp leading up to the nativity scene - very practical for the Wisemen trudging up the ramp to see the baby Jesus. I know how good AstroTurf grass is! My childhood home had a porch covered in the stuff! We never slipped on that porch - ever! But the best part was that it made for excellent ground cover for playing when we took Barbie out on the road in her Barbie Camper.

But I digress....

Here is the gang - looking innocent and ready for seeing the sights and deals of Canal Street. You wouldn't think that these four souls would soon break the law, would you??? (notice how I left myself out of that part??)

As you can guess, several more individuals approached us as we walked up and down Canal Street looking for bargains. They had additional options for perusal in the "back rooms." I continued to reject them as Mark and I discussed the possibility of us actually going in to a "back room." The more I was accosted the more I thought, "what the hay! When in Rome..." Valerie, Lynn and Dona seemed up for anything, so it was really only me being the paranoid one.

So I allowed one individual who was 4 inches shorter and at least 30 pounds lighter than me to get my attention (I figured, I could take him on if I got into a precarious situation, i.e. escape the room at great speed by running him over). He showed me his paper of great deals on purses and wallets. I wanted to get my sister a wallet for Christmas, so I felt like I had a reason to purchase. You don't want to go down to these "back rooms" just to browse. These people are risking their necks and they may not like it if you don't buy something. And I didn't want to figure out what those consequences were.

As you can see, these "back rooms" look innocent enough (as seen here). They look like private entrances off the street where you load merchandise into the basement for the stores that are located above them. But don't let that fool you!! Not so! This is the entrance to the shady underground world of NYC.

I make light of this, but in actuality it can be pretty serious. One story shared on the trip, told how their friends went to a "back room" on a visit to NYC. But they had to first get into a white van that was backed up to one of these gates. They sat in the van until someone walkie-talkied to them that the coast was clear and to jump from the back of the van down the stairs - and to make it fast! They heeded the directions. I can't remember if they were arrested or not but they at least lived to tell the tale...anyway, our guide didn't require us using such sneaky devices, thank goodness. I would have backed out for sure! I have a knack for looking terribly guilty when doing something I shouldn't and we would have been spotted right away!

We were quickly directed to an opening and sent downstairs, then passed off to another guide. That guide took us to a small room that had lots of purses lining the walls from the ceiling to the floor. Luckily, there were some wallets. I found one that matched what I was looking for - except for the skewed emblem that was clearly done hastily. I asked if she had another. She looked at me as though I asked the dumbest tourist question ever. Ok, so it was. This was my only choice and I took it for $20.

The scariest part was when Valerie asked if there was a restroom she could use. Believe it or not, they had one! And she traipsed off into the dark halls looking for it. Valerie used to live in NYC so she wasn't scared of anything. I thought she was nuts because surely people don't come back from bathroom trips that are in "back rooms." I think I saw that once on Without a Trace...

(Here's a photo taken from Mark's phone while in the "back room." At this point we were waiting for Valerie to return after my big purchase. We tried to make ourselves look busy while we waited. In this picture, it's almost like Lynn is instructing me on the positive attributes of the bag. He wasn't.)

Thankfully, Valerie did survive and returned not too long after we had made the big $20 purchase for the wallet.

We then scurried up the steps back to the outside world - looking a little guilty but yet a little invigorated that we didn't get caught. I'm not sure how much trouble we would have been in: would we have been arrested over a $20 wallet? Not sure...haven't seen that on Law & Order so I have no good background information or point of reference. But I was sure I didn't want to do that again. You just don't want to push your luck!!

By then we had worked up an appetite, so we forged on to a fantastic Chinese restaurant that had some good authentic Chinese food. Mark even ordered a strange concoction of "squid and something" soup. It looked gross. But he liked it.













Here you can see my illegal wallet. At least I think its illegal. I'm not sure anymore. I really should contact the NYC Chamber of Commerce and see what exactly my rights are as a consumer...anyway, the point is we got a good deal. Valerie saw almost the same exact wallet for almost $150 at some fancy purse store - sans skewed emblem, of course. That's a $130 savings!

And my sister loved the wallet! At least she SAID she loved it. I hope she appreciated the sacrifice we made by visiting the "dark side" of NYC...

NYC December 2008: Part 1

Back in December, I did a wild and crazy thing and I went to New York City in the middle of winter accompanied by some good friends of mine - Dona, Valerie, Lynn, and Mark. I realize that it's been months now, but I thought I'd share some of the pictures from our big adventures.

So here we go! (oh, just a warning...I was serious about the whole "blog when I feel like it" speech in the last blog, so it may take me months to blog this whole trip. But I can at least promise that each post will be as exciting as possible and well worth a read...)

Dona, Valerie and I arrived to NYC at about 11pm on Thursday night. Mark and Lynn decided to be cheap and took a red eye so they could avoid one night of paying for a hotel. Personally, I think that was insane, but I don't have the ability to fall asleep on command like they do. I would NEVER fall asleep on plane without some major help from a whole bottle of NyQuil and absolute quiet. Yeah, not going to happen on an airplane - at least the quiet part.

Valerie had friends in town since she lived in NYC for awhile, so she stayed with them. The rest of us - otherwise known as those with NO friends in NYC - got a fantastic deal at Hotel 17 which was on 3rd Avenue and 17th Street in Manhattan. It was under construction on the outside, but it was a charming historic hotel that had a fabulous old elevator that required you to manually open the door to let yourself out. Some might think that that it's one lazy elevator, but it was just like stepping back in time! I have no idea what time it was, but its back there.

I only wish I had a picture of that cute little elevator. It would have made for a better story...

Instead, here is a picture of Dona hanging out in our room. The hotel guy didn't have the appropriate room for us - which was just one double bed that Dona and I were going to share. But the luck of New York was with us and they had to upgrade us. It was great!

Unfortunately, Mark and Lynn were not as lucky in the room they got. They got what they paid for...they didn't end up sharing that double bed, though. Mark took the floor with his sleeping bag and mattress pad. (Boys are funny!)

This kind of hotel required you share four bathrooms with the rest of the guests staying on that floor. (That's why it was a great deal!) We did get our own little sink in our room which was very helpful and made it all worth while. The only problem we ran into was the inability of the water pipes to beat the odds against that ever powerful force of gravity. (Or was it lack of water? We aren't sure.) We were on the 8th floor and at 8am in the morning, we found that while taking a shower sometimes the water would just stop. If you were lucky, it would at least drip or even better give you a trickle to help you finish up. But sometimes, it just stopped all together (I would have thought we were in Egypt but when the water did come it was clear and not brown. So that was good!)

That was the only drawback! The hotel was just a few blocks away from Union Square subway station, so it made for running around the city very easy!

So with our great location, the next morning - after a full night's sleep and a semi-shower, we started on our adventure in the Big Apple....

Oh wait! We couldn't start out until Mark and Lynn arrived from the airport. They showed up at about 9am - refreshed and ready for a full day of activities - at least that's what they said. Once they found us and settled into their 4' by 10' room, THEN we started out on our adventure in the Big Apple...

Inconsistent - is that a bad thing?

Ok, so my last blog post was last year. Yep! 2008! But please don't judge me! I've been a busy woman! No really! I can't quite account for everything I've done, but I assure you it's been important, "unaccountable" stuff!

Sorry...I used 6 exclamation points in that last paragraph. Guilt. It's all because of the guilt. Guilt induces exclamation points from me. And the truth is, when I started this blog last year, I worried that this would be one more "guilt" thing if I didn't get a chance to write (or if ran out of important things to say - perish the thought!). Well, I'm a new woman nowadays - as many will attest - and I say, no more guilt!!

So I've changed the purpose of this blog. Its like no other blog...those other blogs are expected to be updated at least every week if you are a committed blogger. But this blog is a "when I get a chance and I have something important to say" blog that will be updated whenever I feel like it. That may be weekly, monthly, biannually. That's the beauty of it! I'm changing the rules of blogging!!

I realize that remembering to visit my blog will be much harder if I intermittently post. But I won't be offended if you forget me! I expect only family to remember to visit. Ok, maybe just my mom. (HI MOM!!) But that's ok...I don't mind.

So stay tuned! When? Beats me!! Never can tell nowadays...

Your favorite inconsistent blogger,
dan