The BIG GIANT fireplace

It's finally April! Just a small confession here about my previous post. Thanks for all your comments! I am a pretty personal person and am horrified when people air their dirty laundry on FB and the like. But that note just chapped my hide. And since this blog is about remodeling our mcm home - both the good and bad  - I felt the need to post about it. 
Enough brooding about slopegate - Mad Men is back!
I have yet to do a post on our fireplace and how we turned it back into the GIANT fireplace.
This was taken right after we took ownership.

We hemmed and hawed about the red brick, but I actually love it. The fireplace had a woodstove insert. (full of ashes, of course). We both hated it. It just didn't look right in this mid century home. And we both love a roaring fire.
These suckers weigh A LOT so we had to get some help having it removed.  It took 3 guys and a trolley.

Ick

It then sat by our front door while the home was being remodeled, until I cleaned it up and offered it for sale on Craigslist (you have to haul it yourself!). It sold pretty quickly.
This is what our fireplace looked like after the woodstove was removed.

The next step was getting it checked out. We weren't holding out much hope that the chimney would be in good shape, but amazingly, it was! I could picture the roaring fires already.
I wasn't even going to attempt to clean the black soot on the red brick, so we needed a door to hide it. Because of the large size of the fireplace, we had to get a door and screens custom made. We chose a glass with steel finish from Thermo-Rite. In spite of it taking forever to receive, it turned out quite nice.

We have had some wonderful fires over the winter, and now that warmer weather is upon us, we had probably our last roaring fire last night, while watching Mad Men.

Now THAT'S a fire!

We bought a stainless steel tool set to match from All Modern in a 20% off sale, pictured to the left.

So what did you think of Mad Men? I find the season openers to be a bit slow. I actually fell asleep towards the end so no spoilers! 

Wow, just wow

So, after all the work we've been doing and my last 2 posts reflecting that AND Shawn busting his ass finishing up the hillside, THIS anonymous note appeared in our mailbox:

My first reaction was "what an asshole!" what the heck? I had just arrived home and Shawn was still down the hill hoeing and raking. I debated whether to even show it to him but I eventually went down, told him he should be sitting down for this and handed him the note. "Honey, someone doesn't like your hardware", was all I could muster. (Okay, that sounded weird). I could see the look of utter confusion on his face, much like mine. First of all, the posts are wood, only the bolts are metal and they are galvanized steel with a matte finish so they do not give off that much shine to begin with. Over the years they will rust.
But, being that I am Canadian and we are internationally known for being so damn nice the paranoid part of me worried that our bolts were reflecting all over Napa taking eyes out with laser beams of light and causing quite a sensation. So I immediately got in the car with my husband and we drove all over the lower neighborhood looking to see if our hillside was lit up like a Christmas tree in the afternoon sun.
First, we started in downtown. We could not see a thing, even the retaining wall. So we drove around the streets below our hill. The streets that are closest to the cliff face would not be able to see the hillside. I took this picture from a few streets back, where the posts are visible. The bolts were a little reflective, but are so miniscule, you can barely notice as we have so many trees.

Seriously???

The only way someone would know the details of the retaining wall (as in the note) would be if they were looking through binoculars. Yes. Creepy.
After spending all this time and money restoring the property, clearing the oleander, ivy, the rotting railway ties  and everything else out of that fire hazard of a downslope,  bringing back the +150 year old old oaks to health working in conjunction with an arborist, I'm just floored that someone would write this....
Give me your thoughts - someone with too much time on their hands?

(I should mention that the Young Ridge Winery, on the ridge directly across valley from us has a 20 foot tall happy face that lights up every night and can be seen all over the Napa Valley. Just sayin'.)

The Downslope - Before and After Photos

I just love before and after photos of homes, don't you? Glad I took so many before photos now - even going back to before we bought the place. Almost two years later (yes, two!) it is amazing to look at the difference!
With the outside of the property, obviously it takes time for plants and trees to grow. So check back with me in 5 years haha! But taking care of the old oak trees through an arborist has already made a HUGE difference. We're also really happy with how the steps have turned out. There is still a little work to be done which Shawn has been doing himself including filling in the gravel and finishing up the rock borders. This involves carrying buckets of of the gravel and rocks from the front of the property.
Come with me as I take you on a walking tour of the downslope:
Two years ago, we bought this overgrown jungle:
Before

View from top of slope

What the hell were we thinking?!?!
Same spot now, (you can still see the manzanita tree in the middle). The tree to the left was diseased and was chopped down:
After

Next, we look to the left at the first sitting area. The approx. 150 year old oak tree was in a sorry state, as you can see:
Before

After

Oak tree is flourishing!

Walking towards the sitting area - it was covered in concrete, choking the trees. We removed and added gravel and bordered in the lava rocks that are all over the property. Plants are mexican sages and ornamental grasses.

One of my favorite spots, can you see why? That is Mount Tamalpais off in the distance. On a clear day we can see the Sutro Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge!

Moving on, these are the first set of steps leading out from the sitting area.

Previously, they were old railway ties that were rotting. I fell on my ass more than once!
Before, looking towards the sitting area from below:

 After with the first flat portion:

Shawn planted fruit trees throughout the slope.  A LOT of fruit trees. We now have - Lime, Valencia Orange, Granny Smith Apple, Rio Red Grapefruit, White Grapefruit, Peach, Bing Cherry, Bleinham Apricot, Fuji Apple, Bartlett Peach, Tangerine, Nectarine, Santa Rosa Plum. and Gojee berry. 

And we already have the lemon tree.

Besides becoming extremely regular, we may have to open a fruit stand.
(I'm pretty sure our neighbors are laughing at us planting all these fruit trees because of the deer. But Liquid Fence actually works if you are vigilant!)
Moving on, this is the bottom of the slope, looking up. And that was AFTER we had had some cleanup done!
Before:

After we had everything cleared out in 2011, we uncovered all of the old railway tie steps:
2011

And here it is with the new steps and flat bits (props to the husband again for digging those out!). This side still needs the rock borders for the steps (go, Shawn!):
After:

Amazing all of the huge rocks we uncovered, that were buried under ivy and god knows what. 
Another view from the bottom of the slope looking north towards St. Helena:
Before

Same spot now:

Perfect spot to listen to the rock concert that is coming to town in May. Oh yes, little Napa is having a 4 day festival called Bottlerock and we will be hearing it loud and clear up here.

They are expecting 40,000 people over the 4 days and all hotels are already sold out. Some say it could be a huge clusterfuck. I certainly HOPE it goes smoothly, but traffic is definitely going to be a nightmare.

Back to our booty bootcamp - I mean down slope - moving on to the other side of the slope we have the third flat part, then a set of stairs up.

Who needs spin class anymore?

Did I mention this is a workout??? Shawn bordered all the steps with the rocks. We will be adding some ornamental grasses now that it is all cleaned out.
At the top of the steps, we weaved this portion through some of the boulders we uncovered:

And some more straight steps back up to the top:

Here is a shot of the slope from this side, looking south.
Before:

(I would have liked to have kept the Agave but I was vetoed on that one)

After

Geez, could I have picked a grayer day? Unfortunately our mornings have been a bit hazy.

Are you out of breath yet?!? To give you an idea of how much of a workout this loop is, come along with me if you dare as I videotaped myself doing it. Except that I sped it up, so that I sound like a chipmunk running on cornflakes. I'm twisted. (Sorry if this makes anyone dizzy!)

Tour of the Back from Michelle Egide on Vimeo.

The Upside of the Downslope

Spring has sprung here in the Napa Valley and it couldn't be more beautiful. Mustard seed is everwhere:

Taken on bikeride in the Coombsville AVA

All of our plants are budding and the insectory we planted is buzzing with bees and butterflies!

A swallowtail enjoying the bees bliss we planted

And just when I thought we were done with major projects, my husband wanted to finish just one more (again!).
Ok, we were both itching to finish the downslope of the property. Cleaning it up was already a huge process, but we wanted to make it more accessible by putting in new stairs, and flat sections with retaining walls.
Now Shawn has never been much a of a do-it-yourself-er so imagine my shock when he dug out all three of the trenches for the flat parts of the pathway himself. That was a lot of work!

As you can see in the above photo, he did hit a few rocks. They would have to be jackhammered by the landscape crew.
Next, the landscape crew came in to install the retaining walls. First the posts were cemented in.

Then the retaining walls built:

Then the pathways built up and drainage installed:

And then it was onto the stairs. You may recall when we cleaned out the downslope, we uncovered all of the old railway ties. First, they had to be taken out. Because they contained arsenic, we had to find a facility to dispose of them.

Summer 2011

Then the new stairs were installed. All 117 of them!

My next post will show the befores and afters of the downslope. Stay tuned!

"I have a graduate degree in Mid Century Kitsch"

Anyone who owns or is renovating a mid-century home should see the Simpsons Episode - 'The Day the Earth Stood Cool'. I just watched it last night and died laughing. It's a tongue in cheek on Portlandia, hipsters and 'urban nomads'.

http://curbed.com/archives/2012/12/10/watch-the-simpsons-tackle-dwell-neutra-architecture.php

 

"Last night on The Simpsons, hipsters swarmed Springfield, taking over Moe's Tavern, turning tire fires into farmers markets, and transforming the pathetic little town into one anointed by the New York Times as "America's Coolest City." Homer and Marge got some new neighbors in the form of Terrence and Emily (voiced by Portlandia's Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein), Portland, Ore., transplants "doing the whole urban nomad thing, you know, just looking for an undiscovered city with affordable houses." Bakers of artisanal doughnuts by day, the couple was positively blown away by one for-sale property on the Simpsons' block of Evergreen Terrace:

 "What a find! Underneath all the ugly renovations this house has Neutra bones."

Those were almost our exact words when we first looked at THIS house except it was more along the lines of :
"What a dump! I hope to god, underneath all the ugly renovations, it actually HAS some bones!"

With low-slung furnishings and a brick fireplace, the place particularly struck a chord with Emily's "graduate degree in midcentury kitsch" and, naturally, ended up being photographed for Dwell. "

The videos, right this way. >>

 (God, now I hope we don't sound like pretentious assholes when we talk about OUR house! Maybe I should stop using the term mid-century modern. It's so....played out, ya know? hehe;)

A little DIY project

I've not posted in awhile, the reason being I was sick with a cold. So exasperating. After boasting about not being sick for over 2 years, karma gave me a whopper. Then I snatched a bite of Shawn's toast one morning and gave it to him. For 2 weeks, all I heard about was 'the toast!', 'the toast!' Yeesh, you would have thought I had given him typhoid.
Anyway, there has been much going on here at the Napa Project. So much so, that soon I may have to rename the blog, the 'Napa Completed', hehe. More posts to come soon, just wait until you see what we are doing with the back downslope!
For now, this was my little (sort of) DIY project. Our address plaque is finally up!

 I purchased the numbers from Design Within Reach $24.00 ea in Neutra (of course ;). Then we had a piece of oak wood cut at Home Depot. The address numbers come with a paper template that you place on the wood to mark where you need to drill the holes for each number (yes, this broad knows how to handle a drill ;). This was the most tedious part. Each number has 3 prongs that go into the holes so you have to be very exact or the numbers wont 'pop' in. (I messed up one, but I filled it up with wood caulk, drilled again and repainted.). I then painted the piece of wood the same color as our front door (BM Merlot Red).
I asked our landscape crew to cut off the excess metal prongs at the back of the wood plate. Then our contractor drilled them into the concrete pillar.
The numbers have half inch stoppers, which gives them a nice 3D effect. You can see from the side:

Our street is very dark at night as there are only a few street lights so we also installed a solar adresss light over the plaque.

Now, thankfully people will not get lost looking for our house!

BTW, I have a weird thing about numbers and their significance. I loved this address because of 6 and 7 -  '67 is the year I was born. And if you add them all up - 18 is the day I was born.

Mid Mod-ing the Cats

One of the difficulties of moving to a mid century modern home was that none of our furniture matched. So we got rid of most of it and started fresh. But the cats needed their cat condos so we brought those along. We have 3 cats - Annie the calico, Benny the terrorist, and Sunshine pictured below, who adopted us because our former neighbor did not take care of her. So she came along with us to Napa and, as you can tell, she is loving it here. We haven't been able to completely keep her inside (she was left out 24/7) but she comes in at night.

I equate the carpet covered cat condos to Frasier's dads chair - they're tacky looking, but oh so comfy.

Our calico, Annie, lounges in this thing all day. What cat wouldn't - with all the windows, she can gaze at birds all day! At least she isn't on the furniture....

I could sleep all day in this thing!

I started to look for a more modern looking cat condo and found a website called Modern Cat! This German design caught my eye.

But not the pricetag $2000 and up - yikes!
So we asked Jeff, the Eichler Siding guy, if he could design one like it. And this is what he came up with:

 

 Of course the big question was, would the cats like it? I stuck different pieces of fun fur on it and waited to see what would happen.

 Obviously Benny loves it! It is still unpainted and we have been trying to decide on colors. Should I go bright art piece? Or blend into the room? Either way, we love it!!

Annie may be a tougher sell. She loves that ugly, ratty cat condo!

Sigh.