I had purchased aluminum Neutra numbers for our house but realized that with our siding the way it is, they would look awkward if used on the house horizontally. As a temporary fix, I had a friend who does vinyl work make us some stick on numbers for the house and mailbox. I think they turned out great! Our mailbox was old and rusty and needed replacing anyway. Plans are in the works to potentially have a large piece of limestone (or similar) in the front landscaping that we could put the numbers on.
Sorry. It’s been far too long since the last update on The Orchard House. Elizabeth and I have had a wild year. This Spring we traveled to Kaua’i for a beautiful family wedding. This Summer, I rode my motorcycle 5800 miles across the country. Now with the weather turning, and more time being spent inside, it’s time for an update!
We have been searching out estate sales in our area and have found some gems for very small money. We believe this is a piece of hand drawn pen art. Titled “Fish Market,” I’ve been unable to find any information on the artist. It fits in perfectly with the whimsical and mid-century vibe that we are going for. Elizabeth found a lovely frame for it and it now sits above our sink.
This walnut/ceramic lamp was also found at an estate sale. It needs a new shade, but it’s in good shape and works. Elizabeth had also purchased a smaller version of this same lamp, so now we have a matching set.
Gotta love the firewood hoop! This one is wrought iron and was found on Amazon.com. I think it’s 36″ in diameter. The brass bowl was another estate sale find and holds our fatwood firestarter stash.
We replaced our dining room 6 globe, rust “colored”, heavy-as-shit, ugly light fixture with a Nelson Criss-Cross Saucer pendant from Room & Board. We hemmed and hawed between this version and the straight ribbed version. In the end we opted for this version for more visual interest. It fits right in there.
And the latest update/upgrade is this Eames Hang-it-all. I found it new in the box on ebay for cheaper than the usual outlets. We put it by the garage entry door for easy coat hanging access. For now it’s just a quirky and playful addition to the “Foyer.”
It finally has happened! We are getting 8-10″ of snow this weekend. As expected, the huge windows of our house continue to frame out the local nature beautifully! It’s like being outside! In this photo you can see our very orange fiberglass Eames rocker and the black & chrome Eames Molded Plywood Lounge. Beth found some light up stars at IKEA to compliment our single strip of white holiday lights strung along the roofline. We were going to string some across the front deck, but got lazy. Our tree is in one of the windows on the lower level this year. I have been slacking on updates, and I will attempt to get some more photos of new furniture up soon!
Hey all, Beth here…
Matt has been doing most of the posting so far, but I have some wildlife updates to report! We have immensely enjoyed the wildlife in the new hood so far – a very busy red squirrel in the front yard walnut tree, the elusive horses who occasionally walk past the neighbor’s fence to the West at dusk (magical – wait for it), a coyote sighting yesterday while I brushed out my hair before work, a few early morning deer early on a weekend, etc. We really are living in a (suburban) forest, and it’s completely amazing. But – this Tuesday morning, my best and most in-person to-date encounter was with the 4 wild turkeys that live around these parts… I kinda feel like I should name them at this point.
As I walked through the lower level foyer to grab a sweater from the laundry room before departing for work, I happened upon Hunter (our fearless feline) observing the neighborhood turkeys out of the lower-level den windows. I have never seen them this close to the house, and they were pretty fearless when I popped back into the room after going to get my iphone for pics – if there was no glass, I think they would come on in and hang out and probably poop all over everything. They were out there a fluffin’ and a puffin’, whirlin’ and a twirlin’ with feathers up in full dress. They are total ding-a-ling birds – I have heard that they can be aggressive and annoying, but *technically, you can’t fire at them in city limits. 😉 For now, I think they are cool… hopefully I will not get the bug to bag and roast one of them.
In an effort to create an efficient household, I upgraded our thermostat to a product called Nest. Nest is a thermostat that uses a wireless internet connection to provide you with remote control of your home’s heating and cooling. It also learns your habits and appropriately heats and cools the house automatically.
It’s no surprise that Nest was started by some former Apple employees who worked on the ipod. The interaction design is definitely inspired by Apple products of the past. It is extremely easy to set up and use, even though it has complex features built-in.
Our old thermostat was working fine. The problem was that I could not figure out how to program it without a user manual. Plus, it was super ugly. I’m sure I could have found the manual online, but I’ll use any excuse I can to bring good design into the house. I’m also excited to use technologies that would have only been fantasized about in 1959. I would think that the original designer of the house would have wanted it this way.
Nest requires that you have low voltage wires to connect to the thermostat. Luckily, we had the standard 4 wire setup: red, yellow, green, and white. Installing it was as simple as removing the old thermostat and plugging the wires into the right connectors on the Nest. Nest has a very thoughtful built in level, so you don’t have to fiddle with tools to get it straight. Once you get it wired up and screwed to the wall, you just pop the screen/face on and you are done!
I got it hooked up to our wireless network and it took a couple of minutes for Nest to setup and update its software. So far, so good. I’ll make sure to post some updates after having lived with it for a bit. Now to get the green paint covered up!
Nest retails for $249.
We have too much stuff. We don’t have enough stuff.
We don’t have enough furniture to fill The Orchard House’s two living rooms. We have our old Room & Board leather couch downstairs, along with our main TV, media center, and leather club chairs. The upstairs living room will be slightly more formal, but we still want it to remain comfortable and functional.
As you can see in the first photo, the living room is a large open space. Hunter loves the carpet in the house. The Greg Euclide painting “Present Perfect” fits nicely on the wall that divides the kitchen from the living room. My initial plan is to find two matching lounge chairs that will be focal pieces. I want them to be wood (most likely walnut) and visually lightweight, so they can go in front of the windows while not totally blocking the view. I’m also envisioning a mid-century inspired sofa from Room & Board (or similar).
As for the coffee and side tables, I jumped the gun a little bit and grabbed these super cool American of Martinsville tables from FindFurnish. I purchased the coffee table first. I instantly knew it had to be mine when I saw it on their facebook page. I hadn’t seen a table quite like it before with the metal inlayed dingbats at each corner, walnut construction, and skinny round legs. A couple of weeks later, a matching side table popped up and I grabbed it.
I like the idea of mixing vintage and new pieces. When I find the right designer piece, I have no issue with spending the money to get the genuine article. At the same time, furnishing a whole house with DWR style prices isn’t really feasible. Maybe over time. A long time.
The first major upgrades to our new house were the kitchen appliances. We decided that the most urgently in need of replacement were the refrigerator, dishwasher, and microwave. The fridge that came with the house was leaking water inside and somehow freezing in the lower fridge area (plus it kinda smelled bad). The dishwasher smelled also and didn’t really clean well, and the microwave was just old, ugly, and dirty.
We decided on stainless finishes and also figured that the microwave and dishwasher should be the same brand so they match (being on the same wall). The fridge just needed to fit in the space we had, which was about 33″ wide and 68.5″ tall. We also wanted the fridge door to open on the right. That setup just seems to make more sense when cooking. Beth wanted french doors, but none of those fridges fit the space. Plus, the single door keeps the style a bit more vintage looking.
Another consideration in our selection of cooking/washing/food storage implements was that they all needed to be quiet. Our kitchen is open to the living room, and it would be more than slightly annoying for noisy appliances to be running while we try to enjoy the upstairs living room space.
We ordered all of the new appliances through Sears.com. Their site was easy to navigate and it seemed like they had a good selection. It’s a little bit of a crapshoot to buy appliances without seeing them, but it worked out in our case. It’s also hard to shop for appliances at a store, since it’s hard to compare sizes and features side by side. We were limited by the spaces available in the kitchen since we didn’t plan on doing on a full remodel just yet. We decided on a Bosch microwave (HMV8051), Bosch 500 series dishwasher (SHX55R55UC), and a KitchenAid fridge (KBLS22KW). I installed the dishwasher myself and the microwave with Beth’s assistance.
Having never had a dishwasher before, it is taking a bit of getting used to. We are certainly loving it, though. The dishwasher is pretty quiet (rated at 46 dBA) and has a LED light that shines on the floor to tell you it is running. We haven’t had much of a chance to use the microwave, but it seems to cook nicely with its 900 watts. I heated up some pizza. It got warm. Mission accomplished. I will say that the light this microwave puts out over the cooktop is much brighter and more evenly distributed than the old one. The fridge looks great, has lots of space, adjustable shelves, and seems to be quiet and efficient. We opted to not get a fridge with an ice cube maker or water inside. It seems those are the first parts to break on most fridges. There is an optional one for our model of fridge, but I doubt we’ll grab it. We would have to run a water line, since there is not one over there.
As you can tell, we are still trying to unpack and get organized. So no comments on how messy the place is, please!
On September 5th, 2012, Elizabeth and I purchased the house that would affectionately become known as “The Orchard House.” Built in 1959, it’s a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, midcentury modern home with tongue and groove ceilings and large windows. This blog will serve as a place where we can blather about updates and upgrades as we work on and nest in our new house! Our plans are to keep the mid-century aesthetic of the house but also tastefully insert modern touches and hopefully some minimalism.
