Victorian House Renovation in Bloomingdale, DC
Of course it was the house itself – largely the original details – that was the reason behind our purchase, but location was almost as important. When we started looking for a house we had a range of neighborhoods in mind, but Bloomingdale was always at the top of the list. The location was just right, as you can walk downtown and to the mall in under 40 minutes (yay walking to work!);… Read the rest
in the ground
on the deck for now
The Vine is Dead, the Vine is Dead!
Well at least the monstrosity that ate the tree. Now all we have to do is take it down. What isn’t entirely clear is what to do with these suckers popping out of the ground. I pull them all the time, but somehow I think they are planning on being back. And I am afraid of planting vegetables / herbs for fear that they will be overtaken.… Read the rest
While grand plans are in the making, we are also adding items to rooms bit by bit as we also live here. So here is a sneak peak at the curtains that Sergey’s mom made for our master bedroom. She picked out the fabric – and it works really well, because I wanted something light but these are heavy enough to block out the light.
This weekend, we also picked up this mirror at Ruff and Ready, which will go up above the future fireplace mantel also in the master bedroom.… Read the rest
If its been a little quiet here on VIB blog — that’s because we are taking some time to actually unpack (there are still boxes in our bedroom and in the dining room) and figure out an actual plan for how to proceed. For now we will probably take it rather slow, do some stuff ourselves and start saving for big projects.
In the meantime there is lots of research to be done.… Read the rest
I love craigslist. It is very useful if you do not have copious amounts of money to spend on your house. We have gotten great things on craigslist, like a pair of matching city bikes made in Austria. or a pullout couch that has seen many guests and will see many, many more.
As anyone who has ever used Craigslist to search for something either really popular: for example, free couches tend to go within minutes of the initial post – or something really obscure: I am currently attempting to secure real wood doors to replace the plywood ones that we have in the house – it is really all about timing.… Read the rest
We Have Come a Long Way
As I have mentioned several times, painting kitchen cabinets was a huge pain, but in the end, I am happy with a result and am very happy to live with them until a major kitchen re-model.
my materials:
painter’s tape
Sergey + drill (to take off cabinet doors)
brushes
sand paper
TSP substitute
primer
paint (True Value Marquee (blue) and Doli (white) in semi-gloss)
my steps:
Remove doors from the cabinets — this went pretty fast the power tool, but i think can be done with just a screw driver as well.… Read the rest
view from entrance
kitchen cart storage has been priceless
curtain cover for basement entrance
Kitchen is complete (with the exception of the curtain for the window, which I can’t figure out just yet). Sergey actually put up the hardware for the cabinets a few weeks ago, but I waited to write the post because I needed to reorganize cabinets/storage, which still refuse to house as many things as I would like.… Read the rest
shashlik
and we are going to do this
can you see our neighbor?
operation ‘lower the branch’
let there be light!
Shashlik and such
This weekend we made use of our fire pit again to make a traditional Russian –well more like Caucasian/ Central Asian– repast, shashlik. It was delicious!
At some point between portion one and two of meat on the grill, Sergey and our neighbor decided to take care of the tree branches that have vexed me since we moved into our house two months ago.… Read the rest
Internet is a great resource. As much as I sometimes dislike how much time and effort technology requires, I realize that that is because resources are readily available. So here are my internet resources –amazingly all free of charge –that help to create the VIB vision:
Flickr: The *future* photo stream on VIB online. We generally upload all the pictures straight from the computer, but Flickr will come in handy for use with Polyvore (see below) and for additional pictures that would take up too much space on the blog.… Read the rest
working on the pit
Fire Pit
That’s what we have after a weekend of hard work!
Sergey sawed and sawed and sawed – now we have a bunch of branches/old fence board for the fire (and a clean yard). Here’s to the tree that was freed from the vines. and here’s to hoping that the weight of the dead vines won’t pull it down (just a slight worry). The thinking is that after they are all dead we can just pull them down.… Read the rest