A House Called Wanda

No Takeout!

2009-07-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

I came across this post on Domicile Maniac by way of a comment elsewhere and I am completely in love with notakeout!!!

Each day they set a menu complete with the grocery list and detailed instructions. Subscribe or just bookmark it to use as a resource for simple menus composed of fresh ingredients. You can view past menus also. I think this is fab!

too big or too brass?

2009-06-30T18:09:00.000-07:00

Would these puppies be too big for above my kitchen bar/island? Vicky's YardSale sends email notifications as she adds items each week.

Weigh in or say nothing when the giant brass pendants loom above you.

Foodie Challenge

2009-06-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

Very Good Taste posted this Foodie Challenge. It's the 100 Things all Omnivores should try at least once (according to someone?) You highlight the ones you've tried and put an asterisk by those you wouldn't dare consume. I've left the Wikipedia links in a bunch of them, some I didn't look up but Very Good Taste already had them there, so if you aren't sure what a PB & J is then knock yourself out.

On #38, is that a Jello Shot? That would change my response...

A House Called Wanda's Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding *
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese *
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads * (what a horrible horrible trick!)
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette *
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (I've had caviar, I've had crepes, but I'm not sure about this combo)
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill *
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky (I always see these at Yuki's)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash (I have a recipe for Paprikash on my fridge..., but not Goulash yet)
88. Flowers
89. Horse *
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Might I Recommend

2009-06-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

This jewel before it's snatched up.

Master Redux

2009-05-24T22:15:00.001-07:00

It has come to my attention that my guest bedroom is now totally upstaging my master.

Here's where we are now:

The color, Benjamin Moore's Richmond Gold was chosen based on the image below from this HB article.

Here are some inspiration pics : Keeping the Richmond Gold, Adding on to the Porcelain Blue Pottery Barn items. Yeah, it's cliche Pottery Barn, whatever- I'm totally still into the hotel thing.

Yeah, I like the New Orleans mansion thing too. (Also from HB, October 2008 issue)

To summarize the plan:

Keeping Richmond Gold on Walls

PB Porcelain Blue and White bedding

Mercury Glass Accessories (I'm thinking silver will pop more than gold on gold)

Black and White or Sepia Photography like this Ray Barloga print.

Sheepskin Pillow on Settee

Triptych Mirror for Vanity en route to Wanda as we speak

I might paint the current chandelier light blue?

My Fave

2009-05-24T14:25:00.000-07:00

In case you were wondering...

America Martin

Not to upstage my DIY fab, but...

2009-05-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Once Upon a Time in Mexico is so great.

So much good lookingness can not be ignored. Eva Mendes and Salma Hayek too? Almost too much. Okay okay just right.

And It Was Good.

2009-05-23T09:39:00.001-07:00

It is true what they say about paint...

Survey Says?

Notice the Spring Mint walls, the vintage chenille bedspread, the rearranged setup. Still waiting on the hydrangea chandelier and don't worry- I'll be recovering the bench at the end of the bed, searching for the perfect orange bolster pillow, spray painting 2 accent ice cream chairs orange, and ordering bamboo blinds. I can't stop now. I'm just getting started.

Two Please!

2009-05-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

Found this puppy here. I see myself so cozy in SPF 75 under an umbrella sipping a sugar free mojito with Coco on my lap! The side yard is fenced in this fantasy, but I'm still pale, go figure?

LAMP!

2009-05-16T16:18:00.001-07:00

I spy... Lamp! Thoughts?

Worse Before It's Better?

2009-05-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

We started priming, so before it's gone forever, take a last look!

Guest Room "Before" Pics, say Goodbye!

And the "Work in Progress" pics:

Aqua + Orange = Satisfaction

2009-05-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

I'm finally redoing the paranormal guest room, here is what I'm going for:

Specifically this first photo of Leslie Klotz's guest bedroom from House Beautiful. I just happened to find a replica of this lamp a few weeks ago which started the whirlwind of copying that is now my DIY weekend. The walls will be the color above also, Benjamin Moore's Spring Mint.

These last two were also from House Beautiful, John Willey's guest bedroom. They are in the palette I'm wanting, but Klotz took it all the way.

I also decided I absolutely had to replace the current light fixture with this fab tole hydrangea chandelier. It's unreal and I bought it as soon as I spotted it. No remorse. Inpsired by the image below from House Beautiful's Cozy is Quirky article which featured Cristine Gillespie's home and this jewel of a hydrangea light fixture. Yeah I'm heavily influenced by House Beautiful, it's good stuff.

Okay and I also ordered this vintage white chenille bedspread. The suspense is terrible right?

Summertime and the Livin's Easy...

2009-05-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

I've gone slightly pot crazy, as you can see. Citrus trees, herbs, and other assorted green things in various pots. They require so much less manual labor. Now I just need a fence to block out that neighboring house. And hire someone to landscape the adjoining bed... But this is a crazy giant improvement, no? Yeah, it is.
So maybe that blue spray paint might not come up the first time it rains, but I'm sure it will go away after you know, seven more intense rain storms or maybe me finding an unlikely desire to use what they call "steel wool"???

If Tadpoles were Nickels...

2009-02-22T14:47:00.001-08:00

DSC00053, originally uploaded by chesalane.

Ghosts and Tadpoles

2009-02-18T11:47:00.000-08:00

In the beginning, there was no air conditioning. Let me be very clear, air conditioning is 100% necessary even in March here. Bring in the box fans, bring in the friends to help slap some paint on the walls, bring in the...... tadpoles?

What better spot to mate than an abandoned pool. One thing leads to another and 8,000,000 tadpoles later I have a slightly alive mess on my hands. The pool repair dude is coming and the tadpoles must be relocated my inner Dalai Llama tells me.

Have you ever gone to Walmart after work to purchase shrimp boots, jumbo trash bags, shovels, goldfish nets, and gloves? You will get dirty looks. In the Express Lane, the cashier might even ask you what he did that made you plow right over the edge of reason. Don't let this deter you, your mission remains. March into the depths of mud and murk to save the newest generation of neighborhood frogs.

Now, let's get on to Rita. Rita is the imaginary ghost that lives in the guest bedroom of Wanda. I'm not sure why her name is Rita, someone made it up. I live there and I don't think it is haunted. I've never been spooked and I always feel completely comfortable, but there are others who disagree. Those who visit seem to sense an everpresent visitor.

EEE had an experience in the guest bathroom, dad had an experience in the guest bedroom, and well most everyone was creeped out by the guest bedroom in the "before condition". It was home to a Laura not a Rita, so it seems counterintuitive that the bedrooms creepiness and Rita are related, right?

It's so very Count Dracula's faux finish loving grandmother, no?

Welcome to Wanda!

2009-02-17T07:26:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Wanda! Love at first sight for me, we sent the following pictures out via email slideshow to friends, family, coworkers, etc to share the great news. Great News! We are buying another house and it may need a teensy smidge of work, but can't you see the great potential? Doesn't it have great bones? Not everyone was convinced. There were some uncomfortable walk-throughs. The optimists and pessimists manned their respective corners and the debate goes on. In the meantime, here's a tour of Wanda in her "Before" condition complete with the previous owners furnishings.

Once you walk inside you are in the sunroom and greeted by the long white wood beams that are caving in to the floor with safety plastic tacked up around the hole. Of course this spells puh-puh-puh-puh-POTENTIAL!

Next your eyes glance to the right, is that a koi pond you ask? A brick pond? Perhaps, but no it is a pool of what appears to be primordial ooze from many years of neglect. Take it in.

And now the heart of the home, the kitchen complete with mexican veggie tiles (even mirlitons)

And on the opposite wall, another type of mexican tile....And the countertops have a 3rd type of mexican tile....

Another Sunroom that would make a nice breakfast nook or dining room:

Here's the living room, complete with fireplace and strange nook/alcove with bookshelves :

And looking back at the kitchen (behind that wall with the imaginary X on it)
Guest Bathroom? 50's fabulous pink tile

The guest bedroom- complete with 4 layers of window coverings

The master bedroom is quite large:

The master bathroom is almost too small to see, but here it goes, more pink tile!

The brick courtyard:

The garage:

And back out the front door: