I no longer work on my house. All I do is refinish furniture now. Shame, that. Anyway, wanna see what I’ve been up to this week?

This bed has been sitting in my garage since winter (obviously). It just wasn’t doing it for me. It has nice lines, but it needed some umph.

Too much umph? Actually, I love it. But then I like bright, shiny things. Just like a little kid. The sanding was the easy part. The gods weren’t smiling on me when I was painting outdoors this week. Between the wind blowing the friggen pollen, the bugs and the rain, it took me forever to paint. I’m going to have to charge $20k for all the time I put in.

From lemons you make lemonade. I ripped this painting when I got frustrated packing the van one day. No, I didn’t do it purposely, but I was careless. Anyway, not wanting to throw anything out, I figured I could recycle it as a table. Am I a genius or what? Ok, so I haven’t actually done anything yet, other than place the painting on top of the base and snap a picture. I’ll put a wooden back on it for support and mounting purposes. Then I’m not sure if I’m gonna go with resin or tempered glass. I’ll figure it out last minute….like everything else I do.

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For anyone who’s ever had paint left over….watch this video! Eric from Green House TV fills us in on paint calculators (Too logical for me), kitty litter and newspaper.

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Stone Ridge is an Ulster County hamlet located less than 2 hours from NYC. It’s a place where stone houses line the main street and people say hello.

Pros

Easy access to Minnewaska State Park, Sullivan County and Kingston. Stone Ridge sits right on Route 209.

Climb The Gunks, Skydive the Ranch, pick your own apples or hike the rail trail nearby.

Amenities. Stone Ridge is home to an extraordinary supermarket(Emmanuel’s), specialty pet supplies, a well stocked wine shop, a local hardware store, a gym and a post office.

Restaurants. Although I prefer the High Falls “restaurant row”, you can grab a great meal in Stone Ridge too. Check out The French Corner. The French trained chef combines ingredients from his homeland with local Hudson Valley produce.

Enjoy your stay! Stay at the pricey-but-worth-every-penny Inn at Stone Ridge, an 18th century stone mansion or one of the more affordable historic B&B’s in the area.

Cons

NYC bus service only goes to nearby Rosendale or Kingston.

Although the town is walkable, it doesn’t feel very walker friendly. There are sidewalks in most, not all of town and Stone Ridge is very spread out. Some of the shopping is in a strip mall. A very nice strip mall, but a strip mall nonetheless.

The hamlet is more upscale than neighboring towns. Home prices reflect that.

Could use more restaurants! It’s only a few miles to other towns though.

Marbletown
Ulster Tourism
Ulster County Blog

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$265k: Ranch on 5 acres

$299,900: 4 BR

$335k: 2400 sq ft on 2 acres

$395k: 1790 stone house

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Hello. My name is Phyllis and I’m a 42 year old Real World junkie. Yeah, that’s right, I love to hate those nutty kids. They get worse as the years go on….those modely looking, self absorbed little twits. But it keeps me coming back.

So how excited was I when I heard the news that season 21 of the series will be filmed in Brooklyn? Ooh, I can’t wait! Shooting starts this summer and the one hour episodes will air in early 2009.

No decision yet as to what neighborhood. Hey Bunim-Murray, my tenants are leaving in August if you want a Bed Stuy brownstone! Better yet, would you be willing to audition a 42 year old? I can be the token native!

Via Observer
Via Curbed

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Ok, so Robert Martin Designs doesn’t use reclaimed materials for their furniture, but they are damn cool anyway! Pieces are made from hardwoods and enhanced with metals and composites.

The dining room table pictured above folds up completely. Designs for the home, garden and office have an industrial yet delicate look.

Robert Martin Designs has a 6500 showroom and production facility based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. They do custom and architectural landscape work as well.

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It was a weird weekend for me, so I didn’t get to the Bklyn Designs show as I had planned. Pardon me while I do a little cheating and highlight some of the exhibitors straight off the website this week. One-at-a-time. Stretch-out-those-posts.

Mod Rocker: $292 at Mini Jake

IglooPlay is sustainable ergonomic furniture for kids. Designer Lisa Albin was inspired while observing her two daughters. From website: “I developed the low and wide proportions, organic shapes and ease-of-use to enhance the spontaneous and creative process that children naturally express in their daily play.” Although the furniture may look like something you would buy at Ikea (nothing wrong with Ikea designs!), IglooPlay uses only eco-friendly materials. That means safety for your children as well as the environment.

Here’s a list of shops that carry IglooPlay.

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The following is a post from April which I’m bumping up to the front page. Previously, I had just cut and pasted a reader’s question. Now that there are answers (see comments), I must get the word out. Apparently, there are some lost souls wandering the earth in search of Victorian speaking tube parts. They won’t rest until they get their hands on them.

A reader sent the following email. I haven’t got a clue. Anyone?

“My wife and I have a Victorian house that was built in 1895 and for the past two years we’ve been in the process of rehabbing it. During the course of demo in the kitchen we found the remnants of the old speaking tube system that ran from the kitchen up to the 2nd floor hall. The tubes were intact but the mouthpiece openings had been patched over and the mouthpieces were nowhere to be found.

I have looked far and wide trying to locate some replacement mouthpieces and have come up empty-handed. We were wondering if you know of any companies and/or salvage yards that might possess parts for our system? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve included a pic of what I believe was originally installed in my house. The mouth piece has no electric parts. It operates by means of using the thumb to rotate the lever (in order to move the disc out of the way) and then blowing into the tube. The other end also has a disc that acts as a whistle to alert the person on the other end that someone wishes to speak on the “intercom”. I think that the mouthpieces were made out of nickel-plated brass and/or porcelain.”

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I usually like to take a 5 minute walk around the Brooklyn Flea on Sundays to look for designers who create home furnishings out of reclaimed materials. I did see a ton of new vendors there selling great antiques, but I didn’t take any photos. I will tell you this: The flea is becoming more of a draw for antiques and vintage dealers.

Unfortunately for some of those vendors (me), people are buying the smaller “junk” items more than larger furniture. Another vendor was kvetching to me at the end of the day how he has to schlepp all this stuff back to his house, which is too full to begin with. I hear ya, fella! My storage space is filled floor to ceiling and next week my new items will be going into my living room once again.

Don’t get me wrong. I sell the little junk too. I can earn a few hundred from items under $50. But I’d like to be able to do well with the furniture too. I’d like to empty my storage unit so I can get some fresh inventory.

The market is still in it’s infancy and perhaps it’s not a destination yet for serious furniture buyers or antiques collectors. Or perhaps the economy is just kicking everyone’s asses. I was speaking with another vendor who did Columbus Avenue last week only to break even. And she’s been in the business for years.

In any case, I’m going to do an experiment next weekend. I’ll swing for a double space and put out only the big stuff. I can’t fit many pieces of furniture in my 10×10 booth, so the few chairs and end tables I put out have smaller items displayed on top of them. And if more than 3 people are under my tent, it’s too crowded for others to fit in. So before I lay blame on cheap people, bad weather and holidays, I’d like to see if the fault lies within myself.

I’ll keep you posted!

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White distilled vinegar is the one product no household should be without. Here’s my top 10 list of uses for that magic liquid. You didn’t really think I’d come up with 101, did you? Go to this site for more.

1. Cat pee! This is the #1 concern in my house where 6 cats run amok pissing wherever they please. I do the Nature’s Miracle thing, but if I’m too rushed to wipe down and then clean, vinegar will take care of all. Some say that vinegar will only attract the cats to do it again. Others insist it’s a deterrent. I’ve found that my cats will do it again no matter what I use, so I gave up on any theories long ago.

2. Brass and other metal. Vinegar is aces when it comes to removing tarnish and polishing brass, pewter and copper. Did I just say “aces”? Full brass cleaning tips here.

3. Windows and glass. Everybody knows that one, right? What? Are you still using that blue stuff?

4. Wood floors. The verdict is still out on this one. Here’s why. The acidic nature of vinegar will eventually etch the polyurethane surface protecting the wood. If the floors are cleaned regularly over years it will leave microscopic surface scratches that cause light to deflect in ways and that reduces the shine. My thoughts? If it takes years, won’t you be sanding your floors again anyway? I don’t know about you, but microscopic scratches are not the worst thing happening to my floors. Not by a long shot! Have I mentioned the cats? Ooh, and the dogs with their nails.

5. Rust. Soak rusted tool parts and bolts in vinegar overnight.

6. Faucet corrosion. Again, remove and soak overnight. Use vinegar to unclog shower heads and take care of soapy build up on all bathroom/kitchen fixtures.

7. Ants. Supposedly deters ants. I never tried this. Used a lavender solution once which worked for about a week. Smelled good though.

8. Wood cleaner. Vinegar with linseed oil or even olive oil to clean wood. See #4 though.

9. Remove paint splatters, decals and wallpaper. I’ve only ever used warm water, but “they” say vinegar does the trick!

10. Soften paint brushes. Leave your paint brush lying around too long when it wasn’t properly washed? I do it all the time! Soak brushes in hot vinegar before washing in sudsy water.

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