Local Find of the Year: An Evergleam 6' Aluminum Christmas Tree!

We had been looking for a new Christmas tree on and off since moving to the new house because our old tree was 10' high, and because we have no cathedral ceilings in this house, we can't set that one up. Which is really unfortunate, because it is one of those super-realistic ones with branches molded from actual fir tips. Super good looking tree - hate to not use it, but unless we put in cathedral ceilings (which I have actually thought about), it just won't fit the space. So a few weeks ago, my wife (who, recall from the Paul McCobb Intimate Biography story is awesome) came home from work and declared that one of the people that she worked with had a bunch of stuff from the 1960s in their basement and that they may have a christmas tree. My interest was piqued. So I waited for her to talk to her work friend. And waited. And reminded her... and waited. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she came home with the box pictured to the right.  Evergleam!

Finally, an AFFORDABLE Mid Century Modern Front Door (Like Under 200 Bucks!)

If you own a mid century modern house and your house had been 'modernized' with a spiffy (and I don't mean this in a good way) modern door, you've probably been looking for either an old door that someone else was changing out, or a new door to bring your front entry way back to how it should look. We'd been scouring Craigslist for an old door for awhile with no luck. Various websites list different options for period-look mid century entry doors, including this article on Retrorenovation.com. The cheapest mid-century looking door on that page starts around $500 bucks and is fiberglass from home dumpster. We'd been thinking about that door as our current door leaves much to be desired from a modern perspective. LOTS of photos below!

DIY Breeze Block Wall For The Front Entry

PART I

I don't mess around. Over the winter, I had quite a bit of time inside to plan out my spring and summer projects, and now that the warm weather is here, I can't stop. It's like a switch gets thrown and I'm in DIY Bipolar mode. I go until my body breaks and I have to stop for a few days to heal. But I don't want to. Stop. This winter I planned out a couple major projects, now mostly complete: Grade the backyard and finish the retaining wall; put in a walkway (this one is not started yet); build the cedar fence on the one side of the house, and make the front entry more appropriate to the house. We had two ideas that we were pursuing for the front entry. One was partially enclosing it with breeze blocks, the other was using lintels to create a cool modern screen. Unfortunately, the particular lintels that we would need are a dimension that is quite uncommon, and ordering block is prohibitively expensive. We found breeze blocks in town, and in stock at Hebron Masonry Supply for just over 2 bucks a piece. At the right is a render of the original idea. The dimensions of my model are not exact to the house, but close enough to get the idea of the plan. The door (by the way) will not be that yellow! And yes, the plan is for a wood garage door at some point down the road.

DIY A Mid Century Modern Cedar Fence

Spring has finally come to the north, and I've been taking advantage of the warm weather to get things moving along. Our new AC condensor is going in, replacing a true mid century unit which has unfortunately stopped working. This thing is totally cool - open bottom, wood grain vinyl access panel. It worked great - for about the first month we were in this house, then it just gave up. It has to be the original unit that was installed when the house was built, so 60+ years of service is pretty impressive. What does this have to do with a fence you ask? Well, read on.

Picking Through the Morgue: Racquet Club Drive, Palm Springs - One of the Ultimate Mid Century Style Guides

 

Any art student, industrial or interior designer worth their weight in salt will tell you that a morgue is an extremely useful tool. It's a place to store your ideas, fabric scraps, inspirational photos, magazine clippings, etc. Kind of like an old-school Pinterest. And I hate Pinterest. I have a folder on my hard drive that has in it all manner of interesting things. If I see something I like, it goes into my morgue so I can find it again later if I like something about the image, color scheme, house, building, hardscape, or landscape. Then, when I'm modelling in Sketchup, I can quickly brows my morgue file for that thing that I forgot.

We were in SoCal visiting family over the winter break a few months ago - so yes, this post is overdue. My wife's family lives in DHS, a small town situated just to the north of Palm Springs at the base of the San Bernardinos where the 62 snakes its way up toward Joshua Tree. So we were close to some lovely mid century houses to go gawk at. That was one of our list of to do's while we were there: 1) gawk at mid century houses on Racquet Club, 2) hit Long Beach Flea Market and antique stores, 3) hit PS antique stores (which are overpriced now, but nicely stocked with more credenzas than you can shake a stick at), and 4) hit the local thrift stores.

Palm Springs is one of the meccas of the Mid Century Modern ethic. From the visitor's center in an awesome 1950's service station (shown to the right as it was back in the day, Mt. San Jacinto behind), where you can fill up on gaudy T-shirts, PS mugs, bumper stickers, and fridge magnets. The Palm Springs Modernism Week, which happens once a year in mid February, is a weeks-long celebration of mid 20th century architecture, celebrity, automobiles, clothing, and, of course - furniture; in short, pretty much everything vintage. The first time I went to modernism week was either 2011 or 2012, and it was fantastic. The show - the showcase of largely furniture, glass, and jewelry cost something like $20 bucks to get in to, came with a nice glossy program, and had some amazing pieces - including a Bill Curry hexagonal shelving unit for Design Line. There is a company in England now that reproduces almost exact copies of that, but they won't ship to the US. Bastards.

Andersen Beauty-Line Windows - A Mid-Century Icon.

Andersen Beauty-Line windows are a true mid-century architectural icon. These windows were/are ubiquitous in all sorts of mid-century building. Andersen produced these windows between 1957 and 1979, and they still have quite a few parts available for them, including hardware and some complete lower sash units. Our ranch was build in 1959, and features three banks of Beauty-Lines - a triple across the front of the living room, a double on the other living room wall, and a double at the back of the dining room - you can see the front elevation in an older post here. The upper sash of the Beauty-Line windows was fixed. The lower sash could be opened, and you could choose between a couple of different options as to how it opened. You could opt for an awning, where the hinge is at the top of the sash and the bottom of the window swings outward via a crank - the screen was on the inside in this version. We have the 'hopper' type lower sash, where the hinge mechanism at the bottom and the sash swings inward from the top. In this version, the insect screen is on the outside.

An Adrian Pearsall Sofa? In Minot? $40? (And, Eventually, How to Reupholster a Sofa)

I found this couch on the Minot Varagesale website last night. Every so often (like once a week), I scour the online classifieds (Craigslist, Bisman, and recently - Varagesale.com) for a set of keywords that don't usually change all that much from week to week: mid century, modern, vintage, vintage couch, vintage patio, homecrest, and a few others. I haven't found a ton of stuff up here, but I have found a few things. But it takes just a few minutes, and it's almost as fun as hitting the thrift stores (which I do every Tuesday). So poking around in Varagesale.com, I came across this sofa under one of my keyword searches. I thought to myself, "Hey, that back... those arms... that looks familiar."