2011 Work Detail - Part II, Duex, Two, Dos

So, you can see from my previous post that me, the Mrs. and my workcrew (a 5 and 3 year old) have our work cur out for us. Whether setting up sound systems, identifying color palettes, or creating new fun vehicles from Legos, the summer is filled with happy reasons to stimulate the economy and bring additional exhaustion to where there is plenty.

But enough about me, let's get back to the house!

First, the outside. Steeped in 1970's greenery, the cape cod style has been well maintained and still presents nicely (the new neighbors haven't run us out yet!).

From here, it's a bit of before and after, so let's take a look inside.
First, the Living Room.


























Clearly, a beautifully maintained interior, resplendent with the best fabrics and decorations money could buy. In 1960. However, seeing it's 2011, it was time for the floral patterns and spectacular wool carpeting to go.


And what lay underneath? Glorious hardwood, that's what;


























Then there's the master bedroom. Each aspect supports a tranquil, rustic Provincial French scene...luxuriating in the French Countryside, working the fields, scamping with domestic animals of French descent.

And the furniture matched perfectly, a slightly distressed look (as if from the time of Marie Antoinette!) with soft light cascading through the sheers, recalling a time of bawdy innocence.

Gone.

You, by now, are clearly picking up a theme of "significant transition". So as to not lull you to sleep here are a few more BEFORE and AFTER photos...



The Boys' Bedroom...





The Dining Room...







Quite a leap forward. From museum quality 1960's to bringing it into the 90's, to all the way into the second decade of the 21st century, we're doing our best to get stuf done to set the tone for the next 20 years of our lives.





We're not done yet, and there's still work to be done, but we are underway in Troy, and couldn't be happier about it.

Now where did I leave that screwdriver...?

2011 Work Detail - Part I

Despite the incredibly wet Spring the Detroit area is experiencing - nothing in comparison to those along with Mississippi - the calendar keeps rolling along, and here we are at the front door to Summer; Memorial Day, 2011. And, with the recent purchase of a new house, having sold ours very quickly this past March, there's only thing a long three-day weekend brings. Home renovation!

But first, a word from our sponsor:

The house we bought was built in 1959, and has been occupied, since its completion by the same family. A family of four, who, very pridefully, took great care in delivering to their neighbors and the community around them, a stylish and well decorated home of traditional flavor. Please enjoy these photos from the Wendover Subdivision Salesperson Literature:



































Did I say 1959? Apologies, readers, these photos were taken in March, 2011. Clearly, as you can see, not much has changed at our new house in many years.

Sadly, after the former owner's husband passed away, and the children grew and moved away, not much changed. And now, in addition to taking possession of the house, we've taken possession of 40+ years of memories, multiple layers of wallpaper and paint, solidified carpet padding and a scent which can only be described as "the only discernable change of season is when the thermostat switch was flipped from "Heat" to "Air Condition".

This was my Memorial Day palette, and as an artist these were my tools.

They may not look like much, but in the hands of a rank amateur, I tell you what, work got done. For after three days, this is the fruit of my labor;














and sets the stage for the transition to contemporary.

Work Detail - Part II (coming soon)
The work in progress, from 1960 to 2011...almost.

Fascinating Capitalism - The Home Version

30 days ago, we put our house on the market. In the Detroit area.

http://u.zillow.com/p1fNHN/

This, people said, was going to try my wife, two boys and myself to the very core. Selling a home in the Detroit market is as challenging as well, say, throwing a rock down Wall Street and not hitting a millionaire. But that is a completely different entry in Fascinating Capitalism.

Oh, don't believe me?

http://bit.ly/hPLlia

http://bit.ly/ge1mQg

Well, the first week was busy. We had people coming and going, sometimes two or three sets of people a day. Exciting, but have you ever tried to clean a house in 20 minutes when buyers and their real estate agent are breathing down your neck? And, your two boys are napping? And, you have to take the dog with you and disappear for an hour at a time?

If there's one thing I've learned it is this. The best stimulus package for America would be to have everyone list their home for sale. Doing so forces you to spend time you'd other wise be spending at home in either a) a coffee shop b) a restaurant with a play area or c) a mall with a play area. Ever go to a), b), or c) and not drop at least $20.00? Yeah, didn't think so.

Well that first week proved to be quite unique, apparently, in the Detroit home market...we received an offer the middle of the second week on the market. We were STUNNED. We picked ourselves up off the floor and realized something. Our house "sold" in the first week. And through skilled negotiations were able to settle on a price which was deemed acceptable to all parties invovled. Whaaaaaaaaaaat?

Lucky? Skilled? Chumps? All three are viable possibilities...but still, we had to pass the Appraisal. If you know anything about selling a house (and who doesn't?) you now know that appraisals are nothing like they used to be. Three years ago. Before the bubble exploded. You listed your house, you got your price and the appraisers pretty much got you there.

Real Estate | New appraisal rules may hurt homebuyers | Seattle Times Newspaper

Today, with banks scrutinizing every loan (!!), it's much more nerve racking. If your house doesn't appraise to the sale price the buyer and seller then enter a second series of negotiations to get to an agreed upon price. The buyer beings some cash...the sellers make some concessions...it's a good time.

So, nerves were at all time high when the real estate agent met the appraiser at the front door. Keeping with the America Stimulus program, I was into my second Big Mac and the boys were tangled in the playplace at some nearby McDonald's. But all for naught! The house "appraised" in line with the agreed upon price.

Have I mentioned we've started to look at house and been able to find nothing that's not a short sale or foreclosure? Did I forget that part? Right.

For the past three years, all residents of the SE Michigan area have heard is that "it's a buyers market". And "there's a glut of houses". And "now's a great time to buy". I guess that true if you're interested in the tired, poor and hungry houses left on the market from 2008. The minute, literally, a decent house comes on the market...GONE. It's like a shark on a baby seal out there. Even in French.

The inspection is next. We have a great house. Had, sorry. The inspector comes in and we go out. The whole lot of us. Two adults, two kids and a dog. For three hours. I think during this time I bought a MacBook Pro, an iPad, two bean bag chairs and a generator which, once we left the mall, we set up in the parking structure for the other two hours we had to kill.

The house passes inspection. We're sold. Closing date looms on the horizon. AND STILL NO NOTHING ON THE MARKET! Our real estate agent puts up a brave face. She's working to find us a house, but her job's almost harder than ours. But, remember, SHE HAS A HOUSE! We do not..."yet", she says. "Your house will come on the market any day now".

So we wait. And receive and review daily feeds from our realtor and Realtor.com to see what's new on the market. A price change here...a new short sale here, or a foreclosure there. Short sale? Foreclosure...these aren't for the faint of heart, or most people, really. the complexity and complications are astounding to these two processes.

Well, it's almost tomorrow now and a new day, filled with hope and anxiety looms. We'll look at our emails, and hope for the best, and maybe our house will be there, and we'll be the ones forcing some other family to go to a) coffee show, b) restaurant with a playplace or c) mall with a play place and do their part for the America Stimulus plan.

Cable Free in 2011!

It is done. The call was made, the service canceled, the boxes have been delivered to the UPS store for proper packaging and free shipping back to AT&T. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

It has long been my SOP to embrace what's new just after the early adopters. The George Foreman Grill. Digital Photography. Cell Phones. Not rich enough to pay top dollar for all the new tech (STAR-TAC!) and not patient enough to wait another year for the prices to really drop.

That, and honestly, to try to be efficient with a dollar where I can - especially now - in Michigan's economy. So since the time I first heard about Media Centers, and since I have a Mac Mini and since I hate spending $120 a month for cable television and channels like The Hallmark Movie, O!, The Food Network and several hundred other channels of content which are ridiculously irrelevant to me, I figured all those people disconnecting their cable and getting their TV from the Internet must have something going for them; either they're incredibly cheap, tech-headed nerds, and/or all the above.

Well, that train pulled into Royal Oak, MI, and I am on board!

May I segue for a moment and indicate this drives my wife absolutely bonkers? It does. Am I concerned? Not really. Did I mention the $1200 a year savings? I am not concerned...

Back to me getting on the train. It started with the development, er, ahh building, of an HDTV antennae made from coat hangers:
which now hangs in my attic. With this I was able to disconnect a cable box from the kitchen TV and run a coax line from the attic to that TV...the 720p broadcast picture is equal to, if not better than what I was getting through AT&T U-Verse. It was only a matter of time before the whole cable system went away.

This decision isn't without contemplation. There's much to take into account especially when you have little ones in the house who require a steady stream of PBS programming, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (Believe me...The Cat in the Hat does, in fact, Know a lot About That). Where will all the programming come from? How will programs be accessed on demand? How? How? HOW?

Enter the Internets.


Pretty much every ounce of content you might want to watch is available on-line. Either free at the networks .com site (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX), or for a smallish fee via iTunes, Sony's Playstation Store, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and many more...and even then, programs like BOXEE work to aggregate content from across the web and deliver to your TV. It's really just a matter of finding it and bringing it in.

Which is what I'm doing now.

The Mac Mini has been relocated to near the TV, a mini-DVI to HDMI cord has been plugged into the receiver and runs out to the TV to give me all I need. Except live sports.



Live sports (unless on a network) is out of my life, at least at home. No FSN Detroit, no ESPN, no Big Ten, no Versus, no joke. I look at it this way, it gives me reason to get together with friends at their homes and/or bars where live sports are aplenty. Which I will be doing New Year's Day for the bowl games.

So, the good folk at the UPS store took my two cable boxes, one with a DVR, and are sending them back to AT&T. I've boosted my internet connection from 3 Mbps to 12 mbps allowing for better/faster downloading of programs. I receive HDTV free, over the air via my homemade antennae. My kids have all their favorite programs via PBSkids.org, I get to spend time with friends to watch sports.

All in all, the price of change is worth it. I'll keep you all posted, from time to time, as to how it goes.

A Wild and Woolly Weekend!

This past weekend was one filled with joy, then cautious concern and then a bit of adventure. It was, all in all, a wild and woolly weekend.

It began on, really, on Saturday night, almost Sunday morning when the Michigan State Spartan football team, on a gutsy call by their coach Mark Dantonio, decided to put the fate of the game, now in overtime, in the hands of the team via a play called "Little Giants" after the movie of the same name.



To witness this, as a long time Spartan fan and alumni, was downright amazing as this is the type of event that often happens TO Spartan teams, not in favor of Spartan teams. We all head our breath as the play unfolded, first in disbelief then unbridled enthusiasm as, for once, the pass was perfect, the ball was caught, the goal line crossed, not a flag was tossed, the clock didn't expire and the Spartans won. To witness adult males, aged 40+, jumping for joy, high five-ing, embracing each other (there were no tears - we'll save that for another game - fingers crossed).

Now, to the Woolly part.

The Mrs., myself, and our two boys traveled about an hour to the quiet hamlet of Romeo, Michigan to see and experience the Sheep and Wool Festival as presented by Peter and Yvonne Uhlianuk (your guess on pronunciation is as good as mine). As it turns out, we were one weekend off (it's scheduled for Sept 25 and 26, 2010).

http://www.sheepstuff.com/Festival.html

Fearing a lot of disappointment among the wee ones, I stepped out of the car in an effort to see if we couldn't, at least, see some sheep as there would be no sheering, or demonstrations of sheering that day.



Yvonne, and later her husband Peter, we incredibly welcoming to us city folk who had driven to their part of Michigan see the sites and smell the smells of their farm...including Rams and Ewes, Border Collies, Geese (who are very loud when children approach), a barn cat or two, hundreds of pumpkins and a great deal of well manicured acreage.

What's most important to note is that next weekend is really when the Festival occurs and there is much to be seen and to experience. Bee keeping, Border Collie demonstrations, sheep sheering, a store filled with woolens and more. Yvonne and Peter (who hail from New Zealand) maintain a working farm, and this is a big production to them. Their hospitality was genuine and we'll be going back to check it out, in its full glory, next weekend.









Would love to see you there, and I know Yvonne and Peter would as well.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night is alright for fighting!

There was a time when Thursday night would roll around, and I'd start to look forward to Saturday night. Because Saturday night was alright for...just about anything.

Working at the local party store as "Ol' Easy" would come in early in the evening, grab a sixer of Old Milwaukee, then head on out. He'd be back before closing time, usually to grab three more. Every Saturday.

Hanging out with high school friends, going to football games, chasing after cheerleaders, racing to points on the label of a Miller Lite 40.

Spending time in the summer, chasing fireflies, talking to the neighbors, the glow from the garage seen from the street, a haze of smoke hangs in the air above the car my dad would be working on, smoke mixed with an obscenity just loud enough for those familiar with its tone and intonation to hear, but no one else.

Walking down Grand River Avenue, saying "hey" and stopping for a beer at the Peanut Barrel while gearing up for a fraternity/sorority party, wondering who'd be there, would it be the same old same old, or would tonight - somehow - be different than the previous 51?

Hoping in a cab and blasting North to Wrigleyville to get the Cubby Bear before the game let's out so you could shoot a game of pool and still a seat at the bar after the shark ran the table on you. Or,

Maybe dinner. At that little Italian place you'd go when things were good. And you'd share a bottle of wine, and talk about careers in limbo, or progressing nicely - so you thought - or what would be the topic of class this week? Meisner or that "in the moment" thing Victor always like to see use flail at?

Perhaps the Santa Monica pier is worth walking to tonight, as the sounds of the Strand between Marina Del Rey and Venice mix between loud and soft, English and other, selling and buying.

Formosa Cafe and dreams tonight would be different from the previous 51.
The dog and I see the sunset and keep on going around the big block, past the park - did I just hear that? - and then up the drive, the roses they left behind are coming into bloom early this year.

Main Street is pretty quiet tonight, after the blackout you'd expect that, most people are home trying to salvage what they can, or clean up what they've lost. three days without power will damage melt a lot of ice and ruin a lot of food.

There's a good movie on tonight, grab another slice and glass of wine, tuck the feet under and pull her close, still a blanket's required.

7 am. Right on the money. Up and out of bed wanting to go downstairs for something to eat, and to help with the dog, and to watch TV when it's TV Time.
Wash rinse repeat x 2 now, they both launch themselves at me from the top stair one in each arm, somewhere my age - and their combined weight - will intersect and begin to show a downward trend.

Saturday Night is alright for fighting, but right now I have to get a glass of water for someone who's feet are ensconced by fleece jammies, bearing the mischievous eyes and pointed teeth of a smiley monster. Just like the previous 51.

And it's called entertainment?

I've pretty much fallen hard for certain television programs. In the past it went from "Lost in Space" to "Brady Bunch, a few years later it's "SWAT" and "The Six Million Dollar Man" then "M*A*S*H" and "Saturday Night Live". Fast forward to "Seinfeld", "Arrested Development", "Chapelle's Show" and bring it home with "Lost", "Modern Family" and "Parenthood".

But, I gotta tell you...what are these people selling?

"Lost". Really? What the F is going on here? Flash forwards, backwards and sideways? It's either genius, or I, along with a million+ others are the laughing stock of all those folks sitting in Hollywood coming up with this stuff and getting it on air.

"Parenthood". A delightful little movie with Steve Martin and Rick Moranis back in the late 80's. Now? It's an unbelievably unbelievable look at the trials and tribulations of one family, and their associated associates. Sort of a re-constructed "thirtysomething" (Yes, please add that little program to my list above).

"Modern Family". Perhaps more appropriately named "Ripped off from Arrested Development". Even if it's brought to us by the same folks who brought us "Arrested Development", it's not nearly as good as "A D" was, and let me tell you something "A D" was a really, really good TV program (go find it and enjoy the three seasons of its existence).

Dave Chappelle. "Chappelle's Show". Pure genius. Unrelentingly funny. Completely honest and unlike any other comedy variety program on TV. At the time, maybe ever. Not counting "The Flip Wilson Show", "Laugh-In" and "The Carol Burnett Show".

So, I don't know...if someone were to take TV from me, would I survive? Yeah, I would. But I don't think I'd enjoy watching, talking about, or chastising myself over doing all the above since, well, I was about 5 years old.