Katy's Purina Dog Food Bags are on the Shelves!

We learned that the Purina dog food bags with Katy's pictures on them are out in the stores now!  We couldn't wait to get the flat bags in the mail, so we went out and bought one.

We donated the dog food to the Kansas City Animal Shelter, and were hoping to keep the bag.  But Phoenix had her own plans!  She tore the bag from the inside out!  That's what we get for not keeping an eye on a 7 month old lab puppy.

The flat bag will be framed and hung in Black Dog Bar (once it's done!)

If you are interested in our original post on Katy's photo shoot, we posted it in May 2009.  

Surprise! It's a Finn Juhl Teak Buffet

Recently we received an email with from one of our blog readers, lifeartist, with some surprising information about our MCM teak buffet.

In August 2009, we posted about purchasing a teak MCM buffet built by the Mount Airy Chair Company. I didn't know much of anything about the piece or about the company, and trying to find information on the company was challenging. All I knew was that I loved the lines, and bought it at the estate sale from our neighbor.

Well lifeartist informed us that our buffet is actually a Finn Juhl designed piece of furniture. The Mount Airy Chair Company purchased the license for his designs, and built several of his pieces.

Here's a little info on Finn Juhl:

Finn Juhl (January 30, 1912 – May 17, 1989) was the first Danish furniture designer to be recognized internationally. He was a leading figure in the creation of "Danish design" in the 1940s, and he was the designer who introduced Danish Modern to America.

From 1930-1934, he attended the Architecture School at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under Kay Fisker, a leading architect of his day and noted lecturer. After graduating, Juhl worked for ten years at Vilhelm Lauritzen's architectural firm, where he had also apprenticed as a student.

Finn Juhl’s first American assignment came in 1951 when he was asked to design the interior of the Trusteeship Council Chamber at the UN headquarters in New York. This first experience in America and the contacts made in connection with it, later proved valuable for many Danish architects, because it paved the way for the notion of ‘Danish Modern’ to become internationally known and valued.

Juhl is best known for:

Chieftan Chair

Japan Chair

Pelican Chair

Egyptian Chair

If you like the style, Ideal Surroundings is selling a Finn Juhl 2-piece buffet and hutch in Illinois.

Hmmm-I just go with my gut, and I know what I like.  Little did I know that I was a Finn Juhl fan. I learn something new everyday.  Thanks lifeartist for sharing!

Project Bug - Utility Room and Family Room Built-ins

Well it didn't take long before we got the project bug again.  LD started about a week and a half ago with cleaning the soot on the fireplace as best she could.  She's been wanting to paint the fireplace for awhile now, and the first step is to clean it.  But we still need to get a liner installed.

Our next mini-project was to replace the leaking water heater pressure relief valve.  I had noticed that the pressure relief valve had been leaking for the last couple of weeks, but LD thought it had been doing it since we purchased the house.  If it had, it must have been so slow of a leak that I never noticed.  This weekend we replaced the pressure relief valve (thanks to some helpful advice from Lee and Steve).  The new pressure relief valve stopped the leak, but we were not thrilled to find sediment deposits on the old valve.  This means we will probably be replacing the water heater in the very near future.

Well being in the messy utility room finally got us to organize it.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any before pictures, but just imagine all the things in the shelving unit pretty much spread all over the floor.  Our handyman, Steve, can sure attest to how bad it was.  It only took us a couple of hours one evening to get the shelf assembled and get everything off the ground.

The mahogany doors in the photo will be going to Habitat ReStore as soon as the weather improves (assuming they can fit in my car).

The sense of accomplishment we felt after organizing the utility room, gave us a desire to get started on our list of 2011 projects.  It was between painting the office, painting the family room, or refinishing the built-ins in the family room.  Given how much I hate painting, I voted for the built-ins.  

Here are some shots of what they looked like before we got started.

This is what they looked like after stripping and sanding them.  

Our next steps will be to stain and seal them, and order new countertops.

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a great Christmas, and that the new year brings new hope and prosperity to your lives.  All in all we had a pretty good year in 2010, but are pretty excited of what is yet to come in 2011.   Now that 2010 is over with, we thought we would review our home remodeling accomplishments and create a punch list of what we are hoping to achieve in 2011.

We finally managed to install baseboards downstairs, and in a couple of spots upstairs.

The master bathroom got a new vanity sink, and we completely gutted the master bathroom.  

We said good-bye to our pink Pepto Bismol bathtub.

And welcomed our new walk-in shower. 

After months of searching for backsplash tile for the vanity, we finally found some and installed it.

We managed to clear the overgrown vegetation in our backyard, and create a gigantic brush pile.

After getting some ridiculous bids for the disposal of our brush pile, we ended up enjoying some pretty big bonfires.

Once we completed our first bathroom, we decided to go ahead and completely gut our hall bathroom.

Other than painting the windows, and installing the vanity we managed to remodel this bathroom faster than the master bath.  

Now here is our punch list for 2011 (which includes a lot of the projects that we never got around to in 2010):

• Finish installing baseboards
• Install vent grills
• Refinish built in cabinets in family room to match kitchen cabinets
• Transform sunroom into a home gym
• Continue working on landscaping
• Paint bathroom windows
• Purchase and install vanity in hall bathroom
• Repaint our home office and family room
• Restore 4 Eames shell chairs we purchased last winter
• Find a table top for the Eames table base we purchased last month
• Maybe get started on Black Dog Bar

I am exhausted just thinking about it, but very much looking forward to the new projects!