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Living Room / Guest Room Door

One of the drooling parts about our house has always been the door between the living room and guest bedroom. The design matches the exterior windows, the kitchen butler’s pantry, and the coffered ceilings. And of course beautiful unique window designs like that are hard to come by these days.

Bedroom/Parlor Door

We had worked some on the door in March and April before friends and well as my parents were coming to visit. The fact that there was a door at all was somewhat of a luxury at that point. The fact that the door should be able to close wasn’t even on our minds yet. Well, of course for our visitor’s sake we wish we could have provided a closing door, but we just weren’t at that point yet. We have thought about what to put there since, and for a while were intrigued by the Eastlake door set. Though at $182 after shipping we haven’t exactly jumped on the “deal” and I’ve told Patrick we should ask for it for Christmas or something. The exciting part about the Eastlake set from Rejuvenation was also that they offered it for modern “holed” doors. Though our door is anything but modern it has sadly been badly butchered over the years. When we bought the house someone had removed the original mortise door set and carved out a hole to fit a modern door set in it.

Bedroom/Parlor Door Mortise

When we were in Chicago over the weekend we stayed with a friend in a cute old apartment in Rogers Park. The apartment had some really cool door knobs that we hadn’t seen before, but the design seemed perfect for our door and the style in the remainder of the house. Though the Eastlake design is very cool it also seems to lean towards the late Victorian-era style. The design of our friend’s door handles just seemed to fit better with the lines of the windows in our house. (Just to note: our friend didn’t paint the door.)

Historic Door Handle

We joked with her that she would come back from work one day and she would find a cheap door set on one of her doors. Now that we’re back home we’re on a mission to find this style door knob! The unfortunate part is that we don’t know what the name of the style is – which doesn’t exactly help. I found one style on Rejuvenation that is kind of cool but not really that close: Bevel Edge Plate. Though they don’t offer it as a set so we’d have to piece it together ourselves. After that I finally got a little bit closer to what we’re looking for: the Quincy Set where at least the handle is heading in the right direction, and the Heritage Set that seems to be the closest one yet. It’s close, but not entirely there yet. The line seems to be more defined on the plate of our friend’s door knob than the Heritage knob. I wish I could see the Heritage knob from some different angles so I could better determine the resemblance. So I guess that’s where we’re at with our living room/guest room door knob. If anyone reading this happens to stumble across my friend’s door knob, or perhaps recalls the name of the style please, please, please let us know! We would love to get this style for our door – without having to kidnap our friend’s! ;-) And if someone doesn’t feel comfortable leaving a comment we can also be reached via email – info [at] westviewbungalow.com.

On a side note, and perhaps reflecting back to my previous entry, we had a great time in Chicago. One thing we were bummed about was that we figured out that we would miss the “Historic Chicago Bungalow Expo” this coming up weekend. (Maybe we could have found our door knob there!) Bungalows aside, one of the first things I noticed was the amazing lawns from the airplane. Then arriving at our friend’s house and walking around town I was only reaffirmed how amazing these lawns were. Growing up as a child in Germany I remember these lush, green, soft lawns. With the Atlanta summer heat the common grass varieties are Zoysia and Bermuda, both of which have never felt as inviting and soft to me. I was starting to think my childhood memories were just false illusions until I saw my dream lawns up in Chicago. How I envy thee! And to answer some Oak Park questions – yes, it was a very friendly and inviting neighborhood. The lady at Caribou was very bubbly and friendly, as was everyone else we encountered there (so don’t let my grouchy tour lady story hold anyone back from visiting). The neighborhood was beautiful and the houses are so huge! We’re definitely looking forward to visiting again sometime (perhaps for next year’s Expo?), and when we do we’ll have to see about getting together with some of you Chicago house bloggers so you can show us what your town is all about! And perhaps share some more funny renovation stories… :)

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Moving Week(s)

I’ve fallen behind on posting updates of our progress, but that should be understandable considering our moving chaos and stress! So here’s a long one to catch up on the past 2 weeks…

Monday, January 29th
We’ve assembled the majority of our furniture by the door in our loft.

Loft

Tuesday, January 30th

Our mess of a bedroom (in the house)!

Bedroom storage

Our gas meter is here to stay, woohoo.

Gas meter

A nice surprise on moving day was the “Herbie Curbie” (as the city calls them). I had called them numerous times to get it and they refused to bring us one until we were living there (“it may get stolen otherwise”). After somewhat bitching out a lady the previous week I didn’t anticipate it actually being here.

Herbie curbie trash can

Wednesday, January 31st

Our first morning at the house! Patrick looking very tired – but at least I managed to find the toaster to make us bagels.

First morning in house

Thursday, February 1st

Rain coming through our door into the laundry room.

Rain leaking

Water even coming out by the electrical switch – eek.

Electical switch leaking water

The floor is still wet from where a lake formed under our kitchen sink. We loooove our plumber!

Leaking kitchen sink

Our view from the toilet. I thought it was kind of amusing with no door and “brown carpet”. :)

Bathroom door molding

Friday, February 2nd

The kitchen built-in is coming back together.

Butler's pantry construction

In the process of my 7-hour journey of unpacking the kitchen.

Organizing kitchen

Patrick putting “fluff” (as Melisa calls it) in a ceiling hole by the chandelier.

Dining room chandelier patching

Our bathroom is looking a bit more usable.

Bathroom

Saturday, February 3rd

Cleaning the built-in bookshelf in the living room. Look how dirty it was!

Living room cleaning

We finally have a calm enough evening where we can celebrate our move into the house.

Celebrate with cava

Sunday, February 4th

Blinds have been hung up in the living room so we have some privacy from the street. (And the table has been moved from the living room into the dining room.)

Living room

Monday, February 5th

The contractors were supposed to remove an old eletrical outlet from the dining room bay window. Since they haven’t done it Patrick decided to take matters into his own hands. He also cleaned up the bay window, which was covered in dust and junk.

Old pipe

Our driveway is starting to look more inviting. Of course we already managed to fill up our “Herbie Curbie.”

Clean driveway

Our unfinished laundry room has turned into a chaotic storage room.

Messy laundry room

You know you live in an “under construction” house when the nail hole filler lies next to the facial cream in your bathroom!

Construction living

Our sink area is looking pretty nice.

Medicine cabinet

Tuesday, February 6th

Nothing to report, but we had a beautiful sunset from our office.

Westview sunset

Wednesday, February 7th

We’ve put up the bathroom door so our guest can have some privacy.

Bathroom opaque glass door

The range vent hood is being replaced.

Kitchen cabinet

The kitchen cabinet hardware has been put on.

Kitchen cabinet door handles

The laundry faucet box has been framed out – somewhat lacking if you ask me.

Washer hookup

Thursday, February 8th

We spent half the evening scrubbing and cleaning the living room fireplace.

Cleaning fireplace

And the other half partially cleaning the front bedroom windows and putting up the blinds (so our guest can have some privacy while he sleeps here!).

Parlor blinds

Saturday, February 10th

Volunteers from Trees Atlanta planting trees along our street.

Trees Atlanta Westview planting

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