The Difference a Door Makes

I love the new door to our garage!  It hadn't hit me how much I love it until I was taking pictures of the girls by the pool  I'm so use to shooting them from angles where the door would be out of frame because it was so ugly. I forgot how freeing it is to just take a picture without having to frame it just right.  

This is what the door use to look like. It's in the background.  I had to search hard to find this picture. Like I said, I did everything possible to avoid having that ugly thing in any picture! I don't even want to get into the details of how it got so ugly!

So, back to our pretty place!  I really love the door when I see a picture like this:

Or a picture like this. The door is not the focal point when it's pretty. It's a beautiful background feature but when the door was ugly. It became center stage no matter how in the background it was. 

The door is actually the same door that was there before.  The painters painted it white and then added the wood slats to match the rest of our wood fencing.  It's such a huge difference and the cost was minimal compared to buying a new door and minuscule compared to buying a new modern door. That was going to cost us a pretty penny;  in the $1200 to $2000 range! It wasn't just the door that needed help. It was the framing of the door that needed some major clean up work.  Fortunately, it was all taken care of when we had the house painted.  Note to self: when hiring a painter make sure they have a carpenter on staff or they know how to do great wood working.  

Palmer & Krisel in NoHo for $499K!

Per Curbed LA, there is a Palmer & Krisel home in North Hollywood for sale right now. It's asking price is $499K!  Wow!  It looks like it's in pretty great condition to. 

Our home is a Palmer & Krisel. Except our home was the first tract housing  project William Krisel ever designed. He himself has said that he made a lot of mistakes with our homes. He "lived and learned" through the mistakes made with his first community.  So, I'm inclined to say this house is better off than ours. It's bigger to and has had upgrades and a second floor added.  Congrats to whoever buys it!

Our Magic Carpet

When Dave and I traveled to India in 2004 we bought a large rug.  I love it despite it's lack of "Mid Century trendiness".  I put it in quotes, "Mid Century trendiness", because who has the final word on what is trendy when it comes to Mid Century?  Today it's such a mishmosh of 1950s with, without, and in combination with modern day elements. Is it Dwell?  Mad Men? Or do Ray and Charles Eames continue to set the standard?

I'm going to go with the latter but, as I said, there are lots of ways to do Mid Century today. So just when I thought we had made a bad investment with the rug we visited the Eames House in the Palisades and my love for the rug was rekindled and has never faltered since.  Ray and Charles had similar rugs throughout their home, along with other pieces that clearly retold stories of their travels. 

courtesy of the LA Times

Our lovely rug did the move from our apartment on the west side of LA to our current home in the Valley.  In our apartment it was on a carpeted floor so it never moved. On our tile floor it dances!  The kids and dogs make it dance even more!  I spend most of my days straightening it out.  I held off on getting a pad because I thought I could secure it down with the sofa's feet.  That was a bust!  

Just when I was about to venture into Target for a flimsy rug pad I got some help from our friends at  Rugpadusa.com  I didn't realize rug pads came in so many different options!  They carry pads for carpet, wood, laminate, tile, stone, concrete and outdoor floors!!! They have varying sizes to fit rugs from 2'x3' to 15'x24', square, rectangular and round. The options continue with your choice of thickness and cushion and there are even eco-friendly options. And I really appreciate that Rugpadusa's products  are made here in the United States, which is what makes them so affordable.    

Because we still have little kids I'm always looking for the least toxic options so we got the felt and rubber pad made out of natural rubber and recycled felt. It's very safe for the home and keeps the rug in place on the tile floor.  It's so nice to see the rug laying flat and staying put!  The kids and dogs run on it and it doesn't curl up behind their tracks like cartoons do when they run fast!  What I really love about it is the cushion it gave the rug.  I  like walking on it in my bare feet now!  Even the dogs love laying on it even more now!

The rug has a lot of sentimental value to me and Dave. We met the man who made it...

...and his family! The trip to India was a big deal for us. We had only been dating a month when we ventured off together, with my mom!  It's amazing how quickly you get to know someone in a 3rd world country!  It kind of brings me a sense of accomplishment when I see our kids playing on the rug. We've made a life together. There have been ups and downs but we've made us work. The rug was the first thing we bought together for our home and we continue to layer "pieces" of our life on it.  

Recently Dave and I have gone through things that have made us even stronger as a couple. It's why I find it rather ironic that we finally got this pad....the stability and cushion to the rug.  

Anyway, maybe I'm reading too much into this!  But what I am having is second thoughts! As I look through all these pictures I'm wondering why I didn't choose some of the other options!  What was I thinking?  Thank God Dave took a picture of the rug "store" sign out in the middle of Udaipur. We can always go back for more! And no matter where I put a rug or what size I get it I now know I can go to Rugpadusa.com for a pad that works beautifully! 

I love...

...this sofa. It's the Petrie Sofa from Crate and Barrel.  I love it in this stock graphite color.  I just read the reviews. Now I'm mixed about it. With two kids and two dogs it better have some sturdiness to it and last more than five years.  I love how it looks. It's EXACTLY what I want. Would you buy furniture with bad or mixed reviews?