Time being occupied by home tours, modern furnishing contests, and Atomic Crash Party planning has resulted in absent Mid Century Modern renovation posts. The quiet has been felt. By you. By us. Sledge hammer in hand we shatter the silence with progress.
Kitchen Window "Hopper" Vents:
A favorite feature of our Mid Century Modern abode are the hopper vents beneath our kitchen windows. Found desecrated by time. Sealed tight with years of lathered-on layers of silicone and paint.
Pics of painstaking re-opening, stripping and sanding were lost in mind-melting hard drive crash. Importance of hard drive back-ups noted.
Previously posted pic offers a sense of context.
Before.
After.
Liberated. Allowed to breath.
Inside contains screens. Front of house has angled slats. House breathes. Bug-less.
Design element of orange paint on backside pays subtle tribute to adjacent reader-selected orange kitchen island.
Vents are opened each summer night, along with bedroom windows. Cross ventilation carries upon it sweet dreams.
Pocket Door:
Ambitious plan to re-purpose dining room closet brings with it lessons worth sharing:
• Wall demolition is fun. Easy. Therapeutic.
• Rebuilding is slightly less fun. Challenging. Requires therapy.
• Unintuitive order of this process inevitably results in destruction of another wall.
• Currently showing restraint.
Blast from past pic. Move-in day "before" view of project in question.
Fast-forwarding eight months reveals clerestory window restoration process.
Wall removal. Open section to become built-in office/floating desk for room visible in below pic.
Wall framed. Pocket door installed. Electrical run.
Success is witnessed in pocket door's functionally smooth operation. Arm hurts from patting self on back.
Close up of vintage double cone sconce procured from thrift shop salvage pile.
Typical price ranges from $130 - $300. Scored for $18.00. Patience and weekly thrift-diving pays. Only took a year.
Upcoming weekend shall witness drywall hanging and pocket door jamb install. Once painted, dining room joins kitchen on officially completed list. They'll party together.
Atomic Crash Party Reminder:
First-ever Atomic Crash Party embarks in less than two weeks. July 18th 1-5pm. If you live in Indy and want to see hip Mid Century Modern homes while mingling with equally hip Mid Century Modern people, you should click here to get in on this.
Cheers,
-Baz
10 comments:
Awesome work Baz! The house is looking incredible.
Nice vents, how are they used?
Sorry for the hard drive crash. However, it did prompt me to back-up everything I had. You have been a great lesson to us all.
Those vents and their color scheme are terrific. Bravo on the pocket door. And I am lusting after your lamp, I have been on the lookout for one of those too! It's a lovely one.
-D
It looks great! I love seeing pictures from your house, it makes me more and more excited to do my own.
Looks awesome! What a neat invention. It boggles the mind to think that someone painted those shut.
Very interesting venting strategy. I bet these get cold in the midwestern winters though, I wonder if you could put a piece of squishy foam inside the door and close it on the vents to seal them up a bit. Keep up the great work.
Those vents are interesting, I have never seen anything like them. In the winter I bet you could put a piece of squishy foam in there and close the doors on the foam to help the cold infiltration a bit. Keep up the great work!
Great stuff! Just discovered your blog and am loving every bit of it. I just started collecting mcm pieces and am slowly working on making my rental condo as mcm as possible without renovating. Can't wait to see what else you have in store!
Hi Baz...I just love the vents. One of the houses I visited here in Arapahoe Acres (the one you had the good exterior shots of) had some similar venting system. The perfect meeting of form & function.
The renovation improvement is really doing well. The results are really incredible. Looking forward for more posts.
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