The 91204 Blog

Pallet Wood & Metal Plant Stand

dezandseth — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 06:21:26 +0000

This is just a quick post about a project we must not have blogged before, haha! For a while we kept coming home with various metal stands….plant stands, magazine racks, old metal telephone tables…..some we still have an will eventually make over. But anyway, this was a pretty simple one! The little black table or plant stand (whatever it’s original purpose was) didn’t have a top insert. I had some leftover pallet wood from another project so I decided to use some of the scraps to construct a little insert. Not too bad, eh? :) Enjoy!

Got The Keys, Now Let’s Get Started!

dezandseth — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:08:13 +0000

Truth be told, we’ve had the keys for over a year now but every day life has put blogging on the back burner. Even though we’ve been in the house a little over a year we still consider ourselves to be new homeowners and of course, DIY’ers. So we still have a responsibility to post about projects and updates and a bunch of images of the stuff going on over here.

To get things started again, here are a few pics of the house as it was when we got the keys. A lot of the shrubs had been neglected and were pretty much left for dead. The plan? Yank ‘em out.

The previous owner also decided rocks were a great landscaping choice. Our thoughts? Not so much.
The house didn’t actually have a front door when we first saw it, just a security screen door. Once the house actually went on the market as a foreclosure, the wonderful folks at HUD put a lovely piece of plywood with a dummy handle on it behind the screen door. HUD is super classy. But at least when you enter the front door you’re greeted by a gorgeous built-in “welcome mat” made of rocks and wood-grain tile. The tile job in the house is actually really well done…not exactly our style and it will get changed out eventually, but it’s well done. We just wish that built-in floor mar wasn’t there. No biggie though.
Hello wallpaper, popcorn ceilings and wood paneling! Early on the to-do list will be “goodbye wallpaper, popcorn ceilings and wood paneling!”. The shelving unit around the fireplace had some pretty sweet custom doors on it….
Upon closer inspection, the inserts on the cabinet doors look like they mixed up a batch of resin with a bunch of metal shavings in it. After pouring it and letting it dry they must have grinded or chiseled in those lines. Super custom.
Say what you will about the way this kitchen looks, but it’s actually in pretty decent shape. True, it looks totally 70′s/80′s but there is TONS of storage space (there’s more cabinets behind the camera). One of the highlights of this kitchen, believe it or not, is the oven/stove. It’s a pretty sweet Jenn-Air. We’ve found that throughout most of this property, the previous owner knew what they were doing and they took the time and money to do things right.
There’s an addition that we’re calling the “family room”. It’s a cool little room with a bunch of windows. Unfortunately there’s more wallpaper and all that brick facade that needs to come down but we’ll get to that eventually! According to a neighbor, that larger bricked area used to have a wood burning stove/fireplace, and even though it was mentioned in the description of the house listing, it wasn’t there when we went to see it. Whatev’s.
This is where the keys were hung…in the 70′s, 80′s, 90′s, 2000′s. For the time being, the tradition lives on with us! (besides, we can’t get the stupid thing off without damaging the cabinetry, haha!)
The office-to-be. If flowery silver & blue reflective mirror-like wallpaper doesn’t inspire you, I don’t know what will! And you gotta love the baby blue paint and how it overpowers the brass/white/wicker ceiling fan :)
The hallway has a mirror at the end that makes it look a million miles long. The scalloped edge trim is super modern too.
Fortunately, the majority of the changes that needed to be dealt with were just cosmetic, like the bathroom lights and roller stencil paint job…..
…..and while we love avocados, we prefer them as guacomole, not toilet colors. This thing’s history ASAP!
This is some crazy lattice! There used to be a jacuzzi in there. It’s currently inoperable and sitting in the neighbor’s driveway. Oh well, as long as it doesn’t become an eyesore! Anyway, lattice isn’t really our thing so this is coming down too.
The side yard was bananas! The side was so overgrown it was ridiculous. Looks like we’ve got a lot of hacking ahead of us!
These were just a few early photos of how this house sat when we moved in. We have tons more and they’ll make it up here eventually…probably in some posts about other things. We have LOTS of plans and projects lined up for this house. A lot of hard work ahead but we’re ready for it. :)

DIY Chevron Pattern Planter Box UPDATE

dezandseth — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 06:17:22 +0000

WOW! That’s all we can say. We’ve been floored by the popularity of our DIY Chevron Pattern Planter Box we posted about a while back (we’ve got a little update to it at the bottom of this post). It was just something we decided to do for fun and then 3 or 4 weeks ago we noticed all these blogs sharing it, linking back to it and listing it in various categories. Sooooo awesome!! Here’s a just a few of the blogs that featured it (if we don’t have you listed, we’re sorry….there were just sooooo many!!):

Below: www.blog.craftzine.com

Below: www.craftgawker.com

Below: www.patternpulp.com

Below: www.homedit.com

Below: www.blog.coriosity.com

Below: www.roadkillrescue.net

Below: www.curbly.com

Below: www.almostmakesperfect.com

Below: www.apartmenttherapy.com

Below: www.blog.2modern.com

When we originally constructed the chevron planter box we were renters and we started an avocado tree in it. Well, since then we’ve purchased our first home on a quarter-acre and there’s plenty of room for some extra trees so we transplanted the avocado tree into the ground. A couple days ago we updated the planter box with some new caster wheels. The original wheels were kinda cheap and made of plastic and they were TORE UP!! We replaced them with some slightly larger rubber caster wheels and now the box moves around the patio much much easier. Also, we put a new tree in the planter. Our tree of choice? An ultra-dwarf lime tree! It should only stay 4-6 feet tall so it’s perfect for this box. Here’s a photo of the new tree along with Jackson sizing up the competition :)

Vintage Grain Sack Pillow

dezandseth — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 06:12:36 +0000

Truth be told, we’re not sure if this grain sack was actually vintage. We picked it up at some random antique store we came across a while back when we were out and about and we knew it would be good for something some day, we just weren’t sure what. So we think it was a vintage grain sack, but it was in such great condition….I dunno. Maybe. Maybe not. Who cares. Look at what it became! The typography and the colors were such a beautiful combination and the texture of the material is jut the right blend of rough and soft (does that even make sense??)

We had also picked up some cool yellow fabric once upon a time at Fabric Worm in Paso Robles, CA. Again, we weren’t sure what we’d do with it but it was on sale and had a cool pattern so we knew we’d think of something eventually! Anyway, here it is in all it’s glory. It’s the first one Dez has done but we’ve already got more sacks lined up so eventually you may want to check out our Etsy store when we replenish our stock :) Enjoy!

Upcycled Oil Drum Planters

dezandseth — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:06:43 +0000

As we continue to dress up different areas of our new place we find ourselves jumping around from one project to another (which probably has something to do with why we don’t have more completed project blog entries yet, haha!). Anyway, since we ripped out 5 billion shrubs in the backyard we had an empty corner to fill and we weren’t sure what to do with it. Then it popped in our heads we should incorporate some old oil drums some way some how. A quick search on Craigslist and we found a seller, picked up some various sizes, cut the tops off ‘em with the sawzall and slapped on a vibrant pop of color. Then we loaded them up with some plants that only need partial sun/shade (since that’s what that corner area gets) and there ya’ go! Now we just have to wait for the plants to fill in some more. Not too shabby!

More stuff coming soon here and here, stay tuned!

Mid-Century Stereos

dezandseth — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 05:31:45 +0000

Today we took a trip up to Silverado Warehouse in Rainbow, California to buy some old wood for a backyard project we had in mind. They’re moving to LA soon so they’re having a pretty crazy sale right now. You can get anything on the property for pretty cheap. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of crap that’s just simply rusted out worthless junk but if you poke around you might just find a little diamond in the rough. We started looking through what was left of the salvaged wood but we weren’t really feelin’ it so we started to head out. As we were leaving caught a glimpse of a couple mid-century pieces. You should know, everything at Silverado is left outside and is pretty weathered. Some of it is under pop-up tents but it’s still outside nonetheless and most of the stuff has seen better days. Anyway, we started examining these mid-century pieces and found out they were actually stereos with record players inside. We really had no interest in whether or not the stereos still worked because we were sure they were toasted, but even though the bodies of the pieces were in pretty rough shape they still looked like they could still have a shot at a second life……with us.

As far as mid-century stereos go we’re pretty sure these aren’t any fantastic or rare models, but they have a great look and for $70 for the pair, it was pretty hard to pass them by. We’ve got some before & after ideas for these pieces which we’ll get to eventually and of course we’ll post them here when they’re complete.

There’s nothing like a couple more projects to keep us busy and pumped up! See you soon!

One Small Step For Mankind….One Giant Leap For Us

dezandseth — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 08:21:21 +0000

Well, after looking at several houses that could potentially be our first home we came across one in particular that I (seth) was ready to disqualify because of it’s super old folks 1970′s interior. But then as we stood on it’s porch and looked out over the front yard and off into the distance and the pretty sweet view of greenery, trees and mountain tops, Dez said something like “see….this is the kind of place I’ve always seen us living in“. At that moment I decided I was in, and we had our realtor, Brian Williams grab the key card and let us in to check it out in further detail. Right away we started to see the potential this place had and we decided to get moving on it.

We finally got to the point of submitting our first offer on the house only to find out the house had just gone from short sale status to foreclosure status a couple days prior to our first offer which Brian wasn’t even aware of. Dang! So now what? We wait for it to get officially relisted as a foreclosure.

We wait.

We wait some more.

And we wait some more.

We would drive by the house every couple days to see if the sign was up yet and finally one day it happened! We immediately jumped on the horn with Brian and got the paperwork rolling again. Unfortunately this was a HUD home. If you’re ever going to buy a HUD home be prepared to put up with a bunch of stupid HUD crap, and be prepared for HUD to not budge on anything. HUD sucks. Fortunately for us, this house did not. Anyway, fast forward through all the boring paperwork, an awesome and extremely informative home inspection by Jim Huff Home Inspections, and plenty of waiting……it was ours!!

We are truly, truly blessed. We got a great solid house at a great price that has only had 1 owner (the previous owners bought the house new back in 1972/73 and lived there ever since……..till they died). We’ve already tackled a bunch of projects and we’ve got plenty of new entries on the horizon so stay tuned!!

DIY Projects On Hold!!!

dezandseth — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:48:48 +0000

While we continue and hopefully finish the house hunt soon, we’re putting all our projects on hold. Why make and build stuff for a house we may only live in for another month, right? Here to tell you more about it is a friend we met hanging out in the jacuzzi gazebo at one of the houses we’ve looked at:

House Hunting

dezandseth — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:44:22 +0000

So I guess you could say we’re officially house hunting! It’s an exciting, fun, scary thing to be doing. We’ve only looked at a few places so far. When we finally see them in person, a couple of them have been “umm, no.” But a couple others have really gotten our creative juices flowing…especially after seeing some of the wallpaper, sinks and toilets. I tell ya’, there are some interior design geniuses out there and we’d be honored to live in a house that was previously occupied by one of said geniuses. Great taste:

In all honesty it really is fun to look at some of these places and imagine the many ways we would be able to transform the outdated design and give it our personal touch. As many of you homeowners know (as well as all you other house hunters out there), it’s easy to get your hopes and excitement up only to have the dream crushed by one thing or another. All we can do is keep looking, and keep praying about it because we know there’s one out there just for us. And it will be perfect

KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE! LOL.

Garden Cinema

dezandseth — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:25:04 +0000

This isn’t a new video by any means, but it’s still definitely one of our favorites. We had a nice cloudy day here a while back so we decided to highlight Desiree’s garden. Solid camera work and simple editing is all you need…..oh, and a garden Enjoy!

We’re normally wedding photographers, but give us a free weekend afternoon and what do we do? We still shoot something! Here’s a fun little piece about our garden that we threw together for fun