On the right nav bar, I’ve started linking to some of my more popular posts and completed rooms.

What are some of your favorite Brick City Love posts? Anything specific you’ve come here looking for?

How can I make this blog easier to read? navigate? use? enjoy?

What do you love? hate? wish was different?

Bring it on {nicely, please}! I’m all ears.

It seemed like a really awesome and logical idea at the time.

And completely & utterly did not work.

The K’Nex pieces just don’t translate well to lighting parts. I think pipe cleaners might be up for round 2.

It seems my little couch do-over made its way over as a quick & easy project. Taking off the skirt took me about 15 minutes with a good pair of needle-nose pliers and gave the couch a whole new look.

Of course the massive frame reconstruction wasn’t totally free. We used scrap plywood leftover from other projects but spent about $14.35 for 2 additional & 2 replacement legs {from this seller, if you’re interested}. Ok, so it was almost free. Since the couch was only $50 to start and I love the tufting and lines, $64.35 for a couch I love made the effort completely worthwhile.

Check out the entire project here. And thanks for the shout-out, Re-Nest!

{And for Annaa, in case you don’t recheck the comments – I got the gray nuLOOM rug from Gilt.}

Thyme & Rosemary are the slowest starters. Seeing moderate growth but nothing extreme.
{Week 3 photos are on the left, week 4 is on the right. Click to enlarge.}

The chives are much taller but still looking a bit sparse. Hoping they fill in a little.

Last week (above) the cilantro wasn’t much more than sprouts. This week, it’s starting to look like actual cilantro, with the fan leaves instead of the longer, skinnier ones.

Basil is still growing like gangbusters. If you put your face real close, it smells divine.

A second flat joined the window last week but it wasn’t much more than a flat of dirt.

This week, things have sprouted! Half flat of tomatoes & a half flat of carnival peppers.

My office window is turning into quite the little greenhouse.

When it comes to renovations and DIYing, convertibles are second only to pick-up trucks.

SUVs might seem like the obvious second place choice – BUT NO! It’s convertibles.

1. Convertibles are awesome. You feel cool driving one. They have that, “This wasn’t a practical choice but I’m loving it!” vibe. The only thing that might have more of that vibe is a motorcycle. But I ask you – Where are you going to stash that chair you swiped from someone’s trash on a motorcycle? You’re not!

2. Convertibles are practical. Despite feeling impractical, convertibles actually make perfect sense. They have the fuel efficiency of a small car with the cargo flexibility of a larger van, truck, or SUV. Don’t believe me?

BAM! 54″x27″x14″ console table. In my car. And I was able to put the top back up.

Sure, you have to get a little creative but it fits. Bruce wasn’t thrilled about being demoted to the back seat but he dealt.

Sad dog face.

Not impressed? Ok. OK! What about this??!

A 4′x5′ mirror. That would be – 4 FOOT by 5 FOOT. Fit that in your Corolla.

{Actually I have no idea if that would fit in a Corolla or not; I don’t know many cars.}

Sure I had to drive with the top down. And any airplanes flying over are probably glad it wasn’t sunny and reflecting back in their eyes. But I got it home. In the same number of pieces I purchased it in – ONE.

WINNING.

Blue, red, and yellow with laminate floors {as of course all the previous occupant’s stuff}.

While the floors were refinished, it didn’t look that much better after we moved in.

But slowly, over the past several months, thing are starting to improve.

Painting made the most dramatic difference. {We’re still ignoring the primed-only ceiling, m’kay?}

The BONDE cabinets lightened up too and now wear sparkly new-old hardware.

And of course there was the whole couch debacle that turned into an unexpectedly large project.

The living room is by no means done but there were requests to see some wide-angle shots.

Here’s what things are looking like as of last night -

Not done, by any means. But certainly leaps & bounds better from that BLUE AND RED {!!!!!!!!} combo.  

The BONDE cabinets really do seem lighter & smaller visually now that they’re the same as the wall color.

The two chairs have been around forever. Found the leggy one at a yard sale in college. I wish I remembered how much I paid for it.

That table in between the chairs was found on the side of the road last summer. The top folds down, which I thought was cool.

The walls are Sea Pearl, by Benjamin Moore. I think the photo below shows it most accurately it. It’s a grayish beige. {Rambling Renovators used it in their master bedroom, if you want to see it in another space.}

You might also notice that “basket” above isn’t really a basket. It’s the lampshade that came with the amber glass lamp!

The mirror behind it isn’t staying. Picked that up at a yard sale a couple weeks ago for $0.80.

One day, that large blank wall will be home to all my doll molds. For now, Da Vinci the yellow metal bird chills there. Thinking he might look good in the garden. Or maybe the office if that ever gets painted.

Above is another decent shot of the wall color. It’s a very good off-white. Light but it looks like a color when paired with white-white trim {stock white Behr semi-gloss}.

After looking at these photos, I think it’s blatantly obvious how much this room desperately needs some color. Things swung from color-overload with the red/blue/yellow to almost completely neutral. The “After” lies somewhere in between.

YAY Progress!!

As I was driving down one of the main drags, not paying too much attention, I noticed a dresser out of the corner of my eye. It looked familiar. It was a fleeting look but I recognized the style circulating around the blogosphere over the past year or so.

Now, I’m not big on trends. Typically, if something is too popular or trendy, I pass because I want to be unique & different. It can be an annoying trait but those that love me know it to be true.

I keep driving.

The dresser was sitting in front of a house with the drawers piled up next to it but not on the curb. It probably wasn’t out for trash. This area isn’t exactly Beverly Hills; people around here live with inside furniture outside all.the.time.

But what if it was trash? Perhaps I should just take another quick drive-by, you know, just for a better look.

I make the next U-turn.

Call it trash picking or rescuing, I find it difficult to ignore an abandoned, discarded but salvageable piece.

I accidentally overshoot the house and park half a block away in the parking lot of an insurance company. Lock my car. Walk back over to the house.

There’s a light on outside but the porch lights are off. I can see a light on in the back of the house but not in any of the front rooms. There’s no one on the street except cars whizzing past at 45 mph.

I’m alone and no one knows exactly where I am. Getting mugged isn’t on my Sunday night “TO DO” list. Perhaps this isn’t the smartest of ideas.

I decide to take my chances. Knowing the neighborhood, I wager the tenants are more likely to be stoners than the shotgun toting type.

Cautiously, I approach the dresser. I don’t want anyone to think I’m trespassing on their property. Will I set off motion sensing lights? Would anyone even notice if I did? I decide both are unlikely in this neighborhood.

The dresser is in decent shape. The veneer is chipped and there’s trash in some of the drawers but its sturdy and a good size. A good cleaning and a coat of paint would do wonders. Is it trash?? Do I really need it? Where would I even use it?

That last question is my most important - Where will it go? I try very hard not to drag home pieces if I don’t have a clear idea of where it will live. I find that more often than not, bringing things home just because I like them ends up being a complete waste of time & money.

I walk back to my car. Get in. And pull back out onto the main street.

Only to pull directly into their driveway.

The following goes through my head -

1. Why not?!
2. What would be the harm in asking if it’s trash?
3. The worst they can say is, “No you crazy lady get off my property!”
4. Don’t pay for it. Walk away if they want money for it.
5. If it doesn’t work out, I can always put it out for bulk trash or list it on craigslist.

I knock on the door.

Twice. There’s someone inside but they aren’t getting up.

A third time, a little more persistently. Add a wave when they look out the door.

Andrew {we’ll call him Andrew} answers the door. Andrew appears to be your typical college kid or maybe someone who’s friends with someone who attends college. He’s in bare feet, jeans, hoodie & a hemp necklace; no gun or attack dogs. While confused as to why I am knocking on his door, he seems relatively normal. I introduce myself. He does the same.

“Hi! You don’t know me but I was driving by and saw the dresser sitting there. Is it trash? If so, would you mind if I took it?”

“I don’t know. Let me call my landlord. It was left here by the previous tenants and I don’t know if they’re coming to pick it up or not.”

:::: Seemingly lengthy conversation with landlord. It’s apparent Andrew has been dodging his landlord as the conversation quickly devolves away from dresser talk. I feel partially responsible for him having to talk to his landlord but, as a landlord myself, it’s probably all for the best. ::::

Confirmation! The dresser is indeed out for trash. I may have it. Andrew offers to help me get it in my car; what a gentleman.

It fits, just barely but it fits.

While I cannot condone knocking on doors of perfect strangers – at night, alone – I now own a FREE campaign style dresser and lived to tell the tale.

Campaign style furniture – yay or nay? Or are you still stuck on ‘the crazy’ I displayed by randomly knocking on someone’s door?

Week 1: Nothing’s really sprouting.

Week 2: BAM!! Holy crap stuff is growing?!!!

Week 3: Hey look! I didn’t kill it all!

To be honest, Week 3 got off to a bit of a rough start but I’m happy to report it’s not a complete and total fail {yet}.

Two days after last week’s post about how stupendous & suprising it was to have things growing, everything almost died.

See… the seeds are sitting in the sunny window of my office. When I left on Friday, I thought everything was plenty hydrated.

When I stopped by Sunday to drop off flat #2 {which you see in the background}, it was quite clear that that it was not.

Flat #1 quickly got a good soaking and most everything seems to have perked around - thriving even. Some seeeds… well… rest in peace little buddies.

Dead Cilantro:

RIP Thyme:

[Below] That far back row is thyme. Some of them seem to be doing well. The 2 all the way on the left are pretty much gone for.

[Above] The next 3 rows down {from the little white marker to the chives} are rosemary. It is NOT doing well at all. Perhaps I need to reread those growing directions. Only 1.5 little squares of rosemary seem to be doing slightly better than “ok” and about half are almost completely vacant.

[Below] The chives are chugging along. Not going gang-busters but not dying either. I’ll take ‘not dying’!

[Above & barely Below] Cilantro. Like the Thyme - some good, some bad. I have plenty more cilantro seeds for try #2 though.

[Above & Below] The star of the show! My BASIL!!!! It is loving this window and doing awesome. Go, Basil! Go!! {said in my best Great Mouse Detective voice}

There’s such a fine line between too much water and not enough. C’est la vie.

Here’s hoping I can keep them all alive through this weekend!!

Ok… that lampshade is pretty rough.

But minus the tikki lampshade, we see potential. Dimpled amber glass.

Now if only I could stumble upon a decent inexpensive drum shade…

I still had to call and report the missed pickup. But Holy.Crap.

They came!! The recycling was ACTUALLY picked up! I didn’t have to smuggle it away to my parents’ house or call a possibly shady gentleman with a pickup truck {both true stories}.

What is a boring, routine, mundane, municipal service is a thrilling highlight of my week. Seriously… first time EVER.

Now lets see if they can keep it going 2 weeks in a row…