Almost Heaven

A vintage Mercury that has been frenched, flamed, chopped and shaved.

Linda, her Cute Husband, Tall Husband and I dropped by the Houston Coffee & Cars August 2010 rally this morning...what a blast. It was almost heaven.

Friend, Terry Lawell of Lawell Motorsports.

We caught up with good friends...

Check out the paint effect on this lightening rod!

saw rad rods...

A 1958 356 Porsche

and old heart throbs.

Note: Slideshow in right column or here.

Click on any photo to enlarge.

Lights, Camera...Front Door and More

The construction doors are gone and we now have the permanent doors to the garage/studio.

The exterior lights have been installed and outfitted with CFL lamps. All exterior lights are on timers. The new timers are tiny, programmable units built into the light switches.

The full view from the driveway of the garage/studio. Our builder took away his sign, as he kept getting calls from people wanting to rent the "garage apartment."

Work has also begun on The Bunny Bungalow: the old deck has been torn down and hauled away; temporary steps have been built; the architects have begun the design of the kitchen and bathrooms renovation; and the piers were straightened and reinforced. Landscaping design is also in progress.

Today, our contractor had the roofing company take out the flooring of the second-floor porch and redo, correcting a problem the architect discovered this week. Next, the ceiling fan will have to be raised so as not to give Tall Husband an unwanted haircut. The above porch will be screened.

When the garage/studio is completed, we will move out of the bungalow and into the studio while the bungalow's kitchen and bathrooms are renovated. Fun, fun, fun!

Have a great weekend.

Austin's Love Affair With the Airstream

A mini trailer is parked atop Tax Trailer's drop box. This tiny trailer was once sold by Pottery Barn.

One of Tax Trailer's offices is a vintage Airstream that sits on the roof of the Kimber Modern B&B in Austin, Texas.

Vicki Faust's Tax Trailer

Austinites are in love with the Airstream trailer. They have morphed Airstreams into boutiques, cupcake shops, crepe shops and so on. Now we discover that a CPA with a creative soul has a Tax Trailer which is tucked away in the SoCo district of Austin. The only street-side clue to the trailer's existence is a tiny replica, parked atop the drop box at the bottom of an obscure trail that leads up through a stand of four-leaf clover, to the rooftop Airstream. Somehow, tromping through all that four-leaf clover makes one feel fiscally fit!

Links:

• Kimber Modern B&B, Austin, Texas
• Tax Trailer
• SoCo District
• Flip Happy Crepes Trailer
• Crepes Mille Trailer
• Hey Cupcake
• www.Yelp.com lists 46 Airstream Trailer businesses in Austin but there are more!
• Airstream, Inc
• Adelante Boutique's Curb Service Airstream
• LD Design: Botanical Design in an Airstream

Bouncing Bunnies

Detail of a painting by Martha Gannon; photo of same by Annie Sitton

Who wouldn't want to spend time at a B&B with paintings of bouncing bunnies in every room? And you know how we love bunnies!

Fire on 22nd Street

A motorist makes a hasty u-turn.

From our driveway, I watch as the fire fighters put out the truck fire.

Fire fighters use bars and power saws to open the hood.

Fire's out! Thanks, Houston Fire Fighters.

There is always excitement in the Houston Heights, our neighborhood, and today was no different. On 22nd street at the corner of Rutland, a truck burst into flame. Tall Husband ran out with my cell phone...he never has his own phone handy. While he was on the phone to 911, I was running down the street with our kitchen fire extinguisher (Tall Husband later teased me.) The Fire Fighters arrived with their equipment just as I was about to pull the pen on my extinguisher...so I ran back home to grab my camera, having missed a photo op of the really big flames.

No one was injured, as the driver seems to have hastily left the scene.

Construction Progresses at The Bunny Bungalow

Bubble Chair, by French super designer, Philippe Starck, was a favorite at My Ranchburger, the home we sold last month. So, the chair will sit in the garden at The Bunny Bungalow. It now sits on an old deck behind our bungalow. The deck will be torn out and replaced with a ground-level garden room between the garage/studio and the bungalow.

Rogers+Labarthe Architects

Builder: DD&L Enterprises

The garage/studio addition behind The Bunny Bungalow, as it looks presently. Note that the upstairs door to the porch is now in (French door but in the arts & craft style.) Also note that the crape myrtle tree to the right has survived its transplant and is blooming.

Our laundry room (new counter top is covered in heavy paper for protection.) I love having windows so that I can do spot removal with natural light (Rogers+Labarthe Architects think of everything!)

One of the pair of wall sconces on either side of the window seat. There was one of these in the wonderful powder room at My Ranchburger, so we are so happy to have a reminder of our previous home here in the new studio.

There are so many choices to make! We chose oiled bronze finish for the downstairs door knobs and locks...

and brushed nickle upstairs, where we are using our modern furniture (think le Corbusier from the thirties.)

In the stairwell is the finished moment with lighting for a place to stick a piece of art.

This tiny, well-equipped kitchen is like a galley on a boat. It makes me feel like a newly wed though, as it is reminiscent of my first kitchen.

The stainless steel refrigerator is only 24 inches wide (those architects again...they can source anything!)

Ipe wood decking, which is fire, decay and insect resistant, awaits installation on the second-floor porch.

Tall Husband and I are now full-time residents of the Houston Heights! With our main home sold (last month in record time) and with the addition to The Bunny Bungalow's garage/studio nearing completion, we are almost ready to begin renovation on the kitchen and bathrooms of our 1920 Bungalow. And we are still married!

Rogers+Labarthe Architects have begun the design on The Bunny Bungalow's kitchen and bathrooms. I'll take before and after photos of that remodel.

She Just Lost Her Head

Photo taken at Blackmail, a boutique in Austin, Texas.

I just lost it today! Tall Husband has often said that I need to get angry sometimes. Well, it’s too bad he didn't see me in action today.

An SUV pulled up in front of The Bunny Bungalow this afternoon. As I was expecting a landscape architect, I peeked out the window. What did I see? A motorist had just parked and began cleaning out his vehicle, throwing his trash out his window. I ran out on the front porch and called out to him, "Why are you throwing your garbage in my yard!?"

And without waiting for an answer, I sprang through the gate of the old picket fence, scooped up all his trash and threw it through the driver's window, right into his lap. He was so angry, that he peeled out, ran the stop sign, turned the corner on two wheels, then sped down a side street. I just smiled, because he didn't know about the huge speed bump in his path...his SUV made a lovely smashing sound when it hit that bump!

And Tall Husband thought that I couldn't get angry!