Archive for the ‘exterior’ Category

Stock Tank Pool

Monday, June 28th, 2010

The clever and talented Lily from bigBANG studio just posted about an impromptu swim party in Joshua Tree at a friends large live stock tank pool. I’m dying. DYING.

The Brick House is only a short drive away from Joshua Tree and I am desperate to know where these stylish folks  found this tall galvanized water storage tank, how they added that sweet custom ladder and what kind of filtration system they are using. So many logistical questions! So hot and in need of our own livestock pool with a killer deck and better views to lounge in.

This baby puts our own livestock tank pool plans to shame.

Fire Pit

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

We busted the cherry on the new fire pit and had a nice little summer evening blaze.

I’m happy to report that the new steel fire pit works much, much, much better than the original version. No cracks, no crumbling, this thing is going to last forever.

Although it is progressing, I’m frustrated to report that we are still not done painting. This whole painting business is seriously taking forever. Most of the the garage is fully painted so the back patio is looking more and more finished, especially with the new exterior light. Maybe it’s time to start thinking seriously about patio furniture…or a pool.

I’m desperate for four butterfly chairs with black mesh exterior slings to circle the fire pit. That would be fabulous. Too bad Craigslist is coming up dry.

Exterior Light

Friday, June 18th, 2010

If you somehow haven’t noticed, I really like The Ace Hotel in Palm Springs. So, when it came time to figure out some exterior lighting for the house I deferred to The Ace and the industrial lights installed outside their room doors. I loved the simplicity of the design, the industrial quality and the low, low price. Easy to source, we just went to Home Depot and bought a set of four.

Vapor Tight!

When we bought the Brick House there were no exterior lights installed, just a bunch of empty holes with cables strung through. About a year ago we tried to install some exterior lights and went TOTALLY CRAZY. The wiring was so funky that the lights would just stay on or sometimes one would shut off and two would go on and after about a week of fiddling with it we gave up. It was stupid and we were stupid.

Now that most of the painting is done (we still have a little more to go – it’s never going to end) we started talking again about the stupid exterior lights. Knowing that we were not qualified to deal with this problem we talked our electrician buddy Chris to come out and try and figure out what the hell was going on.

Installing them was pretty easy and figuring out what was wrong with the wiring was also pretty easy for Electrician Chris. I guess they were wired for Photocells or something. Whatever. We are dumb.

We did end up adding an extra light to the corner above the patio since the whole side yard is pitch black at night. Electro Chris tied this light into the other garage lights like magic! Custom shit.

I know the garage doors are all atrocious and the patio is a mess, but look, we have lights. After two and a half years of living in the dark, we have exterior light! This is a big deal. Go 2010 Year of The Exterior. GO.

We don’t have to stumble around in the dark to take out the trash anymore. Huge achievement.

Yep. They work best at night.