Paint the Town (or just the walls, please)

Picking a paint color is becoming a huge chore. It's my least favorite part of decorating so far. There are eight different samples on the walls; green is the settled on color, but now it's time to decide which green. It is shocking we are spending so much time and thought on this!

For the photo with 5 blocks above the fireplace (aka our Floo network connection with Chris & Gina) - we didn't like any of the colors because they all looked really tan or grey on the walls in daylight. We learned that lighting and light bulbs are really important, because they did all have a green cast to them at night under the very yellow (as we eventually figured out) lighting in the living room when we picked the colors. We bought Reveal bulbs to replace the current ones, and Benson used a suction cup on a pole to change them (will post about that later).

Soooo- we went very green and very blue for the next three paint colors. I think the picture here is in bad lighting, because they don't look nearly as vibrant here as they do on the wall. We are leaning toward the middle one - it comnes across sort of soft forest green in person. The one above it is a little too yellow/avacado in the daylight. The blue one looks too much like the sky, so having the whole room sky blue seems weird and too cold feeling.

Dining room console cabinet

battle scars, pre-restoration

final glory!

Both of us like used/antique furniture if it's a good style and quality, so we met Susan (the designer) at Wertz Bros. to look at some bars, chairs and cabinets. We didn't purchase any of the antique bars (Megan loved them, Benson hated them) but we DID find a beautiful dining room buffet cabinet.

Not that we knew/know anything about this, but apparently it is made by a mid-century designer named John Widdicomb. It needed some TLC because it was pretty scratched/banged up, so it was priced way lower than his items usually cost. We bought it and paid the Wertz Bros. furniture restorer to refinish the top, fix several nicks, re-hang the cabinet doors and add a magnetic closure to the front. It turned out gorgeous!

It looks kind of blue-ish in every photo for some reason, but it is really an espresso brown in person. The carved front cabinets are the best part. We've filled it with all our dining room linens, as well as the barware/glassware/ liquor. Come over and party any time! :)

Divine Dining

For the dining room table, we made a snap decision that we still feel good about. Susan (the interior designer) looked on Craiglist and found a gorgeous, dark chocolate wood table on sale for less than half the original cost. Benson got a call from her about it while Megan was busy with friends, so he took a look at the pics, decided he had to have it, and then called the owners. Turned out the table had been used to stage their home in NYC and didn't fit well in their new LA home, so it was hardly used-- nice bonus.

Benson talked Megan into driving the U-Haul truck from the sellers' place to our place (something about him leading using the Nav system in his car so she could follow....). So- within a span of seven hours or less, we found out about the table, rented the U-Haul, and had it in our home. Which was none too soon, because it came to live with us only eleven days before we hosted Thanksgiving Dinner. :)

Megan still thinks the shape looks a bit like a grasshopper in the DWR picture here, but we never look at it straight on like that, and the shape looks great in our dining space.

Magic Carpet Ride

Our designer told us the first step to decorating would be to pick a rug. How little we knew about the vast choices avaialable online for rug choices! We spent at least 4-5 days scouring sites, checking dimensions, weighing different color pallets, and second-guessing. Finally, we chose the one in the photo; it's a bit modern and funky, but the antique furniture we are using will offset it nicely, for a cool mix of colors, styles and shapes that will hopefully work harmoniously.

Back in the Saddle Again!

Hello everyone! It's been more than a year since this blog was updated, but I am determined to do a better job moving forward.

Benson and I moved to a new home in West LA near Brentwood, and we are enjoying the process of decorating it. Our good friend Gina Shelton just moved back to Dallas from LA and recommended we blog about the process so she and our other family and friends can enjoy the journey, too! I'll start doing updates about other topics, as well, but the decorating is the most fun at the moment. :) Come visit us at the new place any time!

Here's a link to our neighborhood on google maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Garage Roof Leak - yuck

We have enjoyed an uncharacteristic downpour of rain in SoCal this week, which resulted in the discovery of a leak in our garage roof (surprise!). Rain water cascaded over several storage boxes. While much of the contents got a bit damp, miraculously only a few things were badly damaged. This was mostly due to Benson's decision a few years ago to forego cardboard boxes for storage and move to plastic bins - thanks baby! Things that were saved completely include:

• Our box of favorite clothes through the decades - from my mom's seventies bellbottoms outfits, to Benson's silver rave pants, to my cheerleading uniforms
• A box entirely filled with my college photos and Delta Gamma sorority memories (I found my pledge card and pledge pin, how fun!)
• all of Benson's old yearbooks and high school/college memories
• A box with most of Benson's signed original copies of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

Items that did not make it through so well included:

• my college paperwork and reference notes from favorite courses
• Benson's airsoft/paintballing clothes and accompanying paraphernalia
• some winter coats (which we just stuck in the dryer and there is no water damage, yay!)
• ...and the worst - Benson's videogame collection, made up of all the games he has worked on over the last 12 years and his favorite hit games from the last 20 (original Doom, Quake and Lara Croft included!!) Not all are damaged due to the way they were stacked (including the three listed, thank goodness) but enough are wet that we might have to trash some.

We have most of the items listed above laid out on sheets in the dry part of the garge, with a fan blowing on them. While this is frustrating to deal with, we are grateful that the situation wasn't worse- the house didn't burn down, the damage was minimal, and we'll be done with the drying and repairs in just a few days.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Launch - and Amazing Reviews!!

It has been a looooong time since I posted - I was busy with lots of things and got sidetracked. However, today is a day to post about!!! The videogame Benson has been working on for two years, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, is officially available in retail stores today!

The game is getting RAVE critical reviews, and holds a strong 97% review average from journalist game reviewers across the globe. Out of 57 reviews currently posted to metacritic.com, the average score is 97% - with a whopping 23 of those 57 being PERFECT scores!

To exemplify how significant this is: The top rated, and thus mostly top selling, games over the past three years have been BioShock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Halo 3 and Gears of War 2. Well-known game industry (and Newsweek) journalist N'Gai Croal posted the below statistics about those games' perfect review scores, asking if Uncharted 2 would be able to beat them all. Most are now surpassed, and I am thinking BioShock is in the crosshairs. :)

Record of Perfect Reviews: BioShock: 34/88; Halo 3: 20/86; COD4: 14/70; Gears 2 13/90

Uncharted 2: 23/57 and counting!