Giveaway WINNER: All Modern

The winner of the $55 gift card to Allmodern.com is . . .

EMILY!

Congrats

Giveaway: All Modern

With all the snow storms hammering the midwest and northeast, a lot of us have been staying in and surfing the web. After all the shoveling, and cold and news-watching, I think you deserve a treat. Allmodern.com, a great site for modern furniture,  has graciouly offered up a $55 gift certificate to one of DC Rowhouse's readers. If you haven't been to the site, you should take a minute to check it out. But, I warn you, it might take more than a minute to browse . . .there is too much to see! Below are some of my favorites:

Thomas Paul Octopus Pillow

Flower Pots

Classic Wine Decanter

What do you need to do to enter? Leave a comment on this post by Thursday, March 24th, 2011 at midnight. A winner will be selected using random.org and announced Friday March 25th, 2011. Make sure to include your e-mail in your post if you enter it anonymously so I can contact you should you win!

Ask DC Rowhouse: The Front Door

Benny,

I love the mahogany door you bought for your front door. We are looking to replace ours and we were wondering where you found yours. I absolutely love the look. We may mimic your entire set-up with the all glass security door. Really opens up the entire face of your home. Lovely!
Thanks,


Lauren
 


Hi Lauren,
 
Thanks for your gracious comments! Choosing the front door was actually one of the easier projects. As it turns out, everything was from Lowes.  We choose a mahogany six panel door at first, and stained/painted it ourselves. We had to special order it from Lowe's, but it was a pretty simple process and only took a couple weeks to arrive. We hired someone who installed the hardware and hung it for us. After a couple years, and sick of the draft, we had a storm/secure door installed. Since installing the glass door, we've seen our heating bill go down and have no more drafts. Overall, it's worked out pretty well. Thanks again for reading the blog!

Benny

Closet Conundrum

Several weeks ago we headed to Home Depot to pick up some closet doors, only to realize that six of them were the wrong size when we got home. Since we had already hauled the old doors to the curb, we were left with no doors for close to three weeks.  This led to our room feeling like a storage unit/dorm room. The addition of the TV my parent's gave me for my 17th birthday isn't helping the decor either. What? I get attached to things.

 Meanwhile, our old closet doors were parked on the curb waiting to get picked up (If you call the Mayor's office at 311 you can make an appointment to collect up to 7 large items of trash). The only problem was, no one ever came. So after two weeks on the curb, we took matter into our own hands:

In order to get rid of large items yourself, you have to take them to the Fort Totten Transfer Station. It's an experience. First of all, don't count on your GPS to get you there - it'll let you down. You'll end up driving in circles cursing and confused - but that just might be what happens to me each time. So, you finally get there, and you are "greeted" by someone who asks to see your ID to prove your DC residency. Then they tell you where to go. Here's where things get odd. You essentially pull into a parking lot and throw things on the ground.  A large excavator rolls around on top of it and moves it into large containers.

If you're lucky, you get to throw away your trash inside. When we had to toss our old kitchen counter here, I didn't think I could do it. Visiting a stinky trash heap mid-July is not a fun errand. 

Thankfully, this trip took only a few minutes. We headed back to Home Depot to pick up our newest closet doors and return the ones that were the wrong size.  Finally, it seemed the closets would be fixed.

It took more time to picking up and throwing away the doors than it did for Dan to install them!

The roof is so shiny . . .

Oh the roof. The good news is that it's now all fixed up. The bad news is that it cost an arm...and a leg. Maybe a couple toes of the other foot too. The turret and mansard portions of the roof have been completely rebuilt, and some nice copper flashing was added as well.  While it's a nice feeling to know it's all taken care of, this project was a little bit less satisfying since we can't really see the finished product everyday. Anyway, I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

Draft Dodger

When we moved into the house in 2006, this is what it looked like: 

The front door was an older wood door with a half moon glass piece with a steel security door on the outside. Not pretty. So, in 2008, I changed it to a beautiful mahogany door:

Except, there was a draft problem. We had always had a draft from the front door (even with the old door), but I was getting more and more fed up with it. So, a few weeks ago I went to Lowe's and bought a security storm door.  

I opted to have Lowe's install it. While the installer was a little difficult to schedule time with, and showed up 3 hours late, he actually did a great job putting the door in.

This door has changed our lives. Not only does it keep the draft out (we notice a huge difference in the heat levels downstairs), but when it's open it floods the living room with light. I only wish I had done it sooner. 

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

And, someone isn't too pleased about it:

It's hard to see in the photos but the little black cat is still coming around. Dylan (our super-sized cat) is none too pleased.  And yes, I am aware Dylan looks like a pillow-pet. He's a fatty.

Last night I saw a large piece of fur missing from the little black cat's shoulder (a little larger than the size of a quarter) and it looks like a small wound was there. It was hard to see because he is so excited for attention when I am outside. I'm hoping someone took him to see a vet, but I can't be sure. 

This weekend I may ask around to the nieghbors if he belongs to anyone. If not, I'll probably take him to the vet to get checked out.