Still looking for a sofa

This image popped up in a file on my computer the other day. I have no idea where it came from. I must have saved it as inspiration because it's the perfect sofa for me. I found a similar one at Montauk but ouch - too expensive. She really should take her shoes off and use a coaster.

Quote of the Week - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

FYI - Fix Your Interior

'How convenient is your front entry? Does it lead guests into a transition zone where you can shake hands and take their coats, or does it unceremoniously dump them right into the living room? If your entry is little more than a door, then let this multiple-use divider change all that.
Besides screening your entry, the unit provides a setting for that fireplace you've always wanted, along with a flip down desk, compact beverage bar, loads of shelf space and even a firewood bin. Once the hearth and prefabricated fireplace have been installed you can construct the shelf systems with tension poles and plywood.' Better Homes and Gardens, 1966

Sounds like a good idea to me. Could we make use of this fireplace?

Source: lavalotti.wordpress.com

Star Finder 1970

Source: books.google.ca via Stacy on Pinterest

Sounds like a band name, come to think of it.
I need to brush up on my star gazing because all I can ever find are the Dippers.
Cassiopeia. Is there a word that is more fun to say?
Found in the December 1970 edition of Boy's Life magazine.

Business in the Front - Party in the Back

Source: modelscomposites.com via Stacy on Pinterest

Image from 1971
Back in the olden days we referred to these types of hairdos as hockey cuts (short on the sides, long in the back).
Looking at it now, I like it. Let's bring it back.

Self Induced Solitude

My car is my refuge. In fact, one of my favourite things to do is to sit in my car, alone, either enveloped in the stillness of music or in complete silence. It's like my own warm, peaceful cocoon. Today I took off into the pouring rain and sat at the waterfront for two hours. Judging by the number of single occupant vehicles that were parked, apparently I'm not alone in this feeling.

Quote of the Week - Edgar Allan Poe

Were I called upon to define, very briefly, the term "Art", I should call it, "the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul."

Scent - The Harbinger of the Unspoken

My Mom brings her own soap when she comes to stay at our place. She says I smell like a tree. I use Dr. Bronner's Eucalyptus Liquid Castile Soap, cedarwood essential oil and amber resin. Of course I smell like a tree, and it suits me just fine.

Tip of the Week - Highway Etiquette

When a motorist leaves a foot of snow on top of their vehicle and they travel at approximately 100 km/h, aforementioned snow will propel off the vehicle at approximately 100 km/h (pardon my physics) most likely hitting the rather unfortunate motorist - in this case me - behind them. Please remove snow from your vehicle before you hit the road. Thanks.

Could you pull it off?

Mink iPad cover. Made from 100% recycled fur and leather.

If you could, you should head up here and buy the heaps of vintage fur coats hanging on the racks in thrift stores. You'd make a small fortune.
available online at Shannon South

Perceived Value?

estimate $3000 - $4000
result $11,250

estimate $3000 - $4000
result $11,875

estimate $1000 - $1500
result $5000

estimate $2000 - $3000
result $15,000

I would've liked to have been there while this bidding war was going on. Greta Magnusson Grossman was a contemporary of Eames, Schindler and Neutra but her work never garnered the same attention, until perhaps now.

Prices realized October 6, 2011 at Wright auctions, Chicago IL
images © Wright

1979 Manhattan Apartment of Geoffrey Beene

Images via Architectural Digest September 1979, pgs. 89-95

Quote of the Week - Edmund Burke

Manners are more important than laws.
more

For Rent?

I'm tired of smelling other people (cigarettes, perfume, cooking) and wiping anonymous hairs out of the washer before I put my clothes in.

I took a look at this house on Friday. I was quite excited to view it, (as were six or seven other people), because it was noted on the West Vancouver Survey of Significant Architecture. It's a Lewis home built in the mid 50s. Unfortunately, when I arrived there was a For Sale sign out front. In West Vancouver, a For Sale sign translates to, 'You need to tear this house down because it's not big enough to show other people that you think you're really rich and therefore really important.'* A For Sale sign usually means the house is vacant as well. By the state this one is in it has probably been so for at least a year. There were dandelions growing out of the hot tub cover, Lynyrd Skynard and Van Halen spray painted on the walls of the 'den', the living room carpet squished water out of it when I walked, the bathrooms were straight out of Trainspotting and it stunk like raccoons had been living in it. All this for $2300 a month. I feel like dropping a note to the realtor who showed it giving him a piece of my mind.

On Saturday I took a look at this haunted house. It's located right across from Dundarave Beach. It had a self contained 'suite' downstairs which would've been perfect as one of our fellow apartment building dwellers is interested in leaving the building with us if we can find the right place. Gross, not this one. The first floor was workable, although the kitchen cupboards did have 74 years of grime on them. The other two however, oh my cat. Let's just say, if I was in university again (ie I was 19), had ten friends, lots of incense and hippie blankets, no lovable fluffy senior cat members in my family and only a back pack of possessions, I'd be moving in this week. So, for $3500 a month I'll have to decline as I've already been down that Nag Champa road.

What makes 'landlords' think that because you're a renter you automatically have low standards and are not worthy of a clean safe home to live in? I love architecture and I would love to live in a home that I could proudly point out and explain its architectural significance. It's a shame so many sit vacant and uncared for when there are probably 100s of people in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland who I'm sure feel the same way I do.

* Why not have us respect you instead and remodel the house like these lovely new home owners did. This is another Lewis home that is listed on the West Vancouver Survey of Significant Architecture. In case you're interested it's at 2707 Rosebery.

I posted some photos of some North Vancouver West Coast midcentury homes we visited last summer on the Bijou Living Facebook page.