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February 27, 2007
Roddy House, Part 1
My friend Meredith invited me to visit her new house a few weeks ago. A rambling ranch home on the east side, it was perfectly preserved in 1969, the year it was built. Meredith and her husband Ted bought it from a pair of sisters who had kept the house in pristine condition, right down to the fake crystal chandelier in the dining room.
There are parts of the house that seem oh-so-dated, like the funky floral wallpaper over the master vanity (it is also lining the drawers of the vanity like custom contact paper) or the faux marbelized countertop in the guest bath. The kitsch-addict in me wanted Meredith to go with the flow and keep enough of the gaudy to date the house and give it some of that Gong Show flavor.
In general, the home is a beautiful specimen of thoughtful design and architecture. Formal living and dining areas open off of the entry foyer. The kitchen features a priceless pass-thru (that I would personally decorate with modernist etched glass but David thinks should be left open). The exposed beams in the den meet with wood paneling that needs a new stain but is a wonderful complement to the stone fireplace. The lot is enormous with a covered patio and landscaped backyard as well as a private side yard with storage and a climbing tree.
During the grand tour, we started opening the drawers in the master bedroom vanity, and lo and behold we found the original house plans.
I do mean original: rolled up and somewhat yellowed, the graphite and pen had smeared in a couple of places. The plans appeared to indicate that the home was a blueprint for others in the neighborhood, possibly a model home.
Meredith was under a major time crunch, caught between two living spaces, and struggling with needing to make some very speedy decisions. I put in my two cents, but after she showed me her collection of paint chips and her magazine cut-outs, I was sure that she didn't need any input from me. I can't wait to see how it looks with her personal touch!
If you live in Austin and you are in the midst of a MCM home redo, ranch or otherwise, please drop me a line. I know not everyone has time to blog the process, but I love seeing before/after shots and I am happy to post pics here. Plus, it gives me a good excuse to get out of the House of Sick for a few hours ;-)
Posted by Christiane at 08:20 AM | Comments (4)
February 10, 2007
We did it!
This morning over 2500 of my neighbors showed up to protest the bloated Walmart that Lincoln Properties wants to jam in place of the rotting corpse of Northcross Mall (eew!). We made a ring not just around the mall, but around the whole block. By my estimation (using Google maps) the line was about 6000 feet long.
I really didn't think there would be enough people, but when we were about a block away, we started to see people in red walking and biking towards Northcross. There was an unusual Saturday morning traffic jam on Burnet. When we parked, I saw people walking along the sidewalk next to the mall. I thought, "Ok, not enough people to circle the building, but if we all walk and hold lengths of ribbon, we'll get the effect." Then I realized those people were just walking to the line that ringed the whole block. The portion of the line that we walked to was about 5 people deep. Suddenly it was clear, there were more than enough people to ring the block along the street.
An organizer asked us to stretch towards Northcross Drive. We moved a ways down, then the word spread, we did it. The line stretched all the way around.
A counter came by, I was #564. The boys were climbing a dumpster. They didn't get numbers.
The protest was supposed to last 10 minutes, but everyone was having such a great time, we stayed about 30 minutes before the line started to break up. Most everyone wore red, but it was cold and the effect was muted by the coats.
Luckily, a lot of people have red coats. And the sun came out just in time for the rest of us to take our coats off.
Spirits were very high. I think it's important that we had such a good time. This community came together, maybe in the biggest way ever. Excuse me if I get a little waxy here, but it was more than a protest, it was a ceremony. Like a wedding, where people are present to say this is a good thing and we are all here to prove it and hold it.
And that is a difficult thing to work against. There have got to be a few people over at Lincoln Properties wondering if they have the stomach to fight so many nice people. We're going to be here long after Walmart is gone, and we throw better parties.
Posted by David at 04:55 PM | Comments (6)