One Building, 32 Years

From an LA Times photo essay:
"In 1980 I photographed the Greater Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church at 10828 S. Avalon Blvd. in South L.A.
It was hard to tell it was a church. The sign above the door was faint, spidery, hand-painted; the windows mere slits, as if to deter robbers; the aquamarine trim its only bit of decoration.
The modest building that housed Greater Mt. Calvary was built in 1925, in a section of Los Angeles then called Green Meadows."
See whole article HERE.

The building reminds me of a lot of the places we look at....they have such a rich history and boy, if those walls could talk.

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How To Light Yourself At Home

The Los Angeles Times ran an article featuring Matthew Rolston on "How to light yourself at home".
One of his suggestions?
“Put a dimmer in every single light in your room — either the switch, the wall or the cord,” he said, waving to the shelves.
If your lamp doesn't have a built-in dimmer, the photographer said, you can add a $2 dimmer switch to the cord.
Even easier? Rolston loves a dimmer attachment that screws into the bulb mount. Cost: $8. “This gives you the ability to control the light without help from an electrician.”

We agree!

See whole story HERE

LA Times: Investors flip over Highland Park homes

Great article in the LA Times about Highland Park real estate inventory by Alejandro Lazo.

"Much of the real estate market is still stuck in deep winter, but Highland Park is showing signs of spring."
See whole article HERE

A Great Quote On Putting Yourself In Uncomfortable Situations

I saw this in an LAT article on the CEO of Deusch LA:

"I do a lot of speeches now, and I always start by saying, 'I will tell you the secret to life.

Every day you wake up, brush your teeth, drive to work, work your butt off, come home, watch TV and go to bed.

On weekends, you party and then start the week all over again.

The key is to inject out-of-the-ordinary experiences into that backdrop. Go someplace with people you hardly know. That's the secret to life: Inject life with these new experiences. Scare yourself a little.'"

That's how he met Deutsch. "I went to this advertising breakfast-dorkfest that I really didn't want to go to, but I met this person who would later tell me to meet Donny.

Every time I do something that I really don't want to do, it turns out to be a memorable experience."

Love that!

Heavy Metal

From the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine:
"Jane Hallworth’s 1955 Spartan Aircraft Imperial Mansion All-Aluminum Trailercoach is completely reconstructed and re-imagined.
The caravan sports an array of elegant, unexpected details and finishes, including an interior skin of sumptuous reclaimed rosewood, sleek modern hardware and a full Miele kitchen."
We like.

Are You An Eco-Terrorist?

"Eco-Terrorists" are what landscaper John Greenlee labels people who have grass lawns.
Rather severe, but we get the point.
His new book, “The American Meadow Garden: Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn.” again takes direct aim at lawns.
bettershelter is a fan of NO LAWNS.
Lawns are wasteful and completely non-sustainable.....

For more info on what sort of options you have instead of a lawn, go to the Lawn Reform website
Thanks to LAT for info.

The Barn Featured In Los Angeles Times

Corey's barn is featured in the Los Angeles Times!
Barbara Thornburg wrote a great article.
Says Barbara:
"Where many see junk, Corey Gash envisions design possibilities. The window display artist convinced his family to leave its comfortable, two-bedroom town house in Orange last year for a run-down barn in Costa Mesa that once housed chickens and, later, a boat-building operation."

Corey has worked with me on my occasions and is very talented....I am very happy for his success!
See whole article HERE

Green Plants That Survive Gray Water

Water is the new gold.
As water grows scarcer, you will see imaginative ways to save the precious commodity.
That is what's so great about people, they can figure anything out!
The LA Times has a great article on grey water and planting.

Says the Times:
"Carol Bornstein, co-author of "California Native Plants for the Garden," found 13 public gardens using reclaimed water in the summer in her hometown of Santa Barbara, and she listed the native plants doing well in those gardens. Her list may be as useful for home gardeners as it is for park-keepers, particularly with planting season coming and more Southern Californians looking to recycle their gray water for use in the landscape."
See whole article HERE

Toolboxes Have Feelings Too

A recent Alice Supply Co article appeared in the Los Angeles Times

"Anyone with tricky pipes knows the truth about plungers: They are just plumb ugly, destined to be hidden in the closet or garage along with dustpans, buckets and toolboxes. Well, no more. "The humble dustpan's days of being shoved away will soon be over," swears Maria Barnes, left, co-founder of the Alice Supply Co. with Raili Clasen, right. "Toolboxes have feelings too."

Toolboxes certainly do have feelings!
Way to go!
Read whole article HERE

Grey Water Coming Closer To California?

As reported in the LA Times:
"California may adopt a more lenient gray water code as early as August.
Under the new code, a clothes washer or other single-fixture, residential gray water system, such as a shower, could be installed or altered without a construction permit.

That’s a complete reversal of the present state requirement that homeowners installing systems to recycle the waste water from their sinks, showers, bathtubs and laundry machines conform to Appendix G of the California plumbing code, which requires that gray water systems not only be permitted by the appropriate administrative authority but installed underground with extensive filtering apparatus."

Good news, it is about time!

Vertical Plant Walls

A recent article this week in the Los Angeles Times features vertical plant walls.
I have been a huge fan of plant walls for a long time, I have mentioned them before on this blog.

Plant walls have a surreal quality to them, they remind me of the Maurice Sendak book, "Where The Wild Things Are". I loved that book as a kid. Still do.

I teach a design class at Orange Coast College; I showed some examples of vertical plant walls in one of my classes and when it came time for the students to do their final design projects, lo and behold, some of them incorporated plant walls into their designs.

I used a plant wall for the entry to 12@ELDEN, it helped the whole project to break up the scale.

bettershelter says: DO IT VERTICAL STYLE!

Where The Wild Things Are, below

12@ELDEN, below
OCC class project, below. Pretty good!Below is another example of a plant wall, not as organic,
more design oriented but a great solution.

Andrew Virtue At Greystone Show House 2008

Our good friend Andrew Virtue is participating in the Greystone Show House 2008.
Says the LA Times: "Veranda magazine editor-at-large Carolyn Englefield, lined up 28 interior and landscape designers from Southern California and beyond -- a list that includes Martyn, Lawrence-Bullard, Suzanne Rheinstein, Windsor Smith, Rose Tarlow and David Phoenix. Englefield's directive: Create the feel of a Great Gatsby-style home taken into the 21st century." Her second request, perhaps even harder to fulfill: "Make it feel like a real home."

We had Andrew decorate one of our model homes at 1.7 Ocean, his home looked FANTASTIC and people LOVED IT.
We know Andrew to be extremely talented and creative.
Bravo, Andrew!

Andrew's room at Greystone



Andrew's home at 1.7 OceanAndrew relaxing in his 1.7 Ocean bungalow

Need A Mortgage? No Problem.

From an article in today's Los Angeles Times:
"Credit squeeze, credit freeze, credit system seizures: Everybody knows how severe and painful the global financial breakdown has been -- with banks unwilling to lend even to other banks.
But what about mortgages? Can you still get a home loan with less than a 20% or 30% down payment? Or with a credit score below 720?
Absolutely. It would be a big stretch to label housing the sunny side of the market at the moment, but there's more light there than in other financial sectors. Consider these facts:
* There is no shortage of money available for home mortgages, no freezing of credit to purchase or refinance a house. Why? Because the American mortgage market effectively has been federalized -- at least for the time being.
More than 90% of new loans now are being made through the Federal Housing Administration insurance program, plus Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. FHA is owned by the federal government, and Fannie and Freddie are operating under federal conservatorship. All three have unfettered access to global capital markets at rock-bottom costs because their borrowings are fully guaranteed by the Treasury. Ginnie Mae, which is FHA's pipeline to the bond market, recorded an all-time high of $29 billion in new mortgage-backed securities issued in August.
* Despite the global financial system's quakes, mortgage rates not only remain low by historical standards but have actually declined recently. For the week that ended Oct. 8, according to the Mortgage Bankers Assn., 30-year fixed rates fell to an average 5.99%, and 15-year mortgages averaged 5.71%. Freddie Mac said 30-year rates dropped to an average 5.94%."

Good news if you are looking at 12@ELDEN.
Some kitchens from ELDEN featured below.