The closing

Hello, everyone...

I just wanted to write and say that I won't be blogging here anymore. But I wanted to share some good news-- at the end of June, I was sold to new owners. My old owners moved on to start another life somewhere else. We had good times. That's for sure.

My life will continue as a house. I still have my wonderful views. But I won't be blogging anymore.

Before I go, I wanted to share this one last thing with you. It's another slideshow from the Apartment Therapy people. But this one is from the editors of THE KITCHEN.

Check me out:

Kitchen Spotlight: Stephanie & Bob's Primary Colors - The Kitchen

I thank you for reading as long as you did. I had a lot to say. Now it's time for a new beginning.

Love & best wishes,

2471 Silver Ridge

Selling myself from the inside out: Estate Sale This Weekend!

Well, it has been quite a while since last blogged. And a lot has happened. My owners tried everything to keep me, but had to sell me in the end. And I'm told that I'm now "in escrow"... and will soon have new owners - "If all goes well, fingers crossed, knock on wood," my current owners keep saying.

So...
2009 is a big year for me.
Out with the old and in with the new!

Speaking of that... my furnishings are being sold this weekend. June 13th & 14th from 8-3 is the big Estate Sale. Here's the flier:

ESTATE SALE in SILVER LAKE: Sat 6/13 and Sun 6/14 from 8 AM–3 PM

The beautiful objects in this beautiful home are up for sale!

Estate Sale at 2471 Silver Ridge Avenue in the lovely Silver Lake neighborhood this weekend – Saturday and Sunday 8 AM to 3 PM.

The house made famous by starting its own blog (didn’t know houses could do that did you) and featured in an Apartment Therapy House Tour is having an everything-must-go sale and it wants you to be there. The house is full of great finds from the Rosebowl Flea Market – they can be your finds now! It’s a sale but it’s also a celebration of a wonderful chapter in a house’s life that is now making room (literally) for new owners and their new stories.

Check out the Apartment Therapy House Tour: here

Check out the Picasa Web album with some pictures of specific items: here

A very nice person wrote that for me. Thank you, nice person.

I do hope lots of people will come to the sale and buy things to help make room for the new owners. See you this weekend? Just think, these vintage Herman Miller counter stools could be yours!

Everywhere You Turn, There's a View... thanks to reflective surfaces

A benefit of the high gloss blue Ikea cabinets is that they brilliantly reflect my view... as shown in the above photo. Check out that palm tree! I love this picture. I love my kitchen. Everywhere you turn, there's a view!

Kitchen cabinets- Ikea (Not sure if they still sell the blue ones... I couldn't find them on their website)

Two Views of Inauguration Day

This is the sunrise and the view from my kitchen window on Inauguration morning- Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

It's a brand new day!

Open again today 1-4

What: Open House
When: Sunday, January 11 1PM - 4PM
Where: 2471 Silver Ridge Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90039 (Silver Lake)

Click here for more info

January Full Moon

My views of the full moon last night:

CASA ABIERTO- ESTE DOMINGO

Translation:
OPEN HOUSE- THIS SUNDAY

40 people came through last Sunday. We had four separate private showings this week. Things are bubbling at this new and fabulous price.

What does $799,000 get you? An incredible house with million dollar views and $130,000 worth of upgrades for free. How's that? The current owners paid $799 and put $130 into my transformation. And it shows.

Turn the key, walk right in, put your feet up and you're home. It doesn't get much better than this.

Open House
Sunday, January 11
1 PM - 4 PM

FIRE, FLOWERS & COOKIES: An Open House Update

The buyers came (lots of them,) they saw...

I declare yesterday's Open House a success! First of all, I looked sensational. Second of all, more than 40 people came through. Of the 40 only three were Realtors, the rest were potential buyers. And several people expressed strong interest. This week will tell whether any of the 40 who came through yesterday will be my future owners.

For any readers out there who are interested, here are 3 things we did to make the house feel extra special:

1. FIRE
We had a fire going. Yes, it was 68 degrees in L.A. yesterday, but no matter. It created a homey feeling and showed off my lovely fireplace (that is both wood burning and gas.) We had a gas fire going so as to avoid the need to continue stoking the fire.

2. COOKIES
There's nothing better than the aroma of freshly baked cookies permeating a house. Take it from this house. Nothing better. Which is why my owner baked a batch of Egg Nog Sugar Cookies an hour before the Open House resulting in:
A. Scrumptious cookies that went quickly &
B. The most delicious aroma known to house

3. FLOWERS
Of course. I probably don't need to say it. But fresh flowers are a necessity. My owners picked up a lovely arrangement from the Atwater Village Farmer's Market in the morning and displayed them throughout the house.

My owners returned at the end of the Open House to find six people still here. Two were neighbors stopping by and four were potential buyers. They were pleased... especially to see how beautiful the view was at 4PM yesterday.

Today my owners told me that they don't want to be selfish and that's why they're selling the house. So someone else can enjoy this view for a while.

It's good to share.

New Year, New Price, Great House: I'm Open Tomorrow

Sunday, January 4th from 1-4 PM

That's when I'm open. Come on by. See what I feel like in the winter. See the views of the snow covered mountains. Make an offer. Make me yours.

The Best Bargain in Silver Lake... a Mid-Century Modern View Home for $799,000

Well, there comes a time where every house has to re-evaluate his/her worth. That time for me has come. I've been on the market for four months now and each month it just gets worse out there. So... as a reflection of the times we live in (not my worth- because we all know I'm worth over a mil) my selling price has been reduced...

...by $76,000! Yes, I'm now listed for $799,000! Get me while you can! Because I'm going... going...

and will soon be gone.

The New Listing sheet: 2471 Silver Ridge Avenue

What a Space Shuttle Fly-By Feels Like

So I'm just sitting here enjoying a sunny Sunday... no rain, no wind, no fires... when I feel this sudden JOLT. My windows pulse as though some invisible force is about to suck them out. I feel almost pulled towards something that is gone before I realize what it is. I'm shaken. I'm thinking earthquake. Because that's what you think when you're a house in Southern California and you're suddenly moved by something unseen. I have to say that it felt different than a quake. But, quakes do come in all shapes and sizes. So I settle on that theory. And am proven wrong.

What was it?

The Space Shuttle Endeavor.

The Space Shuttle. Endeavor. Space Shuttle. Space! Shuttle!

At 1:25 PM (PST) today the Space Shuttle Endeavor landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base- 101 miles Northeast of me in Boron, California. Endeavor was scheduled to land at Cape Canaveral but was rerouted due to nasty weather in Florida.

Two Sonic Booms occurred when the shuttle broke the sound barrier. And that's what I felt. The Sonic Booms. BOOM! BOOM! I'm still a little woozy from it all. But happy that the shuttle landed safely and feeling like a part of NASA today.

Endeavor Lands Safely at Edwards - ABC Local News

Space Shuttle Diverted to Socal - LA Times

Smoke gets in my eyes (My view of the L.A. fires)

As a house on a hill I see a lot. Right now, my usual view is clouded. By smoke. From several nearby fires. I'm safe, though. No embers flying this way. (Knock on myself.)

I do feel so sorry for those houses that have been destroyed by these fires. And I want to send a shout out to every house's hero: The Firefighters who risk their lives to save us.

The Sylmar fire caught my attention right away as I had a perfect view when it flared up on Friday night around 10:30 PM. It looked so close as thought it could have been Burbank burning. I saw it before it even hit the news. My owner snapped a photo. It's not the greatest. But you can get a sense of it. The flames were quite pronounced at the start before the smoke clouded the sky.

The second photo- the view of the smoke- was taken this morning from my roof. Needless to say, all my doors and windows are closed. Nobody's breathing too easily in L.A. today.

I have HOPE - Houses for Barack Obama

Considering that most houses don't have a say in the matter over what political sign their owners stick in the front yard, I was so relieved when my owners crawled up my front hillside and displayed the OBAMA/BIDEN HOPE sign!

Houses for Barack Obama!
Houses can't vote (yet) but YOU can

My Halloween Costume

Feliz Dia de los Muertos! It's the first of November and I'm recovering from my night of Halloween entertaining. I went as a SPOOKY house for Halloween. There wasn't much in the budget for my costume so we went with atmosphere. How was the spooky accomplished?

1. Multimedia. Why not let the classic scary films do all the work for me? That's what I thought. So I borrowed two digital projectors from friends and projected scary movies. In the living room the classic "Psycho" was projected onto my ceiling. The second projector was placed in the bedroom and projected out onto the exterior wall by the bbq. For that one, the movies rotated between "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "An American Werewolf in London," and "Young Frankenstein." The movies added so much atmosphere.

2. Candles. Lots of them. Spooky.

3. A smoke machine. I borrowed this too. It was cool when my owners remembered to use it. You give them one job and.... well, you know. If you want something done you gotta do it yourself.

I also got three orange paper lanterns from a store in Chinatown that added to the Halloween ambiance. And the dark and stormy Los Angeles sky certainly helped with mood. (I can't take credit for that.)

Enjoy the pictures!

My Debut on Apartment Therapy LA!

BREAKING NEWS!!

Yours truly is a featured House Tour on Apartment Therapy LA today. And people love me! Thank you to the Apartment Therapy readers who have left lovely comments about me.

How did this happen? Well, when I started my blog, I contacted Apartment Therapy just to say hello. You know. Hello, I'm a house and I started my own blog. Anyway, Gregory Han wrote back to say, "Cool blog. Would you be interested in a house tour?" It was as simple as that. Two weeks ago Gregory (who happens to live in Silver Lake) came to see me and took lots and lots of photos. He has a wonderful eye and his photos, if I may say, are simply delicious. I especially like the close up of the Little Red Riding Hood cookie jar head. (A story for another day.)

Here is what Gregory writes about his visit to 2471 Silver Ridge:

"Sitting ontop of winding section of Silver Lake known as Silver Ridge, the home of nearby neighbors Stephanie and Bob Walker affords the couple a near 180 degree view of Los Angeles that stretches from the Hollywood Sign across to nearby Glendale, and all the way to the eastern most San Gabriel Mountains. Although the home is modest in size by modern standards, the home feels expansive thanks to the open floor plan, a liberal amount of large windows and the thoughtful placement of furnishings that are all accentuated by individual colour schemes for each room that runs the gamut from bold and graphical to subtle and soothing." - Gregory Han (AT LA)

House Tour: Stephanie & Bob's Silver Ridge Sanctuary - Apartment Therapy LA

Oh, HOW I'm blushing!

So, I have a crush... on a house that is way out of my league. It began as pure admiration and has grown into love. This amazing home is located just up the street from me at 2422 Silver Ridge Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90039. Designed by Rudolph M. Schindler with landscaping by Richard Neutra, there's plenty to admire. The house was built in 1925 and is considered a Schindler Masterpiece. It even has a proper name: How House.

Yes, 2422 is definitely out of my league. I admit that. But I can't help but drool. And can you really blame me? Especially now that I've seen pictures of the interior. How, you ask? Well, because the How House is on the market (for a cool $4,995,000) and the pictures are easily accessible to any curious house... or person, for that matter.

Take a look for yourself:
Schindler's How House (my crush) 2422 Silver Ridge Ave. - Redfin

New to the Market: Schindler's How House in Silver Lake - Curbed LA

You are invited to a Virtual Open House

Click here to enter and enjoy!

Where did you find that bed?!

Just as without a roof I would be unfinished (and extremely vulnerable), without furniture, decorations, art and accessories I would be... the same. Unfinished. Vulnerable. Naked, frankly, and unfriendly towards my inhabitants.

What I realized recently is that many of my cherished furnishings and decorations were sourced at one fruitful location...

The Rose Bowl Flea Market

Every time my owners go, they returns with nuggets. Wonderful finds for a fantastic value. These are three of my favorites:


The bed has a story. It is a Swedish platform bed with floating nightstands and a drawer built in for storage underneath. It is the exact bed my owner wanted for the guest room. She searched all over for the right one, but they all exceeded her budget. Until she found this bed at the Rose Bowl Flea Market. My owners pulled into the giant parking lot at 7AM in a U-Haul they had rented for the bed they had yet to find. Climbing out of the U-Haul a fellow market shopper scoffed: "Someone's a little confident." Confident. Yes. They would find the bed that day. And they did. Within ten minutes of arriving. It was there waiting for them for a steal. $500.


This Rose Bowl find is more of a temporary solution to the large blank wall space in the dining/living room. We want to put several matching low credenzas there with art work hanging above. But several matching credenzas would be, I'm told, expensive. So this wonderful mid-century credenza and hutch was purchased as a placeholder for $300.



The mosaic. It's grown on me. It was a gift from my owner's mother to celebrate the kitchen re-design. I'm told that she spotted it at the Rose Bowl Flea Market and had to squash her enthusiasm so as to be able to talk the seller down. Which she did. I don't know where the price began, but she walked away with this wonderful grounding piece of handmade art that hangs above the stove in a "I was made for this spot" sort of manner for $60.

The Rose Bowl Flea Market happens the 2nd Sunday of every month at The Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Color Inspiration in a bag of beans

When the glass back splash originally planned for the kitchen turned out to be a bit too pricey, Rebecca (the designer) suggested a brightly colored back splash created with high gloss paint (easy to clean.)

The color chosen was inspired by a bag of Black Cat Espresso beans by Intelligentsia Coffee that my owner (an Intelligentsia enthusiast) had left out on the counter for aesthetic reasons.

"I just love the bright color of the packaging and how it looks on the counter," said my owner.
"Why don't we paint the back splash that color, then," replied Rebecca.
"That color? Really?" said my owner.
"Yes!"

And so they did. A good move, if I may say. Such a bold, happy color inspires great creativity. A good thing for a kitchen.

SUNDAY OPEN SUNDAY

I'm open from 2-5 PM today just for you.

So if you're skipping the beach or the park or the traffic on the 5, come on over to Silver Ridge Avenue for a little tour. My pictures are pretty, yes. But nothing is better than seeing me in person. Honestly, what's better than touring open houses in Silver Lake on Labor Day weekend? I can't think of anything. Nothing at all.

Open House
Today (Sunday, August 31)
2-5 PM

2471 Silver Ridge Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90039