To live and blog in Hemet: Renovating a "brick house"

I was snooping around Kate in the Valley's blog the other day, checking up on Sherman Oaks listings, and Kate recommended a very cool blog about interior design and home remodeling, so I'll pass it on.

If you are interested in what you can do to stylize a '50's-era tract house, check out The Brick House, which tracks the ongoing renovation of a plain-Jane brick house in Hemet. Moto: "All about fixing up a 1950's mid-century cement brick house. Trying to make it awesome and do it on a tight budget."

The blog, and the home decorating, are the work of artist Morgan Satterfield, who lived in Los Angeles before moving to the Brick House in Hemet. Yes, it's in Hemet and it's cool.

The house is still a work in progress. The blog is fun and very accessible — flea market finds, trying to duplicate a look you've seen in a Martha Stewart magazine, paint swatches on the side of the house, etc.

— Peter Viles

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to Peter Viles.

Photo Credit: The Brick House

Comments

[tarbubble]

so wonderful to be reminded that LA does not have a monopoly on coolness or cool people. if there were jobs for us in the IE, we'd be out there in a heartbeat. alas.

[Dan]

My suggestion to anyone contemplating a home renovation project is this. Before starting, before signing any contracts or committing any funds, first have an energy audit performed on the house.

We had an energy audit performed on our 21 year old home last fall and highly recommend it to any home owner of any aged home. It took about 2 hours.

The energy efficiency assessor did all the work and was very helpful in discussing conserns we had and thought on different approaches that would be the most beneficial for different energy inefficiencies in our home. Rather than simply spend money on this or that energy conservation tactic, the home energy audit will provide recommendations that are specific you the individual home.

Each home is like a snow flake or a finger print; unique in and of itself. The report we received gave our home a rating, included charts and graphs on current energy consumption and the degree of improvement we could achieve through the different energy conservation recommendations. Since we couldn't find on the internet a copy of a real home energy audit, we ended up writing about the report we received on our home web site, http://dailyhomerenotips.com/ecoenergy/ in order to encourage others understand how valuable an energy conservation tool a home energy audit can be.

By having a home energy audit before renovating, the home owner will be able to make a fact based decision on prioritizing which renovation projects to spend money on, if an energy conservation project should take precedence over say a bathroom remodeling, which aspects of the planned renovations should be adjusted to conserve energy consumption (e.g. recessed lighting in the ceiling), and so on.

Dan
DailyHomeRenoTips.com

[perks]

Being able to take advantages of a home's original features brings out the character far more than anything straight out of Home Depot ever can. It's great to see that the owners recognized this. Being in the midst of my own renovations I can certainly relate to what they're going through!

[tritesprite]

Love love love this blog.

[janetmay]

Anyone who can make a cinder block home look that good has some talent LOL!

[E]

Looks nice guys! Great finds on the mid-century modern furniture!

see...I'm not always such a PITA.

[Elisabeth Gillespie]

This is a bunch of puerile pap. It sounds like it was written by Martha Stewart. This blog used to be very active and now gets few comments. Peter - this isn't really your doing is it?

[Cedric]

Thanks for this information. I just moved into a home that was built in the 1950's. It's been a challenge. It helps that I have a friend that knows a little about construction. Otherwise I'd be spending thousands and not sure what I'm getting in return. I'll be keeping an eye on this blog for more tips.