Kathy's Remodeling Blog

Keeping up with Kitty Bartholomew

I got an email the other day from my friend Kitty Bartholomew, former HGTV star, with the news that she bought this 1926 house in Ojai, California, and that she will be moving in within two weeks.

The house has 40 feet of covered porch and a studio and fountains and gardens and a greenhouse and Kitty is seriously considering turning it into a wedding venue.

Oh, to be there when Kitty gets started on this house! Kitty's creativity is a force of nature. She lives and breathes her philosophy of "it's not what you don't have, it's what you do with what you do have."

In the next few months, Kitty will move with hurricane-strength energy through the charming village of Ojai, and the tony city of Santa Monica (where her kids and grandkids live) and all points in between to gather the found objects that will eventually "charm up" her new old house.

My main thought is: how can I go live with Kitty for a few months to experience, capture, photograph and report on this upcoming transformation? It's going to be a great ride. Below is how she transformed her own former bedroom.

On the off chance you're not familiar with this phenomenal woman, here's a little primer: She started her TV career on The Today Show, in a little segment where she demonstrated ways to use baskets, then she was one of the original talents when HGTV got started. Her show was called Kitty Bartholomew: You're Home and she took us, the viewers, on tours of interesting houses (not McMansions, but real houses of real people) and she showed us how to do stuff in her studio. She was on The Oprah Winfrey Show several times, and was one of Oprah's favorite decorators.

Even though Kitty does not have a degree in interior design, she's a designer from her core. She's a genius at seeing an object, like a dresser or a picture frame, and understanding instantly whether or not that object is worth saving and if it is, all the different ways it can be changed and enhanced. She has a unique sense of elegance with hands-on grit.

Kitty and I wrote a book together for Rodale called Kitty Bartholomew's Decorating Style: A Hands-On Approach to Creating Affordable, Beautiful and Comfortable Homes. Unfortunately it is out of print. But it's a gorgeous book full of her philosophy and practical knowledge of transforming the objects you have. Ironically, the message in the book is more pertinent in today's economy than it was six years ago. I'd like to republish it one day, or make it available online.

But what I'd really, really like to do is drive to Ojai with my video camera and laptop, stay in that studio, and capture the magic that is just about to happen.

Laundry rooms of the rich and famous — their secret

So I'm sitting here watching HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" with Larry David, one of my many guilty pleasures, and Larry is in one of his typical fixes. He's offered to let the residents of a battered women's shelter use his washer and dryer when theirs has gone on the fritz. Of course, if you know Larry, you know he made this generous offer to make up for being such a jerk in previous interactions.

So in the scene of my great revelation, one of the battered women is loading up the washing machine in the laundry room of Larry's house (you could call it a mansion) and he's rudely suggesting that she's way too big and mean to have been battered. 

And that's when I looked beyond the faux drama unfolding on the screen to the appliances in the background and I realized: Wow! There are two washers and two dryers!

My mind exploded! Can you do that? Is that legal? Who ever thought of having two sets of laundry room appliances? In a home? I once interviewed a woman in Malibu who had two dryers, but that's because she said she had OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) and had to wash pretty much everything in the house everyday.

But having two of each actually looks feasible. With the stacking front-loading units, they take up the same floor space as one set. And if they are newish and super energy- and water-efficient, the two sets probably use less energy and water than one set of older units.

The implications are immense.

In my house, that would mean I or my husband could get a week's worth of laundry done in a few hours, rather than it becoming a daylong marathon.

Plus, we could each do laundry at the same time. In fact, we could each have custody of one pair of appliances so that we'd never have to keep checking to see if the washer was finally free. Think of the family harmony.

Of course, Larry and his peers would likely never know this kind of glee. But I"m sure their housekeepers have a swell time in these awesome rich people's laundry rooms. And I feel happy about that.

Remodeling in History: 1948 — President Truman slammed for building a balcony off the White House

As reported on Kathy's Remodeling Blog:

In 1948, President Harry Truman wanted to add a balcony on the side of the White House and his detractors were up in arms.

"Women especially seem to resent the fact that Mr. Truman is altering the White House a few months before the people are choosing a president," David Lawrence reported in the Spokane Daily Chronicle on Jan. 19, 1948. "The argument is frequently made that Mr. Truman was never elected to the presidency, but got into the White House by accident. If he were to be reelected, it is assumed opinions might be different.

"The President in his press conference replied to criticism in congress that he was only 'a temporary tenant' by saying all presidents are temporary."

(Note: Truman succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his historic fourth term. Truman was indeed elected to a second term and served until Jan. 20, 1953.)

The reporter goes on to say that Truman missed the point and that the White House belongs to the people and any structural changes should be left to an impartial and nonpolitical board, the Fine Arts Commission, which had already rejected the proposal.

"For Mr. Truman to go ahead anyhow, as he is now doing, is not only bad taste, but bad politics," the reporter wrote.

A Republican congressman from Pennsylvania said he objected to the project because the $15,000 would be taken from the maintenance and upkeep fund and he said that was illegal.

Truman was probably trying to recreate the ambiance of his beloved home in Key West, Fla., (below) which was known as the Little White House.

See more celebrities, porches and outdoors

Flaunting Ashton Kutcher's luxury studio trailer is in very poor taste . . . but I wanna touch it!

As you well know, the rich are getting richer and the rest of us are going the other way. The whole economy is rigged that way and you wonder how long it will go on.

As our new two-class economy unfolds, it seems disgusting for rich people to flaunt their riches, doesn't it? So why am I so enamored with the trailer Ashton Kutcher will be staying in as he films for his new Two and a Half Men gig?

Coming from what I refer to lovingly as "a long line of Okies and alcoholics," I just love me a traveling house on wheels. It might be from the days of covered wagons when my Mormon ancestors moved west to escape persecution. Or it might have been during the dustbowl when another line of ancestors headed to farms in California.

Whatever the reason, this $2 million luxury trailer is friggin' fantastic! Check it out. You've got your bump-outs to make it a double wide. You've got your hydraulic roof that raises to open up the second story. I've had a couple of pop-top VW campers during my life that did pretty much the same thing with canvas and screen material. And I'll tell you, it is thrilling to suddenly have headroom when camping!

The trailer Mr. Demi Moore will be using on the lot will be 1,200 square feet with granite countertops in the kitchen, two bathrooms and seven large flat-screen TVs. Of course, he won't have expansive views of the salt flats as shown here, but will be likely be looking at the side of a sound studio or another trailer.

I'm sure there are more delights in this rig, and I'd love to have a grand tour of it. Yes, it's a disgusting display of wealth. And yes, I want to touch it.

The Vanilla Ice Project: A revealing Q&A with the rapper-turned-remodeler

In 1990, he created a sensation with his hip-hop single, Ice Ice Baby. Two decades, several public controversies, and many life lessons later, Rob Van Winkle emerges from the shadow of his alter-ego, Vanilla Ice, to debut a mellow, more mature attitude and a new show, The Vanilla Ice Project, on the DIY Network. 

We spoke exclusively with the rapper-turned-remodeler about his life in and out of the public eye, and how he found solace as a professional DIYer.

The Vanilla Ice Project premeires October 14th on the DIY Network. In it, Rob Van Winkle renovates this 7,000-square-foot mansion in Florida. Photo: DIY Network

When you hear the name Vanilla Ice, you probably think of the young, cocky rapper who exploded onto the music scene with his 1990 hit, Ice Ice Baby -- the first hip-hop single ever to top the Billboard charts. You probably would not imagine the serene, grounded, knowledgeable gentleman I spoke with by phone recently following an appearance of his in London.

During his early adulthood and beyond, Vanilla Ice -- born Rob Van Winkle in 1967 -- drew both fame and disdain for his outsized personality, over-the-top outfits and hairstyles, and -- a bit later -- his onscreen rants while destroying sets on MTV and VH1's The Surreal Life. While most of these antics happened years ago, they live on in YouTube clips and the collective public memory.

In the past decade, though, out of the camera's eye, Rob got married, had two children, rediscovered his childhood love of making things, and grew into an accomplished builder, renovator and savvy house-flipper. "A lot of the things I do in these homes are personally gratifying," Rob told me. "You can cross your arms at the end and say 'Wow. I did that,' and you can take pride in it."

Most recently, Rob landed his own half-hour series, The Vanilla Ice Project, which premieres October 14th on the DIY Network. In it, he chronicles his experiences flipping a 7,000-square-foot mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.

We had a few questions for the star of the show:

Rapper-turned-remodeler Rob Van Winkle installs hardwood flooring in his new TV show, the Vanilla Ice Project. Photo: DIY Network

DIY Life: How did you get into flipping (buying, fixing up and selling) homes?

Rob: I learned to invest in real estate by accident. When I was in my early 20s, I earned a ton of money; about $20 million. I'm not a rocket scientist. I don't know anything about the stock market. So I thought, "Ok, I'm going to buy a home in L.A. because I work a lot in L.A." I bought a home in New York City too -- on Bleecker Street in [Greenwich] Village -- because I'm there 3 or 4 months out of the year. And I bought myself a ski resort house in Snowbird, Utah.

For three years I was on tour around the world. Finally I went back home and looked [around my] houses. No one had been there, and there were cobwebs in the corners. I stood there going, "Gee, I spent all this money on these houses and haven't used any of them. [I'll just] sell 'em all and if I need [someplace to live] I'll rent something." When I sold the homes, I made money on every single one of them -- hundreds of thousands of dollars. I thought, "You've got to be kidding me. It can't be this easy." Of course, that's when real estate was really good (in the 1990s).

Finally I bought a home on Star Island in Miami Beach, and I lived there for 11 years. I was a bachelor and had like 14 bedrooms. So I had [the house] decorated. I had a purple room. I had a red TV room. It was like a big nightclub. I'm talking bachelor pad to the -nth degree. I loved it for a year or so and then I'm like, "It's just not feeling like home. I want to get out of there. I want to take vacations." I didn't even want to stay in my own house. And I always had to have friends over. I'd say to them, "Can you come spend the night with me? I'm lonely. I'll pay for your plane flight."

Read the whole story

Lisa LaPorta's new website

The first thing I do when an episode of Designed to Sell comes on HGTV is check to see if Lisa LaPorta is the designer host. No offense to other worthy designers on the show, but Lisa is my favorite. She's real. She's talented. She's calm. She's classy. I just prefer to spend by Designed to Sell time with her.

Now, spending quality time with Lisa has gotten easier because of her newly launched website: LisaLaPorta.com.

The site has these sections: Remodel. Decorate. Style. Get Organized. DIY. Forum.

Plus, you can check out her YouTube videos.

As you might have expected, the site is as classy as Lisa is.

'The Vanilla Ice Project' coming Oct. 14 to DIY Network

You remember Vanilla Ice? The white rapper famous for the 1990s hit "Ice Ice Baby"? Watch it here

Well, who knew the rest of the story? Vanilla Ice, whose real name is Rob Van Winkle, has become a very savvy home builder and investor during the past decade in South Florida, where he lives with his wife and two kids. Even in a weak market, Rob has done well, buying distressed foreclosures and short sales, fixing them up, and selling them for great profit. Read the story in the New York Times.

The Vanilla Ice Project follows Rob and his crew as they fix up a gutted 7,000-square-foot mansion in Palm Beach. I've seen two episodes (ah, the reporter's life) and it's a really terrific show. See the beginning of the show here. It's like Monster Garage meets Miami Ink (for the tattoos) meets Extreme Home Makeover.

Rob is a hands-on guy and really knows his subject. Plus, he's beyond charming. Tune in Oct. 14 and let me know your thoughts.

By the way, Rob is enjoying even more renewed success as two teen brothers in the U.K. — John and Edward, known as Jedward — have become wildly famous for their mashup of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" and Queen's "Under Pressure," where Rob got the original beat for his song. Watch it here

Chip Wade from HGTV's 'Curb Appeal: The Block' answers some of our questions

Celebrity boot raffle at home show to benefit BP oil disaster victims

This is brilliant benevolence. The Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans has teamed up with Catholic Charities to raffle off boots decorated by celebrities, chefs, sports figures, politicians and others to benefit victims of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The raffle happens Sept. 17 to 19 at the inaugural launch of the New Orleans Home + Design Show at the Morial Convention Center. Buy raffle tickets here.

Check out some of the boots you could win:

From Terrance Osborne, one of my favorite artists:

From Chef John Besh:

From New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton:

And from Hoda Kotb from NBC's "Today" Show:

 

See the whole list here.

 
 

Angelina and Brad's $40 million fixer upper

Think you've got massive remodeling challenges? Consider the issues that must be inside the $40 million Italian villa that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt just bought. After all, it's from the 1700s and is 18,000 square feet. 

I suspect the local building community is beyond thrilled at this upcoming boost to the economy.

See the whole story on Shelter Pop.

Want to be fashion forward? Go back to the 1950s

It's been said that home fashions follow the fashion world. It's also been said that this year's fashion statements are right from the '50s

And look at this photo of Vogue editor Anna Wintour and actress Blake Lively at Fashion Week in New York City. See a little '50s vibe in the mix?

If you want to be fashion forward in your own home decorating, consider some of these iconic '50s looks:

Yes, the 1950s were wacky and colorful. Who knew? Think "I Love Lucy" and "The Jackie Gleason Show." It was a brief respite between World War II and the Vietnam War. We had the Korean War, of course, but that seemed manageable compared to what was to come. So why are the '50s back in fashion? Perhaps we yearn for those innocent days. A little touch of this in your home may well bring about some subtle inner peace. (Photo: Apartment Therapy)

(Wintour photo: USA Today)

New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton's wife has a whole lotta shoes . . . and a great closet for storing them

If it wasn't for the poisonous Chinese drywall used in the house owned by New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton and his lovely wife Beth, there may not have been a massive remodel to get rid of that drywall.

And if there hadn't been a massive remodel, she may not have gotten these awesome shelves on which to store her shoes. So you see? All's well that ends well.

See more pictures of the couple's house in Mandeville, La., and a story of the remodel.

(Photo: Ellis Lucia / Times-Picayune)

Oval Office Before and After — Hot or Not Hot?

Since the 1930s, every president except Jimmy Carter has redecorated the Oval Office. 

Here is the office as decorated by George W. Bush:

And here is the remodel by Barack Obama:

 

And a side-by-side view:

 
 How do you think Obama's team did?

Here's a story of the decorating. Photos by AP.

Kitty Bartholomew: Extreme beauty on a ceiling

Check out this mural on an awkwardly shaped ceiling, which Kitty Bartholomew of HGTV fame had painted in her bedroom. Typically a tray ceiling is a real boost to a home's architecture. But in this 1930s Cape Cod home, it was out of place. The room had apparently been added on and the modern style of the ceiling didn't match the rest of the home. With this mural, the room takes on the feeling of a beautiful sanctuary under a blue sky.

What do you look for in a flea market chair?

What do you look for in flea market chairs? 

Kitty Bartholomew of HGTV fame shares two tips:

1) Look for chairs with a seat that can be taken off and recovered. Turn it over and see if there are screws holding the seat to the frame. If there are, the potential for recovering the seat is unlimited. 

2) Try to see beyond the seat fabric. In this case, a bold tropical fabric would look much better with these rattan frames than the old-fashioned floral fabric on there now. And you know, you can paint those frames. Black lacquer would be interesting.

Photo: Sharon Cavanagh, Copyright Kathy Price-Robinson and Kitty Bartholomew

Jennifer Aniston's sumptuous bed: DIY instructions here

When Jennifer Aniston's home turned up in Architectural Digest last month, the bed in the master bedroom really caught my eye. As you can see above, it's an oversized platform with two "ears" for low-slung night stands.

I can imagine one of those ultra-comfortable memory foam mattresses sitting atop this platform. It's just too yummy.

Best of all, you could actually make this bed yourself with a few tools and a little skill. I asked nationally known carpentry guru Gary Katz of This Is Carpentry for some tips, and he went ahead and drew the whole DIY process out for us.

Check out Gary's drawings on how to make this bed at DIY Life.

(Photo: Architectural Digest)

Coach Sean Payton wants to know: Does your house contain tainted drywall?

By Kathy Price-Robinson for DIY Life:

Lately, when Louisiana residents like myself see New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton on TV, it's usually not in reference to the Saints' first-ever trip to the Super Bowl February 7.

Rather, in numerous ad spots, Payton can be seen discussing tainted drywall from China that was used in his home in Mandeville, just north of New Orleans. In the ads, he urges homeowners to take notice and perhaps seek legal help.

Payton is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed last month in U.S. District Court against Knauf Plasterboard Tainjin Co. Ltd, a Chinese drywall manufacturer. According to Payton and and his attorneys, ingredients in the drywall smell like rotten eggs, and corroded certain metal components in the house -- such as plumbing and electrical equipment -- and caused his family to become sick. Payton now considers his house uninhabitable and moved his family out.

See the whole story at www.diylife.com

Flash Bulletin — Mike Holmes is single!

A breathtaking bit of news from HGTV popped up on my Twitter page the other day. Here's what it said:

What is our #1 question lately? "Is Mike Holmes married?" And the answer is...NO! He is single :)

This brings to mind a follow-up question:

WHAAAAT?

I mean, isn't Mike Holmes, star of Holmes on Homes, exactly what so many women crave? He's a knight in shining armor, galloping in to rescue us from the bad guys (other contractors). And he's big and brutish. And he wears those undershirts to reveal his guns. I bet he even smells good.

Doesn't it seem like women would be all over this guy? Is he looking for a woman? Was that the purpose of the tweet from Twitter?

What's your take on this breaking news from HGTV?

HGTV Casting Calls

Just as the Internet has allowed everyone to become a publisher, HGTV is making it possible for all of us to be TV stars. (Well, if we're attractive and bubbly, that is.)

The shows below are looking for guests and information that may be used in a show. Anything here fit your situation?

Let a Design Star Update Your Home
HGTV Design Star
MORE INFO >

Let Steve Watson help with your home improvements
Don't Sweat It
MORE INFO >

Are You Considering Buying a House With Friends or Family?
MORE INFO >

Compete With Your Neighbors in a Home Design Showdown
Battle on the Block
MORE INFO >

Have You Recently Renovated a Room in Your Home?
Bang for Your Buck
MORE INFO >

Are You Buying a Home Outside the United States?
House Hunters International
MORE INFO >

Are You A Homeowner Selling Your First Place In Denver or Philadelphia?
My First Sale
MORE INFO >

We're Looking for Couples Who Need Help Designing a Room
Apply now and you could get a room update with the help of an HGTV designer, plus we'll send you on a vacation getaway!
MORE INFO >

Pam Anderson allegedly owes contractors $674,043 for remodeling work

Pamela Anderson is drowning in financial debt and needs a lifesaver.

The former “Baywatch” star, 42, allegedly owes $1.1 million to various construction companies for remodeling work on her Malibu home as well as back state taxes, L.A. County records show.

According to the documents, five different construction companies have filed liens against her home, the largest being $674,043 for “labor and materials ... to remodel main house, construct swimming pool, construct foundations for guest house.”

via www.msnbc.msn.com

(Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)

Jay Leno's on board with bird-friendly, neighborhood-friendly wind turbines

Got wind? I love the idea of harnessing that clean power. But when I found out that many wind farms are set in the paths of migratory birds and that the turbines kill scores of birds annually, well, my support of the technology dried up.

Plus, those giant windmills are pretty much a nonstarter for individual residences. Imagine a loud whoop-whoop-whoop coming from your neighbor's roof. Not.

So I was happy to see vertically oriented wind turbines, sold by PacWind in Torrance, that are not only said to be friendly to birds, but also are appropriate for use in urban areas. Ed Begley Jr., star of Living With Ed, is a spokesman for the company and points out that PacWind turbines are silent and compatible with solar power and grid-tied systems.

And now Jay Leno, whose green garage is featured in Popular Mechanics, installed a PacWind turbine to help with his garage's massive energy needs.

The smallest unit offered by PacWind is the Seahawk, pictured. It is 30 inches wide and 48 inches tall, costs about $3,000 and can be used for homes, boats, buildings, lighting, emergency power and remote power, such as an automatic gate at the end of a long driveway.

More info . . .
See more green building and remodeling

What do you think? Would you invest in a wind turbine for your home?