We’ve been so focused on the remodel and haven’t spent much time on our future decor. Actually, our serious lack of funds is dictating that for now. But, I’ve been doing occasional scouring for mid-mod goodies. We can’t afford any great stuff (can you say a Womb chair), but we’ve been picking up some fun things. They ALL need lots of love and work, but here are some previews of fun to come.

Three Nelson lamps – notice how they are stashed in my closet. One small round, one medium round and one large saucer. The small round one is perfect. The medium round has a tear and the large one has a light bulb burn. But, I got them all for $300 and I sorta love them for being imperfect. And, I wouldn’t have been able to afford three perfect Nelson lamps.

My cool little white leather chair. Once upon a time, it was salmon colored. Not so nice. But, after fading and after stripping the leather, it is now just off-white. Who knew you could strip leather? I’m about to re-dye the leather…I’m starting with off-white because I like it so much. It only cost $69 and it is so comfy. This is a placeholder for the Womb chair that I’ll buy after I win lottery.

I don’t have a great picture of these, but my mom found a pair of nice 1950’s green vinyl chairs. They are low slung and cute, but they need to be re-built. My mom and I are trying to re-upholster them in a nice neutral pattern so that I can drag them around the house to any room. I just like the lines on them. And, my mom got to meet the granddaughter of the original owner.

This is my favorite find. It is a beautiful buffet. The side doors slide and lock. The middle drawers are lined for silverware. It’s only 16 inches deep. I had my eye on it for a while, but then my favorite local shop lost their lease and did some deep cuts. I can’t wait to share a home with it.

This light needs a little love, but I really like it. It telescopes up and down. It’s a bit more than I would have paid for a light, but we loved it. And, the new ones (they are still produced) are over $700 or something.

This was my first purchase for the house. I actually bought it before we moved into the house a year ago. It’s the most compact little desk. It was refinished by the same guy that is staining our ceiling, even though we didn’t know him back then.

We got one other light, but it’s all wrapped up and I never got a picture of it. But, it’s one of those swoopy kind of floor lamps that hangs over the room. Not the $2000 famous one, but a knockoff.

The 2009 Arapahoe Acres Home Tour was decidedly a huge success. We had some initial neighborhood resistance to having a ton of people parade through the hood, but a great turn out of lovely mid-mod fans made the day a big success.

7 Homes & 4 Gardens were open for tours from 10A to 2P. We had a little over 150 people attending, including a few City Councilmen and the Mayor of Englewood. The weather was cool, but sunny, and thankfully did NOT snow like this weekend. I got to meet a few lovely online friends from Twitter at the tour, which was a huge bonus.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to tour any of the homes and gardens, but I had seen about half of the homes before. And, Tim toured the homes and the owners said we could crash for informal tours at a later date. (I’ll be there!)

We raised about $3000 for our local elementary school, Charles Hay. My neighbors, Stacie & Cecilia, are parents of children at the school now and are helping launch the school’s new organic gardens. Since I am a future parent of a child that will attend the school, I’m so happy that we were able to raise money for the school while having so much fun.

We’re already talking about next year. We know that we’ll definitely hold tours when we know we’ll have a better guarantee of good weather. Hello summer, we need ya back! And, hopefully, our house will be in good enough shape to tour next year.

So glad that some of you were able to come out and meet us and tour our AA homes!

The Coin House is spectacular! Built in the early 1960’s and designed by Tician Papachristou and Charles Haertling, it is a sprawling, beautiful time capsule. I didn’t think I’d be able to get over there, but we had a few minutes to dash through the house. Here are some of the pics.

Click on this picture to see my entire Flickr Stream:

Here’s a huge bonus! Modern in Denver, the local modernism magazine, is hosting a special event at the Coin House on September 17 from 6-9PM. AND, they are previewing the Visual Acoustics – The Modernism of Julius Shulman film that is showing on September 24 at the Starz Film Center. I ran through the open house like my hair was on fire trying to see all of the cool details. If I had KNOWN about this event where I would get to slowly savor all of the fun loveliness, I would have chilled out. So, if you’re in Denver or anywhere nearby, RSVP at Modern In Denver for this rare event!

Do you have a spare $1.6 Million dollars to spoil yourself with some pristine mid-mod love? This incredible and original home is on the market. I’ve only seen it from the outside, but I’d like to get to the open house there on Thursday from noon to 2pm

Go to MileHiModern’s website for all of the details and property info.

A girl can dream, right? I just hope they find a buyer for this house that will appreciate and love it.

I’m so excited that our neighborhood is hosting a Home & Garden Tour October 3. I believe we’ll have eight homes to tour. The proceeds benefit our local elementary school, Charles Hay. My neighbor, Stacie Smith, is organizing the event and I’m trying to help with some of the planning in between remodeling fun. We’re hoping this becomes an annual event. If so, we’ll be showing our home next year. You know, after it doesn’t look like a war zone.

Tickets can be purchased in advance at Mod Livin on Colfax. Please come out for the tours and invite all your friends!

No posts lately…we’ve been working so much that I haven’t had a chance to blog lately. But, I wanted to shared some fun links for you.

First, Shannon at 5280mod.com alerted me to the Denver a’ la mode blog, which is a Denver fashion, beauty and trend blog. I had not yet seen this blog, but I’ve bookmarked it now. They did a fashion spread with a Mad Men theme set against the background of an Arapahoe Acres house. The Pool House is owned by Dave and Yvonne Steers and is incredible.

Mad Men Fashion at Denver a' la Mode blog.

Secondly, you can see more pics of the Pool House (named for the first home owners) at this next blog. Stacie Smith, another Arapahoe Acres homeowner (and my neighbor 3 houses down), is a professional photographer. She also is the photographer for the Araphoe Acres quarterly newsletter and she has photos for the newsletter on her blog at Stacie’s Musings. I’ve already selected the Arapahoe Acres category so you see photos from four AA houses. They are really beautiful! We just visited the Swets House shown on the blog last week and I was so jealous!

Note: You’ll see the announcement for the planned Arapahoe Acres tour this fall. No date chosen yet, but details to come!