Monday, May 25, 2009

What IS The Orbit Room?

For months I've been discussing the progress on our new lounge, The Orbit Room. I'd make a passing reference and people would say:

• "What's an Orbit Room?"

• "What do you mean by a 'lounge?'"

• "Is this replacing the Rat Pack Tiki Bar?"

• "How many bars can two people reasonably enjoy in one house?"

It all started last fall, when we were trying to decide what to do with a curious room in what we call "the sub basement." It's a quad-level house so every level has a name: Second floor, first floor, basement, sub-basement.

The room looked like this:

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The wall was cantilevered with a square hole which confused us, until we contacted the former owner. It turns out, he built the wall for his son's train set and the hole allowed his son to sit in the middle of his train village and operate the set. Very ingenious. And while we liked the "bones" of this area, part of the wall would have to fall...

We decided we wanted to make this a relaxing room, a lounge of sorts. We considered various themes until we happened across this sign online:

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The Orbit Room was born.

For the past seven or eight months, we've begun the process of outfitting the room with a mid-century flair. Think: Jetsons meets the Rat Pack in a Eames blender. It's complicated...

The Internet became the colors to our blank canvas. HomeDecoratorsOutlet.Com, eBay.com and Overstock.com became frequent stops.

Patiently, we scored huge deals. A pair of bar stools that cost $340 new was found for $60 on eBay since they were floor models. A chrome bar that once sold for $299 was $49 after a coupon on HomeDecoratorsOutlet.com. That same site yielded a $300 chair for $89 a $589 endtable for $69 and a chrome/plexiglass pub table that once sold for $200 for $59. A $200 lamp at J.C. Penney's cost $46 after clearance – and Mary's discount.

We scored deals and hid them away in the furnace room section of the sub basement.

Mary patiently painted the walls and even the floor. She spent days recovering the ceiling tiles in fabric.

This weekend, we began to start putting the pieces, as Dave Wannstedt might say, in place, Now, the room is almost done but there are finishing touches yet to come. The fluorescent lights are being replaced, the couch has yet to arrive. Floor molding needs to be done.

Still the room's cool is emerging. That cool was augmented with an early anniversary present: A pinball machine. The name? "Super Orbit," of course.

So, for the curious, here are some sneak peaks at our new, intimate, cool lounge: The Orbit Room.

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THE MAIN BAR

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THE PINBALL GAME

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SAMMY INSPECTS SOME OF THE COOL NEW ORBIT ROOM STUFF

We'll post more when the room is done.

More later.


Mark

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day!

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The fine folks at JibJab didn't have a new Mother's Day video this year, so I can only offer this rerun!

Happy Mom's Day! Enjoy, Mom!

More Later,

Mark

Friday, May 08, 2009

Stroke of Luck

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ERIC AND JEN

My brother Eric gave us another scare a couple of weeks ago when he suffered a stroke. Luckily - if such a term can be used in this kind of circumstance - he was out having a few beers with my Uncle Dan who recognized the signs of a stroke and called 911. He was whisked to the nearby hospital which handled his heart valve operations in 2004 and 2006. They happened to have a neurological team on hand who rushed him into surgery and the clot was promptly removed.

Because of everyone's quick actions, Eric suffered no ill-effects and the physical therapy team deemed him normal after the first visit to his hospital room. In the end, I came to believe that this episode is yet another example of how beer drinking saves lives...

Mary and I scooted across the miles last week to pay him a quick visit. He was released last Wednesday and his fiance Jen, as you can see above, is probably the best medicine. She's smart and wonderful and has stepped in to oversee Eric's transition to a better diet and more carb-free lifestyle. They may never know what caused the stroke but everyone who loves him is just grateful for the final outcome. I only have one brother and I want to keep him around!

While visiting, we got re-introduced to his menagerie. Like our household, Eric has three cats. The eldest is Foggy, who I usually just see via a quick glance. The ruler of the home is the huggable and talkative Guinness...

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GUINNESS

That big ball of loveable fur is Chumley, who must weigh nearly 40 pounds...

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CHUMLEY

Chumley is just about the nicest cat you'd ever run into ... But Guinness has a lot of personality, too.

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ERIC AND GUINNESS

It was good to see Eric and Jen again, though I'm sure we would all prefer less extreme circumstances. He lives in a great town, Normal, Ill., that has a cool downtown featuring a terrific comic book shop and a couple of used music shops, so it was good to spend some time together when we headed out the first day after he got home.

In the past week, Eric has continued to make great progress and even attended his school's honors program. He's a great teacher - the handmade get-well cards he received from his high school students were awesome – and as his year was winding down anyway, he'll get a nice rest before the start of the next school year.

More later,


Mark
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