Category Archives: Renovation

Welcome to the Floor Show

For the past four years we’ve lived in our house,…

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Shedding some light on sheds


A shed is a small building that stands alone on a property.  It is the “jack of all trades” when it comes to storage solutions.  Some folks use their sheds for work, others may stock pile them with odds and ends that don’t have a home.  We recently renovated the shed that came with our property and boy does it look fabulous!
Our shed was just about gone.  The roof had caved in three years prior to our living here and the rain water and elements had wreaked havoc on the inside and the outside walls.  We nearly lost her, but with patience and time we were able to revive a living treasure.

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Office Tour: An Innovative Renovation


It’s that time of year! Tel-Avivans (or is it Tel-Avivians?) open their homes, studios and offices to the public as part of the Houses from Within weekend tours. Last Friday (May 7th) I managed to see a few of the more than a hundred locations! This is  the first of a series of posts.

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Apartment Becomes Art Space

I spent most of my free time in the last month cleaning up a long-neglected apartment in south Tel Aviv with a group of fellow artists. We patched the many craters in the crumbling walls, hauled away mountains of trash left by past tenants, painted everything white, and built a dividing wall in the kitchen.

Salame 97 Before
before

after

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Historic renovation with a green twist


Jay Heritage Center, Rye N.Y.
I recently came across an article in the local news about the Jay Heritage Center, located in Rye New York.  This historic 1838 Greek Revival mansion was the home of  young John Jay, a first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and one time governor of New York and beloved resident of Westchester county. 

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Banking on the future and preserving the past


Wherever I go I always keep my eye open for historically preserved buildings. I spotted the Schiff House (Beit Schiff) a few weeks ago on the corner of Herzl and Lillienblum, Tel-Aviv. The Israel Discount Bank Tower does dwarf it, however the care with which the building was preserved and restored to a museum lends itself to a worthwhile visit.

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Reader Question: What to do with a front entry way?

My girlfriend Sara Eisen actually sent me this picture ages ago. I always meant to get to it – but never did. Until today.
Sara hates the “balatot” (terrazzo) tiles in her front entryway, but getting the area re-tiled isn’t currently an option. So she asked me about cutting out an area of the tiles and putting in decorative tiles instead.
sara_entryway (Small)

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Instant furniture update, paint it!

Green paint brush
Paint is a small miracle waiting to happen, one coat makes it cleaner, two coats give it personality and three coats do the trick for a full update to old furniture.

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Store review: Junktion

Junktion is another store in Jaffa that left me in awe of what can be done with all sorts of stuff instead of throwing it out. Their philosophy that there is enough stuff in the world and that you can create with what already exists is one that I share. The designers at Junktion take what you thought of as JUNK and create something completely out of the ordinary. They like to take things out of context and I am seriously wowed by their designs.
One of the first things that fascinated me was this bar stool made out of bicycle parts. They make several variations of it:
pink chair

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In Celebration of Balconies

Barcelona_balcony_with_closed door
I was looking through some photos I took on past European trips when I came across some beautiful examples of balconies. I think that the balcony (or mirpesset as it’s called in Israel) can be such a decorative feature on a building.

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