sites and sounds

adventures in discovering architecture and music

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Nutone 8060 Mid century modern kitchen exhaust fan

I was very lucky to have this very mid century modern kitchen exhaust fan that came with the house in pretty good cosmetic condition except that fan motor was not working. So I tried to repair or find a replacement motor with no luck. In the meantime, I decided to clean the beautiful grille of this vintage Nutone 8060 exhaust fan using oven cleaner - BIG huge mistake! It destroyed the aluminum grille and made it look like it was rusted out. Devastated, I desperately looked for the exact same model on Craigslist and eBay for months. Miraculously, after about half a year of searching, I found the listing on eBay for almost complete Nutone 8070 kit which was practically the same size/spec as 8060 with original grille, motor and all in mint condition at pretty reasonable price given the condition. It even had the Buy It Now button! Needless to say, I bought it without hesitation and now I got the working mid century exhaust fan in my kitchen. If you are looking for mid century kitchen fan or bathroom fan, check out eBay for vintage exhaust fans - you just might get lucky. There are also OEM versions of those grills available on eBay for various models - square and round.

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Nutone 8070 vintage exhaust fan - aluminum grille 

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Blue Note album cover art

So I have this mid century modern lake house full of wood paneling that I started to work on since last summer. Master bedroom was like a stuffy dungeon with no air circulation so I decided to open up a wall between living and master bedroom so that you can see the lake from the bedroom and get some light and air. In the process, all wood panels were removed and replaced with drywall but it was such a messy, long process that I started to explore alternatives to removing the wood paneling for the rest of the house. That’s when I thought about creating a gallery wall with bunch of large, white frames with Blue Note album cover art to minimize the darkness of wood paneling and use them as backdrop for the art. To accomplish this, I bought several Blue Note Album Cover Art books from Amazon so that I still have at least one book in tact after tearing pages out of other book and put the pages together with square IKEA Ribba frames (19 3/4″ size with 11.5″ opening). I love how they turned out. I always admired the bold typography and design of Reid Miles and this is such a fun way to enjoy them on the wall while minimizing the effect of dark wood panels without going through painful removal process.

Blue Note Album Cover Art:

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Pages from Blue Note album cover art book in white IKEA Ribba frames

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Higashiyama Kaii Setouchi Museum

Located in scenic seaside of Kagawa prefecture in Japan, this museum was built after renowned landscape painter Kaii Higashiyama passed away and his family donated hundreds of his lighographs to Kagawa prefecture. The museum site takes advantage of location with panoramic view of Seto Ohashi bridge which you can see from museum cafe.

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Case Study House #22, Stahl House

What makes this house so special beyond collaborations with architect, Pierre Koenig is the selection of the site and the determination of the owner who spent several years preparing the site by laying blocks on the ground before the house was ready to be built. You can learn more about the story by attending the tours hosted at the Stahl House in Hollywood Hills.

More on L.A. modern houses:

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Case Study House #22, Stahl House