Monumental Art

Planet by Mark Quinn
I'm trying to figure out how I can wangle a trip to the UK to see Sotheby's Beyond Limits: A Selling Exhibition of Modern and Contemporary Sculpture on view in the grounds of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, England from Monday, September 15 through Sunday, November 2 2008.
Giant babies, big bears, and another sculpture of Kate Moss, this time in a yoga pose (although I can probably do without seeing that), the twenty-two sculptures have one thing in common: they are huge. And they will command enormous price tags. I don't know where they will end up but last year's exhibition just about sold out. Personally I like them where they are - it's a great contrast with the C16th stately home. But I suppose they might get in the way when Chatsworth is used as a backdrop for films like Pride and Prejudice and Duchess.

Beware Beauty

It was a few hours before the storm hit that the awesome designer called me over to see this handsome beauty hanging around the eaves


She had woven her web from overhang to overhang and trapped more than a few biting bugs in the process


Not far away another spider was patiently awaiting its prey. A reminder to us all to beware of beautiful, ruthless hunters - they have only their own interests at heart.

Inspired by James Bond

Gadgets and gimmicks ex-Formula 1 racing driver, Sir Stirling Moss, calls the super amazing, ahead-of-their-time features of his early 60s home in Mayfair, London. Need to relax? Sit in the den and access the TV behind the paneled wall. Hungry? Press a button and a table descends in front of you with dinner laid out. Want a relaxing bath? Another button fills your tub while you finish watching that TV programme. Too tired to climb the stairs? Step into the carbon-fiber elevator designed by the Williams racing team and be whisked to your destination. Super-efficient and super cool, too.

Modern History

This French Restoration bedroom circa 1823 looks so modern it would fit right into my house today. Part of House Proud: Nineteenth-Century Watercolor Interiors From the Thaw Collection, at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in Manhattan. The exhibition runs until January 25 2009.
via The New York Times

Hampton Designer Showhouse

The Hamptons season is drawing to a close but one of the coolest things to do if you're a lover of pricey real estate or interior design is visit the 2008 Hampton Designer Showhouse. This year it's also interesting for the eco-minded as it's a "green house". That seems to mean lots of grass cloth, shells and coral. I don't know how you harvest coral in an environmentally-friendly way, but I'm sure someone will enlighten me.
If you can't get there in person view the Newsday photo gallery and let me know what those tall white objects in the guest suite are (image #9) and whether Kevin Hart's headboard (image #6) reminds you of a headless animal skin. Or maybe I've just seen too many bear rugs at Sagamore Hill? Do pay special attention to image #31 - at least until you fall into a hypnotic trance.


Eco-chic comes at a price and the 11,000 sq feet Sagaponack, NY house is a very expensive home. Currently off the market, the house had been listed for $12,500,000 and even with a $1 million reduction that's over $1000 a square foot for a house on a comparatively small lot.
Tickets to view the Showhouse will set you back $30 and there's a whole heap of restrictions but proceeds benefit Southampton Hospital. Open daily through Aug. 31. Call 631-537-0455 for details.
Bonus video here.

Vacation in a Krisel Home

After blogging about William Krisel recently I really want to go to Palm Springs and tour some of his houses. Then serendipity strikes. It seems not only could I go look, but I can actually stay in one. This completely restored 1957 Alexander House can be rented by the night, week or month from owner Chris Menrad.
It seems there are plenty of other mid-century modern vacation homes out there if you know where to look. Time Magazine has selected a few, including Frank Sinatra's desert home from the Rat Pack days. I hear the happy sound of cocktails being poured right now.

Lighting Stikes Historic Beach Home

A severe thunderstorm blew through Huntington around 1 PM today. We were having lunch on the harbor when the the thunder started, the rain came down in sheets and ice fell from the skies - not hail, ice. Then the siren started at the local fire station, and we joked that if it was bad they would sound more alarms. It was bad. Fire trucks came from Halesite and Huntington, Centerport, Northport, Cold Spring Harbor and Greenlawn. They rushed past us, in the direction of our village, lights blazing, sirens blasting.
When we arrived home we could smell the smoke. The beautiful, historic Victorian on the hill overlooking Nathan Hale Beach had been struck by lightning starting a fire that gutted the roof and parts of the second floor.
No one was home, no one was hurt, but one of the gems of the Incorporated Village has been badly damaged.


This is the same view taken in the Winter.
They will rebuild but today everyone is in shock. We send our sympathy to the owners and their family. Life changes in an instant.

Prefabulous houses at MoMA

Monday morning's disappointment with The Waterfalls and the delicious make-up-for-it lunch and a couple of espressos behind us we headed uptown for more culture at the MoMA - Home Delivery: Fabricating The Modern Dwelling. This exhibition of prefabrication in architecture from the early 19th century to the present isn't comprehensive - Sears-Roebeck homes get a mention but Macy's Leisurama Homes don't - but it is fascinating nonetheless. I especially loved the 1930's copper houses constructed in Berlin and Haifa, that I previously knew nothing about.
I checked in the all-metal 1949 Lustron House that was reassembled inside the museum for this exhibition but the drawers were clear of used tissues. There was a couple seated at the dining table, she was applying lipstick, checking her blackberry while they chatted about friends and how they could "totally live there right in the middle of a museum". They were completely comfortable, enjoying the Prefab space. It was kind of cute in a life-as-art way.
Outside on a vacant lot adjacent to the MoMA were five prototype prefabs, the installation of which you can watch on video.


I loved the construction of the Digitally Fabricated Housing for New Orleans: no nails, no glue, you need only a rubber mallet to put together the numbered parts.


Open tread staircase in the photovoltaic rich Cellophane House, adds to the open and airy feeling. The house is full of light and feels surprisingly spacious and cool even on a sweltering New York Summer day


The retro feel but conceptually ultra-modern Burst*008, is bathed in a creamy yellow glow. This prefab isn't a box but rather geometrical folds mean each house will be unique. Sunshine bursts everywhere, including this nifty skylight above the double bed, yet the house remains cool.
This was installation design done really well and a fun afternoon at MoMA. They have had some really interesting, informative and thought-provoking exhibitions over the past year, and that's what a culture-fix should provide.

Escape or Exile?

Saturday morning found The Guy on the roof just before the thunderstorm arrived


Was he banished after the latest debacle or did he climb up here to avoid the wrath of the wife?

Cottage Renovation: Flair and Authenticity

Once, a long, long time ago I posted a piece about my neighbors' stable conversion and Jeanne of House in Progress and houseblogs.net asked if there were any possibility of interior shots. Well, the best things come to those who have limitless patience (or who nag a lot in a REALLY LOUD VOICE) so for Jeanne and all the other voyeurs out there - enjoy!

the original cottage and garage
This charming cottage and stables were once part of the Ferguson Castle estate on Long Island's North Shore.

the new kitchen addition with cupola
The property was purchased by the designer with the vision of renovating the separate structures into one cohesive living space; keeping the original buildings and many of the unique features as possible, while custom building others to be truly faithful to the original.

the stable conversion with double height window
It's the unique architectural elements that make this shingle-style cottage such a gem: the barred windows in the former stables, the fishtail shingles, the brackets under the deep eaves and the cross gables.

the kitchen
The kitchen links the old cottage, seen here in the background, with the stable conversion. Installing the cupola means lots of light and matching the original beams makes it cohesive with the rest of the cottage. The kitchen is reminiscent of a 1920's butlers pantry with its furniture style cabinets and thick marble counters but there's lots of room for family and friends to mingle there too.

the dining room
The dining room in the old stables with the new staircase and double-height window in the background. When the owner was first designing the stable conversion she was concerned about the lack of natural light; while horses find darkness calming. humans prefer daylight. She overcame this problem by installing double height windows on the south and west elevations and had them exactly matched to the existing barred stable windows so they would be as unobtrusive as possible.

the sitting room
Using the original sliding barn doors to separate the sitting and dining room areas gives the cottage a sense of timelessness. Putting a red leopard print wing chair in front of them - that's design genius.

the powder room
The onyx countertop in the powder room is a real show stopper and the colors match the old stained glass that provides both soft flattering light and privacy.

the side path
As much attention to detail was given to the landscaping as to the renovation. Fieldstone paths interplanted with flowering thyme, drystacked walls, pillars topped with bluestone and lots of flowering perennials give the garden a country cottage charm that perfectly compliments the house.

staircase leading to the master suite, formerly the hayloft
I had a really hard time choosing which photos to post, there are so many great features in this renovation. In the end I limited myself to the exterior and the first floor of the stable conversion, but there is an entire book's worth of images throughout the cottage. And a whole story to be told of how one person had the vision to preserve an old cottage and turn it into a beautiful home that enhances the entire neighborhood.

Four Years In

Happy Birthday to The Cool House. Forty years old and four years with its new owners. I hope it liked its birthday gift - a brand new water heater. It hadn't occurred to me with all the drama that it was exactly four years before that we'd exchanged contracts, but there it was. The house obviously decided it needed something expensive to celebrate the 40 and the 4.
Normally at the end of June I'd go through the whole list of what we've achieved and what is left to do but this year I'm opting for denial. Everything is perfect, the house is in great shape, the garden is lovely. And here are the photos to prove it:

It'll be a selling point

Don't you just love those unexpected roadblocks life throws you? Especially when they are accompanied by 50 gallons of hot water cascading over the basement floor? And your boiler guy is upstate in a cellphone dead zone?
It all happened a couple of days ago when I went retrieve the dogs leashes from behind the basement door and I was met by a wave of humid air (luckily it wasn't a wave of hot water!) and a groaning noise. This isn't the first time that it had happened but last time it was only the relief valve that failed. This time we weren't so lucky. I could see the water pouring out of the bottom of the tank and as I bent down to turn off the heater I could see rust, too. Never a good sign, rust! As I couldn't shift the shut-off cold water valve I had to turn off the water at the mains and wait for The Guy to work his WD40 magic when he got home. Then we began the wait for the oil burner guy to get back on the Island. The short version of the story is we have had no hot water for 48 hours, which means in addition to not so happy humans, the dishes aren't getting very clean either.
Still, as I type, a new water heater is being installed and, looking on the bright side, should we have to sell the house any time in the near future, we can point out our brand spanking new tank to prospective buyers.

Bucking a trend

Meanwhile back in crazy town.........
Yesterday I reported that the Case-Shiller index was tracking falling home prices across the country.
Today I open my in box to discover this house is on the market at $1,650,000. That's surprising because only five days ago it went on the market for $1,575,000. You can still see the old price on zillow.
This is a phenomenon I noted earlier in the month and I'd really like to know is it just confined to the Incorporated Village of Bizarro or does it happen elsewhere across the nation? If it's the latter how does it affect the Case-Shiller index? Are we bucking a trend or starting a new one?

Back were we started?

Four years of gains in home prices wiped out wasn't what I wanted to read just as we are planning to celebrate our 48th month in The Cool House. My first thought when I read the headline was an earthy Anglo-Saxon epithet, but when I thought about it in greater depth I have to say it could be a lot worse. We bought this house because we loved it, not to be our personal piggy bank. We could have taken the realtor's advice and ripped out the dusty vinyl vertical blinds and put it back on the market and made some easy money, most of which would have gone in her pocket in commission. We could have sold it at the height of the market in late 2005 when everything was selling at hugely inflated prices, but we didn't buy the house to flip it.
We were lucky to buy in 2004. If we'd bought a year later we might not have been able to afford this great house, or we might be sitting on negative equity. We didn't put the house on the market two years ago, take it off again and re-list it earlier this month at $200,000 less as one of our neighbors has done. Neither did we do such a huge amount of work that we can't afford to drop the price (the situation for another neighbor).
This is a wonderful house and we love it and with luck we'll still be here when the market picks up again, by which time we may even have finished all the work that remains to make it truly fabulous again.

Method Eco-friendly Cleaning

Tips on keeping the house clean in an eco-friendly manner.
I used to have to go to Target especially to buy Method cleaning supplies but I can get them at Ricky's drugstore in town now. I love their wipes, especially the grapefruit fragrance ones.
My favorite tip is in the bedroom: Not making the bed is more green than making in it. I've been right all these years......

So glad to be alive

We got hit by a truck last weekend.
OK, breathe. We're still here; the car, however, is totaled. We were lucky to have side impact bags and a car with enough steel to stop the hook on the front of the truck coming through the driver's door. If it had been my Jeep or the "caprice" I don't think I'd be writing this. We were actually dragged by the wingnuts on the front wheel of the truck. The impact buckled the frame and smashed the glass and cracked the windshield. We were doing maybe 5mph. We are very lucky.
There are no photos because I really didn't think of it until afterwards. A long time afterwards, after the police report had been taken, the EMS had left and the car had been towed.
I've never understood the benefit of those automatic emergency service phones in cars before but the second the airbag went off a voice was asking if we were alright and they phoned the Police and alerted a tow truck. They stayed on the line to speak to the Police and I didn't realise they were still on the line until half an hour or so later when they interrupted us to give us the ETA of the tow truck.
By the way, the accident happened right outside the drive, and the sound of the impact had neighbors running. Guess who arrived first? An attorney, an insurance agent and an off-duty police officer. The perfect trifecta.

Anthropomorphised Peonies

This peony looks like it's peeping out from a white bonnet, and giving me a come hither wink at the same time.


There was a fantastic short shower and I snapped this one with the drops still glistening. Does it look like it's weeping?


Sadly for the peony, but happily for me, one branch had been knocked down by the rain. I bought it inside and artistically arranged it in a bud vase. It looks like it's trying to attract my attention by jumping on one leg and waving. Possibly it would like to be shoved in a glass jar by someone who knows what they are doing.


I couldn't bear the way it looked so I chopped its head off and lovingly floated it in a bowl. Drastic, but I think its happier this way.

Surreal bath filler

I'm still looking for that inspiration piece that will kick-start the master bath into action. I don't think this Mimi Bath Filler from Gessi is it, though. Perhaps it's just me but I find it too Daliesque, too Magritte, too surreal. Like the side section of a male anatomy model sculpted by Picasso......

And on the home front

We haven't been ignoring the house this week. A couple of chores were crossed off the to do list. This guy came down. We haven't had a cover on it since the cabinets went on the wall because I didn't allow for the door opening when I went for the extra long boxes.
The ceiling was primed and we had just enough left-over paint to give it the three coats it needed to make it match seamlessly. Then the new fixture went up and we can now open the cabinet door. Ta da, another problem solved.
We took part in the annual slaughter of the carpenter bees. They only seem to be over the porch this year (so far, anyway) but they've already managed to drill two new holes that will be really difficult to fill unless we get a bigger stepladder.
Things we have to do this weekend: repaint the back door, sand and paint the bottom of the garage door, sand and stain the holes the woodpecker made, stain the new frame around the kitchen door.

Rear yard, rear end

Another stella shot of a dog's behind as it flees the evilness embodied in the camera