More work than fun

Well, the whole save-a-tree rescue mission did not go according to plan. It turns out trees are heavier than one would think, well this one anyway, and our combined super strength was only enough to move it an inch or so. We abandoned the effort and if the landscaper can't move it we'll have to resort to the final solution - the chainsaw.
We moved on to the next chore on the list: repairing the mortar that had cracked during the frost. Here's a tip for anyone laying a patio with pavers or stone: Place the stones as close as possible to each other and fill the cracks with sand or stone dust. That way you avoid frost-pop, loose pavers and re-grouting every other Spring.


These bluestones were laid in a random pattern with mortar that varies from a 1/2" to a miniscule 1/8". It's fiddly work to get the loose mortar out and fill in the cracks, then you have to wipe the excess off before it dries and leaves ugly marks on the stones. I left half way through to walk the dogs and when I came back The Guy was on the phone. I hope he was getting DIY advice because that mortar is separating as he speaks. I also hope he didn't track stone dust through the house on his way to answer the call...

If a tree falls...

Made a HUGE mistake in walking up the neighbor's drive to chat. Sorry, that came out wrong, the chat was very nice, as is the neighbor. No, the mistake I made was to look at my yard from the north side, the side of neglect, an area that we cleared of debris and dead shrubs wrapped in burlap a couple of years ago but that we have done nothing to since then. Because we don't rake the leaves here, allowing them to smother the weeds and enrich the soil, the ground is about 4" higher on our side of the fence; there are a few branches that fell during the winter and many twigs. Generally the area looks unkempt but the source of my dismay was a huge conifer that has fallen sideways and is being propped up by the fence. If it were to fall completely it would probably take out the fence too...
As the tree is still green we guess it's still alive but half its roots are out of the ground. We've no idea how long it's been like that, whether the roots have frozen in this season of frigid temperatures, but we have to try to save it. So the mission for tomorrow is to dig around the side of the rootball and see if we can prop it up, then brace it with stakes. That's the plan anyway. Of course the whole venture could go horribly wrong, the tree could fall on the person supporting it...
So many scenarios, none of them good.

The 80s are back (in a good way)

This weekend Run-D.M.C. will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25 years after the hip hop group from Hollis, Queens unleashed It's Like That and duelling rap went mainstream.


Twenty-six years ago Nike introduced Air Force Ones, basketball sneakers with a full-length airsole, and a new generation of footwear grew alongside hip-hop. Now Moss is selling a limited edition of the 80s classic, the absolutely fabulous Nike Sportwear 1 World AF1 designed by Maharam in collaboration with Hella Jongerius. The shoes may invoke nostalgia for the eighties but the design is cutting edge. The fabric comprises richly colored layers of wool felt, the pattern made by cut-outs embellished with topstiched embroidery. Available from moss online for $250


For those who would prefer Layers in fabric rather than footwear, the Jongerius design comes in three patterns: Layers Garden, Layers Park and Layers Vineyard. The craft-like workmanship is reflected in the price but a panel of this fabric is like a work of art, one that I'd happily hang on my wall any day.

This post is a response to Hooked on Houses Friday Blog Party. Peace out.

Lean bacon as design muse

"My work is fat-free, it's like lean bacon, and it's efficient. That is how people and life should be, too"*.

Discuss

*Designer Ross Lovegrove lets loose on ego, obesity and nudity at trade shows. Read the whole interview here.

The Weekend

A mixture of tapas and fun in the city, pet food shopping (with bonus cute kitty admiring), mint thins, a little yard maintenance, Duplicity, Thai dinner, dodging the showers, Choucroute garnie à l’alsacienne, work, cleaning up the beach. Just your average first weekend in Spring.

Solid Walnut Beds

I'm pretty clear now about how my master bath will look, at least in my head - I'm still sourcing all the products for a mood board. In the meantime I've moved on to researching a new bed for our room. The one we have at present, Leggero from DWR, was bought in 2003, a time when I craved a sexy low platform bed. Five years of house renovations have taken their toll on the back and the knees and getting up from the minimalist bed is accompanied by much groaning and creaking. I still want a model that has great modern design but I need it to be a few inches higher. I also think a solid walnut bed will compliment the windows better and provide a contrast with the bamboo floors. Here are my favorites so far:


0011 Bed in Black Walnut by Atlantico. From Velocity. Available in four sizes: Twin $2245.00 to King $3295.00.


Matera Bed from DWR. Available in Queen and King, with or without storage. Prices start at $2500.


Anders Bed from Room and Board. Solid walnut Queen $1,399.00, King and Cal King $1,599.00.


Again from Room and Board, the Hudson Bed in Solid Walnut has roomy storage drawers. $2699 for the Queen, $2899 the King and California King.


My final choice from Room and Board and perhaps my favourite, the Grove bed. Queen $1599, King and Cal King $1899.
Unfortunately the online stores aren't great at telling you how high from the floor the bed will be so picking one isn't as easy as I would like, but the Matera has a platform height of 15", which with a 10" mattress on top, should make standing up in the mornings a whole lot easier.

This post is part of the Hooked on Houses blog fest

This One's for the Nerds

From spiffworld a new video of Jonathan Coulton's Tom Cruise Crazy. Stick around until the very end of the video when, over the credits, Coulton sings about Belgium. True, so true.
In anticipation of the concert tonight at Symphony Space.

I hear Spring

It must be Spring because hark, what is that sound? Birds? No. Leaves opening on the trees? No. Buds breaking? Definitely not. No, that is the sound of the landscapers. With a harmony of dogs barking, a cacophony that will persist until late November. Wow, it has been quiet around here for the past four months.
On the list for today: clean up the ravages of winter including the lawn deposited on the drive by the snow plow; replant the rhododendron the snowplow nudged; plant the blue spruce and two conifers I bought in a plant sale last fall that have already doubled in size; take out the dead hemlock behind the Magnolia at the front of the property.

Meanwhile I can't find a single Spring flower in the yard - no crocus, no daffodils, no tulips. You'll just have to be content with this orchid that was part of a bouquet of flowers given to me last Sunday. I finally had time to arrange them and I took this guy out and gave him his own vase. Pretty, no?

Busted!

Those are not your toys, Hermes.

A Special Offer

This is a promotion I can get behind. Lord and Taylor will pay me to go see a movie and, bonus, it's a movie I was going to catch anyway.


Of course, they won't give me the ticket price in cold hard cash, I'll have to buy something and have the $10 (or however much it's gone up to this week) deducted from my purchase, but I can live with that.

I'm sure there's something I need. Ah yes! A couple of weeks ago, I lost a glove I use when dog-walking. The weekend it disappeared the weather turned warm in NY and I thought I wouldn't need to replace it until next winter. Of course since then it's been bitterly cold and I've walked the dogs with one hand in my pocket. (Not easy to pick up poop and hold two dogs that way). I could buy myself a new pair of gloves, hopefully on sale for $10, which would make them free. Win-win*.
Now what do you think is the likelihood that Lord & Taylor will have gloves for sale at the end of March?

* Actually win-win-win as it gives me another opportunity to show the Lord and Taylor logo that Andrew Geller designed. You know Andy Geller, right? Designer and architect of The Cool House. That's him standing in the house, in the Cool House Photostream (left).

I might as well be in the frozen north...

While the rest of the country is enjoying the first week of Spring, the north-east is stuck in some sort of permanently frosty winter: icy blasts, temps in the 20s and 30s, occasional snow showers - I could be in northern Canada.


Speaking of which, I layered up yesterday and walked to the beach where a line of Canada geese were surveying the waves on the Sound.


If I had been on my own they'd have stood on the sand patiently but I had the dogs. So up they flew.


And landed maybe 6' nearer to Canada in the safety of the surf.


Nice job Sadie!

Champagne Supernova

When I met Jon Spector, President and CEO of Dornbracht Americas, at a Blogger's Bash last month, I learnt Dornbracht would be launching a new faucet at ISH 2009. I was promised a geometric faucet that would become as iconic as their sleek and beautiful Tara faucet. Mr Spector thought its origami shape of the new product might be just what I was looking for to be the jewel in the master bath rehab. Believe me, I was already excited but when he told me it was to be called Supernova and would be available in a champagne finish I was beside myself.


The champagne finish has a top layer of 22 carat gold, which will probably put it beyond our reach but there is a chrome version that may be a tad less glamorous but is just as stylish. The crisp sculptural quality does echo the rooflines of The Cool House, so from a design perspective this faucet is a winner.
Of course I couldn't write this post without a reference to this song. I don't know if it was a deliberate homage on the part of Dornbracht's marketing and design teams but I can't imagine that it didn't cross their minds that everyone would be singing it while they shower. I haven't been able to stop since I first heard about it, can you imagine what I'll be like when the Supernova finally makes it to the showroom?
via Stylepark

Chess

Very belatedly The Guy received his birthday present. I've been wanting to put a chess set on the game table ever since I got it but our old ones were tiny and pretty beaten up. This vintage ceramic chess set came up on ebay just before The Guy's big day. Of course ceramic isn't as durable as wood or metal so we're hoping the cats don't jump up and start playing with the pieces-at least not before he's managed to have a game!

Pot fillers

I'll be upfront here and say that I don't understand the pot filler's place on the list of most desirable kitchen gadgets. I know they save you from having to lug a heavy pot full of water across the kitchen but you still have to lug that same pot over to the sink when you're done cooking, and then it's hot and steamy as well as heavy. Much like a laundry chute where it's super to be able throw all the dirty laundry through a hole in the ceiling and have it fall next to the washing machine, but you still have to fold the clothes and carry them back upstairs when they are clean, it's efficientish.
Having said all that here are a few modern-looking pot fillers that from a design perspective I'd give a little wall space to.


Grohe Ladylux Pot Filler. If this is as robust as the Ladylux faucet we had in our last kitchen it will be worth the money. And who can resist that come-hither lever? Available in wall or deck-mounted versions, in stainless steel. $1029.00 retail, around $625 from online faucet sellers.


The very simple Whitehaus Decohaus available in brushed nickel or chrome, for half the price of the Grohe. It also comes in a cross-handle model.


Hansgrohe Allegro. This faucet has cute stubby little levers that I just want to pinch. It's available only in chrome, list price $662. But once again there are bargains out there. Hansgrohe also make a similar model Talis, but the lever is so tiny I'm not sure how I'd operate it.

Still wood obsessed

I got some serious validation for putting more wood in the master bath in my post a couple of weeks ago. Jean Martha at Renovation Therapy suggested putting in some beams and while I love the idea. logistically (tall Guy, low ceilings) that isn't going to work. But it got me thinking that giving the ceiling the hardwood or bamboo treatment might be one way to go.

Via Divine Design

Then I came across these great paneled bathtubs. Straight walnut panels with inset lights would certainly help in our poorly lit master bathroom.


Or we could use recycled wood as a tub surround like this bath by Feldman Architects, via remodalista


This bath has a gorgeous redwood surround but overall it looks a little like the sample area of my local wood flooring showroom.
In any case I think I have a paneled bath, possibly with inset lights, in my future. What do you think?

This was written as part of the Hooked on Fridays fest and coincidentally is also my 1000th post

Three Words I Can Never Utter Again

1:20 minute: "...now I want to be mid-century modern girl".

Dammit, I loved MCM furniture when the only place you could find it was a dumpster, at the time it was considered worthless junk. Then it became mainstream. It's been over-exposed for a while, this Noguchi coffee table is styled into TV shows and advertisements and you can spot a Saarinen Womb Chair in practically every issue of surviving decor magazines, but from this moment mid-century modern is officially over. Whatever shall I do?

He's backkkkkkkk

Thanks to the telephoto lens I got for my birthday last year I can now get a decentish shot of the D*mn Woodpecker ^TM.
Beautiful, isn't he? And useful for insect control. But with a few taps he can knock a hole big enough to use a nest for the family. So long as he stays in the tree he's safe. If he comes near the redwood siding again.......all bets are off.

Sodding Lawn and Snow Plow*

It's a beautiful day at The Cool House. Let's walk around the property and see how much maintenance we're looking at this Spring, shall we?


Now what's that piece of grass doing growing out of the driveway?


Uh, oh. I think it used to be over here


Or maybe over here. Nice scraping job, snow plow! I think we have a fair amount of work to do just on the lawn. Grr.

*This joke probably only works if you're a Brit.

Designers' Lunch

Two designers and one person with definite ideas on design (moi) sat down for lunch today. You'll have to imagine them at the table because two are camera shy, and as usual at The Cool House there was a lot of running around with the cats and dogs and zero time for picture posing. But it was my pleasure to introduce The Awesome Designer to The Kitchen Designer over a little salad, some wine and a very satisfying raspberry and apricot tart. There's something about a pseudo-working lunch on a Monday that makes it both illicit and relaxing. Lots of fun anyway, and then a side trip so The Kitchen Designer could check out The Awesome Designer's kitchen, which was as stunning as always. A very enjoyable couple of hours for me. What did you do today?

Lieb House finds its new home

A month ago I posted this piece about the the start of the journey to move the Robert Venturi Lieb House from the Jersey shore to the north shore of Long Island. The beach cottage, which had been in danger of demolition, has been purchased by Deborah Sarnoff and Robert Gotkin, who plan to use it as a guest house to their own Venturi designed home. On Friday it succesfully completed the second leg of its journey from Manhattan's South Street Seaport to Glen Cove NY, a move that was documented both by news teams and by cameras for a forthcoming film Learning from Bob and Denise by James Venturi, son of the architect.
You can see the whole move in a New York Times slideshow and read the rest of the article here.
There has been a lot of discussion on architecture blogs about whether this is a judicious move, if the removal costs are justified in a recession and whether modernist beach houses should be preserved. I think you know which side of the argument I come down on but I'm interested to hear what you think. If you had the means to undertake such an endeavour, would you do it?