Eager anticipation and great disappointment

We waited so long to get these windows, we first got quotes in July 2004 so it seems like forever. They have been in the garage for a week and today was the big installation. We have been really cold too as the huge windows downstairs were only single pane glass so we were really anticipating that these would make a big difference. The reason it took so long to order them was we wanted them to match with the huge expanses of glass we have throughout the house that let in so much light and we especially wanted to stay true to the contemporary architecture.

So when the contractor said go take a look at the first window I was so excited. But when I looked I felt sick. I wanted to cry and run away too. In place of the expanse of glass we have inches of moldings. This is before they are even framed out, this is how Marvin windows deliver them. We explained to the contractor and the window wholesaler what we wanted - no moldings, minimal wood. We rejected double-hungs (which would have been cheaper) in favor of more authentic picture windows over awnings and were assured we could have it looking exactly like the other windows. That was the beauty of a custom design.

They look nothing like the other windows. Instead of 60" dia of glass we have 53". The rest is horrible pine, with step molding inside and they still need to install another piece of molding between the picture and the awning section. I feel that we were totally misled. And at the moment I cannot bear to look at them. They were also really expensive.

I don't know what to do about the rest of the windows now. We have another four of the same type that we were going to order this week but I am so unhappy with the end result. I have to find some sort of solution because they look so out of place. I don't know whether to just get the same again so there is uniformity or to get picture units that will have less wood.

Total freakin frustration.

The carpet shopping experience was not as awful as I feared. We only really liked one carpet, the most expensive naturally, but we knew it wouldn't go on the stairs so we picked four ones that weren't too bad and half the price and arranged to have samples delivered. A week later they arrived, and guess what? Yuk! So I got out the stain and experimented on one tread. I didn't think it looked too bad, but Steven still wasn't convinced. There was no way carpet was going down so I started the stair sanding process again, this time with steel wool rather than sandpaper. Eventually Steven took over and spent two hours on the job. Then I got to work with some dark stain and the more I did the better it looked. Three coats later the treads are a rich walnut colour and the risers white. It may not be professional but it looks way better than carpet. Eventually I'll get round to tackling the back stairs but I think it will have to wait until the New Year.
We have a more pressing problem to tackle this weekend: the huge Christmas tree that we thought would look great in the double height sitting room is so tall Steven can't reach the top even standing on our stepladder. So the choice is to leave it au naturel, throw the lights and ornaments at it and hope they stick or trawl round the neighbours and see if we can borrow an 8' ladder. Guess what we will be doing Saturday morning?

Let's decorate

Things are starting to come together now. The dining room is done, apart from new windows. We ordered them and hoped they would be installed before Xmas, but as they are almost 6' high and 4' wide they have to be custom made and probably won't be ready until January. At least we have ordered them. It felt so good to have finally made a decision about them. I hope we will be happy with the result. We also ordered new windows for upstairs except for our bedroom, because those are in good condition, and for my study. Steven jumped up on the garage roof and nailed back the siding and it doesn't look to shabby so we are going to leave it until next year before we consider replacing that section. It isn't possible to get redwood boards in that width anymore and we would have to replace the whole of that side so that it didn't look odd; while that is only 25'x4' it isn't something we want to shell out for if we don't have too. We will have the whole house refinished with oxalic acid next Spring and decide then what to do.

We have also, after three months of cogitating, agreed to put wood flooring on the back hall. Ceramic tile is just too cold, both to stand on and to look at. It was putting down the tile in the kitchen that finally made up our minds. We have such a large area (kitchen, eating area and back hall) that we would have to cover it with rugs to live with it, so we might as well put down runners to keep the dogs from scratching the wood and I think wood will look better. Now we are waiting for the installer to come back and lay more bamboo. We also decided that the stairs require too much work to refinish so we will be out this Thanksgiving weekend looking at carpet for both the front and rear staircases. As we both dislike carpet and hate shopping that should be a joyous experience.

Prettifying

Autumn has been very pretty this year. We have had a couple of cold days but on the whole it has been mild and misty. I have been out digging back the front drive and discovered that underneath the two feet of accumulated debris the path actually drops an inch or so. That means that in theory it should not flood much, if at all. The berm held all the run-off from the road at bay and there was only a small pool after a steady downpour last week. Since then I have dug back another foot so I can't wait for tonight's predicted storm to see what happens. Watch this space.


Inside I got the electricians to install the lights in the foyer, den and landing and we bought a rug for the foyer. It looks pretty good, especially as we cannibalized the desk and made a dining room console from it and a piece of carrara marble. We also took a week to lay new tiles in the kitchen. This is a temporary fix until the big kitchen renovation in a couple of year's time. We didn't want to do it but someone was going to break their neck tripping over the curling vinyl tile so we spent a couple of hundred dollars and two and a half days scraping glue off the old floor and the result is cleaner and brighter than we could have imagined.

Hallowe'en

It's the first day of November and warm and sunny here. We bought tons of candy expecting that all the kids in the neighbourhood would be out trick or treating but the only callers were five 10 year old boys wearing their soccer kit as costumes, who informed us they were the only kids in the area. As they had pillowcases to carry home their swag I think they had just intimidated all the smaller kids to stay off their pitch but who knows? Even though they grabbed whole fistfuls of candy we still have tons left, Butterfinger anyone?
Despite the whinging and worrying we did not run out of wood and were able to finish the balcony last week. We even got molding around Steven's closet but unfortunately we were unable to open the closet doors with the molding in place. Pete came out to fix it, promising to kill his colleague, John, but he ended up having to remove it. He says he will be back soon to sort it out. I have my doubts. He still has to finish the stairs before we can declare the floors finished.
On Monday last week the Village finally gave us a 6" berm around the property, which so far is holding the water on the road. It hasn't really rained here since the berm went in so it hasn't been properly tested yet but they are forecasting rain for this week so we shall see. It does look much neater though.
We have been busy cleaning up the property and we bought a PowerWasher so we could spend three days removing the moss and dirt off the patios, paths and stones around the pool. It's very satisfying seeing the real colour of the stone come through but you get absolutely soaking and completely filthy in the process. We also went to the Bowery to get some lights to go in the foyer and on the stairs, I think they are exactly what we want and will give us more light in those areas but as Steven has no time to put them up until he comes back from Brazil next Saturday I am only guessing.

More setbacks

I finally made a decision last night and ordered more redwood to go through the rear hallway. I decided that it would tie in well with the stairs and landing and we would have it all completed by next week. The setback came this morning. The last delivery of Brazilian Redwood had come in defective and there would be no new shipment before the end of the year. So back to square one. The really bad news is that Pete thinks he will be short of redwood to finish the balcony. So I may not get my upstairs finished until the New Year after all. Bummer. Plus I have 120 sq' of bamboo sitting in my rear hall that I will now have to sell. Any takers?

Decisions, decisions

Half-way through another week and we still haven't made a decision about the rest of the floor downstairs. I am leaning towards asking the flooring suppliers to swap the excess bamboo for more redwood and paying them the difference. The advantage here would be that all the bedrooms would be floored in the same material - bamboo, and the hallways linking those rooms would all be redwood. I like the idea of uniformity. The disadvantage would be that we have no idea how hardwearing the redwood really is as we have managed to keep the dogs off it most of the time. I am under the impression that it will wear really well because it is so damn hard.
The other option would be porcelain limestone or travetine look tile, but that would be both expensive and I think cold too. We want to put the tile into the kitchen but we don't want to start ripping out the perfectly servicable cabinets anytime soon. I think at this stage a renovation that big would dive us into the nearest looney bin or either the bankruptcy or divorce courts. The kitchen area is about 480 sq' and the rear hallway is another 180 or so. I think that is just way too much tile. Helpful suggestions are always appreciated.

Progress is good

We are mid-way through October and some things have happened. We were in London for a week at the end of last month and we picked up some gorgeous curtains and cushions for our bedroom. The following week Pete worked really hard to get the landing finished and now it looks really solid and classy. It was definitely worth all the aggro and the increased budget. He also finished the master dressing room and my office.

He is coming back next week to floor the balcony overhang in the great room and maybe to put bamboo flooring in the rear hall. I am still debating whether this is a good idea as this area is heavy traffic; there the door to the garage to consider as well as the one to the back yard. Sometimes we do tramp in sand from the beach, which doesn't matter so much now as we have heavy-duty carpet down but it would ruin hardwood flooring. Obviously I would lay rugs by the door but even so I am concerned. The reasons for laying bamboo is that it is very light and that hallway is quite dark and we have six boxes leftover from upstairs and would only need a couple of extra boxes to finish that whole area.

Another good thing happened last week: Vineyard Rd was resurfaced and sometime this week we will get our berm. Then, hopefully, we will not have any more flooding on the property. The bad news is that it is scheduled to rain all week so they may not be able to start the work until later. More good news - we have new gutters installed. The old ones were in terrible shape; a lot of the leaders were missing and there were a couple of places were we felt that there should be gutters to stop soil erosion and potential water penetration in the basement. So far it seems to be doing exactly that. The third piece of good news was that after ten long weeks we finally had the water dispenser replaced on the Sub-Zero and we can have ice in our drinks. Yippee.

The working week is nearly over and we are so far behind the installer's most generous estimates that it's not remotely funny anymore. Yesterday he decided we would be 2 boxes short on the redwood so I made an emergency call but the installer had to go get them as they are 7'6'' long and weigh a ton. So that took a couple of hours out of his day. Add that to the wasted day on Monday and I suppose we are lucky that we are about 75% finished and not less. It is starting to look really good though, and Steven is gloating continuously over his tasteful choice.

Outside, I spent the morning transplanting bushes in the sun. It has been the most glorious week since the hurricane passed through, warm and sunny and it's hard to believe that autumn is here. It's good to be working in the sunshine as it takes my mind of all the other work that needs to be completed before the bad weather starts. We really thought by now that we would have new windows installed and the guttering taken care of, but people come, take measurements and leave, promising to drop off estimates soon. Then they disappear for ever. Even when we get an estimate we can't seem to get them to commit to a date to start work, or they start the work, say the'll be back in a week to finish up and we never see them again.. The attitude is way beyond "manana", it's more like: this year, next year, sometime, never.

That's why they call it hardwood...

Ha ha indeed. We didn't get any flooring down yesterday as the wood is too hard!!! Apparently what Steven chose was harder than Brazilian Cherry and the installer didn't have a saw that could cut it, nor nails that could be shot through it. He ended up pre-drilling and hand nailing one piece and then left to get more tools and a blade with more teeth. This morning he turned up again with a huge circular saw and a very determined air. We shall see, but we lost a whole day yesterday.

Outside we are still cleaning up from Hurricane Ivan that dumped several inches of rain on us Saturday morning, caused flooding all over the area and turned our front into a swamp.


At one point the water filled the sunken bed outside the dining room and water poured into the basement. Luckily we were home and we ran with buckets to the sink and back until it stopped raining. Then I patched the hole with Dry Lock and started mopping. That took all Sturday PM and most of Sunday. after that we surveyed the damage. Our drive is 6" higher, thanks to the sand and debris deposited by the raging torrent that was Vineyard Rd. The other part of the drive is covered with leaves and pine needles where the water crested; apart from that the damage is minimal. We were lucky, lots of people had to go collect their drives from adjacent properties; we gained one. I'm hoping the Village will sweep it out but I'm not holding my breath.

Bamboo to you

Hurrah, we have bamboo flooring in all the bedrooms; the furniture is back in place; the beds are made; pictures have been hung and it all looks fantastic. There is a lot of colour variation in the bamboo so it has movement and the gloss finish makes the rooms feel much lighter. Because most of the rooms had recently been painted cream we will leave them for a while, it's neutral and clean looking. But we will paint Steven's office as we had to strip panelling and wallpaper there. He wants a cranberry colour but I think yellow or gold will work better. We'll see.

We also changed our minds at the last minute about bamboo on the landing. I felt it was too shiny and casual for that space. I asked Steven to go look at some Tigerwood that I thought would work but we would have to wait until November for delivery. He didn't much like the Tigerwood anyway (too yellow) but he saw some Brazilian redwood that was new in that day so he bought a sample home for the weekend so we could live with it. As the ceiling is redwood it tied the whole area together. It looks good where it joins the bamboo and against the teak banisters, too. The bonus of doing it this way is that there will be enough bamboo to floor the master dressing room and my office. By the end of this week it should all be finished and we can sit back and relax. Ha ha.

Taking in the view

An inspection of the trees on the property revealed that one was being eaten by termites, another had a large hole in the base and a couple more were in the wrong position or just too ugly to survive. Time to call in the tree guys.
Last year we had eight trees taken out and it really opened up the yard. This year we decided to take out eight, prune a bunch more and clear out the north side of the property that had been used as a giant dump over the years. As usual it takes a whole day and is as noisy and dusty as you can imagine but we also had a couple of "whoops" moments to contend with. They managed to let a large segment of white pine trunk fall on a 10' rhododendron; goodbye rhodie. More seriously a branch of the linden tree they were pruning caught the gutter on it's way down and bent it into an unusual shape, rendering it useless against the heavy rains that hit us last week. C'est la vie. It's over and the yard is cleared again. I'm just glad it wasn't the power-lines they took out.
Now I get to have a power struggle with the landscaper about the north side area. I want to put in lawn; it's light now and maintenance will be minimal. He says the snowplow will pile snow up there and ruin the lawn and shrubs with a bluestone path leading to a bench under a trellis would be really expensive, sorry, attractive. He's left me a garden design book and promises to bring photos of designs he has planted elsewhere. Luckily he can't start until spring so a get some time to plan my counter attack

Floors and walls

We're drying out and, apart from a wet patch on one wall that is probably caused by the air-conditioning system, Steven's office is done. It looks so much better than it used too, although if I was a pre-teenage boy in the seventies, I might think it was cool to live in a gold bamboo fort.


The bamboo floors are quite glossy and that reflects a lot of light around the room, which it needed. The old blue bedroom is also finished and hopefully by the end of today we will be able to put the furniture back in those rooms and then there will just be the pink room, the landing and staircases to floor.
The lights are causing a major headache.The first ones arrived with no problems except for the really nice one that is on back order. For the other upstairs lights we ordered from a different company and only half the order arrived and that was damaged. So I returned them and re-ordered other fixtures. But they failed to arrive (something about the salesman left and the order was never processed) so I just canceled that order today. Now I have to go and choose something else and you would not believe the junk you have to sift through before finding contemporary lighting here.

Flooded

I know this is nothing compared to what the people in Florida have been through, but we just got whacked with 4" rain in 10 hours and guess what? We have water pouring in one of the windows in Steven's office. Pete was in the middle of flooring this room when he left yesterday; this morning there was a lovely water trail all down the newly spackled wall and on the floor. I mopped up, effected a repair with duct tape and placed towels strategically. When Pete arrived he cleared out the gutters thinking that might solve the problem but the rain kept coming down and inside. So, muttering something about needing a new roof, he set off to track down some tin to form a bridge between the roof and the gutter. It seems to have worked but we are expecting more rain (this is very localised, really it's just over our house) so we will wait before we finish that room. I'm also now waiting on the roofer and the gutter guy. AAAH!

Setting stones

A lovely late summer day, a day to be spent on the beach or relaxing by the pool, and the start of Labor Day weekend so an extra day's relaxation to look forward to. Bliss. So what do we do? We look at the circular drive that we can now see from the dining room and den and decide that we need a fix for that flooding problem, and we need it NOW.

I had found a great stoneyard, Mother Earth, and so we went to look at the river rock and pebbles. our idea being that we could create a channel that would slow down the force of the run-off and cut the erosion. Three hours later a bin of river rock was delivered (this place has the best service) and Steven started to create. After a dip in the pool, two Alleve and several glasses of red wine he finally stopped complaining about the pains in his back and knees and fell into bed. The next day he quickly completed the job, and neighbors stopped to say how great it was we were tidying up the front. On Labor Day I transplanted some hostas from the backyard to the new riverbed. I hope that they will do well here as they'll get more sun and have more space to spread out. It looks so pretty that Steven wants to order another bin of stone and continue along the front of the property even though we don't have an erosion problem there. He must have forgotten how much hard work it was. We'll see if he still feels the same way next weekend.

We finished the holiday by removing the last carpet, which went much faster than the others. Either it was newer and had less dirt on it or we have it down to a fine art now and can go into the carpet stripping business. I slapped a couple of coats of paint on a bedroom closet and we are all ready for Pete to install the bamboo in the other bedrooms.

Let there be (more) light

Steven came home from work at dusk yesterday and couldn't work out why it was so light in the house. Eventually he got it and rushed outside to look at the new treeless landscape. It has made a fantastic difference, the house can now breathe and we have a view right along the street which makes it appear that our property goes on forever. The only downside is that the dogs have a better view too, which translates to more things to bark at. We will have to work on curing that problem.

Tree trimming

As I am writing this the tree surgeon and his crew are hard at work taking out some of the conifers nearest the house. The weather couldn't be better for this sort of job: sunny with low humidity. When they have thinned out the spruces we will be able to see out from the dining room, plus let a lot more light in. We have done the landscaping in stages, taking out a little at a time so that we maintain our privacy but still allow people to notice the house. Steven was very concerned about the loss of the firs by the front door but the tree surgeon convinced that at twice the height of the house they pose a considerable danger to the property and anyone in it should they come down in a storm.

grass floors

We are now at the interesting stage of the remodeling process. Yesterday Pete the Flooring Guy started work laying the new bamboo floors upstairs. We had originally decided on horizontal carbonised bamboo in all the bedrooms with carpet on the landing and stairs. This was the solution we came up with to two problems: how to prevent scratches on the hardwood from the dog's nails as they chase the cats along the corridor; how to deal with the seven angles that merge on the landing that present a nightmare of cutting in and joining hardwood strips. However, during one of the chase-a-cat sessions the cat had peeed the length of the carpet and no amount of Nature's Miracle completely disguised the smell. So Steven took up the carpet one Sunday afternoon and then spent the next week and a half removing the grippers and staples.

Pete spent an hour moaning about the angles and the extra work involved in the project but agreed that it would look fantastic when it was finished. Unfortunately all those angles will add signifiicantly to the price on the project and even worse the timeframe for finishing has entered a different realm altogether. One thing I had not bargained on purchasing was a stairgate. I thought we had finished with those eighteen years ago. Late last evening I had to run out and purchase two gates for the front and back staircases so we can keep the dogs downstairs and away from the precious bamboo. We were really concerned that Sadie would suffer separation anxiety sleeping so far away from me but I think it did her good. She knocked down the gate once, which scared her, and then she slept in the den with Polly. The bonus was that the cats also stayed downstairs, so we slept uninterrupted till 6am.

We are really excited that the flooring is going down because now we can start to really live in our new house. Up to now we have felt more like we were camping amongst the dust and debris. That is the upside, the downside is that we realise how many more projects there are remaining - from the removal of that cute olive green and candy pink cabinet in Verity's bathroom to the crazy tiled bathroom left and the biggest remodel of all:
the kitchen.

The good news is that the floor in our bedroom and closet looks fantastic. The bad news is that I will have to wait another week before he can install any more flooring and I am slightly freaking about the floor getting scratched as it may not be as hardwearing as we were led to believe. I am in two minds whether or not to order oak flooring for the landing, as that will be where most of the traffic goes or should I just make everyone take their shoes off upstairs?

And there was light

It took all day and half of the evening but we have lights on the circular drive at last and hopefully they will be high enough that the guy with the snow-plow won't knock them down this winter. We are now able to walk around the property in the dark and not fall over anything. The electricians also traced the problem with the shoting lights in the rear hall. Some genius had wired the outside tree lights to one of the hall switches. When it rained or got humid the lights outside shorted and so did the hall lights. It took three call backs and six hours of work to discover that, so imagine what the bill will be. In their defense there are four switches that control the hall lights including one double switch next to the exterior light switch so who would think that it could be a five-way switch?

Overwhelmed

When we bought this house we knew there was a certain amount of work we would have to do before winter set in, First we had some windows that had to be replaced, some of the guttering was shot or missing and the siding over the garage had been damaged. Inside all the carpets would have to go to be replaced by wood floors and, to make more space, because 5000 square feet is just not enough, there were closets to be taken out (I know that it is impossible to believe that a gal can have too many closets but even Imelda Marcos would have trouble buying enough shoes to fit in here) plus there was the decorating stuff to be undertaken: paneling to be ripped off the walls, wallpaper to be stripped from three rooms and a hallway and the "Muenster Cheese" decor in the master suite, which covered every wall, door, architrave and baseboard, would have to be painted over.

We figured we would make the outside waterproof before tackling the interior projects. But of course things never run off a slate roof, as they say in Dutch, so we are working backwards, doing all the stuff we don't need to do while waiting for the windows which at this rate will probably be installed during a three-day snowstorm in January. In July, just before our first houseguests left, the contractors started work tearing out the panelling, taking down the mirrored closet in the bedroom and shortening the hall closet to make a bookcase. Then they painted over the oil-blue interiors of the remaining closets with a fresh coat of clean white matte and left for their vacation.

Koen and Verity stripped wallpaper and pulled up two carpets before they left and we ordered 1500 sq' of pre-finished wood flooring. Sick of the cheese effect, I painted the walls of the master bedroom and dressing room a calm blue shade and the ceiling, trim and doors a brilliant white.

Renovations or where it all started

This is our new house that I fell in love with months before we even considered moving from our old place. I fell in love with it despite the fact it was twice the size we needed, twice as far from Steve's office as our previous home, needed new roof, windows, gutters, had termite damage, rot and the electrical line to the house had completely corroded.

Our previous house needed nothing doing to it. We had just remodeled the kitchen and it was completely fantastic. But this house is original and when I looked at the photos on the realtor's website, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I had a sick feeling in my stomach. That's how much I wanted it and how afraid I was that someone else would buy it and treat it badly.

This is a custom design by Andrew Geller, famous for his beach houses on Long Island and Connecticut. Although this house isn't really on the beach, it's not too far from one either. The house was period 1968 when we moved in and the challenge has to be to update it gently so we don't destroy the integrity of the design. This blog is going to be the easiest way to document all the repairs and renovations we are making to our new house.

When we bought the house we knew that there was a lot of work to be done but we figured we would have a month or so to get the big stuff out of the way before we moved in. How wrong were we? We moved in the afternoon of June 29, the previous owner finished her move that same morning. We had guests arriving in four days so we just cleaned, cleaned some more, threw away debris we found in cupboards in the kitchen and bathrooms and made the place look as welcoming as possible.
After the guests left we set about taking carpets up, stripping wallpaper, removing closets and paneling on closets and occasionally writing about the process...