Everything in the garden is lovely

Well, most of it. These lilies are almost over and only the everlasting hydrangeas are still blooming. Except for a couple of tubs, I don't bother with annuals as I'd rather put the money into something that's going to give me a few season's pleasure. But it does mean that I don't have much of a summer display.
I'm giving some more thought to the side entrance of the property. Last year the neighbours wanted to "improve" the entry to the cul-de-sac but we never got around to a proper plan. I've heard via-via that an ornamental half fence is being proposed in place of the arborvitae but there is no fence that will go with our unique house so I'm sure I don't want to go down that road. I nixed the moss stone border idea as large trucks back up the cul-de-sac and it's a tight turn. The garbage truck and delivery vans already move the boulders that are there now. I don't need to spend the $$$$ it costs to lay the moss stones only to find I have pebbles after a few weeks.
Another suggestion was large boulders, which I'm more amenable to but I need to think about planting shrubs there that will fit with the stones, the evergreens and won't be destroyed by the snowplow and the sand in the winter. I'm also thinking if I want to remove the arborvitae I'll want to do it before the big boulders go in.
Nothing will happen before the fall, but these things have a habit of catching up with you if you don't have a plan.

Beach House?

Maybe I'm writing this blog under false pretences. After we signed the contract but before we moved into this house we used to go down to "our" beach, the one we are deeded to, to check out the views and pinch ourselves that we could have ended up in such a perfect spot. Then while we moved in and we were in the thick of opening boxes and cleaning up we walked down every evening to relax. After that we went regularly a couple of nights a week to enjoy the sunsets and most early mornings to walk the dogs.
Last summer we went a few nights for the sunsets and to most of the events held at the beach: lobster bake, bbq etc. We walked the dogs on the beach in the winter when it was mild enough.
This year we have been zero times. Zero. I can't believe it. No sunsets, no bbq, no lobster. We've hardly taken the dogs down there either. Halfway through the summer and we haven't taken advantage of the natural beauty of the area or the facilities that we pay for. It's not like we have to drive to it or make any big effort. I'm not sure what the reason is but I'm certain of one thing: this won't do at all.

Crazy Batcave Bathroom Tile in Boston

07-22-06_1052.jpg
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

Whoa, you go on vacation to the historical city of Boston to escape the renovation mania back home and what happens? On the Freedom Trail of all places? We spy the same bathroom tile we have in the 1970s boys' bathroom in a North End appartment entrance. They also used it on the floor and walls. I thought ours was unique and maybe should be preserved as such but now we'll definitely have to redo the crazy batcave bathroom.

Mr Fix-it

Yesterday was set aside for fixing those little things that have been on the melon list for months. (We're not American so we say Honeydyew, which makes no sense). Steve put three screws in the side gate latch so that it's no longer hanging off, I used the wood hardener on the bridge and I'll fill the hole with epoxy sometime this week. Steve fixed the girls' WC that has been running for months by turning something 180 degrees: zero cost and almost no effort, his favourite kind of repair.
Then we examined the garden gate in daylight. It wasn't a pretty sight: the bottom and one side have almost rotted away and several uprights are looking pretty dodgy too. Steve rebraced it and added some extra pieces to strengthen it but realistically it's due for replacement. The question is whether we make a new one now (or get someone to make it for us) or wait until we re-fence the property. Eventually the posts will need replacing as they all have some rot and there is some old termite damage at the end farthest from the house.


The fence was custom made on site, probably not very long ago but it has some quirks. On the inside of the part with termite damage the original owners put a second layer of fencing in a different style to strengthen it. On each side of the property the fence stops twenty feet from the property line but there's some rather attractive blue nylon chainlink linking the fence to the neighbours' fences. I can't understand the rationale here - you pay a carpenter a bundle to make a really nice fence, then you leave the original chainlink in the corners why? So you can push it down and haul stuff through rather than going through the gates? Because the blue nylon is a nice accent? Because the neighbors have different types of fences and you weren't sure how to tie it together?
I guess I'll never know but I 'm working on a solution to the different fence styles now so we'll be ready to roll when the whole thing eventually falls down. Mr Fix-it thinks we will have to re-think the project timeline and move the fencing up to next year. The question is what do we move down?

Fixing the Gate

Managed to do a temporary repair to the temporary fix on the garden gate last night. Rushed out to the Mom and Pop hardware store before it closed at 6 pm so I wasn't forced to waste an hour looking for what I needed in Home Depot. $10 worth of brace plates, extra long screws and some gungy stuff to harden rotted wood seemed to a bargain. Didn't used the gungy stuff but the brace appears to be holding the pieces in place. Had to stop when darkness fell and someone was in danger of getting their finger screwed to the post. Must buy a flashlight next time I go to the hardware store.

Redoing the renovation Part II

And when I went out back to check the new gutters, and to make sure the guys had closed the gate behind them, I discovered that the gate had finally fallen to pieces. This is the gate we turned upside down because the bottom was rotten on one side and re-hung, attaching the hinges to the "good side", thinking the temporary fix would last a couple of years. It did. Two years exactly to the day.

Redoing the renovation

In a previous life this blog was called So Not the Money Pit because although at first glance it looked like it needed a lot of work the house was far more forgiving than we first thought. Ha. That was based on the engineer's report. A $925 catalogue of obvious statements and omissions that was supposed to tell us what we were getting ourselves into and so save us from severe financial hardship down the road. Spend close to a grand but save yourself from possible ruin. Cheap at the price.
One of my favourite passages concerned the roof, which the engineer said would last another five years. But his contract did not allow for him inspecting it at close quarters i.e. going up on it or looking at it with binoculars, so he was not responsible if it failed at any time. Hum. So his inspection was as good as mine but a lot more expensive. Then there were the gutters. As these were hanging off, he suggested we should replace them. Rocket science.
We, poor simple house owners, followed his advice. Thinking the roof would last a few more years we replaced the gutters as soon as we moved in. Well here's the thing. The roof failed the first winter and ice dams formed cannonballs that rested on the new gutters and buckled them.
I know I should have got the guys to come in and fix it then for free but I knew we had to have a new roof so I thought I'd call when it was all done. Then the roof couldn't go on until the gutter guarantee had expired. When the guys tore off the roof nails and bits of asphalt clogged the leaders. With the torrential rain this spring and summer water poured over and behind the gutters so I called for a repair. Repair, which was free, meant large amounts of caulk that totally failed to solve the problem.
So today I am replacing the gutters and leaders at the back of the house with 6" ones because the gutter guy is convinced that with our large flattish roof we need the wider ones. He's giving me a discount because I asked him if I needed the larger width two years ago and he said not. But it's still costing me almost as much to replace this side as it did to do the entire house last time.
This is why I blog. So I can remind myself never to trust a piece of paper no matter how much it promises; that when renovating you work from the top down: roof, siding, gutters; ceiling, walls floors. So I can vent my frustration without harming anyone. And to let my friends know that renovating houses, be they forty years old or a hundred and forty is always surprising and usually costly.

When are you going to finish?

This post is for my friend Fikirte over at The Concoction who asked me yesterday when we were going to finish the house i.e. stop spending money on it already.
Here's what we've done so far:
2004 Replaced refrigerator.
2004 Taken down 70s vinyl vertical blinds in den, dining room, living room and kitchen
2004 Taken out the faux 70s paneling in three rooms.
2004 Removed the mirrored closets in the master bedroom (mirror on the ceiling I can live with, mirrored closets, no).
2004 Replaced skirting board in master.
2004 Shortened the pantry in the mud room so I can get into my office without turning sideways.
2004 Rewired lights on drives, dining room, kitchen and master closet.
2004 Replaced light fittings in master closet, bath, landing, bedrooms, foyer and dining room.
2004 Removed 70s shag carpets from six bedrooms.
2004 Installed hardwood floors on landing and balcony.
2004 Installed bamboo floors in bedroom.
2004 Removed carpets from front and back stairs and back hall.
2004/5 Refinished stairs, installed bamboo on back hall floor.
2004 Capped the chimney.
2005 Replaced corroded faucets in bathroom. Rebuilt one toilet, fixed two more.
2005 Replaced 15 windows.
2005 Stained 15 windows.
2004/5 Stripped wallpaper from foyer, front stairs and back hall, bedroom
2004/5/6 Painted master, office, two other bedrooms, dining room, kitchen, back hall and the interior of all closets.
2005 Primed foyer and front hall.
2005 Re-roofed house.
2005 Stained siding and painted original windows and doors.
2004 Replaced guttering.
2004 Removed dead and dangerous trees from yard, pruned back other shrubs.
2004/5/6 Replanted, planted, weeded ad nauseum.
2006 New window treatments den, office, dining room, master, bedrooms.
2006 Replaced dishwasher.
2006 Replaced 5" replacement guttering with 6" guttering

Here's what is still needed, with approximate timeframe:
2007 Renovate master bath.
2007 Replace another 7 windows.
2007 Replace flooring in den and dining room
2008 Bring gas to house and replace oil burner and water heater with gas boiler.
2008 Renovate kitchen and laundry room.
2009 Replace fencing.
2009 Marble dust pool and replace pool heater. Replace steel doors on bar and barbecue.
2010 Finish basement.
2011 Sealcoat drives.
2011 Plant up north side of yard.
2012 Whatever else we've forgotten/overlooked.
So my friend, I think the answer to your question is, possibly never. The chores never end and are constrained only by our limited finances.

That's One Way to Get a New Washer

I think I've finally killed the washing machine, or at least made it terminally ill.
I spent all morning power washing the slime off the slate terrace and the brick patio (again, the last attempt was not up to snuff) and when I'd finished I tossed my cruddy clothes and sneakers straight in the machine. I guess there was a lot of sand and grit mixed in with the moss because the washer started making a squeaky grinding noise like a mouse got caught in the agitator and the clothes didn't wash at all.
I'm washing them for a second time but the machine is still squeaking so I'm not hopeful for a happy outcome. Or maybe the happy outcome will be finally putting the thing out of its misery and getting a new one.
On the other hand the new dishwasher washes cast iron pots and delicate stemware and leaves them sparkling, no pre-wash required.

It's here

The new Bosch dishwasher is installed, just finishing up its first load and it's soooo quiet. All this a day earlier than planned. Thanks Appliance World and Harvey the Installer who phoned at 11 am to ask if he could perhaps install the dishwasher today rather than Saturday morning. Could he? If it meant I didn't have to wash any more dishes he could.
I'm waiting for the beep noise to tell me its cycle is complete, I can't actually tell if it's on or not because it is sooooo quiet. I hope the dishes come out clean too.

I bought the appliance

No, not the washing machine. Even though it's July and the new Bosch Nexxus model came out it really isn't much different from the old one. It's still big and ugly-looking and I keep hoping that a new 1200, or even better 1400 rpm, super efficient but cute model will be launched on the market so that when I skip into the appliance showroom it will call to me "Modernemama, buy me and I will answer all your laundry demands with ease while satisfying your need for clean lines and cool design".
No, we had a dishwasher crisis. On Wednesday the 38 year-old cream coloured Maytag dishwasher clicked off halfway through a cycle leaving behind a couple of inches of dirty water in the bottom of the machine. There is no drain programme so Steve had to bail it out with a spoon and a cat dish. Then he took off the bottom plate and discovered that the drive belt had broken. That's a $16 part but he didn't think he could reach in to slip it on and I didn't want to pay a service charge for something so simple (I know, flaky economics) so I seized the moment and rushed out to order this beauty:

OK, so it was $1000 but after thirty eight years I think the old dishwasher has earned its retirement. They deliver the new one on Saturday and I'm sure it will be more efficient and quieter, and it will certainly look smarter. And I'm another step closer to the dream kitchen.

Yet another rhododendron

rhodo
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

Happy Fourth of July, American friends.
I'm celebrating with this photo of the rhododendron that I moved from another part of the yard a month ago.
It's obviously a special kind as it's blooming in July and it hasn't bloomed before so I guess it likes its new home in the dell in front of the dining room.
Taking that photo is the most taxing thing I'm going to do today. Yesterday I powerwashed the brick patio around the pool and the walkways and it tok four hours. My back is killing me and one muscle in my right arm is still clenched but at least the moss is gone. Most of it ended up on my legs but I had a fair amount in my hair too. Had to rinse off with the hosepipe before I could get back in the house for a shower.
Next job: washing the windows but that can wait until the weekend.

Kitchen Planning

We've already been through one kitchen remodel in the recent past (2002 in our old home) so we are really aware that the more planning you can do the smoother the process will be. So, although we probably are 18-24 months away from starting the BIG project on this house, we have been designing and refining the design since we moved in here two years ago. We want to stick to the original footprint of the kitchen and all the appliances will stay where they were originally with the exception of the refrigerator that used to be under the stairs. This was not salvageable and had to be replaced when we first moved in and as no one makes a five foot high fridge anymore we had to put the replacement next to where the old fridge was. We knew this was a temporary placement and now we have a plan to have one wall of pantry units with the fridge/freezer and double ovens in the center of it. We feel confident enough of the design that we are now looking at kitchen manufacturers to bring the dream to life.
Last evening we were invited to the opening of the new Poliform showroom. I'm really attracted to the clean lines of the Italian kitchen designers so I was excited to test drive their Varenna kitchens. Despite the complimentary ice cream and white wine I wasn't really feeling that the kitchens were right for us. They were a little too cool for this house which has a lot of warmth from all the stained wood trim, ceiling and floors and I wasn't thrilled with the quality which I felt was only acceptable and not wow. When I looked at the price tags -$75,000-$105,000 for the display kitchens, I was even less impressed and I felt that we wouldn't be being true to the spirit of the house which refelcts Andrew Geller's affordable leisure philosophy.
So we're still looking for a streamlined, modern quality kitchen at a reasonable price. This could take some time.

Two Years On

Two years ago today we moved in to our dream house. We were so nervous about updating it, knowing that it was designed by a well-respected architect does that to you! No pressure, but it was rumoured that when Andrew Geller learnt that one of his clients had slightly altered his original design while renovating, he was so displeased that he never spoke to them again. We felt totally responsible for continuing the original vision: great practical design, first class but reasonably priced materials, simplicity in everything. Our mantra was "Do no harm". I swear for the first two months we held our breath most of the time.

Gradually, we learnt to relax and we appreciated the house more and more, for example the siting of the house on the property and the placement of the windows keeps it cooler in summer and increases the amount of sunlight in winter. Hardly a week goes by without one or the other of us walking through the door and saying out loud "I love this house".

I searched for a suitable way to celebrate our second Cool House anniversary and hit upon the perfect project. I have been asking nicely at regular intervals for the person with long fingers (pictured above on moving day) to take a kitchen drawer out so we could replace the cup partitions in it with the cutlery holder. I decided that this would be just the thing, it would cost nothing and make my life a ton easier. With two barbecue skewers to push back the pins holding the drawer in place and standing on one leg while balancing the drawer on my raised knee I got the sucker out in fifteen seconds. Twenty seconds to remove the partitions. Putting the drawer back took no time or effort at all and sliding the cutlery divider in was a cinch. Time wasted waiting for someone else to do this job: two years; time spent doing the job myself: two minutes. Amount of satisfaction? Incalculable.

Soaking wet post

One of the best things about living in the US is being able to put your outgoing mail in the mailbox, raise the red flag and have it taken away by the mailman six days a week. No walking miles to find a mailbox or driving around with the bill in the car that you finally unearth from under the dirty tissues and expired coupons five days after it should have been paid. It's a wonderful system and I enjoy walking to the mailbox in the early morning and posting whatever mail I can't deal with online.
This morning I dodged the thunderstorms with letter in hand and two dogs on leashes only to be totally thwarted by an enormous puddle that was much deeper than my trainers and stretched across the road from my property to my neighbor's. The only way I was going to get to the mailbox was in an SUV.
Now we have drains on this part of the road and I know that they aren't blocked because the five home owners on the cul-de-sac had the drain pumped last year and I took a shovel and cleaned the road of all the debris last month. The problem is that these drains are only designed to take an inch of rainwater and can't deal with a basic thunderstorm. God knows what will happen when a hurricane hits.
Anyway there are always solutions to any problem so I turned round and crossed the lawn and approached the mailbox form the back side. I had to walk through a shrubbery and hang on to the post (that supports the mailbox) to avoid falling in the puddle but I achieved my objective and stayed relatively dry. I don't know what the contractors working on the house opposite thought though.

Tidying Up

front border
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

I know it doesn't look like much but this bed represents hours of work. From the middle of the photo all the way to the centre of the left edge there used to be a berm - a man-made mound of silt and mud that our landscaper had collected each time it rained. It had washed down our street for years until the village put in a 6" berm on the roadside of our property in 2004.
The amount of stuff that had collected made a pile 15" deep, 12' long and over a foot deep. For the last two years I have been raking, digging and pushing this mound around, I have used the soil to plant new trees and shrubs but I didn't seem to make any impression on the pile. Meanwhile, the ivy and weeds threatened to take over that half of the dell while the other half was a desert.


I was determined to improve the look of the front of the house and I started by adding small, low shrubs to the rockery last fall. These are now a good size and lift the eye up past the wasteland, but obviously more was needed. I moved three big rhododendrons that had been doing nothing under the hemlocks and put the in the bed. Then I planted some hostas between these, but I'll need to plant some more when they have the half-price sale at the nursery.
Last weekend I spent five hours moving earth with a shovel and a rake and got the berm down to level along 4'. I cut down one unwieldy rhodo to about 15" and moved another that I think was once half of a huge bush. The next day I couldn't move. But everyday after that I spent an hour or two chopping at the remaining berm, hoeing and pulling weeds. This weekend Steve did the heavy weeding and removed all the ivy, and I replanted all the pretty vinca we came across.
The berm is gone, the soil that has been revealed is dark and looks nutrient rich, so all that remains is to plant it before it gets covered in weeds again.

More colour

Before putting the house on the market the listing agent made previous owner have the entire house repainted Navajo White. We know that the house was originally painted a bright blue in the dining room and den. The bedrooms were originally funky late 60s oil blue, gold, green and yellow, and pink and purple. We discovered that early on because the painters didn't bother painting the insides of the closets. The mud room, maid's room (now my office) and the hallway and stairs were once wallpapered. We have found some of the original wallpaper behind light switches and when we replaced the thermostat in the foyer. I wish I could have seen the house in all its original glory.

Apart from the Bronzed Beige customised walls, we have decorated the dining room, which we painted with Benjamin Moore Titanium on the walls and Cloud White on the ceiling and baseboards and the master suite with Ralph Lauren Blue Mesa. I also mixed Cabot Wood stains in Ebony and Walnut to get the colour I wanted on the replacement windows. I have touched up around the new windows in the den, Verity's and Fliss' rooms with the Navajo White. Although Navajo White is really not our style I'm not planning to paint there any time soon because the paint is new. The kitchen and foyer have only primer so far, and while it's bright, it's kind of boring, but there doesn't seem much point in painting until the kitchen project gets underway. I'm getting impatient here, can you tell?

Personalizing those custom colors

Checking on my site visitors with StatCounter this morning, I was fascinated to find someone had linked through a Google search on "Bronzed Beige" the Benjamin Moore paint color. I posted a year or so ago that I had bought two gallons of the paint the previous November (2004) and had yet to slap it on the walls. I never did post what happened to them.
Apparently you are supposed to toss paint you haven't used after six months but I abhor waste so that didn't happen. Last October I did open one can, stirred it really well and slapped a coat on the mud room wall that had previously had the wallpaper that looked like mold. Unfortunately on the wall the paint looked like mold too, sandy mold but not something I could live with. I decided something a little brighter would be better and bought a can of BM Yellow Highlighter and mixed a pint of that with a pint of the Bronzed Beige. It was too yellow for the mud room but worked really well on my office walls. I made up another batch of the mix, but this time 75% Bronzed Beige and 25% Yellow Highlighter and used that on the mud room. It's better but eventually I'll repaint it, probably when we do the kitchen. The kitchen project seems to be turning into an entire first floor decorating project!
The remaining gallon or so of Bronzed Beige I mixed with two gallons of Super White and painted the fern bedroom and, after a brief flirtation with an accent wall in Ravishing Red and a replacement from our local dealer who had given me Red Oxide by mistake, Steven's office, too.
Four rooms, three different shades from a couple of gallons of oops paint can't be bad. Of course I still have a gallon of Ravishing Red I need to find a use for before it hardens in the can.

Just another one of those things

Nothing much positive to report houseways (or housewise). The washing machine, a large toploading Whirlpool from 1984, started making an odd whistling sound and depositing about half a cup of water on the laundry room floor. The water wasn't a big deal except that I do the laundry in bare feet or socks so I was getting a little damp every day, but hey, there's a floor drain so no big deal. But the whistling was getting on my nerves and the knocking that periodically accompanied it made me think the bearings were going.
Now, I have zero knowledge of the workings of top-loader washing machines other than they do a great job of swirling the clothes around in dirty water and a pretty poor job of actually cleaning clothes, but I know that I associate that sound with bad news in a front-loader so I figure it's much the same. And given its advanced age I didn't hold out any hope that parts would still be available or it would be worth paying a service engineer to come out and tell me the inevitable. We were planning to replace the appliances when we redid the kitchen so it seemed sensible that we go out and buy a new front-loader and have done with it.
Huh. As other housebloggers have noted there is no such thing as an easy replacement appliance shopping trip. Our road to hell, however, started out promising only good things. A personal invitation to attend a "previous customers only sale" arrived serendipitously from the local appliance store where we bought the elephant in the kitchen. All we had to do was turn up between 5-9 pm, chose a washer, hand over the Visa card and we would get a working, cleaning, more environmentally friendly machine, and a rebate from the local power company. I was so psyched.
On the appointed day we showed up, picked out a Bosch and were just about to fork over shedloads of money when the sales guy uttered that wretched sentence: Are you sure you have the space?
This is where you see the difference between an optimist (my husband) and a realist (me). An optimist yells: We have a huge laundry room, the appliances we have now are monsters, of course it will fit. The realist says: Why are you asking me this? Have other people had problems fitting it in their homes? How big is it anyway? Of course you have all guessed the ending to this sorry story. The space needs to be 56" deep to accommodate the open door. I don't think we have 56".
Although Steve was willing to take a chance rather than have to come back to the store we left empty handed. (He was also willing to consider a bump into the garage if we bought them and they didn't fit, until I did the projected cost of construction versus the inconvenience of going home, taking measurements and returning to the store - not so much an optimist more an irritating cloud cuckoo land dweller!)
Anyway, in order to accurately assess the space I spent the next day disassembling some plastic shelving added by the previous owner and doing a major clean up in there. Then I measured. We have 58" depth. But do I really want it to be that tight? And we would have to swap the position of the washer and dryer because all the machines except one have the washer on the left. That would mean maybe moving the dryer vent, and extra hoses. Even more inconvenience.
Now, guess which machine has the washer door on the right side? Correct mes amis, the most expensive one. And guess where we would have to go to look at one? Yes, Expo hell. A store where they never have what you want, have no idea how to get you what you want, hell, probably don't know what you are talking about, certainly don't know what they are talking about. But that's where the nearest Miele washers were so we made the trip.
Oh god, it was a true Sabena moment (Such A Bad Experience, Never Again). The salesman first tried to tell me that the doors on FL washers could be swapped. So I took him to one, opened it and said "show me how". Then he said they could be swapped on top-loaders 'cos he used to do that for his last job. Great info. Then he couldn't find the Miele catalogue and started whistling for it and blaming other salespeople for moving it. We'd been there only fifteen minutes and I was beginning to freak out. We did eventually look at the Miele washer, which was not a sexy design, and cost $2000. If I'm gonna pay two grand for anything I want it to be HOT and to do a lot more than just get my clothes clean. And it would take a minimum of three weeks to be delivered. For $2000, I'd want it yesterday. Once again home empty handed, but at least the Visa card is still intact.
Two days of extensive research on the web and I've decided that all washing machines suck, that a little water on the floor hurts no one and learnt that Bosch are coming out with a new model in July. Procrastination is today's favourite word, and at least I have a neater, cleaner laundry room to show for my efforts.

Paul Mayen table

Paul Mayen table
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

I've been searching for nearly two years for a coffee table to go with the original sofa in the living room and I finally found one one ebay. Hooray for ebay! I'm thrilled because it fits right in, especially with the chandelier, which isn’t surprising as they are both by renowned designer Paul Mayén. 

Mayén was a protegé of Frank Lloyd Wright and designed the gift shop at Fallingwater. My next search will be for a rug to replace the one in the photo, which is a little too small and classic for this room. After that maybe the 70s track lighting will have to go and we can call this room "done". No major renovation, just a little gentle updating.

Need some landscaping done

I'm trying to decide what to do with the yard to the north of our property. It used to be fairly heavily treed with a couple of beautiful azalea borders but years of neglect have led to about a foot deep of accumulated debris, tree branches and weeds. Last year we got the tree guys in to take out the dead and decaying trees and they also took away the heavy branches and tree limbs that were on the ground. We then weeded and got rid of the debris: sprinkler hoses, bricks, bluestone pavers (we recuperated those by extending the path) and dead bushes still wrapped in hessian that never got planted.
What remains is ivy, smaller branches and some old tree stumps. Now what we need is a digger to come in and haul away the top 4-6" of ground so we can get a clean start. This area is about a tenth of an acre so it ain't gonna be cheap. What I was wondering is if someone were to tip off the FBI that Jimmy Hoffa was buried here would they dig over my yard for free? And could I sell souvenirs to finance the new landscaping?

Name That Room

One of the differences between Europe and America is what we call the rooms in our houses. Actually, the first difference is that Europeans call it a house, Americans call it a home, but further than that we (I am a European living in the US) tend to have fewer rooms and less creative names for them. For example in Belgium the typical house has a living room, a dining room (or a large living/dining room), a kitchen, a bathroom, a shower room and three or four bedrooms. Some houses may have an office, basement or rarely a playroom but generally you know what your getting.
When we first looked at property here we were confronted with terms like EIK. I phoned my American friend but she was no help, apparently they either don't have eat in kitchens on Cape Cod or this abbreviation gained popularity only after she left the US. And I still don't know what the difference is between an EIK and a kitchen with a breakfast nook. I was familiar with the term "den" from American TV shows but I thought it had to be practically windowless and have knotty pine paneling and I never knew what you were supposed to do there that you couldn't do in a living room.
Then there's the Great Room. I call the room in the middle of my house the great room because it has a great big ceiling but the previous owner called it the living room. The room where we do most of our "living" ie vegging in front of the TV, she called the den but it is full of light. Our neighbors watch TV in the Media Room; it's dark and windowless but please don't call it a den. I'm confused.
This posting was inspired by an email from Dream Home Source that features a room I had never heard of before: The Gathering Room. I have an idea that each morning the family gathers in The Gathering Room and picks out a room that they will occupy for the rest of the day so that they do not have to interact with the other family members. Although it has its attractions this doesn't win the prize for the oddest named room. In my opinion that goes to Home Plan 18913 that has a something called "Future Quarters". Any clue, anyone?
I love Dream Home Source. One of the search options you can use is "Secret Room". Isn't that the best? And one last question: if you have a Media Room, an Exercise Room and a Billiards Room, what the hell do you need a Bonus Room for?

Modernist Road Trip

Mother's Day, so I'm putting my feet up and perusing my favourite inspirational magazine dwell and making a list of all the things I want to get after I win the lottery, when I glance at the special advertising section for the Saturn Sky Roadster.
This takes the form of a suggested road trip around Long Island, NY to see the modern and post-modern architecture. And the proposed itinerary takes in the works of the celebrated architect Andrew Geller who worked on the Leisurama prefab homes for Macy's and designed the Pearlroth House and, coincidentally, who designed our house in 1968.
It's a long way to drive from Shelter Island to Manhattan without stopping to see some mid-century architecture. So I suggest, should you ever follow the indicated route, that you make a detour off Rte 25A and see another Andrew Geller masterpiece. I'm so lucky to live in this unique house and I want to share it with everyone.

arty shot from under maple

arty shot from under maple
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

Notice the lovely hosepipe that is running to the pool. One day I'm going to take a properly staged photograph.

Summerising

That's what May is for, getting ready for Summer.
We got the pool open on Saturday. It took five hours to drain off the water on top of the yacht sail that serves as our pool cover. Apparently a new cover runs $2,500 or so and the last homeowner didn't want to part with that sort of cash, so she went to the sailmakers down at the marina and got them to make a cover for the pool. It does a great job of keeping the debris out but the winter rain and melting snow collects on it making summerisation a time consuming task.
After the water is off we rake up the leaves, tons of them, and allow them to turn to mulch. Then we roll up the cover and put it away and bring up the pool steps and diving board. Add 30 lbs of what is effectively baking soda and we're good to go. Except this is New York not Florida and the water temperature is an uninviting 62 F. That little issue won't be solved this year, the heater didn't repair itself and we didn't win the lottery, so no heated pool for us this summer. Still the frogs don't seem to mind.

Flooring frustrations

Last week we had the carpets steam cleaned to get rid of the kitty pee and poop stains, and it worked fairly well but the cat must have snuck back in the dining room and peed again 'cos it smells awful in there. So we decided we would have to take up the carpet and put down hardwood floors.
That was the start of the process. Our first choice would be BR111 Brazilian redwood which is what we put on the landing two years ago (see photo). When we tried to order more of it then our supplier said there was a problem with quality and we'd have to wait a few months to get it. Well, it turns out the problem is more than a temporary hiatus in production and there is no more Massaranduba to be had.
This leaves us in a quandary. Do we continue to wait in the hope that more will be released at some future date? Do we pick another hardwood? If so, what?
We liked the redwood because it goes with the house (that's a close up of our Californian redwood siding that forms the background on the banner on this site). It is exceptionally hardwaring hard wood, and that's important with two big dogs and cats that are prone to throwing up and peeing in the most inappropriate places. The other issue is it has to fit with the parquet in the foyer and great room that is oak and mahogany. Light wood won't work, there is a lot of wood in the house: beams, stairs, railings, doors and moldings and it's all dark or red toned. And it has to be of the right depth so there won't be a huge step from the foyer to the dining room and the dining room to the kitchen.
I really didn't want to do anything about this carpet until we did the kitchen remodel so that at least we could tackle the floor level in one go. But despite copious amounts of my usual secret weapon Nature's Miracle the smell just won't go. I suppose we could just not use the dining room for the next couple of years until we're ready to redo the kitchen but that seems kind of limiting, and getting rid of the kitty and replacing the soiled carpet with new carpet is a no go.
So to sum up: we can't get what we want; we really don't want to settle for an interim solution; we can't live with the yucky carpet any longer.
Any suggestions?

Big landscaping project

front yard
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

Extreme gardening this week. We had to move a huge maple that was sitting on top of the fir tree. This was a seedling from another maple in the back of the property that had grown 4' in the two years we have been in the house.
It was the lesser of two evils: we could move the japanese maple or chop it down but it was compromising the 100' conifer that the house was designed around, and we don't want to lose the big specimen tree, it's the focal point of the yard.



(that's a view of the fir towering over the chimney from the other side of the house).

It took all Saturday to dig out a pit 6' diameter and 3' deep to accomodate the rootball and all Sunday morning to dig out the maple. The soil is great though, all loamy from the leaves that have decomposed over the years. We've had the soaker hose on it since we moved it to its new home and we can only cross our fingers now.

Parkour

It's sunny and warmish outside so we're planting and transplanting, hoeing and weeding. Of course this is what we'd rather be doing



Parkour
Pub Rush-Hour BBC - David Belle. Don't you want to have a go too?

Mailman's here

Normally our mail consists of junk: offers for credit cards we don't want and catalogues we'd never buy anything from, but a few times a year we get something that is so exciting I have to stop whatever I'm doing and read it. Today was one of those days. The Frontgate Catalogue had arrived.
I don't know how we got on the mailing list for this but it has changed my life. Never before have I had the opportunity for so much mockery, and it doesn't cost me a dime. I read it from cover to cover and pick out the most unnecessary item that I could, in fantasy Frontgate world, purchase for my house. In winter it had to be the mobile Popcorn maker, then there was the 7' Papyrus in Urn, a faux plant that would set me back $599, but the winner this issue was the Remote Controlled Pool Shark that apparently speeds through the water just like the real thing. Gotta have one of those.
The best thing about the Frontgate Catalog though, is the "lifestyle articles", where they feature a newly built luxury house, usually around 10,000 sq feet, and interview the proud owners. My favourite? The couple who bought a 1995 house and decided it was too aged, so they tore it down and built a newer, shinier one.
The laughter keeps me going so I can go back and tackle this:

Wildlife

This is what I found while raking up weeds in the yard this afternoon. I rubbed my eyes a couple of times but it was what I thought it was and it was alive. No more than 3" long with an orange swipe on the side of its head it was looking right at me. I shot into the house to get my camera because I knew no one would believe me, and of course, when I got back he had disappeared. There was a fair amount of scuffling from inside the dell but I didn't want to go poking around in there in case I trod on him and squashed it. I've spent the afternoon looking up turtles on the internet and I think I've identified it as a bog turtle. It's strange because the yard isn't boggy at all, although the dell acts as a flood barrier (see below) and it is well shaded with tons of pachysandra and other low growing plants (and a few weeds). Also according to NYS Department of Conservation they aren't found on Long Island, but then again coyotes aren't usually found in Central Park.

Spring blossom

pink azalea
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

The pink azalea on the front drive is in full bloom and it's so arresting. It's at least six feet tall and has many more blossoms than last year. Can't wait for the huge white one that should flower in the next week or so.

"Dora Amateis" Rhododendron

"Dora Amateis" Rhododendron
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

The azaleas and rhodendendrons are coming into bloom. We are spending our time mulching and weeding and generally enjoying the Spring sunshine rather than tackling the icky caulk in the bathroom. You've gotta smell the flowers sometimes, no?

Cherry Blossom

cherry
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

The cherry tree, magnolia and forsythias are in full bloom.

Forsythia

forsythia
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

Not much going on inside the house but Spring has definitely sprung in the yard.

WWTT

or, what were they thinking?



Can you guess what the door on the right leads to? Remember that this my kitchen. So it would have to be a pantry? No. Stairs to the basement? No. Panic room?
Nope, it's....
wait for it....... yes, it's a powder room, also known as a half bath here. Just what you want in a kitchen.













Actually, it makes great use of the space under the stairs and it's directly under the master bathroom so the plumbing must have been a breeze. What really makes me wonder is they used carpet as flooring. Carpet? In a bathroom? In a loo that's in the kitchen? It's got to go, especially as the little overflow pipe thingy inside the cistern keeps jumping out of it's mooring when the WC is flushed and spraying the wall and the carpet. Soaking wet carpet. In the bathroom. In the kitchen. Lovely.

Oh no, we made it worse

The master bath used to be quite cute. Not the same standard of workmanship as the rest of the house because it was remodeled in the 80s or early 90s but bright, white and clean. That was before we got our clumsy mitts on it.
First off, we needed to redo the caulk around the bath and shower. A visually challenged, fingerless eight year old could not have done a worse job. Then Steve "tidied up" his vanity, and opened the medicine cabinet door so hard he cracked the glass door. Then I tried to replace a bulb on the light fitting over the basin and cracked the fitting, which fell down, narrowly missing my head. It weighs 2 lbs and corresponds to the crack in this basin , so I'm sure this had happened before.
But the latest, and most disgusting? All that caulk around the shower pan has gone grey and moldy. Yuk. I asked Steve if he had a solution to the problem. His answer?
Demolition.

sunflowers

sunflowers
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

It's spring, although it's so cold outside you wouldn't know it. What is more cheery than sunflowers, though?

New windows are worth it

We just got the last oil delivery of the winter so I was able to do a definitive comparison between winter 2004-5 and winter 2005-6. Although this winter was much milder than last and we would have expected to use a lot less oil, March has been colder than normal. Our lovely oil guys, Dole Fuel, also do a projection of gallons you need based on the temperature and use last year. We used 312 gallons less than they predicted we would. We spent $153 less on oil this winter than last, and this despite an average price increase of 50 cents per gallon. I feel this is worth repeating: fuel prices increased and we still saved money.
Of course the windows were horrendously expensive and we would have to have savings of this level for the next twenty five years to pay for them, but we are much warmer than we were last year, and now I've got used to them I can see they are rather nice.

Cleaning up

after

before

One of the big advantages in replacing the psychedelic seventies shag carpets with hardwood and bamboo floors is that when you stagger out of bed with a streaming cold to find that the cat has thrown up on the landing and in two of the bedrooms, you can take a piece of kitchen towel, squirt a little detergent on it, throw it on the floor, and slide it over the cat sick, and it will all come up, guaranteed. Even the dried-on stuff. And you can do this all while holding a tissue to your streaming nose. Bliss.

New old table

New old table
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

The den has been needing something to prevent those over 6' tall from a nasty chandelier related injury. I finally found it, on eBay of course.

It's an original 70s glass table with chrome legs in fantastic condition and the glass alone would cost 3x what I paid for the table. I love a bargain.

At last, the end of the Window Saga

At last, at last, the roman shade for my office arrived though not without one last drama. I got a call from a neighbor to say she had my shade: the Fedex guy (not the usual Fedex lady who can read an address label, knows what's what and more importantly, who's who), had left a package outside her house, and luckily she's a nice lady and also luckily it had my phone number on it as well as my name. She phoned my rather than phoning Fedex to come pick it up and deliver it correctly 'cos goodness knows how long that would have taken. Anyway, I jumped in my car and drove to pick it up, and eureka: it fits, it works, it is the correct shade. Hurrah.
And I got to meet and chat with a new neighbor so thanks Yvette, Fedex and smithandnoble.

Feline frustration

I thought the dining room was done but Wilba the Cat had a few other ideas. Wilba is ten years old and cross. I have no real idea why she is miffed, although it might have something to do with the two male kittens who joined the family a year or so ago, then again she isn't very keen on Sadie the big dog, but it could just be that she prefers salmon to cat food and she hasn't been getting any recently (salmon? we have a house to finish, you know).
Anyway, she likes to punish us by pooping in inappropriate places. For the longest time it was the bath, yucky but a cinch to clean up; we had a sparkling bath from scrubbing it down twice a day.
Now, though she has taken to using the dining room carpet as her personal litter box. The white dining room carpet. Except that it's not white anymore, no matter how much we scrub with carpet shampoo and Nature's Miracle the stains persist.
And because the drapes almost touch the floor and I'm paranoid about them being stained, today I made Steve move the curtain poles up four inches to avoid any kitty contamination. He is unamused: twelve new holes to drill, twelve old holes to spackle and paint over, and we still have to find a solution to the kitty poop problem.

Bye bye blind

The nice UPS man has just been to pick up the roman shade that smithandnoble sent out without a locking mechanism, the one they sent to replace the first one without a locking mechanism. The customer service rep assures me that they have identified the problem and I will be getting a new working shade without further delay. We shall see. So far nine blinds sent out, six returned for one defect or another. It all adds up to a lot of wasted materials, labour, shipping and MY TIME and PATIENCE.

no rest yet

no rest yet
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

I'm sitting updating my flickr photos as it's too cold to do anything else and I came across this one I took just after we moved in. A year later we would trim these bushes back and discover a pond, a waterfall and a pebble stream flowing under the bridge.
I can't wait to get out there again in the sunshine. Roll on summer.

The revenge of the leaking toilet

This is why I don't undertake plumbing repairs.
I got so fed up of the phantom flush on the toilet next to my office and the outrageous price the plumber wants to charge ($350 for a basic fix that involves $20 of Home Depot parts or what he would really like to do is to take out my nice one piece toilet that matches the tiles and replace it with a cheaper two-piece in white that will look hideously out of place for the amazingly low price of $750) that I downloaded the instructions from ehow.com and prepared to tackle it myself. Reading through my eye was caught by the following tip:
Check the bowl-fill tube if you're still getting "phantom" flushing. If the bowl-fill tube is below the water level in the tank it can result in a siphoning action that sounds a lot like a leaky flapper. Adjust or trim the tube so that it's above water level - this will provide an air gap to break the siphon.
Aha I thought, that's the cause. So I pulled the hose out a little and replaced the cistern lid and went off to get changed to go to dinner. All dressed and ready to go, I visited the bathroom before venturing out in the February cold, flushed the loo and watched as water poured out of the cistern. Stupidly, I wrenched off the cistern lid, allowing the hose its freedom to spray cold water all over me, and the bathroom floor. Darn, darn, darn.
I think I need another fix.

It's really finished this time

I know I said we called the dining room done but soon after this photo was taken Magritte fell off the wall and cracked his frame. This poster from the Surrealism: Desire Unbound holds great memories for us. We bought the poster in 2002 after we had seen the exhibition at the Met in New York, we also saw it at the Tate Modern in London and we lived in Belgium for many years and saw the Magritte exhibition there too. So I had to get it professionally framed and for three weeks there was an empty space on the dining room wall. But today I picked it up and re-hung it, and all the drama has returned to the space. And now we are definitely done.

The Phantom Light

We have a spooky light problem in the den. I kind of noticed this a while ago, but put it down to not switching the lights on properly. Although really it's either on or it's off, no?
The track lighting is controlled by a three gang switch. One turns on the socket to the left of the den, the other two control the track lights; you can have them all on, just a spot that lights the picture on the east wall, there's one that lights all the spots on this wall and another that lights the south wall. And then there are the dimmer options. Oh yes we can micromanage the lighting in our den.
When we first moved in, we worked out which switches did what and then we only used the one that controlled the socket where we plugged a table lamp. Easy. Then one evening I wanted some extra light to illuminate the laptop and I turned on that spot. Nothing. So I turned the switch the other way.(They are rocker switches). Also nix. Then I went to the basement to check the fuse. It was on. I came back to the den and the spotlight was on. I decided I was crazy and forgot all about it.
Then on Monday we were putting up the last curtain pole at dusk, so Steve asked me to throw some lights on and nothing. I switched it one way, then the other. He was convinced that the fuse had gone so he sent me to check. When I got back having touched nothing in the fuse box the lights turned themselves on, then off, then on again. I guess that was the order I had fiddled with the switches but the expression on Steve's face was priceless.
Anyway I am not crazy, we have a forty-five second delay on the switch that wasn't there a year ago. So my question is: Is this dangerous? Or is it merely quirky and we should plan to put the lights on a while before it gets dark?

Things that go flush in the night

One of the less well known universal laws is that one problem solved causes three new ones. For example, when we moved here eighteen or so months ago the engineers report noted that there were minor plumbing issues to take care of.
Like the leaky downstairs shower and the powder room wc with the phantom flush. Easy, I thought flush with my "building fund", I'll call a plumber. The adorable original house owner left me a list of her responsible service people and I duly called her plumber. He arrived, looked at the problems and left promising to call back the next day. Case One: the disappearing plumber.
A month later the builders were here tearing out closets and paneling. They noticed the dripping shower and offered to fix it. Great. Super. They bought a new shower head, cleaned out the accumulated yuck and proudly presented it to me. "It still drips, though" they said "but we'll fix that". A week later they were gone, but the shower still leaked, and the toilet flushed unaided.
Fast forward six months and the second contractor was looking for things to do while his spackle dried. Your shower's leaking. Very astute these builders. He fiddled with it. "I've cleaned it, but it still drips a bit".
Meanwhile, the phantom flush began to keep us awake. I decided to tackle it myself. I bought a new flapper and fitted it. Piece of cake. Didn't stop the flushing though. Finally it was enough to wake us up at intervals throughout the night and another shower starting gushing rather than dripping. I caved and called a second plumber.
This one came, looked at the gushing shower and decided it needed a part that would have to be specially ordered. He promised he would fix the loo at the same time as the shower. A week or so later the plumber phoned, the part was in but the plumber was busy so they were sending a different guy.
OK plumber and part arrived. Plumber Two or is it Three's verdict on the shower? Didn't really need a new part, just needed cleaning. "You got a lot of debris in there, ma'am". He installed the part anyway, I'd ordered it so I had to pay for it. And the loo? He left saying it was fixed, but all he'd done was put on a new flapper! This actually made matters worse, but I didn't notice this until after he drove merrily away. Instead of flushing quietly every fifteen minutes, it now flushed like Niagara Falls every five minutes.
A phone call to the firm and couple of days later, Plumber One (or Two) came to fix the toilet, spent fifteen minutes and voila no more noise. Three plumbers, two contractors, three call out charges for the last two plumbers, time and parts for five guys and the loo is fixed. It would have cost $20 at Home Depot if I had done it myself, huh!
And the dripping shower? I forgot to ask the plumbers to fix that one. Probably a good thing or we would be bankrupt by now.

Rant, rant

I do not believe it. Really I don't. I feel like Victor Meldrew, a British sitcom character beloved by grumpy old Englishmen for his incredulity at the spanners life threw his way and the incompetence of everyone he came into contact with.
Why am I so miffed you ask? Smithandnoble's replacement shade arrived at lunchtime today. Those paying attention to this saga will recall that in October I ordered four red silk roman shades for the dining room. When they came, three had white splotches on them so I sent the whole lot back and ordered three shades for the den in one fabric and one for my study in a different fabric. The den ones weren't great quality but at least they functioned as shades i.e. they went up and down but the fourth was lacking that essential part of blind structures- a locking mechanism. So it went back and I waited for another shade and guess why I am exasperated today. No, go on guess. Correct they have delivered a shade with exactly the same defect. When I rang them they were incredulous, this never happens they assured me. I think they think I am some sort of imbecile who cannot operate a roman shade. But wait I have three others and I can open and close them so maybe the fault lies with their manufacturer. Or as I believe, they opened the package that I returned, looked at the front side, thought well it looks ok, I don't know what the problem is, and RETURNED THE SHADE TO ME IN A NEW BOX.
My reason for this suspicion? One of the rings that the shade hangs from is bent in exactly the same position as the shade I returned a week ago. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Coincidence?

Does smithandnoble read my blog entry or is it just coincidence? I checked my email just after I posted the last piece and weirdly enough there was an email from them saying the missing shade will be her tomorrow (FedExed no less)!
I hope it's the right blind, with a locking mechanism, and no pins, threads or wobbly bits on the seams. As the rod is already up I should be able to just slot it in place when it arrives.
Can't wait, I'll post a pic when it does, in the meantime a daylight photo of the den with the shades up.

Done den

Steve's finger has almost healed, although he hasn't had time yet to get the stitches out and I'm beginning to worry that he's grown permanently attached to them. What are the consequences of leaving them in forever?
It's President's Day, and that means he works from home instead of going to the office, so betwwen calls and emails and presentation writing he decided he could spare an hour to put up the curtain rods. We actually set the kitchen timer for fifty minutes to ensure he wouldn't miss his four o'clock conference call.
I'll take what I can get so I laid all the tools out, charged up the drill and did the measuring so all he had to was drill the holes.
Here's the result, and this is what it looked like when we moved in eighteen months ago.

I'm still cheesed off with smithandnoble for several reasons. The quality of the product versus price is dreadful: The seams are not hemmed, simply pressed and unsurprisingly there are threads hanging off the raw selvage; the edges aren't straight and the bottom rod that weights the fabric keeps sliding out. Their customer service sucks almost as bad as the product. I still haven't heard when I will get a replacment blind for the replacement blind for my office. My rule of thumb for an acceptable job is always: Could I have done it better myself? On this project Steven could have done a better job. Rats.

the old window dressing

the old window dressing
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

July 2004: this is what the windows looked like when we moved in, all vinyl, all over. The windows were single hung, 6'x4'1" and the heat transference was tremendous. Now we're snug and the decor is improving too.
I love my house more every day.

what next?

I sometimes get freaked about the things we are doing to this house. My mantra when we were in contract to buy it and thinking about all the things that needed to be done was: Do no harm. Every so often, I second guess a decision we have made, usually about paint colour, and think: Am I making a terrible mistake and hurting the house? Then I come across photos from when we moved in, and I'm reassured. We are doing more good than harm.
The old kitchen has 70s decor and needs updating but it is so functional: all the cabinets have roll out drawers, the upper cabinets have roll out plate racks. Either side of the island there are: pull out chopping boards, one for meat, one for bread; a pull out toaster; can opener and electrical sockets. I can't even imagine how much it's going to cost to get this quality today

The shade saga

suntanned never cease to amaze me with their customer"service". Despite their promise to ring back with a detailed instructions re the replacement of the non-locking blind I heard nothing for eight days. Then this evening while I was sorting through the credit card offers I will never take up, flyers from supermarkets I never use and coupons for $10 of sealcoat for the driveway, in short the sort of junk that passes for mail these days, there was a knock on the kitchen window.
And there in the cold stood the hunky UPS guy. It is Valentine's Day so I was kind of hoping for a decent prezzie. No such luck. He had been detailed to pick up something form a company I had never heard of, but turned out to be the manufacturer of smithandnoble blinds. As I wasn't expecting a pick up, he had to wait in 24" of snow while I found the blind, put it in its box and taped it up. Then he stuck on the return label and exclaimed "look at that, they send it out FedEx and pick it up UPS!"
I'm betting they take the blind, stick its locking mechanism on it and return it to me  via UPS. What are the odds. These blinds were ordered in October to be in place by Thanksgiving. Well they missed that deadline, Xmas and New Year, Velentine's too. We are shooting for Easter now or 6 months after they were ordered. Unbe*******lieveable.
Anyway, here are the various transformations my office has gone through, and eventually I hope to post a photo of the blind that should go in here.

Window dressing

The roman shades saga continues: On Monday last week I received the replacement roman shades from smithandnoble. After the last experience I knew I had to get them up as quickly as possible to see that they were in perfect condition, so I rushed out and bought four poles to hang them from. (The reason I had ordered from smithandnoble was they offered a ring top option so they could be hung from a metal rod and would be sleek and modern, rather than bulky and fussy.
I sped back home with the selected black curtain poles and spent a good hour drilling holes in the wall to put them up. I thought I'd try the one in my study first and then do the den where there are three windows and I hoped Steve would take over with the drill. (It's man's work, you know). The blind looked ok coming out of the box, and on the pole there were no funny marks or pins left in the material, so far so good.
Then I tried to lock the blind closed, and I pulled one way and then the other, then I checked the back and guess what? They had left off the locking mechanism. I could not believe it! I phoned them immediately and they promised a new blind, which they would confirm by phone within 48 hours, leaving a detailed voicemail if I wasn't home. Really?
I'm still waiting for that phonecall, people, and FYI, four defective blinds out of eight is a really bad average.
So this blind is one of those that will go in the den (and yes they are all ok, I checked). That won't be for a couple of weeks as an accident with a bagel has left Steve with four stitches in his left index finger and I'm too mad to tackle any window dressing right now.

Bye bye funky flowers

At last we found a replacement for the 1960s orange and green flower chandelier in the bamboo room. We bought an ecru drum shade from the Conran shop in Manhattan for forty bucks and remarkably we remembered to get the ceiling converter kit (designed by Noguchi, no less) to go with it.
Even more remarkable, instead of leaving it in its box for several weeks we installed the light the very next morning, with no fuss and just before we left to go to the theatre. Amazing.
We also ran into Lighting by Gregory and ordered a wall light to go on the landing. As it cost substantially more than $40 and won't arrive for a couple of weeks this was less exciting.
The play was fantastic: Rabbit Hole starring Cynthia Nixon and Tyne Daly, it officially opens this week. Go and see it if you have the chance. And Tyne Daly had dinner in the same restaurant as us after the show.
A pretty darn satisfying weekend.

We pronounce it done

Finally put the curtains up in the dining room this morning. We had ordered roman blinds in October but when they arrived they had bleached out splodges on each of them so we sent them back. It took until January 11 for smithandnoble to tell us that this was normal on silk dupioni and we could either have them remade or choose a new fabric. Huh!
I've seen silk dupioni samples and fabric bolts from many sources and never seen a splodge on any of them, this looked like a bad dye job to me. Anyway, would you trust them to make up a new batch? I thought not. No explanation for the six dressmaker pins left in the fabric either.
So I gave up on the idea of shades and after three weeks of looking I found these red silk dupioni panels and while they are more formal than I wanted, the colour is great - better than the shades, in fact and the best is that there are no weird marks on them. Ha!
Anyone need a reminder of what the dining room looked like eighteen months ago, before the new windows, furniture, paint and curtains? This is it Finally put the curtains up in the dining room this morning. We had ordered roman blinds in October but when they arrived they had bleached out splodges on each of them so we sent them back. It took until January 11 for smithandnoble to tell us that this was normal on silk dupioni and we could either have them remade or choose a new fabric. Huh!

I've seen silk dupioni samples and fabric bolts from many sources and never seen a splodge on any of them, this looked like a bad dye job to me. Anyway, would you trust them to make up a new batch? I thought not. No explanation for the six dressmaker pins left in the fabric either.

So I gave up on the idea of shades and after three weeks of looking I found these red silk dupioni panels and while they are more formal than I wanted, the colour is great - better than the shades, in fact and the best is that there are no weird marks on them. Ha!

Anyone need a reminder of what the dining room looked like eighteen months ago, before the new windows, furniture, paint and curtains? This is it.

San Diego Harbor

We had to update our cellphones and got quad bands so they work in Europe as well as here. Steve got his with a camera and this is what it does if you press the wrong button.....
We were on the harbor in San Diego as the sun was setting, very nice and a short break from the house. We are getting along well with the decorating. The dining room is finished and new roman blinds have been ordered for the den and my office, then they will be finished for now. We have decided to leave the rest of the den decoration - carpets and the built in unit until we do the kitchen and get the same finish for them as the kitchen cabinets. The cabinets will have to be custom made because of the angles in the kitchen (it's a trapezium) but I'm hoping we can still do them for a reasonable price. Still I don't think we'll be tackling this project until 2008 at the earliest. Next big project - our leaky, cracked shower pan that will require an entire bathroom makeover. Fix one job, create three more.............

San Diego Zoo

There are two things that you have to do when you visit San Diego: walk along the marina and go to the Zoo. And when you get to the Zoo you have to have lunch at the Prado and see the pandas. The bonus for us was that the five month old cub was outside and becoming bolder every day. We got to the Zoo before it opened and went straight to the panda exhibit and there was the cub - stuck up a tree like a black and white wombat.
I refused to leave until it came down and after ten minutes or so the mother panda became uneasy and started to call the cub down. The cub tried to climb down but it was a fir tree and the branches went out and the only way down was to climb to the end of a branch and drop off. The fall was about four feet but the little cub let go, hit the ground, dusted himself down and walked it off. His mama cuddled him, then went back to stripping bamboo. This is the cub exploring again.
We left then, but according to people we met later the cub went into his pen and didn't appear for the rest of the day.
Friday January 13, 2006 - 06:58pm (EST) Edit | Delete | 0 Comments |