Modernist Architecture Reality Check

For lovers of modernist residential architecture there was mixed news this week. While the Richard Neutra Kaufmann Desert House (above) sold to an unidentified buyer for a respectable $16,800,000 ($19,000,000 including an adjacent plot), the Louis Kahn Esherick House (below) failed to reach its reserve.


Both houses were offered for sale as part of Contemporary Art and Design auctions and their selling price was expected to far exceed their real estate value. Auctioneer Richard Wright, who was hoping to sell the Esherick House for between $2-$3,000,000, didn't blame the declining housing market for the failure to sell, pointing out that bidders at auction would be paying cash and not worrying about a mortgage. Christie's, who sold the Kaufmann House, were also disappointed that bidding was at the lower end of the valuation. They had marketed the house as a work of art with a estimated price of between $15-$25 million.

Azalea Round-Up

I don't promise that this is the last time I will mention the word azalea, or post a pic, but they are looking so phenomenal I put together this composite. They are all different plants and because these were in the yard when we bought The Cool House I have absolutely no idea of the names.

It must be the combination of a mild winter this year on Long Island and a long, cool, rainy Spring that made the blossoms so abundant and so long-lasting. We've had a few real rainstorms and a lot of the plants have taken a beating in the past week but some of the pink and the white azaleas are still at their best, and the rhododendrons are just breaking out. If only we could get a few days of temperatures in the low 70s it would be perfect.

Mayday

I invented a new cocktail in the time between the wedding and the reception yesterday.
The Guy named it M'aider or Mayday as it contains Lillet, an apertif from South-west France, and I was pretty much underwater half-way through sipping it. I'll share it with you but be warned, it could leave you (ship)wrecked.


To a cocktail shaker a third filled with ice add 3 measures gin, two of Lillet, one of Noilly Prat. Shake.


Take a martini glass. Fill with ice and water so it's really cold, empty. Rub a slice of lemon around the rim.


Pour the contents of the shaker into the glass. Top up with tonic water. Garnish with the slice of lemon and a cherry.
It tastes like summer but packs a wallop so enjoy in moderation!

Sadie's disguise

Sadie had surgery to remove a large cyst caused by an ingrowing hair follicle. She was a trooper and came through it all excellently


We made her wear this attractive T-shirt for a while, which didn't impress her at all


But did cause a visitor to The Cool House to ask who the kid with the long black hair was.....

First BBQ of the Year

The temperature hit 68F, the yard has been cleaned up, it's barbeque time!


First Hoegaarden of the summer (and yes that is a Krups scale bowl we are using as an ice bucket!)


Polly banished to the bridge while there are hamburgers about


Sadie drooling


Life is just a bowl of cherries - and cherries are the perfect summer dessert.

Something old, something new...

Comments left on my recent post about the rehabbed powder room and also by The Handyman made me think I should explain in greater detail why we kept the fixtures we did and how I arrived at the plan for the new ones.

Like many projects in this house it was undertaken piecemeal. When I first thought about this room (2004) I was going to strip it completely, starting with the shag carpet, but we didn't have the budget to do it right away. I did, however, start formulating a plan. I could say it started with a doorknob but it was a little more complicated than that...


Between 2004 and 2006 we had a bunch of leaks, drips and other plumbing issues that resulted in a completely rebuilt toilet mechanism. When we decided to redo the powder this Spring room I didn't want to throw the WC out especially as the china looked good, it fitted the space and I'd spent more than the cost of a new loo getting it fixed.


One day in 2005 the ventilator broke and when put in a new one we also tried to fix the chandelier back to the ceiling. We couldn't and neither could any other contractor who has worked on the house. We knew it had to go when we redid the room, so eventually we swapped it out for one we already had.


I was going to rip out the vanity and replace it with this unit but the more I thought about it the less I liked it. For one, I'd lose precious counter space, then I'd have to possibly remove the mirrors and maybe re-texture the walls. Finally I wasn't sure I liked the bowl and faucet enough. In the end it seemed like too much money to spend to get something I wasn't 100% happy with. There was nothing wrong with the original cabinet so I figured why not get rid of the part I hated, the fake marble top with its clamshell sink and tiny faucet that only elves could operate, and keep the base.
The shag carpet bugged me every day. We wanted to wait until we remodeled the kitchen before we took it out but the longer we lived here the more remote that day seemed. Once we'd made the decision to keep the vanity and tile up to it there didn't seem much point in waiting any longer, we'd just get it done.


Then came my favorite part: shopping. Firstly I shopped for free in the "things I thought we'd use but never did" department aka a shelf in the garage. I found a chrome towel bar I bought for the boys' bath remodel that we couldn't fit in that space. Then I started spending money. I love Carrara marble and we've used it throughout the house to update other bits of furniture so that was an easy choice for the countertop. I made a paper template and took it to the stone guy up the road and he had it cut in two days.


The faucet I wanted, the Tara Classic from dornbracht would have cost a stress-inducing $918 but I found a much more reasonably priced version at overstock.com. There was a brief obsession flirtation with a red vessel sink but I think the one I chose out of necessity actually looks better here. It cost a little more but it compliments the marble really well.
Our ethos during the renovation of The Cool House has been to save as many original features as possible, to do as little harm as we can and accomplish it on the smallest feasible budget. Having said that I do like the occasional "wow" piece.


My designer neighbor once charitably described the old powder room as "not horrible", she hasn't seen the new version yet but I hope she will approve. There's a lot of old, a fair bit of new and some things borrowed from another room in this remodel and I think it all works together. I'm happy anyway.

Pink rhododendron

Pink rhododendron on front drive

Pool update

When I wrote this a couple of weeks ago I mentioned there might be a problem with the pump. Well two days, a new pump, new timer and some tubing later we can now recirculate the water without annoying the neighbors and more importantly we can run it during the day and turn it off at night.
The timer replacement business is hysterical, by the way. The pool guys slap another timer on the fence, hook it up to the electrics and LEAVE THE OLD TIMER BEHIND. We now have three timers decorating the pool housing, looking like little metal birdhouses without the holes. I wonder how long they last? Will I still be here to see each fence post with it's own special box? Could I call it art and charge people to visit the exhibition?
Unfortunately all the new mechanics have not solved the leak we had fixed in 2005 or 2007. Actually, this is probably a new leak and I'm fairly sure it's in the plastic pipe under the flower bed because we had two rhododendrons die there this year. We'll probably start excavating it soon because even though the water isn't going down much we don't really want to lose any more bushes. The good news is that the filters are still in good shape as is the cement so we don't have to contemplate marble-dusting it this year. The bad news is that the water is cold, we still have no pool heater and even if we did we couldn't afford to heat the pool as oil hit almost $127 a gallon yesterday.

EDIT: Sorry, I meant a barrel. $127 a barrel, not a gallon. Still bad though.

Red azalea

Deep red azalea behind the pool

Framed

The last of the projects completed without my supervision.


This time it was replacing the rotted redwood siding under the sliding door in the kitchen. We'd had this on the to-do list for nine months.


A nice new piece of timber takes it from manky to well-maintained.


While he was about it The Handyman framed out the slider (no frills, just square and plain) to solve the issue of the siding coming away above the door. And notice that beautiful, moss-free step. All the stone, brick and slate was power-washed last week, too. Yippee.

Azalea photos

The azaleas are at their best so I went out and shot 112 photos. This is the only one worth posting........

Bigger, better and more beautiful

sink before

When I left for Boston the powder room looked like this. The black faux marble countertop was scuffed and sucked all the light from the room. Even after we changed the light it was still a tiny space under the stairs.

toilet/floor before

The toilet was sitting on a white faux marble plinth that raised it to the height of the cream shag carpet. Funky, and not in a good way.

The day before I was to leave The Handyman said he could start the renovation. I wasn't about to let him go work on someone else's house just because I was out of town so I left instructions and The Guy in charge. Apparently there were a few minor hiccups along the way; there had been a leak under the carpet for some time and the floor behind the toilet had rotted (potentially a guest could have sat on the john and ended up in the basement, not what the sort of memory you want your guests to carry away with them) so some wood had to be replaced; the waste pipe had to be lowered so the floor could be tiled, which required some extra plumbing. These were unforeseen and cost both time and some extra money, but thanks to our meticulous and unfazeable handyman the powder room was remodeled by the time I returned to The Cool House.

floor and toilet after (towel reflected in mirror)

The floor had been tiled. The toilet re-installed and a new seat purchased for it. The Guy won't tell me how much it cost but The Handyman made him approve the expenditure because it was so expensive, so I'm guessing it wasn't $24.99.

paint after

The towel bar is attached to the wall (so much more useful than sitting in the cabinet) and the walls have had an extra coat of paint.

sink after

And most spectacularly, the real Carrara marble top, Oceana vessel sink and dornbracht look-alike faucet had been installed.
A full month after I wrote this it's done, completed, finished. I love everything about it. Those fixtures we kept, the original toilet, the black vanity and the huge mirrors no longer keep the powder room stuck in the 1970s. They've been magically transformed, the light reflecting in the mirrors from the marble, glass and chrome updates the space and makes the room seem twice as large as before. I swear I could dance in here now.
Only one teensy little problem: something that happened two years ago that we thought we had fixed, happened again the first time I used the loo. Those new guest towels I bought sure came in handy to mop up the mess.....

Laundry Update: Cabinets

I wrote this post before I went walkabout:

Some weeks ago I promised an update to the failed initial laundry room plan. I drew and redrew the plan and eventually came up with something I could live with: 2 x 24" cabinets over the washer/dyer, a high cabinet next to the dyer and oak countertops. On the adjacent wall there will be one 18" and one 24" cabinet next to the laundry chute. Underneath the laundry chute a 15" cabinet, next to it a 24" sink base and then an 18" pull-out drawer unit. That will mean we only need a 2" filler, so no wasted space, and I ordered 39" tall wall cabinets so I'll have lots of room to store cat food.
The floor will have the same porcelain tiles we are using in the powder room. They are really low-maintenance, as easy to clean as the white Applad cabinets we've chosen. It should be a breeze to get this room finished.
Unfortunately, when we went to Ikea to buy the cabinets the high cabinet was out of stock so we ended up just getting the wall cabinets, which we have had neatly stacked in the garage for a month now. The plan was to make one cabinet per evening in the hopes we could have hung them by the following weekend but plans tend to get postponed in this house. Sometimes indefinitely.

Then I came back from Boston and to my great surprise I found:


Boxes assembled

and boxes on the wall. With doors. And handles. I'm totally impressed, maybe I should go away more often.
It's looking very shiny and clean, and much bigger than before. I can't wait to get the rest of the laundry room finished.

And then there was Beantown

Quincy Market

Thermopolyae at the JFK Building


USS Constitution


USS Cassin Young
Much was accomplished in a few days, including some sightseeing, bacon wrapped scallops at The Salty Dog (I cannot recommend this too highly; the sweetest, tastiest scallops encased in BACON. What's not to like? Everything tastes better wrapped in bacon), and martinis at The Last Hurrah.

Cai Guo-Qiang: I want to Believe

There's such a lot to see at the Met, MoMA and other New York museums at the moment but one not-to-be-missed show is at the iconic Guggenheim. Amazing architecture and awe-inspiring art in one space, so I had to go and see it for myself.
Inspired by a car bomb Inopportune Stage One occupies the rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, New York and is the initial installation of Cai Guo-Qiang' s exhibition: I want to Believe. White cars tumble skywards while lasers shoot out of the vehicles, turning an image of destruction into one of beauty.
Further along the gallery a pack of wolves hurtles into a glass wall and a fishing boat pierced with 3,000 arrows is suspended from the ceiling. Visitors can walk among the exhibits, including the life-size clay figures in the Rent Collection Courtyard or even go on a river trip in an animal hide raft.
Most of the works were shown first at other galleries but there is something about the unique space of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum that is superbly suited to Cai's work.
A large part of the experience for me was amazement at the staging of the exhibits so be sure to visit the website to see how some of them were installed.

The exhibition runs through May 28 2008 at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
More information here.

Back to The Cool House and the blog

So much to relate, but where to start?


With the wonderful things I saw while I was away?


Or with the fantastic progress made at The Cool House in my absence?

I'm back

but a little like this. Even if you don't speak French I think you'll get the idea (thanks for the video Fliss).

I'm away from my desk

But where am I?
This is a new friend, Flat Stanley, that I met on my trip.
Where am I? More clues, if necessary, in the music player at the bottom of the page..........

We apologise for the interruption

We are a little hung up at the moment. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Herbs

An exceptionally mild winter meant all the herbs made it through, including those in pots. Bonus, fresh oregano and chives in early May!

Win more

Linda Merrill at ::Surroundings:: has a fab new contests sponsored by Artaissance. If you ever wanted a piece of custom art to complete your sitting room or bedroom now is your chance.
Just go to ::Surroundings:: and tell the internets what inspires you. It's that easy. Leave your story in the comments and you could win a gift certificate for any single item currently available on the Artaissance site, floral, modern, abstract - it's up to you. Competition closes Monday, May 12th and unfortunately for me I am banned from entering as I won the fantastic lamp time. Sad for me, more chances for you.

DWR Saarinen/Knoll Event

From last night's DWR-Roslyn Event celebrating 50 Years of Saarinen. This is how my den looks in my imagination.


The Tulip tables and Tulip chair in Platinum, the new base color introduced to mark the 50th Anniversary. Originally the three colors were black, white and aluminum but for many years only the black and white had been produced.
Just visible in the background is a blow-up shot of Saarinen's iconic TWA Terminal at JFK airport.


The terminal will open to Jet Blue passengers in late summer 2008.

After listening to the presentation and seeing the entire collection I really want to visit the Saarinen House and Cranbook Art Museum in Detroit to get a sense of what inspired Eero Saarinen and his father Eliel. Until then I'll have to make do with lusting after the red fabric Womb chair and the Executive armchair in Volo leather that I sat in last night. Soooo stylish and comfy.