Preserving the Uniquely Modern

A few years ago The Guy and I headed out to DWR in East Hampton for a fundraiser to save The Pearlroth House. After a lot of hard work by the Geller family, especially Jake Gorst the architect's grandson, and many others that iconic house has been preserved and will be fully restored by next summer.


One successful preservation has led to a much bigger endeavour: cataloging all of Andrew Geller's portfolio - his sketches, blueprints, designs and art - in an archive that will become a resource for students and fans of mid-century architecture and design. Last night dwr East Hampton hosted the Andrew Geller Archive Preservation Fundraiser to raise money for this project.


Friends, family and followers of mid-century modern architecture turned out to enjoy a slideshow on Geller's life and work and bid in a Silent Auction for works including paintings by Andrew Geller and his wife Shirley (who sadly passed away last month), silks by Jamie Geller Dutra and jewelry by Nancy Schindler. More on that auction in a future post... All proceeds from the evening will go to support the Archive. You can support the fund by becoming a sponsor or making a tax-deductible donation and look out for a future fundraiser to be held in New York City - they're lots of fun.

Matching panels

A couple of things got crossed off the punch list today. I fixed the brown switchplates under the countertops and they installed the other Caesarstone island panel... at last


This side needs a switchplate cover but of course I didn't have a white one in the house. Next order of business - sanding out the grit & hair on the floor & re-sealing, followed by molding, toekicks and baseboards. Then paint. I seriously cannot wait for the paint, that's when I'll know the kitchen renovation is finally finished.

Angular

Sometimes it's easy to forget


just how unique the architecture


yet how geometrically simple it is


until the Secret Photographer takes a fresh look at The Cool House & finds the most interesting angles.
Thanks, Austen!

Black and White in Summer

The dining room, the space I declared finished in January 2006 and that we decided to add to the kitchen renovation, finally got its new clothes thanks to some design help from the Awesome Designer and a shopping trip to Kravet's Bethpage, NY showroom one rainy day back in April.


The drapery fabric Solarte from Kravet Soleil, is a retro-vibe indoor/outdoor fabric that should stand up better to dog affection than the Dupioni silk that hung there before.


Although it looks black & white in the stock image, there is a lot of subtlety in the shading - ebony, stone, mocha and a silvery pewter.


The rug, Cap Ferrat, is, like the Chinese Chippendale now in the den, a design by Windor Smith for Kravet. The seafoam color marries well with the grey-green Benjamin Moore Titanium walls and the dark brown ovals are almost the exact shade of the beams and the mocha shading in the drapes. (Black, seafoam and the sun seem to have been a big part of this recent renovation. I think I'll have to invest in some black and white tea towels for the kitchen!).


All we need now are those pesky baseboards...

Almost there

...apart from moldings, baseboard, toekicks, paint and the left side Caesarstone panel for the island (once again the installer wasn't happy with the fabricator's work). It's frustrating that we still aren't done but at least we have a working kitchen for the first time in more than two months.


I was extremely excited to start cooking again, then I remembered that all the pans and utensils were boxed up in the garage and we had nothing in the pantry.



So I settled for shopping for supplies, opening those boxes and washing every pot in the giant Blanco sink. Very therapeutic it was, too!

The only three words that matter

spoken by the Guy as he sat in the renovated (except for the baseboards!)


and temporarily* redecorated den watching the Tour de France...

"you were right"

*once we were happy with the rug in its new position we took it up again. It will be another 4 weeks before we can put rugs on the newly sealed floor - this is why people buy pre-finished flooring!

Getting Away From It All

We changed our plans and extended the vacation another day so we could go out on the water


That proved to be a great idea


Because wherever we looked


To the right or the left


Up or down


It seemed the wildlife was out enjoying the sun, too

Whatever

The weather didn't necessarily cooperate every day but there was always something interesting to do in while recharging our batteries and regaining our sense of fun


Build-a-boat in Portland. ME


Spotting exotic animals


experiencing the town art


or admiring the town architecture - Belfast, ME

The smell of the ocean

"Each morning sees some task begun, each evening sees it close"
but we won't be there to experience it. While the floors are sanded and sealed, the baseboards & moldings stained, we will be here (clue in image) eating our way through bowls of smoked haddock chowder and other local delicacies. A break is good!

Day 64

So... you know, if you've read previous blog posts, that we are undertaking a kitchen renovation that we expanded to include 1500 sq' of new hardwood floor, the demolition of our bar/media centre, new windows, mud-room door and some miscellaneous work/repairs to other rooms (including some stuff that was never finished from previous projects). In short, at the moment our house is neither the epitome of uniquely modern style nor the oasis of calm that I need in order to function as the wryly detached blogger you are accustomed to.
We are at the stage when things come in wrong and have to be changed, deadlines are missed, promises are broken.
For instance, the countertops: The fabricator wasn't happy with the Caesarstone that came in and re-ordered. No one told me. The earliest install date is now July 15th, the date when the flooring guy will be sanding (or sealing) and we're scheduled to be on vacation to escape the dust and the fumes. Everything was arranged in order to finish on time - July 16th. With one phone call the timeline changed and all hopes of getting the house back to normal within that timeframe vanished.
We have options. We can push on with the floor, which will allow us to get the furniture (and furnishings) back in place by the end of the month. The flooring guy, who was adamant about doing his work after the countertops had been installed in case there were any "issues", such as dropped stone or scraped floors, has cleared his books to work next week. He doesn't want to change; he says he'll buff out any scratches. But, of course, there shouldn't be any scratches. The animals are booked into their holiday homes and changing them at this stage will cost us. I'm going to crack if I have to spend any more time in my studio apartment bedroom because the downstairs resembles a cross between a flooring showroom and a consignment store. On the other hand, the stone guys don't want to risk a problem with the new floor, won't be liable in fact, and would rather they got in first.
I checked to see how long this renovation has been going - only a couple of months, less if you count from demolition. It seems SO. MUCH. LONGER. I'm hot, I'm cranky and I need to be finished. What to do?
On the positive side, the pool is 84F. Happy Days!

Cool town

You like bikes? And urban architecture? Check out the promotional video for the Tour de France kick-off in Rotterdam, The Netherlands July 3 2010... next stop Brussels!

Inspiration in the Den

The new hardwood floor is in and will soon be sanded and sealed. The electric cables that came up through the platform a foot from the wall have been relocated to a less obtrusive position and although the room will need new paint soon it's a blank canvas I can't wait to colour. It will need a rug, something to soften all that wood, a credenza for the TV (we'll swap the big TV from the master for the smaller one that used to be in the media center) and a couple of sconces. I have plans to use pieces I have in the house for the first two but the sconces will require some real live shopping. It'll take some courage to start looking at lamps again - it's really hard to judge from a product image in a catalogue or web page how it will actually look in a furnished space. But I've made a start and found a few contenders:



jefdesigns Legna wall sconce via Design Public. It comes in teak, walnut or zebrawood veneer - I like the walnut.


The Oggetti Dune Flushmount Wall Sconce via Lumens. Available in Black/Sand, Mocha/White and Sand.


Parker Half Round Sconce by Jonathan Adler via ylighting in Deep Patina Bronze. Aso available in Polished Nickel and Antique Brass.

Six years and counting

June 29 2009

The official date we bought The Cool House passed a little while ago but today marks the sixth moving-in anniversary. I can't believe that it's the second longest The Guy and I have lived anywhere together - and the most complete renovation we have undertaken. Most of the work, roof, windows, bathrooms, exterior maintenance, was completed 2004-2007 but the last six months have almost matched that in terms of the scope of the projects finished and money spent. Of course, it's almost time to redo some of the work we did when we first moved in, such as re-staining the siding and painting the exterior trim and the great room will need a refreshing coat of paint soon but for the moment let's not be daunted by the to-do list but rather celebrate what has been accomplished this past year:

January-June 2010
We finished the laundry - new floor, new cabinets, new countertops and a new paint color - Iced Cube Silver - on the smoothly sanded walls. From start to finish this took us four years but 90% was done in one month-long period in tandem with the Master Suite.
The domino effect of making our bedroom beautiful caused us me to take a long look at the guest bedroom - and it was found wanting. We made it more comfortable with new roman shades that enhance the geometric shapes of the windows.
The great room sectional got its pretty pillows and because the dining room was feeling left out I went ahead and ordered new drapes for it. We also decided the rug we'd originally chosen for Verity's room would be better suited to the dining room - if we removed the old stained carpet and laid hardwood floors - so that's what we did. What? Crazy? Well, we had already decided to put down hardwood in the kitchen so it seemed sensible to just go ahead and run it into the dining room, too. I know, that's not much justification for undertaking another project!


Which brings us to the major update, the renovation we'd been looking forward to since 2004, the ultimate undertaking: the Kitchen. It isn't completely finished yet, although the countertops will be installed in less than two weeks, but so far I love everything about it, including the new energy saving windows (a big bouquet to the new carpenter who spent two days on these fixing the previous guy's mistakes) and mud-room door.
And while we are in the kitchen, let's not forget the final touches we made to the powder room. It got its third makeover in as many years: new wallpaper - just two rolls (that's a double roll if you speak US design) - and a pint of black paint.

June-December 2009
Three outdoor projects were started... and finished:


the re-landscaped side yard


new fencing on the east and south sides


Belgian stone pavers laid in front of the garages


and one interior undertaking: the Great Room makeover including re-upholstering the twelve-piece sectional.


It's been a fun rwelve months but I'm impatient to get the last pieces in place and the furniture back in the first floor rooms so I can finally sit back and enjoy the house.

Gutters

Less than four years after we replaced the almost new gutters with bigger, newer gutters we found the leaders had failed again. This time we only noticed it when the electrician was updating a switch box and found it rusted out. Then he found a wet patch on the wall - not damp, wet. Outside the siding behind the downspout was saturated. We don't know how long this had been going on but it's good to catch it before it got serious. The good news was that the downspout was split from top to bottom so they replaced it, plus one other that also had a problem, for free.

Andrew Geller News

Renovating the kitchen (and the den) has brought it home to us once again what a great and underrated architect Andrew Geller is. The built-ins in the den that were not part of the original blueprints boxed in the room, making it feel darker and smaller, and the platform cut the flow on the ground (first) floor. Removing them not only makes the space feel much lighter but now we can truly appreciate the architecture. You see immediately that the kitchen is the same shape and size as the great room - a trapezoid - and the den is a rectangle. It all feels much simpler now... and right.


It's a fortuitous coincidence that just as we are finishing updating this uniquely modern Andrew Geller designed house, we hear that the iconic Pearlroth House has been approved for the National Register of Historic Homes. This is great news for all lovers of mid-century architecture - I can't wait to see the restored beach house.


Then we got word that Jake Gorst, grandson of the architect, has embarked on an enormous project: founding the Andrew Geller Architectural Archive Preservation Project to identify, catalogue and preserve Geller's documents, drawings, photographs and memos - and he will film the whole process, including site visits to the architect's commercial and residential buildings, releasing a documentary in the coming year. To support this project visit the Project: Preservation of the Andrew Geller Architectural Archive - it's tax-deductible!

By the way, for those in the Long Island area, Jake Gorst's 2005 documentary, Leisurama the story of Montauk's "swanky" mid-century modular home community, will be played on PBS WLIW21 at 2 AM and 9 PM Saturday June 26. This is not to be missed!

Will this table suit?

The big disadvantage of kitchen renovation is having to eat out all the time - unless you have this view and glorious mid-summer weather. The Wednesday sunset sailing race across the bay provides the perfect backdrop for strawberry, blue cheese and pecan spinach salad and a glass of chilled Sauvignon Blanc.

It's all over now sixties blue

In anticipation of the arrival of new shades for two bedrooms I stained and sealed the triangular window frame, touched up one bedroom wall and got two coats of Navajo white over the blue wall in the den. I really should have primed the latter first... I'll be painting a third - and hopefully final- coat tomorrow. And when I say final I mean final until we've chosen a paint colour we like for that room because enough with the Navajo White, it's been almost six years of blah and I need something that says I chose this not I was afraid of paint. Maybe something inspired by the sunset last week...

Peaceful

After all the drama around here recently I'm looking forward to a little peace and quiet. Just a little, mind you. I don't want to settle for a half-finished kitchen and I certainly don't want to be microwaving store-bought soup for the next few months while we wait for the countertops to arrive and den flooring.
But I am enjoying the thought that on Monday morning I won't have to get up early to be ready for the contractors or wonder what new problem will be discovered before lunch. On Friday, for example, I discovered 8 soft-close drawer glides and 6 door bumpers were missing. Did someone count order wrong or were they thrown away by mistake? I don't know but I have to fetch replacements. Then, after lunch, we discovered a hole in the framing of another window that had to be filled and painted before the end of the day. The guys wanted to get it done because we don't know how quickly the fabricator will be installing the counters and exactly when the new wood flooring will arrive. They won't come back until one or other happens so they wanted to make sure the external problems were taken care of and The Cool House was watertight.
It was a bittersweet moment when they packed up all their tools and trash, got into their trucks and headed out of the Village, There may be no noise and no fuss in my immediate future but the house is going to feel empty for a while.