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 |

Abbaye de la Cambre

abbaye
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

We had a great time in Brussels with the kids and all our friends. Now we are homesick, so here's a photo I can look at to remind me of surreal Belgium. The sign on the left of the building reads "Cult members enter here".

Xmas in Bxl

The Grand'place in Brussels two days after Xmas: lots of gilt, trees in spheres and gluhwein; a light dusting of snow to complete the magic.
PS there is a huge yellow diamond ring (or maybe it's a citrine) in the window of De Greef the juweler on the street from the Grand'place to the Bourse if anyone wants to know what to get me for Xmas 2006.

Too nice just to eat in

We just had the dining room painted (Benjamin Moore Titanium and Benjamin Moore White Cloud) and it looks beautiful. The painters were really impressed with the colours, too. It seems no-one had chosen them before, there seems to be a lot of magnolia, or Navajo white as it is called here, around, otherwise it's pale yellow, sage green and coffee colours: espresso, capuccino, mocha.
Anyway, it looks excellent and would look even better with the crimson shades we ordered but when we hung them we noticed that the dye process had gone wrong and there were bleachy splotches all over them. They have been returned, and we are eagerly awaiting the replacements. Until then a photo of the window hardware..........

Snowfall

This isn't the first snowfall we have had this winter, but it's the prettiest so far. The nice thing is that the new windows have made a significant improvement to the draughtiness of the house. Double glazing much better than single glazing, oh yeah. Although who knows how much warmer it would have been last winter if we had worked out how to put the storm windows in!

This is where the money goes

Actually it's on the food, but this is what we pay for when we stay at Renaissance hotels. Cute, eh? This is Austin, Texas where we went to listen to music in "the live music capital of the world". This is the replacement trip for the one we had to postpone to SXSW in March. I'm still inclined to be snitty about that but a break is a break, no? At least we had the opportunity to change the tickets and it is nice to have somone pickup after me for a few days
PS There is more live music in Huntington, NY than we saw in Austin, and it wasn't nearly weird enough for us, but we did eat snake, bad bbq and NY chocolates. Go figure.

Watertight

We have a new roof! It was supposed to go on a couple of weeks ago but the rains delayed things. This morning, however, Tom the roofer and ten of his best men turned up bright and early to begin stripping off the old roof. This is the bit where you hold your breath in case they discover soggy boards or other costly problems but we were fine. Fine that is until the police turned up and ordered them to stop work. It seems we woke someone up with all the banging and they complained and it transpires that there is an ordinance prohibiting work on a Saturday in our village. Unfortunately, nobody told us about this policy.
Anyway by the time the police got here (we are two doors down from the police station) the roof was off and there was no way that Tom was leaving us exposed to the elements over the weekend. So, a call to the Chief of Police and another to the neighbour who made the complaint and Tom got a citation but work resumed. Can I just say to the person we annoyed that we are truly sorry. If the police had let us know who it was we would have apologised in person and sent you a bottle of champagne. Why don't they give you a rule-book when you move to a new area? It would make life so much simpler. We apologised to all the neighbors who came out to look at the new roof but they disclaimed responsibility and only a couple knew about the no work on Saturday rule.
The roof looks great; pewter grey shingles that match the bluestone around the house, not too blue and not so dark it looks squat. We have had some rain since and high winds and we seem to be watertight and windproof, which is what we were aiming for. It also seems to be quieter when it rains. Can anyone explain that to me?