Finally paid for the bathrooms.

I finally got the bill from the plumber last week. That is the bill for all the work on the three bathrooms, one of which was finished in April, one in May and one on June 22. How many contractors would do that amount of work, including purchasing special order toilets and not even ask for a deposit? And the bill was very fair for all the hours they were here and the anal retentive pickiness we put them through. I showed them the master bath plan last time they were here and they seemed to be looking forward to it. I'll but up with the moaning about my European fixtures to get service this great again.


I also chose and ordered a toilet roll holder and towel bar for the downstairs bath yesterday, which'll mean the work has truly come to a close. Considering we started on November 23, that's not a moment too soon.

When it rains here

July 18 2007
Originally uploaded by modernemama

it really rains. A few weeks ago the Village cleared the land it owns at the corner of Vineyard Rd and laid twelve storms drains. The idea is that the first inch of water, which contains all the pollutants, will be absorbed into this area before it has a chance to reach Long Island Sound.
But it rarely rains a little here. Huntington frequently features on the local news as the town where residents abandon their cars and take to kayaks. three inches is a common amount of rainfall and today we were hit by a serious storm.
The poor drains were overwhelmed and for an hour or so we had a raging torrent 2' wide streaming down Vineyard Rd alongside my property and a big flood on the bend where the road level dips. I don't know if any of the nitrates made it to the bay but the surge sure left a lot of debris behind.

Never miss another call

Although Steven has issued a "the well is dry" notice which effectively precludes any more demolition or construction before January 2008, I am still hunting around for inspiration for the master bathroom renovation. After all, looking costs nothing, right?
While researching bathrooms on HGTV.com I came across this gem:
"Phones in the toilet area are part of the expanding communication technology for baths".
Lovely. Just what you need when you were hoping for a quiet, private moment. If you look at the picture that accompanies this piece of puffery, you can see how well that communication technology blends with this year's decor. Also, not at all unsanitary, is it?

Another one bites the dust

It's been a bad year for appliances on Vineyard Rd.
First to go was my beloved imac, then the Dyson needed a bunch of new parts, followed by the barbeque and of course, the washer and the dryer, and the laundry room fan.
But the latest appliance to throw a hissy fit is the one that really hurts. My trusty FrancisFrancis X1 espresso maker, which was the first thing I bought in the US when we arrived in 2000, decided that the gasket seal had put in enough work ensuring we had a good presion and therefore great crema and shredded itself.
How can I explain my need for three decent cups of espresso a day? For some the staff of life is bread; for me it is coffee. I crave the colour, the aroma and the taste. So when I am forced to make a choice between going without or driving the three miles to the local coffee shop after every meal, I can get a little snippy.
If this disaster had occurred next year it wouldn't have mattered so much as we plan to put in a built-in coffee maker, but we are nowhere near tackling the kitchen yet. So I've left a message with the service department at FrancisFrancis to see if I can get a replacement part. If not, it'll have to be a new machine and quickly before the crankiness really sets in, and I start wearing out, too.

Reflective

First Frost
Originally uploaded by modernemama

I just love this color, First Frost, from Pittsburgh Paints, not only because it's clean but it's also shiny too. Just look at the cat food cans reflected off the wall. (Must hang cabinet for those!).
I still have to paint the old laminate countertop but it already looks a gazillion times better than it did before.

Meltdown averted

iBook G4
Originally uploaded by modernemama

I had an awful morning trying to get my iBook G4 to start. I'd left it sending email last night and when I got to it this morning its screen was blank and it was making a horrible whirring sound.
As I'm still in mourning over the demise of Ruby Red my beloved iMac G3, I was slightly freaking out especially when turning it off and on accomplished nothing, and performing a hard restart resulted in a chime, the noise of the fan and a grey screen.
After that I tried turning it off again and another Shift-Control-Option-Power restart and I got the Apple symbol up and the power wheel but it just stayed like that for hours. I was about to pack it up and trek to the Apple store when it occurred to be to try one last thing: Pressing the C key while holding down the power button.
And it worked. It did take almost fifteen minutes to start up but it's working now. I'm going to be extra nice to it today and not ask it to perform 10 functions at the same time and hopefully it won't let me down again. If it does I foresee a major meltdown in my future.

Maya

Maya
Originally uploaded by modernemama

As cute as a kitten.

Hermes in the bamboo bedroom

Hermes
Originally uploaded by modernemama

Is this the cutest Siamese kitten?

A little mint with your chocolate, anyone?

I took a look in the kitchen cabinets this morning. The fact that we actually have food in them means we have guests and this particular selection can mean only one thing: Verity's home.
Can anyone guess what her favourite ice cream flavour is?

First Frost in High Summer

Voice of Color- First Frost
Originally uploaded by modernemama

While the gusts have gone to Baltimore and DC for a few days I decided to paint the laundry room, a task I have been putting off for a couple of weeks. I used First Frost from Pittsburgh Paints Voice of color range.
It truly wasn't my intention to do this but I'm sure that this is the same color that was on the wallpaper in here in 1970. I think I might have chosen it because subconsciously I'm worried that we are taking too much of the original feel out of the house, but my original intention was to get a clean, reflective tone into a windowless space. This is just the tinted primer so we will have to suspend judgement until the top coat has dried. I'm going to paint the formica countertop while I'm about it. Hopefully the Rustoleum will do as great a job on that as it did in the medicine cabinets in the boys' bath. Those babies look brand new. This will be a temporary fix until we do the kitchen and put in new countertops and cabinets in here as well. But I want a nice space to do the washing in until then.
I've had to stop for today because I took a brushful of primer to the right eye and as we had to use oil-based primer because of the weird stains it took a while to clean it up. And it's nearly martini time.

Finishing Touches but no Fireworks

Smith and Noble 2" wood blind - dark wenge
Originally uploaded by modernemama

As the skies got darker on Independence Day we decided no one was going to get into the pool and we should just get on with a few chores instead. Verity and Steve put up the Smith and Noble 2" wood blind in the downstairs bath. The dark wenge has turned out to be an almost prefect match for the vanity and this bathroom looks totally remodeled now. It lacks only a toilet roll holder to be completely finished.
The rain held off until lunchtime so we managed to get a fair amount of weeding done, too. One brave guest did venture into the pool but it was too cold for anyone else. I barbecued at 5 pm but we ate indoors, and just as we sat down the thunderstorms started. It looks like it has set in for the evening so I guess we won't be walking down to the beach to see the fireworks across the Sound.

Happy BBQ Day

BBQ
Originally uploaded by modernemama

What do you do if you can't get the old barbecue support pipe out of the ground? When you tried disguising it with a sapling and that didn't work? You buy a new bbq and strategically place it in front of the pipe. That'll do for now.

Balcony kitties

Balcony kitties
Originally uploaded by modernemama

They've been hanging out here for a while but they are making their way downstairs now. I took them for a check up today; Maya weighs 2lbs and Hermes 5lbs.
So far they have stood their ground against the other cats and the dogs and even pushed Sadie and Polly away from the dog food so they can get at the dogs' Nutro.

Nemesis

what shall we do with the bbq support?
Originally uploaded by modernemama

The old built-in barbeque is refusing to lie down and accept defeat. So far three of us have had a go at removing it. Verity took out most of it with the sledgehammer, Steven decided to save the bricks and chipped the mortar off the whole ones, I took the sledgehammer to the bottom course and chiseled out the cement between the patio and the bbq base.
But the base itself is a surround of bricks with poured concrete in the middle and right in the centre is the old support for the bbq and gas line, which was cemented into the ground. This obviously went in first, then the brick surround and them the concrete was poured in. The base is 5' long, 2' deep and 6" deep. And it won't budge.
I think the only thing to do is to rent a jackhammer and reduce it to rubble but until then I've lent this Japanese Knotweed seedling that was growing behind the barbecue in front of the pipe. I think it disguises it quite nicely, don't you?

The Unimal

It's a crazy, scary concept but I kind of want one in my kitchen to remind me to keep only real food in there. The Unimal toy was created by H.E. Babcock, professor of farm marketing at Cornell University in the 1920s.

The clip is from Farmboy, a documentary about his son John Babcock. It is directed by Jake Gorst, grandson of Andrew Geller and lead mover to save the modern icon The Pearlroth House, a beach house on the east end of Long Island.

Ready for the summer visitors?

High cabinets
Originally uploaded by modernemama

We all know it's true, S**t or as D. Rumsfeld, would have it, "Stuff" happens.
So the day before the first visitor arrives, the old barbecue has been demolished and a new one has been ordered, and all the bathrooms (except for the master shower, but who cares about that apart form ME?) are functioning. The house has been cleaned from top to bottom and the yard is looking good. We are all set for a relaxing summer, just in the nick of time. When...........
Many months ago, while we were deciding on a timetable for the remaining projects, the far left kitchen cupboard door came off two of its hinges. We managed to get it back in place and agreed not to use that cupboard again. We didn't really need it as we have plenty more space and it was an odd corner cupboard anyway (we used to keep dog food in it but we found another place for that).
In the frenzy to make this place look gorgeous I (it was me, mea culpa) opened the lower door instead of the upper where the vases are kept and the door fell completely off, twisting the remaining hinge in the process. Impossible to re-attach, the hinges have already been re-positioned at least once, impossible to fix into place, and exposing the nasty, old cabinet interior.
Luckily we were just about to leave for a well-earned martini in Huntington, and I couldn't do anything other than laugh about it but today we are now faced with another dilemma. Do we take the door away completely leaving the old dirty white laminate for all to see (think rotten tooth) or leave the door leaning against the cabinet and risk someone (probably me) walking into numerous times each day?
Is there any way we can get the kitchen remodel done by this evening? I mean if Extreme Home Makeover can rebuild an entire house in five days how long would it take to do a kitchen? Seriously, we need help here.

More demo

This time in the yard. The old built-in barbecue finally expired when Steven was slow grilling a pork butt just before we went to Tennessee (we were craving bbq and couldn't wait).
We could have re-pointed the bricks, got new stainless steel doors made and installed a new barbecue unit, but it would have cost $$$$ more than buying a new gas grill so we went the demolition route.
As we believe in making our kids work for their supper, Verity gave a few whacks of the trusty sledgehammer and this is all that was left.

Now all we have to do is choose a new grill.

Downstairs bathroom done

downstairs bathroom
Originally uploaded by modernemama

We're all plumbed in and good to go, only three weeks after the final deadline but importantly two days before the visitors arrive. It's a temporary makeover but it's a big improvement over the 60s suite that was there before.
I do wonder, though, how long it will be before vessel sinks and pillar faucets are considered passé?

Hermes and Maya

Hermes and Maya
Originally uploaded by modernemama

Don't get too used to that hiding place, kitties. It's coming out later today.
These are the latest additions to the household. Maya is the tiny tabby and Hermes el bandito is the Burmese cross with the raccoon eyes.

Quick bathroom makeover

new vanity, backsplash
Originally uploaded by modernemama

Well not really quick, but at least not the six months the other two baths took. We got back from Tennessee to find the tiler had been as good as his word and he'd tiled grouted the backsplash for the new floating vanity.
This is a temporary fix, I'm still sold on the beadboard paneling idea for this room when we completely remodel it in a few years' time. Or maybe glass subway tiles, if they've come up with a better solution to fixing them to the walls by then.
With the mosaic backsplash in place, we noticed one thing immediately about the bathroom wall. If you get up close you can see how the wall is off by about .5" under the window, luckily by placing the vessel sink on the countertop the eye gets distracted and it's no longer obvious. However, when we looked closely above the window to the ceiling, we could see that the wall slopes badly to the left (more like 1"). This wasn't noticeable when the old roller blind was up, so I hope when we put up the new wood blind we'll camouflage this problem as well.