Being jacked around

I spent a very frustrating hour this afternoon trying to glue two telephone sockets back on the wall. Sockets we never use because we have cordless phones, which Steven has told me just to cut off at the wall. But if I cut the phone wire I will be left with lovely holes in the skirting boards (baseboard). And not tiny holes either but miniature mouseholes, like the ones in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.
Every room in the house has a phone jack, and judging from the tangle of wires in the basement, there were at least six lines going into the house at one point. The electrician said he had only ever seen this system in offices, never in a residential home. There were also UHF and VHF TV cables in all the rooms, too. I imagine everyone lived there own lives and came together just for meals. Maybe.
Anyway, the new kittens, being stronger than they look and always up for some mischief, managed to pull the jacks in our room and the bamboo room clean off the walls. It looks as though these have been re-glued several times before, I'm sure I remember doing it myself once, but despite my best efforts with Gorilla glue and weights to secure them to the wall while the adhesive dried, they just refused to stick.
Now I'm left with a couple of options: chop off the wires and replace the sections of board with the holes in; try a stronger glue and hold them to the wall for 24 hours. Neither of these is very appealing.
Or I suppose I could try Velcro?

Shady shopping

Is it my imagination or has it suddenly got a whole lot easier to find clean, modern soft furnishings in the US? Three or four years ago I had terrible trouble trying to find something sleek to keep the early morning sun out of my eyes before I'd had my daily infusion of caffeine. I even made Steven carry two 6' roller blinds from Habitat in London, England back to New York because I couldn't find anything here. Customs at JFK sarkily informed him that they did sell blinds in NY and, while that was true, at that time they were all vinyl or frilly. Now, though, I have a ton of resources to look at, from relatively cheap to astronomical.
I don't actually need any new blinds or shades at the moment but if I did I would definitely check out this modern roller blind at The Shade Store. I always have a hard time picking upholstery and fabric on line because the colours can't be accurately displayed but the great thing for me is that I can visit their showroom at The Conran Shop in Manhattan and see the merchandise close up. Some of the things that Conran sells are pretty expensive, although I've had quite a few bargains there over the years, but the wood blinds seem to be slightly cheaper than the one I bought for the downstairs bath, and the designer hardware seems reasonable too.

From blue to green

Fern shade
Originally uploaded by modernemama

We got the last shade up today. A much easier job than the rust shade in Steven's office. To determine the exact height for the cord in that room we had to utilise a very precise measuring device. Steven needed to be able to walk under the lamp without hitting his head. As he is 6' 2', the shade is 14" long and the ceiling 8' high we knew we didn't have much room for error. Rather than use a rule, which we didn't have in the room at the time, we improvised. It appears that I am a screwdriver length shorter than he is. So he held the shade in the approximate position and I held the screwdriver on my head and walked under the shade until we got it right. And we did, with millimeters to spare.
This time it was just easy, cut the cord, trim, attach. Perfect. This the spare bedroom with the new Eden pendant shade form CB2, nifty, no? White, sand and green, very soothing.
A little look back at the way things were:
This is the room with the dingy lucite and plastic shade. Everything else is new: windows, floors and paint. We call it the fern bedroom after the pattern on the curtains.



This is the bedroom as it was when we moved in three years ago, we originally called it the blue room after the shag carpet. The windowless wall was covered in faux paneling, and the awning window was fogged, making it very dark. It's much lighter now.

Crowning glory

Rust pendant shade
Originally uploaded by modernemama

As long as Steven doesn't choose to tiptoe through his office in stiletto heels and a tiara he'll clear this new pendant shade by a hair's breadth.
He's always wanted a touch of red in this room, although this is on the rust side it goes well. Now I have to cover his office chair in a toning color. Any suggestions?

Tidying up

No renovation, no demolition, no construction, no new purchases. Man this is going to be boring. I mean, seriously, what does that leave?
I decided it left those chores I've been putting off forever because I thought they needed an extra pair of hands. Turns out I could do it all by myself.
I started by throwing out the 10 year old Dell we bought from Belgium as no-one had used it in over a year. Then I fixed the hinge on the desk in Steven's office, moved his desk around so it's L-shaped rather than straight, cleaned the dust off it, kicked some filing boxes into his cupboard and washed the floor. Hurray for me. I think it looks better and will be more efficient, but it's not my space.
So if you're reading this dear, I rearranged your office space. And now can you put up that pendant shade I bought the other week?

Three Year Anniversary

With all the visitors this summer we totally forgot our three year anniversary on June 29th. That's three years we've been in the house, not the time we've been together. That is much, much longer.
So a little late, just like the remodel process, I've been looking back over the past twelve months, taking stock of the progress. Last year, our second year here, I wrote out a long list of things we'd done renovation-wise, and what we still had to do. Looking back on it now it seems I was a little optimistic, we haven't accomplished any of the things we set out to do this year.
Well maybe one: we replaced the window in the boys' bath; and oh yeah, we also replaced the glass in the back door. We did tackle a couple of things off the 2008 list, at least partially: we bought new appliances for the laundry, tore out the rotted cabinets and painted the space. We also replaced the gate and mended some fences from the 2009 list but we'll need to replace most of the fencing sometime. Continuing the outside projects, we decided it wasn't worth replacing the doors on the barbecue given the state of it and we demolished it. Then we put 3 Bluestone flags on the base and bought a new barbecue to sit on there. We pulled off the door on the pool bar and left it as an opening - great for trash now, maybe one day we can fit an outdoor fridge in there (in my dreams).
Of course the big ticket renovations this year were dictated by the leaks in the plumbing: the boys' bath, the girls' bath and the downstairs bath. Astute readers will have seen that there was no previous mention of these projects on our lists. That's because we weren't planning to do them at all and that, my friends, is where the best laid plans of the Vineyard Rd renovation go awry. Something crops up, maintenance becomes renovation and before you know it the budget and the timeline have taken on a life of their own.

Early morning flowers

hibiscus
Originally uploaded by modernemama

A violent rainstorm woke us at 4 AM but it didn't knock the flowers off the hibiscus on the kitchen porch.

70s wall art

The last of the decorative items I've purchased recently arrived this morning. This cool 70s burnt copper and brass sculpture came from Canada via ebay and looks much cooler than the African mask I had there before.
I found a new space for the mask in my office, where the blue wood stands out much better against my yellow walls. He's looking down on me, making sure I don't slack off too much. Or spend any more money.

More lamps

Continuing the search to update the pendant lights in the bedrroms, I found this modern Eden lamp in fern green from CB2, which will appropriately enough, go in the fern bedroom.
And to appease Steven I also got a rust pendant light for his office to replace the Ikea light in there that he hates, on sale even, for $29.95. I only hope it isn't too large for the space.
Now all the bedrooms have pendant lights and we can move on to choosing some table lamps for the bedside cabinets...

The Vanderbilt Mansion, Centerport, NY

Screen porch
Originally uploaded by modernemama

Steven contemplating how much the maintenance is on the Vanderbilt's Long Island residence. And imagining his yacht, The Alva, docked out on the Sound.

Mibo Lulworth lampshade

Mibo Lulworth lampshade
Originally uploaded by modernemama

All it took was a simple dish of garlic fried in hot anchovy oil, added to Tagliatelle with the contents of the jar of anchovies in chili oil, served with a green salad. A really easy supper and Steven was more than happy to put up the Mibo pendant light in Verity's room.
And he didn't even mention the cost!

It's a different part of the budget, dear

A stream of delivery men have come and gone today leaving me cool and necessary items. Nothing renovation related, mind you, that part of the budget is closed for the remainder of the year. No, these are decorative items and decoration, as everyone knows, has absolutely nothing to do with construction or demolition.
Creative economics or semantics this may be, but it's how I will be accounting for it when Steven comes home and though wowed by the new pendant light in the bedroom, asks me where the money came from!
I'll need to be a little conciliatory because I want him to help me install the shade tonight before our gusts arrive tomorrow. I've been looking for nice shades since I bought this one at the Conran Shop a while ago. It was a really reasonable $49 and not surprisingly they sold out quickly and never restocked. That meant two bedrooms had their original plastic lights, which I like, but no amount of cleaning will change their dingy grey colour so it was definitely time for a change.
Then I saw this gorgeous Lulworth lamp from Mibo at Design Public that will go perfectly in Verity's room.
We also needed a new duvet cover and I got a cool grey one from CB2, which is now sold out, so no picture until I make up the bed.
The last delivery and the most important, was three cases of espresso coffee pods from our local supplier. Like everything else these pods have been going up in price, but it's my habit and I need my daily fix. Now, if I make Steven a nice espresso before I show him my new purchases do you think he'll be in a more receptive mood?

Sometimes I wish I lived in Europe

Not often, but when Heal's send me their newsletter and it contains gems like the Twigs Bronze Shade for a very reasonable 16 GBP, which is approx $33 today, and that including tax, I get a little homesick. At least for classic, modern design.

Reviewing the weekend

This turned out to be an unforgettable weekend. Not only were we able to tick off all the chores on the list but as it totally poured down all afternoon we took a well-earned nap. Steven reminded me that, in addition to all the other chores he completed this weekend, he also removed the wasps nest from the hemlock nearest the kitchen (he sprayed it with the stuff we use on the carpenter bees and it crashed down, mercifully not unleashing a swarm of angry wasps) and climbed up on the roof to clear the gutters.
One of the neat things about the design of the roofs on this house is that it's relatively easy to climb on them and then you can sit on the edge and clear the gutters with the aid of a stick and a black plastic sack. It was just as well he cleared them because the one under the balsa tree was so blocked with leaves and tiny seeds that the rain would simply have bounced off the gutter and cascaded down the side of the house.
I completed a very successful weekend by placing the winning bid on ebay



for this mid-century wall sculpture, that I will hang on the chimney breast in the great room in place of the mask.



If you think the photo is a lot sharper than my usual efforts, that's because film maker Jake Gorst was here on Friday to look at his grandfather, Andrew Geller's work and he took a few photos, too. Like I said, it was a really memorable weekend.

Sunday morning

Should be for lazying around, drinking coffee and reading the paper. One day maybe it will be but for the moment it is when we try to get all the chores done.
On today's list: re-align hinges on another tall kitchen cabinet; install hardware in downstairs bath; mortar three bluestone paving slabs on the old barbeque base.
Chore one went without a hitch. Chore two hit a snag when we realised that one screw holding the old towel bar on the tile had had its head stripped and would not come off. We'll leave it for now and make do with the old towel rail that matches the mirror. If we ever do a re-tile or beadboard job in there we can install the new one then. We did get the toilet roll holder on the vanity without a hassle, though and it looks very smart.
Chore three started to go bad when Steven realised he had badly underestimated the amount of mortar he needed and blamed me for not accompanying him to Home Depot to get the stuff. He had to apologise when he decided this made him look a) incapable and b) grumpy, but that cost us half an hour or so. We made a run to the Depot together, collected an 80lb bag of mortar and then broke for lunch.
Despite the increasingly grey skies, and the weather forecast predicting thunderstorms, Steven declared he wouldn't recommence work outside until he had got the results of the Tour de France - on TV. He could have had them on the web anytime but no, it had to be on the TV, right now, this minute. I did point out that he was probably the only person left who was still interested in this year's race, but that failed to move him, so I waited patiently (ahem) until all the men in spandex had received their bouquets of flowers and we ran outside just as the first claps of thunder started.
Luckily all the prep work paid off and fifteen minutes later we had three 2' sq flagstones laid perfectly level. Steve covered his beautiful work with contractors sacks to keep it dry, I cleaned the tools and we made it inside just as the first drops fell.
No pictures yet but it looks pretty neat. I'm not sure what we will do with the base now. We can either use it as a base for the new bbq or for planters. Or we could plant flowers around it and encourage them to grow over the edges. I'm sure we'll think of something.

One door closes

It's been a few weeks since the corner cabinet door fell off its hinges, and for all of this time we have leant it up against the door frame and pretended nothing had happened.
One of our neighbours did ask why it was leaning like that and offered to bang a nail in it for us just so it would be back in position, but I politely declined. It's laminate, and I thought it would crack and look awful. Like a door leaning against the frame doesn't look bad enough?
Today was chore day, though and we thought we'd either have to nail it in or superglue it in place as it was becoming something of an embarrassment and more guests are due next week. We were all lined up with the glue when it became obvious that to close it in position we'd have to take off the hinges. And then it hit me. Why not take off the broken parts, put the good parts back at the top and bottom of the door and shut it (hopefully remembering NOT TO OPEN IT AGAIN, EVER). Half an hour later, with the help of another broken piece of another kitchen cabinet (did I mention we need a new kitchen?) the door was securely closed.
Steven is really proud that we managed to do this, but I can't get over the fact that it took us six weeks. Now, nobody breathe near this unit.

Jungle Maya

Maya in the tall plant
Originally uploaded by modernemama

If you're a tiny kitten and you want some peace and quiet away from the big cats and dogs, where would you hang out? On the balcony, ten feet up in the great room, seems like a safe bet.

Cheapest repair ever

espresso
Originally uploaded by modernemama

And the most efficacious. The repair on the FrancisFrancis X1 consisted of a new part: an 82 cent rubber gasket. I got a spare one while I was about it because the postage cost three times that amount and the week we were without an espresso machine was truly trying.

Laundry countertop redone

laundry countertop
Originally uploaded by modernemama

Well it's very clean and bright and I actually don't mind spending time in here now, but I don't yet know how tough it will be. At least it's an improvement on the old formica.
I'm really impatient to put in some new cabinets in here. All it takes is time and money. Unfortunately both of these are in short supply at the moment.

More makeovers

I finally persuaded Steven to put a coat of Benjamin Moore Cloud White on the ceiling and it took him, oh I don't know, maybe 30 minutes to finish. Then he spent two hours in the pool recovering.
I spent that time undergoing a change of my own. I left the house blond and returned a brunette. All this house makeover stuff must have rubbed off on me because it wasn't a planned thing at all.
Today I put the primer on the countertop and tomorrow I'll give it a coat of Rustoleum. If it doesn't work, it's no big deal, it's a temporary thing. The new hair colour, on the other hand, is a keeper.