Schmap

You'll have to excuse my ignorance but I'd never heard of Schmap until this morning when I received an email letting me know that one of my Flickr photos had made it to the shortlist for the fourth edition of the Vancouver guide. Even if the photo doesn't make the final cut it's cool to know someone liked it.
We were in Vancouver, Canada in August 2006 for what proved to be the final trip out of the USA to renew our visas. The US Department of Immigration Services requires legal immigrants leave the country to get their visas renewed. Some people go back to their home countries, but we hadn't applied from our country of citizenship when we originally came here and that complicated things. The US Government has a pragmatic solution for people like us: a quick trip to Canada or Mexico.
We had only a few weeks to renew the visas and we intended to go to Montreal or Toronto or Quebec City to get the passports stamped but the wait time for an appointment at the US consulates there was 8-10 weeks. So we looked to see if there was an earlier slot anywhere else in Canada or Mexico. We were really lucky to get a 8AM slot the following Monday morning in Vancouver. We flew out at the weekend, made the appointment and eventually got the stamp. And we had one of the most enjoyable vacations in a great city to boot. I would move to Vancouver in a heartbeat, the scenery is unbelievable, the food is wonderful and Canadian people? It's a cliché but they are so nice.
Here's a link to my Vancouver slideshow. I won't spoil the possible surprise by singling out the submitted photo. But you can guess if you want to. Here's a hint: it's not this one



Enjoy.

Window Replacement: what I know now

The trauma that the owner of casacaudill (a fellow houseblogger) is going through with her windows reminds me of the months of anguish we went through three years ago when we were replacing our windows: sleepless nights, contractor bids, disbelief at the price, more sleepless nights.
Before we bought the house we knew that we would have to replace the failed double paned windows that were so fogged you couldn't tell if it was rainy or sunny outside and the huge single pane, single hung windows in the dining room, den, study and master bedroom if we were to keep warm in the winter.
We tried to get rough estimates before we bought the house but it proved impossible. My best guess, as everything had to be custom, was $40,000 for all the windows, triangular, square and rectangular. As soon as we moved in I had contractors come and quote. It turned out that no one likes to install windows - not enough profit. Most contractors walked in, looked around and disappeared, no quotes there. One only wanted to install vinyl, and I couldn't do that to this house. One told us we needed to get Marvin windows, but he would only install Andersen or Pella. One wanted to remove all the siding to install. I was seriously freaked out they would reduce my house to a pile of redwood planks.
Then there were the design problems. Marvin could do the custom sizes we needed cheaper than the other two big window manufacturers and their product seemed better but Town Code meant we couldn't put single hung windows in so we spent a lot of time coming up with a solution that would be the same on the exterior but would fit code. Having everything architecturally correct was very important to us.
In the end we did get a quote for everything and it was almost exactly my guestimate figure. But a few months in the house had opened our eyes to what else had to be done and the thought of spending that huge amount of money just on windows was making me sick. We decided that we would replace only those windows that absolutely needed it: 2 8"x3" fogged double paned windows over the garage, 2 4'x 3" in Steven's study that let water cascade in when it rained, a cracked 4'x4'window that a bird flew into the day we moved in and 8 6'x4' single pane, single hung windows.
We decided we would replace the other windows as and when we needed to. This year we put in a new tempered glass window in the boys' bath as we remodeled that space.


This seemed like a great solution at the time but three years on, I'm not so sure. We are still having window issues, a few of the old windows have started to fail: there are signs of moisture in the basement windows (above) and in the master bedroom; a couple of others had rot that was treated but they're now draughty and they don't operate well; we are still having trouble with design of the 6'x8' replacement window in the den (below). The cost of Marvin windows has gone up, as has the cost of labor. The fallback in real estate prices makes me nervous about return on investment so I'm reluctant to do more than I have to.



The price that originally made me feel sick now seems more like money well spent. Our heating and airco bills have been lower since we had the large windows replaced and I appreciate the quality of these windows. From the outside it's almost impossible to tell which are original windows and which are the replacements. Any issues we had with the windows were to do with the installation and not the windows themselves, so we will be even more careful about choosing a contractor in the future.
We will have to replace eight windows probably next year or the year after and I wish I had done them all at one go so I don't have to worry about them now. Hindsight, it's a wonderful thing.

$50 solution*

*Plus NY state tax
OK, Hands up. How many of you thought we'd spring for ceramic tile in the powder room? And hardwood flooring? Anyone for bamboo? Anyone?
Yep, you don't know us at all.
The problem is dependency. I would have loved to have spent $300 on slate-look porcelain tiles but that would have led to the whole "but the powder room and kitchen floor have different height/ different colour" discussion/argument.
Let me walk you through it: Eventually - schedule 2008, now possibly 2009, more realistically 2010, we will remodel the kitchen. The kitchen floor has a sub-floor of marine ply-wood that makes it higher than the the dining part of the kitchen and the powder room. If we replace the nasty carpet we have to ensure the two heights are the same when we remodel the kitchen, otherwise someone will not be happy. Plus, if we lay ceramic tile today, will the same tile be available in 2009 or 2010? Unlikely. Doing one project properly depends on another project.
So to avoid a costly "That looks like s**t mistake", we are making the best of it and going with a temporary or "band aid"* solution. That would be the cheapest fix we could find. And the winner is? Carpet. A remnant at $49. Who would have thought I would contemplate carpet in a bathroom?
I hate it, but I am going to have to live with it - hopefully only in the short term.

*The carpet remnant is beige and it looks like elastoplast/bandaid, too.

Rats

'Tis fall, and 'tis the season for wildlife. Some people hunt them, me I just try to keep out of their way. This autumn though I've had close encounters with raccoons, chipmunks and field mice but today topped all that. Waiting for me when I came into the drive with the dogs after our walk was a dead rat. A very large flat, dead rat. I tried to convince myself it was a squirrel but no, the tail was very unfluffy.
I knew we had had rats in the garage when we bought this house, there was a big hole in the wall and the smell of rat urine was overpowering, but I could see no droppings or other physical evidence that they were still there, certainly not an actual rat - alive or dead.
This corpse was about 75' from the house and had obviously been run over by a truck or possibly a steam roller. I didn't bother to take a photo but if you want to see one I can recommend this site where they invite you to CLICK ANY DEAD PHOTO BELOW FOR A LARGER IMAGE. Dead photos. Nice.
The kitties are doing their work to keep the local rodent population down but this rat was at least 8" long, plus tail and that's about the size of Maya. I hope they are up to the job because I don't want to meet any live rats around here. And I'd prefer not to see any more dead ones either.

Do months have colours?

They do in my twisted mind. November has always seemed like a grey month and in that spirit I decided to paint the downstairs powder room a steely grey. The problem is that there are so many shades out there, even if I confine it to Benjamin Moore colors. Another Shade of Grey even has links to gray paints on her website. I was wary of making it too dark because it's a tiny space, I don't like greys with lavender undertones and I thought the blue-toned greys might not go with the faux marble vanity top (I can't wait to replace that baby with the real thing). So in the end I used Benjamin Moore Titanium, a grey with a greenish hue. It's the same paint I put on the dining room walls. And when I say same paint, I mean the half gallon we had left over from that project. I know it says to use the paint within six months but it won't be the first time I've let paint sit for a couple of years before throwing it on the walls, and we have already established I am a cheap lady. It isn't really steely but it looks stylish enough.
The best thing about painting this house is the surprise I always get when I take off the heating grills. The original Las Vegas on Acid 1968 wallpaper will be revealed in a tantalising 8"x6" strip. The half-bath did not disappoint: grey foil wallpaper with black squiggles and beige blotches. Groovy.



And it's a good thing I didn't start this project in October - because that screams pumpkin orange.

Edited to add: I went back into the powder room after the walls dried and the are a great colour. Unfortunately the clean walls clashed with the filthy beige carpet. So I ripped it out. The plan is to redo that floor when we do the kitchen floor, which is looking further and further away and I am definitely not living with a disgusting carpet or with carpet tacks for the next year or two. Sooooo a solution will have to be found pronto.
At least it's Friday and we have all weekend to think of something.

Dwell's Kitchen Blog

For those of a modern persuasion who are contemplating a new kitchen there's a new resource on the internets. Dwell magazine has launched a kitchen blog. Posts in the past week include Porsche kitchens for guys (although I've never thought of a Porsche as a particularly manly car) and a list of showrooms where you can test drive appliances before you buy them. Now that's a good idea. Ideally, though I'd like to borrow them for a month to really see if they work. I have the feeling I will be spending way too much time on this site getting plenty of ideas for spending way to much money on our kitchen remodel.
Making it all about me, there's also a tech blog that features my new duvet cover from CB2.

Candy stash

What's the first thing you do on the morning of Hallowe'en? Throw out last year's candy rejects, that's what.
I found a stash of Necco wafers and nasty fake chocolate bars lurking behind a case of espresso pods in the pantry. Who eats Necco wafers anyway? The trick or treaters picked them up, shuddered and put them back saying "Not these, they're disgsuting". Maybe a little impolite, but I tried one and I had to agree. Yuk. Perhaps it's an acquired taste. I must have thrown the rejected candy into the drawer and just forgotten about it. Rather than risk mure disdain from the neighborhood kids I pitched the whole lot into the garbage. Man, I hate waste.
I wonder if there's anything interesting behind the case of coffee beans. Like money.

How $$$$$ much?

Here's a little segment I'll be calling "You have to be freakin' kidding me", subtitled "Denial: How some sellers are bucking the downturn in the housing market".
This pretty gatehouse went on the market this week. It's an "exclusive" which I've learnt means "Anyone else would be embarrassed to ask this much for this house, so let's keep it our little secret". People who really want to sell list their houses on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) of Long Island so they can reach as many potential buyers as possible.
So anyway, it's gorgeous, but is it $3,000,000 gorgeous? $3,000,000 is a staggering amount for a house that is on a busy road. Right on the road- you can see it in the photo. It is technically a waterfront property but you have to dodge the traffic on that road to get to the water. And there's a lot of inventory in the Village right now. Although it isn't the most expensive or even the most ridiculously priced, the square footage per dollar ratio is pretty high. Zillow has it valued at $1,053,332, although their values don't necessarily sync with the real estate prices here. I mustn't forget either that the real estate market is local and the value of any house is what the buyer pays for it. So maybe while other sellers are dropping the asking price, this one is correctly positioned to attract buyers. Good Luck to them. I'll let you know if it sells.
And I have to give them props for going for the straight $3 million. None of that messing people around with a faux-bargain $2,999,000. Kudos.

My sofa on ebay: update

The live auction ended yesterday on the modular Harvey Probber sofa, the one that is just like mine, only orange not pink and vinyl not fabric. It sold for a whopping $7,500. That's more than twice the auction estimate. A few years ago you couldn't give 60s and 70s furniture away, now it's becoming prohibitive to collect. Oh well. I'm neither planning to get rid of my pink beauty nor buy another one.

Not that I'm cheap

But it's been so mild this October, and I had to run the air conditioning at the start of the month (that nearly killed me), that I'm trying to get into November before we put the heating on. It hasn't been a problem until today when the temperature inside dropped to 64F. The weather is set to get warmer again on Halloween so I'm just going to tough it out. After all, we didn't have central heating when we were kids and we survived. And it's environmentally friendly. Right?

Wake up call

Hermes managed to sneak in the bedroom and woke me up at 4 AM by peeing on me.
Seriously.
I am actively re-considering my position as a cat lover or at least a lover of highly-strung Colorpoint cats.
On the other hand this made me laugh.



Baseball bat or pee, what's your choice for an early morning wake-up call?

Sunday afternoon with the Roosevelts

A perfect fall afternoon - blue skies, a slight chill in the air and the trees just beginning to turn red and orange - was a great time to visit the summer home of President Teddy Roosevelt, Sagamore Hill. The house is always undergoing some form of maintenance and is well worth a visit (see someone else paint columns and replace a rotted verandah) but we chose just to walk through the grounds and kick up a few autumn leaves.

What downturn in the housing market?

Carol Polsky, the journalist who wrote the story on our house for Newsday has written another article on home renovation. But this time, we are talking extreme luxury. It seems that more people are discovering that one $100,000+ kitchen just isn't enough. There is a trend towards second kitchens in high-end homes - that's one for the family and one for the caterers! And guess which kitchen will have the more expensive cabinetry.
Check out the article here.

I'm Classical Trendy

I've fallen in love with a new kitchen and in the process defined my style. The modular Fiamma kitchen by GED Cucine has gorgeous, tactile walnut cabinetry designed to blur the boundaries of living and cooking areas, or as they put it
"System Kitchen, Fiamma leaves the limit of the kitchen to continue in the living-room, recovering a material of memory: the walnut in sepia-grey tone."
That's what I want - walnut "the material of memory". I can't imagine how much it would cost, but the copy on the website does say that it's a "valuable soft-finish wood" that they combine with "shining steel" and "natural cut stones", so I'm thinking somewhere between very expensive and prohibitive. The kitchen seems to be sold only in Italy so I'm unlikely to find out. But "Classical Trendy" is the tag-line and it seems to fit me and the things I like so I'm going to adopt it.

Levittown, Long Island

It's 60 years since Levitt & Sons announced plans to build a community on Long Island to provide housing for returning WWII GIs. The New York Times has an very interesting slideshow depicting the original Cape Cod style houses and some of the remodeled and much enlarged versions you can see today.
Detailed information about America's first suburban community can be found at The Levittown Historical Society.

Raccoon redux

It looks like we have an outbreak of distemper in the local raccoon population. On Sunday our next door neighbors called to say they had a raccoon acting strangely in their yard and although he wandered off he was back yesterday and again today. It seems that as the disease is so contagious, we could have quite a few sick raccoons in the area until the colony is decimated. That's what happened about seven years ago.
Apparently humans can't catch distemper and our cats and dogs have been vaccinated (raccoons get both canine and feline distemper) so we should be fine. And now I'm more convinced that it isn't rabies I am not so worried about them, I just don't like to see the poor raccoons suffer. The neighbors, on the other hand, are still at the freaked out stage. They bought a humane trap and the police have been here again trying to capture the beast but this one is even more tricky than ours. So until he's caught the kids are staying inside and we are keeping all the doors shut.
There's only one thing worse than a sick raccoon in the yard and that's a sick raccoon in the house

Submerged rocks

We temporarily interrupt this blog to bring you a picture of waves swirling around a submerged rock.
Peaceful isn't it?

Autumn at the Beach

2 pm, Monday October 22 2007 and it's 73F. We've had an unbelievable run of beautiful weather in NY. It hasn't been this warm through the end of October since we moved here. Someone termed in "perma-summer". That pretty much sums it up. The leaves are changing and falling and they've removed the awning down at the beach because summer is over but you wouldn't know that from the temperature or the number of boats out on the Sound.

They're selling my sofa on ebay

Well, not my sofa but it's the same make (Harvey Probber) and size as my sofa but it's in orange vinyl. Not as pretty as my pink beauty but still a great mid-century modular sofa. And it does have the advantage that you can just wipe off the animal fur and cat sick!

Terrazzo - hot or not?

Just as I'm making plans to take out another terrazzo shower base, this time in the master bath, I find that terrazzo is hot again. These days it's eco-friendly, made from things like old toilets (I kid you not) and 100% recycled glass bonded with coloured epoxy resin and turned into bright, shiny countertops.
Our old terrazzo shower base is made from crushed marble set in portland cement, the same as one we took out during the boys' bathroom remodel. It's not a look that I find appealing, more cement than marble and is the devil to keep clean. You might want to close your eyes at this point and surf away as the photo below is quite disgusting. This is what happens when the terrazzo gets cracked and you can't scrub it properly because the water will leak through to the foyer below. Yuk, ugh. I can't wait to take a sledgehammer to it.



The new terrazzo is supposed to be easy to maintain and they even have a product made from actual terrazzo and glass that's suitable for flooring - it looks like terrazzo but is cheaper, and easier to lay. I don't think it would work in our house as it's not scratch-proof. It sure does sparkle though.
I really want to update this house in the greenest way possible but I think that, in the end, I just find the new terrazzo too irregular for my taste. And I'm a little afraid that I might be letting back into my master bath the avocado and fawn beige toilets we took out of the other bathrooms. That's a step too far for me.