Another Modernist Masterpiece

I started reading The 70s House last night and was excited to discover that it featured another Huntington Bay Modernist house, the work of architect Richard Henderson of Gwathmey-Henderson. Built in 1969 the Loring Mandel House is a long, low-slung concrete structure tucked into the hillside on Bay Ave. This house, which was later owned by the author Alyson Richman, changed hands again last year.


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A simple design, the house was exceptionally well-cared for by its owners. When the house was on the market the realtor put photos on the website and it was remarkable to see how it remained virtually unchanged for almost 40 years. Photographer Sue Barr has captured the essence of the house but I can't find any shots on the internets so you'll just have to buy or borrow a copy of the book or take my word for it. It's a treat for lovers of modern architecture.
Unfortunately, though, there is one paragraph in the article that I can't get out of my head. The author, David Heathcote must be an Brit because he describes Huntington Bay as a "Home Counties type suburb", which makes me want to vomit, put the house on the market and move to the city.

Facing South

Well, it didn't reach 65F, in fact the temperature was much the same as yesterday, but it was still warm enough to walk on the beach.

On the Fourteenth Day of Christmas

Look what Santa Amazon bought me.
Three books on Architecture and Interior Design with a 70s vibe:
Furniture and Interiors of the 1970s
The 70s House
Weekend Utopia
and one for the appetite
Roast Chicken and Other Stories. So far I'm mesmorised by the chapter on brains - cooking and eating them that is.
I'm going to have some happy times with these books. Thanks for the gift, Dad.

Oil Crisis

Shock, disbelief, wailing and gnashing of teeth. That pretty much describes yesterday when the oil company filled my tank. Oh, I knew it was coming. When we moved here in 2004 home heating oil cost $1:35 a gallon and it was predicted it would be over $3 way back last summer. So I had plenty of time to do the math, scream and enter the comfort of denial land. It hasn't helped that our bills have been pretty consistent over the years. Fuel prices went up but we became more economical and installed programmable thermostats, turned the temperature down and shut doors. We also replaced all those single pane windows, so we used less oil. Obviously this trade off had to stop sometime and that would be 01/07/08 when the price per gallon was $3:11. The bill was humongous. A whacking, walloping whole heap of cash is required to pay it.
Faced with the fact that there isn't much room for more energy efficiency, absent a new boiler or a change to gas, what to do? We could just do without heat or hot water, though that's not the way I'd choose to go. It might be 65 F here later today but I'm pretty sure we will need to put the heating on again this winter.
I'm thinking we might have to sell something. A cat, or a kidney or maybe that fabulous credenza.

Winners and losers

I won the lamps but I lost out on a couple of other things I thought might work on the credenza. I was outbid at the last second for a tall metal Paul Evans style mid-century abstract sculpture and a modernist wood sculpture didn't meet its reserve. Bah humbug.

The credenza is home

We had a busy Saturday chez Cool House. Even though Steven had only got back from Europe at 11:30 PM Friday we were up early to fetch the hire van and drive to NJ to pickup the credenza that I won on ebay. We knew we had to be back by lunchtime to let the guys in for the photo shoot so we were really rushing. Which probably accounts for the reason I slid down the back stairs. From top to bottom. On my butt. Bouncing on each step. I have one cheek that is twice the size of the other and completely dark blue and purple. It hurt like hell but it wasn't a life-threatening injury and we had to move so I walked it off. From that morning's experience there are a couple of things I think could do with improvement: the padding on the seats of panel vans and the pavement of the Cross Bronx Expressway.

We had a little trouble finding the pick-up location but the sellers were kind enough to meet us in the carpark of a Burger King with the credenza. I call that truly excellent service, even if it did feel a little like we were doing some shady deal! We drove back very gingerly as the credenza has three original sliding glass doors and got it home intact.


Here it is in its new home in the kitchen and it's even better than I imagined. The long low profile emphasizes the angle of the wall.



My only dilemma is what to put in/on it. Although it seems to be accumulating a fair amount of stuff on top already.


I thought this lamp might work so I bid on that on ebay too.

Doo-wop: a Sopranos connection

Photo courtesy of Jake Gorst

Yesterday the Cool House provided the location for photograph shoot of the doo-wop band Randy and the Rainbows who had a big hit with Denise in 1963. That's the video I posted yesterday. The were rehearsing while photographer Jake Gorst took photos of them in different places around the house. How awesome is that?
Because I'm probably the only person in America that has never watched The Sopranos, I didn't realise that Denise had been on the soundtrack of the final episode. See how much popular culture I've missed out on. Now I must rent the DVDs and watch all seven series so I can see how that bit fits into the whole saga.
But at least I can say I've heard them live. If you get a chance to catch one of their shows, take it - they still sound sweet in 2008.

Doo-wop

What's going on at the The Cool House today? Here's a clue

The best toast in the world.

While measuring for a new ventilation hood (a girl can dream away the ugly) I thought I might check out the built-in toaster in the island. I mean we've been in the house three and a half years and it would be a shame to redo the kitchen before we'd seen if it still works.


I pulled out the integrated chopping board, too.


Popped the bread in the toaster. It's a Toastmaster.


And a couple of minutes later, perfect toast. Much better than I've been making in the Dualit.
Then I discovered why. This is a commercial toaster. I don't know if this is the $500 model but I wouldn't be at all surprised. Everything in this house was top of the range (pun intended) when it was built. I know one thing, though, once you've had real toast you can't go back to the ordinary kind. Spoilt again.

Keeping things in perspective

I'm always interested to see where people have been before they visit the blog. Often they've come via an image - usually a Flickr photo and I always check the link to see which one it was. Today someone in Florida happened upon this photo.
Did it take your breath away too?
It was taken the first day we moved in. That's our Leggero bed with Area duvet and shams (bought at Area's semi-annual sale in NYC) and a $4 Ikea lamp. Everything else is left by the original owner: the green carpet, the walls, and the holes where the baseboard should be.
I was complaining remarking to Steven on New Year's Day that master bedroom looks like a college dorm but good grief I take it back. It looks a zillion times better than this. Those walls, hand-painted, faux-finished orange veined walls, gave me nightmares for the month before I painted over them. The artistic design continued onto the window frames for that "cohesive" look. Unique.
Last year we changed the placement of the bed and this is how that side of the room looks today. It's still unfinished but at least I don't gasp in horror when I see it.

Post Holiday Clean Up

This is the only thing that didn't get vacuumed, dusted or polished today... that's because it's totally perfect as is.

Hoppin' John

We didn't manage to do without food today although we were frugal, and there was no alcohol imbibed. I made the customary New Year's Day dish of rice and beans known as Hoppin' John, although my recipe is anything but traditional.
Disclaimer: This is spicy. We like our food very spicy. You may prefer it without a couple of the *HOT* ingredients.

Hoppin' John
1 can black-eyed peas
Olive oil
1 small red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
Red pepper flakes
Oregano
Salt and pepper
Dash of Tabasco
Half a spicy chorizo
1-2 cup(s) chicken stock
Rice

In a casserole fry the onion and garlic in oil until soft. Add can of beans. Add herb and spices to taste. Cook five minutes. Add 1 cup chicken stock and Tabasco. You may need more chicken stock depending on taste and how long you let the beans cook.
In a pan gently brown slices of chorizo. Add to beans. Fifteen minutes before you are ready to eat cook rice in a separate pan. Serve beans over rice.
Makes enough for 2-3.
Brilliant for hangovers.

Happy New Year

Tapas
Originally uploaded by modernemama

Tapas 2007

We are giving up food and alcohol for the New Year so here's a photo from the holiday celebrations to remind us what tapas looked like.
Enjoy!

Feeding my addiction

My ebay addiction, that is. I bid, I won. Score.


The credenza is teak, 6' 6" long and was made in Denmark sometime in the 60s or 70s. I think it will be perfect against the long wall in the kitchen. We just have to get it from its present home to ours. Yippee.

Ikea Magic

Even if you hate Ikea (who could hate Ikea?) you have to appreciate the flash inspirational video on their web-site. Keep your finger on your mouse to make it go faster. Enjoy!
And if that's not enough of an end of year's cadeau for you, here's one more on the same theme from the Jonathan Coulton Project.

Rude Awakening

I was woken at 7:59 AM this morning by landscapers. Leaf blowing landscapers. On a Sunday morning. The last Sunday in December for goodness' sake. Why? What is so damn important that they had to remove every leaf on the property while many people were still in dream land? I think it may have something to do with someone being desperate to sell their house.
Full disclosure: I had been up at 4:40 with the cats and had gone back to bed so I may have been a tad more grumpy than normal. But still. I wouldn't normally still be asleep at this time but today I was in the middle of a dream where I was accompanying a famous person who had undergone a face-lift to an auction of antique objets d'art of a questionable nature where I had been given a handwritten children's book of breath-taking beauty by a small boy who asked me to find it a home in a library so all the children could read it. Yes, it was that fast-paced. This dream had it all, drama, pathos, scandal (there was a sub-plot involving the neighbors' affairs and pornography and another involving a second book) and love. In great detail. A whole novel or screenplay and I didn't get to dream it through.
I know I have been guilty of making too much noise too early but at least I can plead ignorance. This past fall, though, all residents received a letter from the Village stating what we may or may not do to our properties and landscaping on Sunday was a definite no-no. I don't care about code violations but I didn't want to experience my own Porlock moment on the last Sunday of 2007.

New Year's Resolutions 2008

Challenged by houseblogs.net to blog our plans for 2008 I present our New Year's Resolutions, aka something else that will cause much guilt and anguish before being completely ignored, at least until December 31 2008.
1)Fix the crazy, scary mind-of-its-own lighting in the den.
2)Figure how to reset the alarm so that it stops flashing CHECK 10, CHECK 12, CHECK 17, ALARM NOT READY, NOT READY, NOT.....READY....!!!!!
3)Gut and remodel the master bath. Make it fabulous, beautiful, awesome, magnificent and unique. Do this for the same price or less than last year's guest bath remodel.
4)Make a decision about the bar/media center in the den AND keep to it.
5)Stick to budget.
And finally here's one we might stick to


6)Find time to enjoy life while renovating.

Beach Condo

This was the view that greeted us when we walked into our friends' apartment in the Hamptons yesterday. Except that the pool was closed it was drizzling and the waves were 10' high. It was still spectacular, and much closer than it seems on this photo.
We'd gone out to have lunch and drive around Amagansett and see other houses designed by the architect responsible for our house, Andrew Geller. It was only when we reached Southampton that I realised I'd left this list behind. Again. It wasn't as big as a disappointment as it might have been, the visibility was so poor we wouldn't have seen much anyway.
So we hung out with our friends, and friends of theirs, had brunch at Babette's and went bowling in East Hampton. A really enjoyable way to spend the Xmas to New Year's void. And not a paint can, hammer or screwdriver in sight. Perfect.

Back to work?

It's almost 2008 and this is the year we have designated to finally GET THE FREAKIN' MASTER BATH DONE. I had to use the blog to find out when was the last time we used the shower in there, and it was August 2006. We've got used to using the other showers, especially the one we renovated last year when we should have been doing ours, the "trial" version.
There have been lots of reasons we put it off: lack of funds; unwillingness to cope with the mess; no inspiration; but going into that bathroom with its cracked shower pan, cracked basin, bare lights and missing medicine cabinet door is so depressing that we are girding ourselves up for a total gut of the bathroom.
The challenges for this will be:
1) I want to spend less money than I had originally budgeted. My reasoning for this is that house prices are falling, and will probably come down some more and I don't want to over-invest in the house, but I still want a modern, sleek bathroom and these tend to be on the pricey side.
2) We still don't know if we can, or want to put a skylight in the room.
3) I have no resources too work with. I lost all my bookmarks, images, links, everything I had stored on my ibook over the past three years when the hard disk died, except for the image below that was on my flickr page.


I'm now thinking that this is too cold for the master. The bathroom as it stands is all white and sterile. and so it feels cut off from the rest of the house, which is warm with lots of wood. I don't want to replace one cold design with another more modern version of the same. On the other hand the shower part of the space has no natural light so I don't want to use such dark tiles it ends up looking like a cave.
That brings me to the lighting problem. We went to look at a house that uses solar tubes but from the outside it looked like three alien spaceships had landed on the roof, so we won't be going down that route. Then we have the possibility of putting a skylight in, but the space above the bathroom is taken up with HVAC pipes and light fittings, and the pitch of the roof is so shallow I'm concerned about water backing up around the skylight when it rains and eventually finding its way through the ceiling. Even if there is enough space, is it worth the risk?
The only thing I'm completely sure of at this moment is that we need to upgrade the lighting a lot. We need better lights and we need more of them. Oh and a quieter fan. Apart from that there's still a lack of inspiration, and motivation, for the remodel. I feel I need a spark to awaken my enthusiasm and set the project in motion.

Xmas Walk

Walking on the beach, 3 pm. 25 December 2007