Three Words I Can Never Utter Again

1:20 minute: "...now I want to be mid-century modern girl".

Dammit, I loved MCM furniture when the only place you could find it was a dumpster, at the time it was considered worthless junk. Then it became mainstream. It's been over-exposed for a while, this Noguchi coffee table is styled into TV shows and advertisements and you can spot a Saarinen Womb Chair in practically every issue of surviving decor magazines, but from this moment mid-century modern is officially over. Whatever shall I do?

He's backkkkkkkk

Thanks to the telephoto lens I got for my birthday last year I can now get a decentish shot of the D*mn Woodpecker ^TM.
Beautiful, isn't he? And useful for insect control. But with a few taps he can knock a hole big enough to use a nest for the family. So long as he stays in the tree he's safe. If he comes near the redwood siding again.......all bets are off.

Sodding Lawn and Snow Plow*

It's a beautiful day at The Cool House. Let's walk around the property and see how much maintenance we're looking at this Spring, shall we?


Now what's that piece of grass doing growing out of the driveway?


Uh, oh. I think it used to be over here


Or maybe over here. Nice scraping job, snow plow! I think we have a fair amount of work to do just on the lawn. Grr.

*This joke probably only works if you're a Brit.

Designers' Lunch

Two designers and one person with definite ideas on design (moi) sat down for lunch today. You'll have to imagine them at the table because two are camera shy, and as usual at The Cool House there was a lot of running around with the cats and dogs and zero time for picture posing. But it was my pleasure to introduce The Awesome Designer to The Kitchen Designer over a little salad, some wine and a very satisfying raspberry and apricot tart. There's something about a pseudo-working lunch on a Monday that makes it both illicit and relaxing. Lots of fun anyway, and then a side trip so The Kitchen Designer could check out The Awesome Designer's kitchen, which was as stunning as always. A very enjoyable couple of hours for me. What did you do today?

Lieb House finds its new home

A month ago I posted this piece about the the start of the journey to move the Robert Venturi Lieb House from the Jersey shore to the north shore of Long Island. The beach cottage, which had been in danger of demolition, has been purchased by Deborah Sarnoff and Robert Gotkin, who plan to use it as a guest house to their own Venturi designed home. On Friday it succesfully completed the second leg of its journey from Manhattan's South Street Seaport to Glen Cove NY, a move that was documented both by news teams and by cameras for a forthcoming film Learning from Bob and Denise by James Venturi, son of the architect.
You can see the whole move in a New York Times slideshow and read the rest of the article here.
There has been a lot of discussion on architecture blogs about whether this is a judicious move, if the removal costs are justified in a recession and whether modernist beach houses should be preserved. I think you know which side of the argument I come down on but I'm interested to hear what you think. If you had the means to undertake such an endeavour, would you do it?

Saturday morning:The laughter continues

I have a meeting and a few errands to run but I can't leave you without something to mull over.
It occurred to me while watching my guilty pleasure The Real Housewives of New York that The Countess, who has written a book on manners to help the proles conduct themselves in polite society, reminded me of someone but I couldn't think whom it was. In the middle of the night I sat up and yelled Fanny Cradock, which frightened everyone and me most of all. Fanny was British and liked to pretend she was a lady. In her early days she cooked in a ballgown, with her husband Johnny, who I believe wore a monocle (though I could have imagined this bit). Think Julia Childs crossed with Margaret Thatcher. Terrified yet?
See for yourself...


Oh, you wanted to see her cook too? See what she does to this poor bird. Enjoy!

Friday afternoon playtime: The Sesame Street version*

We all need a good laugh on Friday afternoon so, internets, I'm sharing Ricky Gervais on Sesame Street. What could possibly go wrong?



* Caution: You may need Depends and a handkerchief.

Infinite space

You know how it is when you are renovating, you visit a house and notice all sorts of things you want to incorporate in your own home. That's what it was like when we saw the music room at The Breakers, which in turn was inspired by the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.


At the mansion huge mirrors were positioned on opposite sides of the room and enormous Baccarat crystal chandeliers hung between them to create an optical illusion - the lights reflected in the mirrors seem to stretch into infinity, making the room appear endless. How neat it would be, I thought, if we could recreate this back at The Cool House.


Then I forgot about it until yesterdy when a lightbulb blew in one of the sconces in the dressing room. As I switched the light back on after replacing the bulb I saw the same trick of the eye I'd witnessed at the mansion but on a more modern, and a more modest, scale. I don't know why I hadn't noticed it before, but maybe I shouldn't remove the 70s mirrored walls when we renovate this space?

This post is part of the Hooked on Fridays fest

Sunset

Just another spectacular sunset. March 11 2009.

Going the extra mile

What kind of pet sitter not only stays at your house and subjects themselves to the nocturnal demands of Jefke the water-loving cat and Polly the challenge dog, but finds time to take photos of all the animals and frame them as a birthday gift for The Guy? An absolutely fabulous, rockingly awesome, patient pet sitter. That's what.
Thanks L & B.

March Birthday Bouquet

Haven't done one of these in a while but as I'm lacking any inspiration for anything today I present to you the best bloom from The Guy's Birthday Bouquet. Yes, he likes flowers even more than I do. I chose blue, red and green flowers for him but I don't think he's noticed yet, so internets.... Enjoy!

Wood Obsessed

I still haven't got over my obsession with wood as the major design element at The Cool House. The teak shower bases we put in the downstairs bath and the boys' bath have been very successful; they are warmer than tile, and much less slippery. I'd really like to get more wood into the master bath remodel and have been mulling over the idea of paneling the master bath walls in walnut. I love the concept but I don't want it to look like a 70s sauna, so I'm focusing on wooden sinks and baths that might give me more of the look I want without the feeling I should be beating myself with birch twigs.


Handmade oval bathtub in teak


Bath in Wood of Maine handcraft a double tub from inch thick mahogany planks.


Umbila wood bath from Adagio Sinks


Laguna Basic wood tub in walnut.
The Leguna Basic tub is probably my favorite, the one that fits best with overall style of the house and it's small enough to replace the existing tub without any major changes to the plumbing or layout of the room. What about you? Any particular tub strike you as swoon-worthy?

This post is part of the Hooked on Fridays fest

Cool House: the icicle edition

Absolutely, breath-takingly beautiful weather. Also damn cold. And if the cold doesn't kill you these babies might....

My Random Life

How far do you think I drove before I realized The Guy had draped the eco-friendly shopping bag over the wing mirror? The shopping bag I had spent 10 minutes looking for inside the car before I gave up? Let's just say the car is black, the bag is black and the I didn't generate enough speed to make it fly until I'd left the Incorporated Village.
Message to The Guy: Honey, how much extra effort could it take to open the car door and throw the bag inside? It's not like we lock the Beach Car anyway. Grrrr.

Vintage and Modern's Video Inspiration

Bill Indursky from Vintage and Modern shares his design inspiration, some new items from V & M and a story about Achille Castiglioni's favorite design - a pair of sunglasses made from 35mm film.
My favorite piece on V&M, if you asking, or better yet, buying, is a 1970s carpet by Edward Fields that will go perfectly in the great room. Thanks.

Snowy View Update

"Blanketed" is the term we usually employ to describe a snowy landscape. But that implies a soft layer of snow, lightly laid upon the ground. What we have here is 14" (36 cm) of heavy white stuff that is still falling. I'm calling it MATTRESSED!

Snowy Views

I was sceptical about the amount of snow we would get last night. When I went to bed around midnight we had barely a covering on the ground.


But this is what greeted me this morning and, as you can see, it's still snowing


That's about a foot of snow (30cm) on the table


It's very pretty but the snowplow hasn't been yet so it'll be challenging to get out there. I'm calling a Snow Day and making french toast.

Outdoor Shower: Anthropomorphic Design

Designers have a sense of humour, that much is evident. But an outdoor shower that begs you to call out "Please Don't Pee in My Pool" takes it to a whole new level. The Aqua Adagio outdoor shower by Jaclo.
via Trendir

Tweet, Blog, Tweet, Blog, Tweeeeet

The observant amongst the blog readership will have noticed the Twitter link that has appeared on the upper right side of the blog page. I resisted this for a really long time, partly because my pre-iphone cell was not made for frivolous texting, but mainly because I asked myself how interesting could it possibly be to tell the ethernets that I just fed the cats? Or the damn owl will not shut up and it's only 3 PM? Or I was planning on early cocktail hour?* Of course, back then I was at the first stage of grief twitter acceptance. I progressed pretty quicky through stages two through four and now I'm happily ensconced in Stage Five - microblogging.
The issue for me is that I need everything in my world to be interconnected but for each part to keep its essential integrity. So while I love that my blog posts are fed immediately to my twitter page, I'm less thrilled that they also bounce back to the right sidebar of my blog. Are you with me so far? When I publish this post it will be the first tweet under the Twitters header. Tautology, do you see? Copycat posting. Overload.
Of course there's a way to solve this problem. I simply have to tweet three more times and the offending blog post is confined to the trash can of twitterlife. Fine, but some days it means I'm reduced to twittering about what I fed my cats, the damn owl and cocktails. Speaking of which.....

*yes, all true tweets, sadly enough

Saari I couldn't be there

I waited a long time for this photo of the Gateway Arch that was designed by Eero Saarinen and built between 1963 and 1968. Of course I really wanted to see it for myself but I entrusted The Guy to use his iphone to capture the definitive architectural statement. What can I say? Archn't you disappointed I didn't take the trip to St Louis too?