A field trip to Waterworks....

Last week Dave and I took a field trip to look at faucets and tiles down in Fairfield.  I had already been to Waterworks in NYC so I knew there was a lot to like there.  We also ventured into Klaff's which has a huge showroom of every imaginable faucet, sink, tub, kitchen and tile source.  Be prepared to hit immediate sensory overload!

We started at Waterworks and found some great options.  Since we have our hearts set on unlaquered brass or untreated copper we have only a few options of vendors.  We want the faucets to age over time and become what they will.  Most companies either treat the metal for a faux patina or lacquer them for everlasting shine.  Neither case is exactly what we want.  I think that after all the looking we decided on the following choices.

Easton Vintage

OR

Orleans with one handle?  I think this one gets the vote.

Julia faucet unlacquered brass or shiny copper for prep sink?

Julia faucet for upstairs master bath- nickel

Normandy prep sink for center island. 
Copper, brass or nickel????
All depends on the center island's top.

Lyon- an aptly named throne for David Lyon??

Minna tub: this cast iron and absolutely beautiful in person. 
The picture does it no justice.
A real European soaking tub- 20" deep... Bubble bath?

Grove Brickworks tiles for the upstairs shower.  Then the pebble floors that have already been discussed

Booth Bay Blue- as a border along the bottom of the shower

Grove Brickworks- Butter Bisque
The majority of the shower walls

Henry shower head

Henry shower controls
Thermostatic or pressure balance, what ever that means?

There are definitely a lot of really nice bath and kitchen faucets to chose from and choosing the right one is a major decision.  These are huge investments that you only want to make once and not again.  These choices seem to be timeless, fitting to the design of the rooms and best of all- Dave and I agreed on them!!!!

The storage container for the contents of the garage arrives in the morning.  Stay tuned for that fun!

Inspirational Pictures- 2

Please!

These wonderful antique pieces were found on the Appley Hoare Antiques web site http://www.appleyhoare.com/home.asp.  Appley has been dealing in French Country antiques for many years.  As you can see she has quite a nice selection!  Why do you have to go all the way to France to get good stuff?

I can see these lined up in the pantry

Italian Confiture Jars

Great paint!

Swedish Sofa

New home for the Ficus tree?

Rude Dinner Guests (birds not people)

As summer is winding down (way too fast) and we are getting ready to take down the walnut tree and dig up the back yard we are trying to use the patio as much as possible. We invited Francie and her dad, Bill, here for a nice summery dinner.  Francie lives on Nantucket so we don't see her has much as we would like.  Her dad lives outside New Haven and she comes to visit him every now and again.  Bill is a great guy and we enjoy his company very much- he can tell a story as well as Garrison Kellor and regailed us all evening with tales of his being a ne'er-do-well as a youth (he is invited here anytime and does not need Francie as an excuse to come for dinner).  We have always envied Francie's family dynamics.  As an example, Francie has this great picture on her fridge of her family having a whip cream fight as young kids.  Mom and Dad also covered in whipped cream laughing as hard as the kids.

We enjoyed a little wine and cheese with all the hens, roosters, duck and turkeys wandering around.  The turkeys seem to want to be right with you.  They have no concept that they are birds and not people and have no idea of boundaries. I am having a hard time keeping them off the tables and they actually greeted our guest by coming to the door to see who was there.  Of course the question was asked.... "why are there turkeys in your kitchen?"  And "oh, what happened to his head? (a reference to the unsightly gash the hens gave Gravy while they were living in the chicken coop).  While we love these sweet young birds I think that we are going to have to teach them some manners.  It hasn't worked with the dogs but I am hopeful with the turkeys!  As you can see from the fact that they were all over the table and actually ran through the cheese plate that we have a long way to go.

Francie and Bill with the backyard menagerie of poultry

Stalking the cheese plate

How about a little wine for me?

At one point I felt something on my neck and asked if I should be worried.  No, it was just Gravy who seems to like to sit on people's heads and shoulders.  It's OK now but can you imagine if a full grown Tom turkey wants to sit on your head?????

On my mind... (and some new pictures)

I can't seem to get this stove off my mind.  Now, everywhere I look are gorgeous pictures of the Lacanche range that I want.  I found these pictures on the blog Belgian Pearls.  Now all I have to do is figure out what the rest of the kitchen should look like. When we met with Peter last week I asked if he had pictures of different cabinets that they have made that I could look at.  His response was that they could make what ever I wanted.  But, what do you get when you can have anything you want?  It is a decision that I will have to make carefully.  I am busy collecting pictures of things that I like- but liking something and living with the cabinets forever is totally different.  Do I want painted cabinets or natural wood?  What will complement the stove without over powering it?  I have seen a bunch of pictures of proud Lacanche owners that have totally overdone the kitchen and lost the beauty of the stove.  Tiles going every which way in a variety of patterns.  I don't want to do that.  A simple hood above and a piece of copper made for the back splash that will patina on it's own should be all it needs to stand out in our kitchen.  We thought about tiles but Dave and I couldn't decide on the same tile but both thought the copper a great idea.  I am beginning to think that tile stores are evil and should have marriage counselors in the back rooms for spouses that can't agree on the the zillion choices!

The Chagny- this is it! 
Complete with small broiling oven.

Trim details- so elegant

18,000 BTU burner in center with wok ring

Can I go from a 20 year old electric Hotpoint stove to this?
You bet!

Something's awry here....

Can't seem to keep the turkeys away from us when they are not in their pen.

Poor Gravy took a beating from the hens.  Guess they have to stay separate until
they are big enough to defend themselves.  Grow fast!

I came home tonight after work to find Dave cooking dinner and Cranberry and Gravy looking over the plans for the house.  Peter- I think we may need that extra bedroom after all!

Flora and Fauna

The project to fix up the little William Tripp house does not only focus on the house itself but also on the surrounding yard.  Why scare yourself with a home renovation without having added stress of wondering what the heck is going to happen to your yard.  Will nothing stay the same?  On some levels, I hope not.  But knowing that change is in the air is making me nostalgic for what I have now.  My biggest emotional challenge is the loss of the walnut tree- but you can gather that since I have mentioned it before.  It is just so magnificent.  It has been a love hate relationship with this tree from the very start.  While it is lovely to look up at from the patio and see the filigreed leaves fluttering in the breeze, the geometric patterning of the bark, the little Nut Hatch (Nutty- who else?) that I see every morning as I check my e-mails- it is also a tree with a some issues.  It's a dropper- not only does it drop leaves all summer long but it also drops those damn walnuts too.  During it's dropping peak (early fall- but I did see one treacherous little ball just yesterday) it sounds like you are living in a bongo drum for all the little green balls that fall on the roof.  Now, once dropped- where do these little spheres go.... the grass where they become virtually invisible until you twist an ankle.  One year we decided to collect the walnuts to dry out.  We had some fantasy that we would make a natural dye, like they did in the 18th century, and use it on all sorts of fabrics.  We put a few 55 gallon trash barrels full of walnuts into the garage.  Well, almost immediately we were finding these walnuts in the oddest places.  Seems that squirrels also like walnuts and are quite the little pranksters.  They gnawed through the barrel and made off with the nuts.  Little piles of them on shelves, in boxes and most cleverly on the brake cables to my bike (the area between the tire and the brakes).  Stealthfully the piles were moved each day to new and odder places.  Here's a bit of irony- I just waw a squirrel going down the side of the walnut tree with a walnut in his mouth.  I think that I won't be the only one to miss the tree!

Someone came and looked at the tree today.  Looks very promising that he will be able to mill the wood into planks for some new flooring in the house.  I am very pleased that the tree can find a home inside with us!

When I told friends that we were not going to move but rather remodel our house their first comment was "they're going to fix the driveway aren't they?".  This driveway looks innocent enough but it seems to make even the most competent driver a complete novice at the wheel.  It does not seem to make any difference if they are going forward up the driveway or backing out- there are problems all around.  The drive up is the least problematic unless you lose your oil pan on the large frost heave that runs up the center. This is a truly organic heave changing shape and size along with the seasons. 

The view coming and going

Once to the top people think to turn themselves around to get a running start forward on their way home. This too is frought with tactical errors. If there is another car parked anywhere on the top the turning radius becomes impaired with obstacles such as a wood pile and kayak to one side and a load of bricks and small stones on the other. I still have no idea what the stones are all about that Dave collected one year and lined up along the perimeter but he needs to find something to do with them. They WILL be used in this project somewhere! Won't they????

Pallet of unused bricks and rows of small rocks that have been there
so long they are now covered with ivy.

Backing out of the driveway instills the most fear in drivers.  We have had guests stuck pretty much everywhere along the journey back down to the road.  Sometimes they hit the little wall of Pachysandra closest to the house, often they rack up in the shrubs at the bottom of the drive on the right hand side.  The lamp post was hit so many times that it finally gave up and fell completely down and now lies dead in the bushes at the bottom of the driveway.  My friend felt so badly she gave me money towards a new post even when I told he that it had suffered many blows before hers.  That one was just the crowning blow to send it to the ground.

RIP

Even Dave does not seem immune to the wrath of the driveway.  Now, he won't claim responsibility for this but I have been doing a little investigation of the vehicles and I am now convinced that he smacked my car when he was backing up (probably had the radio up to loud to hear the small thud).  There is a slight dent on the passenger side door lower panel that matches up perfectly with the height of his bumper.  The small scratches on the bumper don't tell lies.... maybe he could wash and wax the car and I'd forgive him?

My ding and the scrape on Dave's bumper..... you decide.

So what is the plan for the driveway you ask?  I am not really sure but I do know is that excavators are coming to take 4 to five feet (or that's what Dave said) off the top of the driveway and make it more level.  Maybe then I won't get stuck half way up the drive every winter!  The parking area will be expanded and the asphalt will be replaced with lovely little rocks.  I say that optimistically since I have no idea what it will be like to have a crushed stone driveway.   Maybe I will curse those little rocks for getting everywhere.  But until then I look forward to having them and maybe some Belgian blocks at the intersections with the street.

This squash-like plant has sprung up in the middle of the lawn.
Origins unknown
Maybe it's trying to tell us a vegetable garden should go here next year!

The Nitty Gritty

Last night we had "the talk:"... you know the one....the money talk.  I had heard rumors about the guestimate, I saw the head bob and heard the "a lot" comment so I was braced for this.  We met in the evening since I could not devote that much morning time to another meeting that I knew could have gotten away from us.  There would obviously be a lot of questions asked.  I figured if we could spend an hour or more in a parking lot at the town hall then this was going to be on the longish side.  I had gotten a few snacks and some beer for the occasion since who can handle this kind of talk on an empty stomach and without a drink. 

Peter arrive prompt as usual while Dave was a bit delayed.  While we waited for Dave to roll in and Peter got finished being mauled by the dogs we talked a bit about tiles for the shower.   The pebble tiles are very popular these days for the flooring of showers.  While they can look very cool in the right circumstance, they can also look busy when paired with a busy wall tile.  I saw that problem a lot when I went to various tile places and looked through their idea books.  Dave really likes these stone and since I really haven't given him a lot to call his own in this project (and certainly not the outhouse bathroom) I really should go along with this one.  My concern has been that these little stones feel weird under my feet.  I have stepped on some that were not bad- smooth and undulating...  actually quite nice but I also stood on another set that made me cringe in pain.  Maybe my feet are sensitive or maybe those were not installed properly.  I commented to Peter about this and he said that they install the tiles and not to worry- they would not cripple me.  I was relieved since I really liked the look of the all white stones.  Apparently if you do the grout correctly the stones are wonderful.  I can picture these pebbles paired with a mosaic tile that looks like beach glass (Walker Zanger) or the new Grove Brick tiles from Waterworks in any of the 3 colors shown.

Walker Zanger

or pure white

Grove Brickworks tiles from Waterworks

Grove Brickworks- Booth Bay Blue

Grove Brickworks- Ashley Blue

Walker Zanger Tile

As we were finally all together we went out onto the patio to discuss the different parts of the project and the breakdown of what each would cost.  Since we will have to save some of the project for another time the next step is to figure out how to divide it into phases.

Some of the more interesting digressions included Dave's wanting to wrap the house in pine tar to give it a good smell.  Peter looked quizzically at Dave as to what that smell might be so Dave ran into the house and grabbed a line of tarred hemp for him to smell.  It does actually smell really good.  Next, Dave regaled him about ropes on ships.  There were a few other interesting digressions but you had to be there for them.  We adjourned with some home work.  Peter to get the building permits, Dave and I to cull through the crap and have the tag sale we have been talking about but not having, find a shipping container to store the contents of our garage and finally to have the tree work done.  I am holding off until the last minute on the tree work.  I want to move a lot of plants and it really isn't a good time of year to dig them up.  So, I'll wait until early September.  Plus, I am really going to miss the big Walnut tree so I am going to look at it all I can until it comes down.  We are hoping to have the wood milled so it can become part of the house if that's not too prohibitively expensive- but everything cool else seems to be.