The Fixer Upper House and Garden

Still Choosing Counter

I'm days away from needing to have the countertops measured...and I'm still undecided about the kitchen. My, this has been a vexing problem! I visited a stoneyard in Bridgeport this morning to contemplate a new suitor to this strange courtship I'm having with stone. It's a greenish-grey granite called Costa Esmerelda. It's somewhat similar to a soapstone sample that I've been cradling like a favorite pet gerbel the past few months,but it's more durable than soapstone (and certainly more durable than a gerbil!).

This is what Costa Esmerelda looks like with my cabinets. That little square is a sample of Mariana Reserve soapstone:

Here is close-up of this slab:

This is a lighter green version:

Sister Blog-alina

The following is a dream of mine:

Several sub-contractors walk into a classroom where rows of child-size desks face a chalkboard. Tools and boots clang against metal chair-legs as the men slink into their seats. Some of the guys are wearing T-shirts. Others have on winter parkas. One sports a goatee. A few have gum. They dare not chew.

All eyes are on Sister Blog-alina, as she snaps her talon-like pointer at the chalkboard.

"Boys," says Sister Blog-alina, peering over her bifocals. "Today's lesson is about 'getting along'."

The group is multicultural. It comprises American, Polish, Hispanic, Russian and other men whose dialects Sister Blog-alina doesn't understand. Each has his own style and pattern of working. Each is diligent and focussed. All are polite. Some are tidy. Together or individually, they're all working toward the greater goal of pleasing Sister Blog-alina. Sister Blog-alina likes this.

But lately there has been discord in the ranks. There has been name-calling and griping and other acts of verbal pollution. Sister Blog-alina doesn't want this in her classroom.

She snaps the pointer at the chalkboard and ponders the question of the ages: Can people from different cultures and with different habits work together in harmony? And another quandary: Can they get along even if each one is blasting a different radio station on his boombox?

"We must try to get along," Sister Blog-alina says, evoking the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "We must respect each other."

The boys gulp, especially those with hidden gum.

Hard Labor?

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be unconscious during childbirth, which was a common practice a generation ago. What was it like to be the inert center of all that purpose? To be absent when your infant entered the world?

Why, you may wonder, is she writing about this? It's because the kitchen cabinets are being installed, and my house is buzzing with more activity than triage in a women's hospital. After a long, hard labor...the baby is crowning! And where am I? I'm at Starbucks. As it should be, mind you, as it should be.

Alas, like all good childbirth stories, the installation of my cabinets is full of drama, but I'm not going to write about that...today. I might write about it later, if the baby is born with two heads and no feet. For the moment, here's a photo of upper cabinets that were installed today, followed by shots of the cabinets being delivered (from an Amish barn) to my suburban front door.

In the kitchen...

Off the truck...

And through the door:

Getting Chopped

A few important things got chopped off this week!

When she was 5, C decided to grow her hair for "Locks of Love," a charity that uses donated human hair to make wigs for kids who've lost their own hair (www.locksoflove.com). This had significance for our family, since C's cousin has had alopecia for many years (now 14 and confidantly bald, he's the most handsome boy in his freshman class!)

C looks good too, with her new grown-up haircut. It took five years to grow her hair so long--she was at Little Leisure preschool when she started. She donated 10 inches of light-brown hair with lovely blond sun-streaks. Here are a few more shots of C's haircut, followed by a photo of something else that got chopped down.

A bit later:

The next picture is of our house--we chopped down two arborvitaes this week, to make way for a storm-drain that must stretch out to the street. Note to fellow gardeners: No, I don't feel bad about taking out the trees. Begone with them! They were overgrown, too close to the house, and not even remotely indigenous. I can hardly wait to dig out those two ugly evergreen bushes!

Would I Do It Again?

I received two e-mails today that have got me thinking. One was from Husband, offering to buy me a tool belt when the renovation is finished, because "we're almost in the home stretch." The other was from a blog-reader and fellow wordsmith who asked "if you had it to do all over again, would you buy a house that needed all of this work?

To Husband I say: Go for it. I could use a tool belt (although I haven't actually done any of the work myself!) As to whether I'd do this again: there's a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is: YES! It's so rewarding to have so much input in your home! It's empowering! So: yes, no regrets. Yes!

The long answer is maybe not (lower case, with no exclamation point), and includes footnotes, disclaimers and caveats. Here are some of the pros and cons:

Con/Pro: I wouldn't do it with school-age kids. We've lived in three houses since we moved to town in July '06, and that's disruptive. But I asked my daughters if they would do it again. The younger two said "Yes, because we get to have a house that's just how we want it...and with a stage!" The oldest (13) said: "I'm not sure. I'm still thinking about it." I do think the kids have a deeper appreciation for their home. They've learned about delayed gratification. And hopefully they'll forget all the time in the car.

Pro: Restoring this house gave me a project to focus on when I was sad about moving to a new state.

Pro: I learned a few things about negotiating.

Pro: I learned how to blog (but I think a more apt name for the blog would be: "The Mid-Life Crisis House.")

Con: Getting plunked with the hidden costs of renovating. We didn't plan on things like floor insulation and storm drains and back-up sump pumps; like trees that must come down and bricks that must be stained and beadboard soffits. Painted cabinets cost 5% more than stained. Decorative tiles cost 20% more than simple white ones. Linen closets need doors; window seats need benches; laundry rooms need counters. I have loved the process of figuring out the details (such as the laundry chute!). But it's the custom stuff that costs you, and it's hard to skimp on this because that's the real reason for renovating--to make the house your home. ...

Pro: It helps to have an architect who doesn't disappear when the ink is dry on the blueprints and a GC who's reliable and upfront about the subcontractors' fees. We have such a team, and I'd do it again with them, especially now that I understand terms like raised hearths, fasciaboard and bathtub flanges.

Which brings me to the subject of the tool belt. I'm going to need one (filled with clearly labeled tools) when I no longer have all these subs at the house!

Set In Stone

I bought my tile today: several hundred ceramic, porcelain and marble polygons from four retailers. Some people buy everything from one store. I'm not one of these people. This is partly because I needed different materials and designs for several rooms. It's also because not one store had everything I wanted for the price I needed. For example, I priced my job at several "stone and tile" stores that could have accomodated my entire job---from the hand-made fireplace tiles (pictured here) to the kitchen counters to the cheapo-porcelain 12x12s for the mudroom. But there was always a problem: at one store, the sales staff was snooty. At another, quality was great but prices were high. Another dealer offered reasonable prices but boring material.

I never said I was easy to please. And for what this stuff costs, you shouldn't be either.

So I shopped around a lot. Husband and budget necessitated that I seek the best prices, but I also shopped for quality material and interesting designs. And for the record I will say that when I was on the fence, I leaned in favor of sales people who were helpful and interested in my job.

I liked Beeta, who runs the desk at Stone Habitat in Mundelein. Her store has a great selection of marble and granite; she was helpful; she negotiated; and the price was right. I bought my kitchen counters (Santa Cecelia granite and Soapstone), fireplace hearth (Soapstone), and master bathroom counter and tiles (Italian carerra marble) from Stone Habitat. The installer, Joe, came to the house to measure before I made my decision. In fact, Stone Habitat and Expo were the only ones who sent installers to take accurate field measurements for the quote (Expo wanted to charge $200 for this service, but I wouldn't pay it). Stone Habitat sells stone and only stone...so I bought my marble and granite there and for ceramic I went elsewhere...

For ideas and selection of ceramic tiles, you can't beat Expo. Its tile department is expansive, brightly lit, and with moderate to higher prices. (I was surprised how bad the lighting was in many tile stores.) Getting someone to help you is a challenge--some of sales reps at my local Expo seem like they've been working the prison night shift for too many years. But a young rep named Katherine was a great help to me. I did the kids' bathroom at Expo: white ceramic subways with glass mosaic accent tiles the color of a Fresca bottle that's been in the ocean for 30 years; 2x2 octagonal white ceramic floor tiles, and Corian "whitecap" counter tops. Worth noting about Expo: its installation quote was outrageous; Donald Trump must buy his tile there. I bought the material, but not the labor. Also worth noting: they're having a tile sale--20% off. This helped a lot. Worth worrying about: I suspect delays.

I got my mud-room flooring at a heavily advertised chain called Century Tile. Originally, I planned on using brick-colored Marmoleum, but I went with 12x12 porcelain tiles that look like natural slate, per my decorator Jean's suggestion. These "NK-17" tiles are very durable (comes in handy with 2 dogs) and cost less than $4 a square foot. They'll be ready for pick-up tomorrow.

Because I shopped around and negotiated everything, I was able to splurge on the fireplace surround in the family room. I'm going with the handmade tiles pictured above from Motawi (www.motawi.com), which I bought at The Fine Line Tile Gallery in Chicago. They're expensive, and the installation is, too. But it's worth it.

Floored!

Yesterday was one of those dreary, wet and muggy days that make me wonder why anyone would chose to live where I'm living. I went to the gutterless house in the morning, fearful the melting icicles and slush had seeped into the new basement overnight...they had not! The house was drier than the Arizona desert, and just as dusty. The floor guys were already at work sawing and buzzing, and they made great progress. Here are some shots of the house as of today, Wednesday:

One view:

View from another angle:

And another view:

The Shoe Dilemma

Thank goodness the holidays are behind us, the vacation is over and tomorrow we return to our blessed routine. Call me boring, I don't care. I love a good routine.

I also love a good domestic dilemma, and I face a small but important one for the mudrooom: should we have built-in shoe cubbies...or should we store our shoes in baskets?

Miguel's drawing at left shows one wall of the mudroom. I could have the carpenter build partitions for shoes beneath the "lockers" and bench, which will look tidy but fit only about 3 pairs of shoes each. Alternatively, each shelf area could hold a wicker basket that would hold several pairs of shoes, depending on how big the kids'  feet get...

Another plan, favored by Husband, is to limit each child to storing 2 pairs of "in-season" shoes in the mudroom, with the "off-season" shoes kept "off-site, such as in the basement or bedrooms. I'm not sure how the kids would decide which "2 shoes" to keep in circulation, but I can imagine some interesting getting-ready scenarios. For example:

Me: "Time for church!"

T: "I can't find my church shoes!"

Me: "Check the mudroom!"

T: "I'm past my 2-shoe limit!"

OR....

Me: "It's summer at last! Let's go to the beach!"

M: "Anyone know where my Crocs are?"

Me: "Check the mudroom!"

M: "But it's off-season!"

OR....

Me: "C, it's time for Irish Dance class!"

C: "Where are my hard shoes?"

Me: "Don't you keep them in the mudroom?"

C: "Dad won't let me!"

......................... 

Now that I think about it...dumping multiple shoes in baskets is probably the best idea!

                                                

While We Were Away ...

While we were away, GC and the subs were very busy. What fun it was to come back to a house with walls! Here's the 2nd floor "window nook:"

Behold, the fireplace wall:

A view down a hallway (please forgive the vertical nature of this photo!):

Hanging In There!

It was cold and icy at the Grand Canyon, but we hung in there!