Ah, there's nothing like New Year's in Southern California. We wisely decided to ditch the cold New York winter (ok, only sort of cold, thanks to global warming) in favor of the sunny coastline of Santa Barbara, California. The above photo is where we had breakfast a couple of days ago... It's called the East Beach Grill and is the perfect combination of delicious diner food and stellar beach front views. Hard to imagine a better way to ring out the old, if you ask me.

I've also learned a thing or two while hanging out in the house we rented with friends.

1) painted wood planks used as wall paneling (instead of sheetrock) looks great.
2) new single pane authentic divided light windows don't suck.
3) we're lucky that we can put salvaged wood floors in... it has more character than new wood and easier on the environment. We're now considering it for upstairs as well.
and, most importantly:

4) it's not overkill to have wood countertops when you also have wood floors and cabinets, as long as you paint the cabinets. Butcherblock has just become a contender again for our kitchen, though these counters look as though they are made of teak, which could also be interesting...

Thank you, oh family who usually lives in this house for those valuable lessons. I am now going to go on a drive through the mountains with my lovely husband Josh during which time I am going to force him to help me come up with some good New Year's resolutions. I'll let you know what we come up with...

Every year for as long as I can remember, I have gone to the Christmas pageant at the Church of the Heavenly Rest on the upper east side of Manhattan. I was in it for years as a child (yes that's right, an African American Mary) and I still sing along and recite the whole thing, getting slightly annoyed at the inevitable changes that have been made to the program over the years.

It is this sight that finally drags me from the land of over hassled self employed city dweller into the happy warmth of what Christmas, and all of these various end of the year holidays, is all about. For 48 hours, it's all about family, sharing, delicious meals and good times.

I'll get back to my obsessing over windows on Wednesday.

This is how I feel right about now. Way behind in my Christmas shopping, may as well save the in laws' Channukah gifts for '07 at this rate (cause I haven't sent them,) and we have yet to make a decision on our windows. Plus it turns out that our original idea of having a front door flanked by two full sized windows on either side isn't going to fly-- We'd have to completely re frame the entire front of the house, which is an expense I am not at all interested in incurring. We now have a four foot opening to play with and no idea what to do. Damn these decisions! We wanted some light to come in, hence my sadness at losing the two windows and determination not to have just a solid front wall. The french door option that was originally floated felt weird, so last weekend, while in DC visiting my in laws, we took a walk around the hood to see what other people are doing with their doors. If any of you out there have any ideas, please toss them our way. We're a bit stumped!

click below to see the various doors we spotted on our little promenade...

Why is it that I always fly into the same panic on the same day every year when I realize that Christmas is right around the corner? As if it were some kind of secret that no one had let me in on or something? So my internal freak out happened yesterday, when I saw the above sign on the door of Cavianola's Cheese Shop (one of the best shops Sag Harbor has to offer, if you ask me) I have been so busy thinking about stupid windows that I have neglected to deal with almost any of my holiday shopping. S**t!!!! Maybe this week will be more about shopping for others.

Or maybe not.

Click below to see how the house is coming along...

God forbid we go easy on ourselves... Instead of leaving it to the contractor to order stuff like, windows, for example, we've elected to go it alone. And so at 9 this morning, I found myself in Paramus, New Jersey, at the Pella Window and Door Store chatting with the lovely Doug Isley about 6 over 6 double hung windows. [hey Pella people, you need to open up a showroom in NYC!!] It seems that Pella has done away with authentic divided light style windows in favor of a modified grill on both the interior and exterior of the window with a spacer in between that makes the whole thing look solid. The look of the olden days with the technology of today. Way more energy efficient, insulating glass, etc etc. I started out skeptical, but may actually be a convert after looking at the nifty display, which looks much better than I expected:

I took home the massive catalogue and my preconceived notions about authentic divided light vs. their patented integral light technology to mull it all over and discuss at length with my husband. One other plus: you can order custom hardware, which would save me years of having to hear Josh complain about how much he hates the handles every time he opens a window... Their turnaround time is about 4 weeks, which means we have a little time before we have to decide for sure. Any Pella fans out there? Advice, as usual, will be much appreciated...

Sometimes, when in the midst of a gut renovation, one has to take a break from thinking about mammoth and hideously expensive things like windows and heating systems and dream about decorating. So last week, instead of going to window showrooms, we stopped by one of our favorite stores in Sag Harbor-- Neo Studio-- and picked up this Gio Ponti designed chair (seen above in it's temporary NYC home.) My husband Josh is obsessed with chairs, which may prove troubling in the future, but for now, as we have essentially no furniture, is just fine. The owner, Jean Yves Legrand, has the most brilliant and eclectic taste, so a visit to his spot is always a pleasure. He is truly an inspiration... one of those smart people who left the rat race (he was a contributing editor at Elle Decor and produced some truly stunning shoots for them back in the day) to open shops in Miami and Sag Harbor. Now he travels the globe in search of fabulous furnishings, restores them and passes them on to happy customers like me. Hmmmmm.... makes you wonder why everybody doesn't just quit and open a store....

So I thought it might be a good idea to share with you some of the exciting new words I'm adding to my vocabulary as I meander down the path to a complete breakdown... oh no wait... I meant to say a beautifully renovated home. As I am currently obsessing over windows (see the good photo of our old windows above,) I bring you a few related terms that I am now casually bandying about in my own sentences. I've gotten these definitions from H & H Windows, a fabulous site that has all the window terms you will ever need. Go check it out before you talk to anyone about replacing/getting new windows in your lives.

Click below to learn the new terms. Come on, you know you want to...

SO here's what the place looked like on Saturday-- no more front door (or rather, hole where door used to be-- they took the door down 10 days ago which freaked my mother out. Dunno what anybody was going to steal (sawdust? a soggy tool belt?) but whatever. Not too terribly different looking from here. The big news becomes apparent when you walk around to the side to behold the new roof:

That's right folks. A new roof. Who knew I could be so excited about a bunch of red cedar shingles? But there it is in all of it's as-of-yet-unfinished glory. Plus it looks like we don't actually have to replace the entire old roof, which makes the bank account happy. We're back on the pleasantly surprised with the amount of work completed track, which is where I would like to stay.

click below for more developments....

I thought sure I'd taken a better photo of our old windows, but here's a shot just so that you can get an idea of what I'm talking about here. This is in our old bathroom (just at the beginning of the demolition-- note more evidence of our old, pathetic heating system...)

click below to read the rest of this post.....