Stop the presses... hold everything... we have had some horrible luck. Just when I was beginning to fantasize about moving our furniture back into the place, we discover that my parents' cats have given us fleas. What a HUGE bummer!!!! We're not sure, at this point, if they came directly from the kittens (who are as cute as hell and come over to visit us regularly) or from the piles of laundry that we would do at my folks' place and leave around for days sometimes before bringing it back over. What matters is, we've got them, and now we have to get rid of them. We're having the place sprayed by the pros and then taking off for 10 days for our annual trip to Ilseboro, Maine. Then, and only then, will we begin to consider moving our stuff back into the place. Better to get rid of the vermin before they get all comfortable in our sheets and towels, right? Please pray for the demise of these creatures. And for my ankles, which have been all bitten up as a result of the critters. Not to mention my poor sister, who counted 80 bites between her two feet last week.

As things slowly begin to pull themselves together, we took a little break from making lists for our contractor (and ourselves) and pulled out the bag of various items we've bought over the past year with the house in mind.

Look at what treasures we've collected! Some of this stuff won't actually be useful in the house (the problem with buying before you actually know what you need...) but that little round mirror, for example, will look amazing over the downstairs bathroom sink. And I'm all about as many hooks as you can get your hands on for towels. The lamp needs special bulbs (of course) that promise to be a pain in the neck to find, but what else is new? It's nice just to begin to fantasize about putting these types of finishing touches in the place.

The ceramic soap dish is perfect for the guest bathroom, the glass knob might be cool on the glass shower door (if we can make that work-- any suggestions out there?) The nickel plated knobs will work fabulously in the kitchen, matching the finish of the dishwasher quite nicely, if you ask me...

and we'll find a perfect wall on which to mount the Kleenex box, I swear...

Now mind you, this room is far from completed, but it is now essentially functional (aside from a small problem with the toilet that I am not going to go into right now, because I can't deal with it.) Here's a photo of our refurbished claw foot tub (yep, the very one that I have been carrying with me through 3 residences over the past 15 years-- hopefully this is it's final resting place!)

Words cannot express how amazing it felt to take my first shower here. Fixtures are by Sign of the Crab (who also provided us with the great sink faucets.) Then, on the opposing wall, the sink and toilet:

The toilet is none other than the fabulous Guinevere model (we waited over two months to get it as it was massively back ordered) by Toto. It's not quite fully installed, so the jury is out as far as it's functionality, but I'll keep you all posted, don't worry.

For now, let us concentrate upon the happiness that I feel when I walk into a room that, while still unpainted and unaccessorized, at least is functional. This happiness is huge. HUGE.

So we spent the past weekend in Marfa, Texas, because God forbid Domino profile a city (or a tiny town, as the case may be) and I not check it out for myself. OK actually, some great friends of ours got married down there, so we flew to Houston (90 minutes weather delay) and then to El Paso (another 2 1/2 hours delay) spent the night at the glorious El Camino Real hotel and then drove 3 hours to Marfa for the wedding. It is not an easy place to get to, but it was great, despite the absolute strangeness of Texas (Speaking of which-- check out the photo above... can anybody tell me what the hell that thing is?)

Anyway, we stayed at this cute hotel called the Thunderbird, whose design was spearheaded by the same genius woman who did the San Jose in Austin. Here are two things I loved about the place. First, the spare but super cool writing area:

And then, incredibly, they actually have old turntables you can rent for $10 a night and records that you can borrow for free:

Being a die hard vinyl fan, I couldn't have been happier.

Now, design-wise, we went on a tour of the Chinati Foundation, where Donald Judd and several other artists of his ilk have permanent installations. The art was amazing, but I also loved the fixtures... especially the window latches:

and the door handles:

Neither of which will work in our house, but both of which I thought were worth showing to you guys. We'll get back to the house (lots is happening!) in the next post, I promise.

I'm sitting here at my husband's office waiting for him to finish up so that we can go to dinner (yep, it's 10 pm... such is our life in NYC...) and I thought I'd bring you all up to date on a few non renovation-type things that have been going on with us lately.

First of all, when I'm not blogging for Domino, I take photographs. Have for years. And I have a piece in a show right now at the Studio Museum in Harlem of which I am extremely proud. For about 4 years now, they have been commissioning  various artists to come up to Harlem and make some kind of image about the neighborhood. They then show the pieces, plus they make postcards, so that everyone can take one home with them when they visit the museum-- hence the show's name: Harlem Postcards. For mine, I chose to photograph (with my old Polaroid camera) the hands of the various people I encountered on a single day. Not only is the result hanging in the museum through the end of October, but the New York Press chose it for a recent cover image. Here's what it looked like on the stands:

Pretty cool, huh?

And now this week, if any of you are in the New York area (or even if not), pick up a copy of New York Magazine and check out the illustration that Helicopter (my husband's design studio) contributed to the listings page. As the doting wife, I can't help but tell people about it, especially as he is horrible at letting the world know when he's done something interesting. Here's a photo of the page, so you can see for yourselves:

Next time, it's back to renovation issues, I promise. But a person's gotta take a little breather every once in a while, right?

I've been concentrating so much on the physical impact of this renovation... I thought I'd take a little time out and address the human toll that it has taken. Above please find photos of the tired, but miraculously still speaking to each other couple that so innocently began this massive project 10 months ago. I am now 6 months pregnant, which makes all of this work a bit more challenging, both physically and mentally (thanks hormones!) Pretty much all we talk about is paint colors, basement leaks, various finishes for the counter tops... we've barely had time to address the impending addition to our family. We make lists constantly, only to lose the tiny scraps they were written on. Our backs hurt from spending the past month's worth of weekends sleeping on an air mattress. We wonder if we'd ever have started this whole thing had we only known what we were in for. We consider sinking what little money we have left into lottery tickets, so that maybe we could get someone else to do the finish work...

A few myths that have been shattered lie below:

MYTH: Job finished by late April/early May 2007
REALITY: mid-August and still waiting

MYTH: It's all the contractor's fault.
REALITY: It's a complex mix of slower (but better) than expected work, property theft, and us, the perfectionist-yet-disorganized clients, deciding (for example) that we need to have the one toilet that will take 2 months to arrive. In truth, I'd blame most of the delays on us.

MYTH: We will finish the project within our budget.
REALITY: We've gone way over what we initially planned for (which even our contractor said was too low given what we wanted to do) with even more to go.

MYTH: Fun sun filled summer in the Hamptons full of BBQs and trips to the ocean.
REALITY: One hour total of beach time in two and a half months of glorious weather.

MYTH: Oh we'll just lift the house and dig a basement... it's simple-- we do it all the time.
REALITY: 10 months, and massive property regrading later, we may only just now have finished dealing with our major basement issues.

MYTH: The counter tops are finished!
REALITY: The opening for the stove has to be re cut because it isn't straight, the knobs for the drawers need to be selected (by us) and purchased, the finish we're most likely using is only selectively available and must be delivered via ground (aka takes forever) The counter guy is on vacation in France...

MYTH: Just call Keyspan to come and give you a gas meter. It's easy!
REALITY: A week's worth of back and forth phone calls where you can never actually speak with a human being, only to be lectured when they finally show up about various regulations that no one bothered to inform us of in the first place. Threats to remove the brand new meter ensue, followed by desperate entreaties (showcasing pregnancy for full sympathy factor)  leading  to the eventual installation with warning. Like I'm still in grammar school.

And the list could go on and on. Lets just say this: Renovation is hard. What I'm desperately hoping is that it will be worth it.

I have spent the better part of the past week (or at least of my free time this week) checking out different wood finishing techniques. Our floors were done by a seasoned pro, but we're going to be doing the rest ourselves, including some challenging wormy chestnut kitchen counter tops as well as our dining room table, which is made from the same material as the floors.

Here's a photo of the table top (unfinished) on top of the finished floor:

One of the options we've been considering for the kitchen counters is the same finish as is on the floor: Tung Oil. Many things are wonderful about this stuff. It comes from the nuts of the Tung tree, which grows in China and South America and is all natural, though it's often thinned with mineral spirits that stink to high heaven, but evaporate completely when cured. Also, because it is an oil, it sinks into the actual wood, treating more than just the surface (as opposed to what a polyurethane or varnish would do.) You do have to reapply the oil annually, but the great thing is that rather than having to re-sand the entire surface, you need only brush a thin layer on top of what you already have. Spot repairs are also easy, allowing you to simply refinish the areas that get the most wear.

But the guy who supplied the chestnut for the counters (as well as the floors) suggests Linseed Oil. Any my parents have a beautiful old wood dining table that's finished with polyurethane and looks great.  Hmmmmmm.....

I was going to write an entry about how horribly tired and frustrated I have been getting with this renovation (that started last September, mind you, and shows no signs of being done any time soon) but I have chosen instead to think positively and discuss the lovely new red screened porch we have now.

Here's a photo:

My husband Josh painted it while I was away on a shoot... he used our absolute favorite red paint in the world: Tulip Red by Fine Paints of Europe. This is not an eco paint, by any means, but it is beautiful and extremely durable. Something about the term "marine quality" drew me to it in the first place. We'll be using all low or no VOC paints and finishes on the interior, so I'm hoping we won't go to hell for choosing this stuff for the outside. This company does make some eco paints, which we will be using on a few walls and maybe even the stairway... we'll see. They also can match any color in the Pantone book, which means that one's choices are as close to limitless as you can get.

Now we just have to find a light fixture to hang out here, powder coat (or spray paint) the furniture and paint the trim for a lovely finished screened porch. I feel like we're soooo close... and yet so far...