Material men

Old copper and dried hydrangea

Seeing all the different materials around the house, in their strange settings, or shall I say unfamiliar to me and yet intriguing, made me wander around to take some pictures. I love salvaged materials, or the ones used for building, like wood or copper. It's like jewelry for the house, decorative and useful at the same time. Poetic and dramatic.

And this is what I found:

Old half round dental molding from over the front door

 

The tree reflected

Roofer's toolbox

The roof is taking shape and the porticos are almost done, it looks certainly beautiful, even in this unfinished stage.

My trusted contractor and his crew on the roof are
doing their work above and beyond my expectations! 
Thank you, guys!

All images V.Zlotkowski,  copyright 2013

Snowy morning

Detail of an old piece of dental molding, found under the half round detail, covered with siding, over the front door.

Not quite unexpectedly we were woken rather early this morning by another call from school: There will be a delay, due to inclement weather... and while my kids turned around and dreamed another sweet dream of dodging yet another test... I was thinking of our half stripped roof and the delay it would create there. But I love the pristine white and my husband took a few great shots before the workers came and removed the snow to work on the details inside the garage and moldings. It is cold, but the men are used to the outdoor work. I supply them with hot tea and they are unfazed by any obstacle.

8 AM

You can see a little of the newly created molding, details, which I designed with my trusted contractor.

Unfinished detail inside the portico, there will be a small lantern hanging in the center.

Today will be no roof work, obviously, but I was told they might continue tomorrow. So I am looking forward to more emerging details on the house front. A happy day!

Wishing you all the same!

xoxo

All images by V. Zlotkowski and lightingdirect.com

The new year

The new year has started without much fanfare, we spend New Year's eve quietly at home. We all miss our oldest, who had been with us for the holidays. Has it been almost a month since his arrival was looked forward to it, with so much excitement? I can hardly believe it.

Now he is back with his brother in Berlin and I wish the city would be nearer....
But there is so much to plan ahead, we are already thinking of the summer months! And being closely connected always helps us bridge the far distance.
Until then we also have a few new projects at hand.

Do you remember the remodeling of our drive way and front entrance? We had created a new walk way and added the small columns with the lamps atop. But the roof had to wait then. That was two years ago and now, due largely to hurricane Sandy, we are again building in the front.
A large town tree has had hit our garage and broke through the support beam and also damaged the wall along the side of the house, back to were the addition to the house (our family room) lies.

We needed immediate action and work had started already before Christmas. Of course this was the perfect time to get a new roof and while we were at it, we thought to finally fulfill a long hoped for wish. We are adding a portico over our entrance. As you can see, the old one, below, does nothing in respect of protection from the elements and architectural does not fit in with the portico over the garages, which had been added in the 50's by previous owners.

Something I had planned for a long time, but as you can imagine, it was never a priority. Now we took our chance a made our move...

My idea went along these lines....just instead of the balcony roof below, we will add a portico with two square columns and a lantern.

It is still a work in progress, an old house is always good for some surprises and so our bill has gotten longer as the work weeks pass. Now the portico takes shape...

A rotten beam, nicely hidden under layers of paint, a completely clogged up drainage pipe from the gutters to the ground, too old wiring for future light fixtures, you name it, we find it.

This is the original roof line, just fixed already...new beam!

But as with all renovations, we had something like that in mind when we started a few weeks ago. These are not truly surprises.
Our contractor is a man of integrity and craftsmanship, something we highly appreciate and value and together we will manage just fine! 

As I write this a huge dumpster has been delivered to the drive, to receive all the junk and the old roof, which will come down tomorrow.

This is all so exciting!

I have been ill with the flu over the last days, today is the first day I feel somewhat better and it has been now, that I feel compelled to write in my blog, for the first time this year!
I have been reading on and off your lovely posts and I am so happy to be back in business!
I hope you are all off to a great start, I cannot wait to catch up with all of my blog friends!


xoxo





All images by V.Zlotkowski

Merry Christmas

This year is coming to an end and with Christmas approaching I will not post more in the coming days. Our oldest son is here for a long overdue visit and we all enjoy his presence so much.

We have again much to be grateful for:  Health, peace and prosperity have been with us this past year. We do not take it for granted.
May you all enjoy relaxing days ahead, make plans for 2013 and may your dreams and hopes come true. May life be good!

Wishing you all the best!
Merry Christmas and a happy NewYear!

Victoria






All images by V.Zlotkowski

The Victorians

Some weeks ago we received an unexpected hand -me - down from friends. They had cleaned out their attic and were ready to ship some old, decrepit furniture pieces off to the Salvation Army. But for whatever reason they ask us first if we had any use to fill our house with some more furniture... My husband actually wanted to decline but then asked me if I perhaps should have a look?

You must know, this is always dangerous, for I am known to rescue old abandoned pieces from curb sites, and dig through dumpsters for treasures without a moment's hesitation!  I went over and was confronted with two small, sad looking curio cabinets, literally falling apart, one missing a door in the hinges, tops loose and lining ripped. But I also saw some potential...

What was I to do? I liked them regardless of their situation and in my mind I played out a couple of scenarios.

I'll take them, I told our friends and they were happy when I drove off with them. Problem solved. As I discharged them at home, I was pondering what in the right mind possessed me to get them and what I was going to do with them. They were in no state to be brought into the house and needed serious repair. Which would be expensive, something we could barely afford these days, with a huge bill ahead of us, due to Sandy....
Although I had a fairly good idea where they came from I googled them up. They were indeed about 140 years old English made curio cabinets, for china display or various collections! Not book shelves. Their velvet lining is perfect in its faded beauty to hold on to slippery china.

There they sat, a reminder of my foolishness. Every time I entered the garage they stood there, looking mournfully, silently pleading with me...
I finally spoke to my husband. After all, he put me on their track, he must have known what he unleashed when he asked me to look at them. We decided to have a craftsman looking them over and see what's needed and if there was any hope.
Eric Clingen of Tarrytown Woodworks is a man after my own restoration heart. He is a non-invasive, gentle restorer, trying to leave pieces as original as possible. No need for extensive repairs, he told me. Great, I thrilled inside!
I have worked with him many times before for clients or our own needs. We will glue them back together, clean the fine wood and metal trimmings, we'll leave everything else alone. They will be beautiful! Do you know, the glass in the doors is the most valuable of the pieces? Hand blown... I was happy!
We finally came to a good deal, the price was right and we drove them over to his workshop! 
Yesterday I got them home and after a few trials and errors regarding their placement I found their perfect spot!

I pulled out the few valuable pieces of china I own, things I have had inherited and some I have collected over the years, some Astier de Vilatte and some Meissen.... Some knick knacks and some small pieces I love to see displayed.....

Even the toaster fits right there, close at hand at the dining table....

A few details have to be taken care of, I do not like dangling extension cords for example....
The small painted sideboard moved around and holds now, like many years before, the coffee maker and an additional lamp.

The old chest of drawers, in which I kept my table linens for a few years will have to find a new home, there is no way that I clutter this beautiful dining room with that unfitting piece. I am eclectic, but not messy!

After we marveled at the beauty of these Victorian cabinets for a good while I had the strangest thoughts. You must know, that I come from a family on my mother's side, where wonderful old furniture have been always appreciated, even after the war, when money was short. My parents bought themselves at their wedding an original chippendale dining set, something people were shaking their heads about it at the time, being the sixties and everybody trying to be modern. We love the regal curves of the large buffet, which, until today, holds everything of the china my mother treasures. Christmas displays are highlighted at that piece every year, as far back as I can remember. Do I digress?
Maybe, but hang on! Back to what I was thinking. Now there runs a connecting string in the family, something which also unites me with my grandmother and great grandmother. 
As I finished the set up, I realized, how traditional these pieces looked, something I could perhaps not have embraced a few years ago, when I was younger and wanted to be more contemporary and eclectic. Which still I am I believe. Perhaps this is the first moment of wandering off into the older generation, I thought, laughing to myself.... All I'll need some day (soon?) are admiring grandchildren, which will stand in front of these cabinets, asking about this piece or that, just as I did when I was young and begged my grandmother to share the stories of the pieces behind her glass cabinets, which came directly from the Victorian era, being the time in which she had grown up!
Have I come full circle? If yes, I am happy!
I feel I do not own them, but rather take care of them for a few decades until I'll pass them on, then even older and more beautiful, for they will then have belonged to our family and will have collected memories and carry something which is more then wooden walls and a glass door. By then they'll contain some more stories as well.

I wish I could find out where they have been earlier in their existence and how the ended up on this side of the pond....Who owned them before our friends got them in an antique shop many years back. Who ever had these cabinets, must have loved them too and their spirit is carried on....and well kept with us!

A happy weekend to you all!

xoxo

All images by V.Zlotkowski

Saint Nick

It has finally happened: This year I forgot, well, almost! Now I must have become truly American for I can't wait for Thanksgiving and July 4th is something I look forward to. 
But today is St. Nikolaus, the day when in Germany and other European countries the  good children get sweets in their boots and the not so good a symbolic branch with a few pieces of coals hanging from it. Which has not ever happened when I was young.... not that I was always such a good little girl! 

Last year....

So a few days ago I found these lovely St.Nicks in my local grocery shop and I was happy to get them for today. This morning I did not set up boots, something I would have done normally on the evening before, filling one boot for each family member with some chocolate, an orange or apple and some evergreen twigs and deposited them in front of each bedroom door....
Today it did not happen and nothing seemed amiss this morning.
Until we began talking at breakfast of the coming Christmas break, the onset of Hanukkah early this year, when it suddenly hit me! What's the day today, I exclaimed.... The sixth came the replay, OH, I FORGOT!
Hold on everybody, before you rush out of the door, here, some little reminder of St. Nikolaus, although you kids quarrel a lot and should perhaps get some empty branches....
And I handed everybody rather unceremoniously the enchanting chocolate Nikolaus, a glorious specie... large and wrapped in shiny foil!

How could I have forgotten??? My husband reminded me gently that in Poland children get almost more gifts on this day then at Christmas for in Poland Christmas is still more a day celebrated with family in church and with plenty of good food! Thanks honey, sorry, we are not in Kansas anymore....So to speak!
Well, we are almost Americans now after all......and the kids are anyway.....Which is wonderful! It must be normal...
So I forgave myself and beheaded the chocolate Nikolaus with a hearty bite!

Happy Saint Nick's!

xoxo

All images by V.Zlotkowski