I know it’s been awhile. Since I’ve been gone :
Pictures of all of the above starting tomorrow….
Yesterday was the first time I have been to the construction site when it was deserted. Even when we had two feet of snow, there still have been lots of activity. The restaurant beneath had a customer or two, and the Subway was closed. All of the construction workers, to the surprise of my client, took Easter off.
I enlisted the help of my husband and two daughters. I filled a composition notebook with drawings and measurements, and barked orders. “Hold the tape higher. You’re not measuring all the way to the corner. Stand on your toes. STOP TEXTING AND GET OVER HERE…” Yea, I have teens.
It was a perfect day of 75 degrees and fresh spring sunshine. We stood on the rooftop for a while, ate a wonderful Indian buffet, and drove the few more miles into DC. The girls wanted to see the MTV Real World House, then we sat bumper to bumper along the National Mall looking at the cherry blossoms about three days past peak.
Remember that whole—this is it! this is the final layout! –from yesterday? As it turns out, my exterior plan posted last night, that was meant to be a vision into the future, is not.
Who knew black EFIS is not rated for this climate? It absorbs too much heat and causes the foam to melt. Drat it all. I was quick to tell the contractor to look at the Pottery Barn across the street. Look! Black trim! And he replied they used real stucco. Ok, so I want real stucco then! At five times the price…Sadly, the answer was no.
One of the qualities necessary for the success of a decorator is the ability to move on to Plan B. The areas where I had used black I am now using brown. Where there was brown, now there is white. The diamonds will remain brown. I think it will turn out well, even if it is not my first choice.
One of the qualities necessary to being a Producer is a thick skin. I am getting a lot of push back from an email I had to send today that was …let’s just say I had to be a bit demanding.
We are charging the actors $175 to be in the production. And every actor is responsible for selling $100 in ad sales. We told the parents at the first meeting that many people choose to just pay it themselves and place a congratulatory ad for their child. But we encouraged them to try to sell to others, as is standard. Even with the expected $275 per actor, we must cover many costs with our own money. It is upsetting to me that as we approach the deadline, I am hearing a few say they tried, didn’t get results and are refusing to pay the $100. My older daughter is a cheerleader. On her squad each girl is responsible for $300 in ad sales on top of the $600 for equipment. In comparison, we are cheap! And if the cheerleaders don’t make their goal, they are sidelined until they do. Should I not allow the actors to perform who don’t pay? I can’t imagine doing that…
Of course the complaining comes from the same parents who have done NONE of their volunteer responsibilities…
It’s been another 16 hour day. I started this morning with an 8 am meeting with the owners of my restaurant project. With the EFIS exterior contractor on the phone, we made final selections on colors and textures. And we reworked the designs we have been discussing for months. For the final time…because the scaffolding went up today and the drawings will be reality in a mere week.
Here is my drawing of the longest, unobstructed side. Even though I really want to relax and go to bed, I’m posting it because I’m actually pretty excited that I will be able to compare it to a photo of the real thing in a few short days.
Schools are out this week for Spring Break. And typical for the last week of March, it is dark, gloomy and pouring rain. My children are home but asleep right now so I am experiencing that calm and quiet when most sounds are muffled by the clatter of the water running through the gutters.
The week will be ridiculously busy. We have rehearsal every afternoon. I need to visit the construction site to view EFIS color swatches and to take some measurements so I will need to do that early in the day, but after the DC morning rush.
I’m going to try schedule some time to run over to get photos from two ongoing projects to post, since I will have little time to write.
Every other Wednesday for the past year, I meet with a group of business women whose purpose is to hold me accountable to my goals and standards and actions. Are you happy I am blogging frequently? Commend my group for that. They have been the support I need as I try to juggle producing a show with this big restaurant job. Our Wednesdays at Panera keep me focused. It’s really the best therapy because we bemoan our problems and stresses, and the group insists we DO something about them, There are gentle chastises when we confess to not doing what we should, yet we hold each other hands. Sometimes we cry, but we always leave laughing. We have all shared pain, and have all shared success. I am very grateful to have them right now in my life.
So back to decorating…I spend the rest of the afternoon searching for wallpaper for the second floor mezzanine. I found a binder from Versa full of perfect contenders. The shop called the rep, who apologized for NOT HAVING REMOVED THE BOOKS. Yep— discontinued. Grrrrr. The rep promised to bring in new books Friday, and would find help me find something equivalent.
I’m not feeling very hopeful.
The threat of bodily harm was everywhere. Booby traps lie at my feet, missiles hurdled across the ceiling, flails dangled just above my head. I tiptoed between hundreds of domino lines of tenuously balanced boulders.
I was a natural born klutz in a warehouse stocked with hundreds and hundreds of 7 foot slabs of granite.
My client is having her Kitchen counters redone and I accompanied her to Marble Systems Showroom to choose her slab. We had one of her cabinet doors, and I had selected the paint colors in most of her house, so it was easy work.
…outside of how ridiculously dangerous the place was. It was soon very clear why we were not able to enter the warehouse without signing a waiver. Long metal bars projected out at very different lengths from each stack of stones, so navigating the aisles was difficult. To make it worse, the paint on the metal had worn away, leaving them camouflaged against the concrete floor. In spite of the recession, the warehouse was bustling with activity. Workers moved stones on hydraulic cranes all around us. Big black boxes hung from the ceiling right at our heads. One of the slabs we considered was only feet from a huge pit that had been dug right in the center of the space, with little railing around it. In the middle of the pit, workers loaded a truck with slabs.
Beyond fearing for my life, I loved it there. Each huge slab was a work of art fashioned with nature’s fancy. I especially admired the pieces with Labradorite. For Cinde, we chose Shivakashi Gold with a 2 inch Copper Slate tile backsplash. It’s going to be perfect and definitely worth the jeopardy.
The wonderful thing about living outside a city like DC is the vast amounts of historical documentation. My client and I spent hours in the Virginia Room of the Arlington Public Library. We were so engrossed in pouring over the many books, albums and catalogues of archival photos that two hours flew by.
We are planning to use photos of the restaurant location through its history for wall art. The Arlington Courthouse, just across the street, has had three incarnations and lots of photos exist of it. The oldest photo of the area very near the restaurant is of a horse and carriage from 1911. Everything within view is farmland.
The librarian was very kind and helpful. We made a list of photos we want pulled to view for possible use and have an appointment next week with the archivist to discuss scanning them.
