Stacey Ballis's Blog, page 2
May 8, 2017
A Tale of Two Closets
Hello Chickens!
It's time to start filling you in on the third-floor master suite, and for this one, we are going to go room by room. In part because a lot of the spaces are still shy of completed!
Today I'm going to talk about our closets. Because anyone who has lived in an old building knows, closet space is at a serious premium. When the buildings were built, everyone used armoires and other storage furniture, and while owners over the years have added some closets, they are small and minimally useful at best.
When our bedroom was on the first floor, I had all my stuff crammed into the closet in that room, you know the kind of space, bifold doors, one long rod across, one long shelf above. The space under the hanging clothes filled with an amalgam of bins and shelves, trying desperately to make everything fit, and stay organized, to little avail. My poor Charming Suitor was relegated to the even smaller closet in the guest room across the hall, making due with that and his antique highboy dresser. When we moved from the first-floor bedroom into the basement eighteen months ago, we temporarily converted our former bedroom into a shared dressing room, somewhat better, but still makeshift and frustrating, impossible to keep really organized, dark and dreary, and a constant source of disappointment and annoyance.
So when we designed the third-floor suite, we knew we would each get a proper dressing room. Since my CS is seriously amazing, he let me have the larger of the two available spaces, recognizing that the volume of shoes alone wouldn't fit in the smaller room. He gets major gold star hubby points for sure on this one, since my dressing room is probably about 30% bigger, and his has a corner cut off on the diagonal for the window, which adds to the complexity of space planning. And since he is a dapper gent, with no shortage of his own clothes and shoes to store, and he is the one who gets up every day to get really dressed for work, so he could easily and validly have argued for the bigger space himself. Especially since I spend 55% of my days in stretchy pants and long-sleeved t-shirts, one step up from pajamas, to commute one floor down to sit and make stuff up all day. But as ever, he spoils me, and while he will point out to everyone that his space is smaller, he really is thrilled that I get to have my girly sanctuary.
Originally we had visions of built-in closets like you see in all of the magazines. Mine would be spunky and bright, like a luxury department store, with all the bells and whistles, fabulous matching display shelves for my darling shoes, purse storage, an island for accessory wrangling, a window seat bench with tall boot storage beneath. CS dreamed of manly wood, with sliding pants organizers, and those awesome little pull-out rods for organizing clothes before a business trip. We'd both make use of the ceiling height to fully maximize storage.
And then we met with the closet people.
This is where things went a bit sideways. Two of the four companies we met with never got back to me with bids. Not even after two follow up emails and a phone message each to remind them that we were waiting on their ideas and pricing. The other two companies came back fairly quickly with designs. And an estimated cost so incredibly high that we thought perhaps they had misplaced the decimal point. Knowing that we were on a very tight budget, the suggested designs were as basic as they come, none of the fancies, none of the special, in both cases just a combination of hanging rods, open shelving, and some shoe storage. And even pared down like that? You could buy a brand new Honda Civic with all the bells and whistles for what they wanted to build out these two spaces with laminated particle board. Not even real wood!
We took a breath. Because in this house? While we obviously aren't above spending money (ahem, elevator), we have made every decision based on ultimate value. Every line item has to pass the orange test, i.e. Is the juice worth the squeeze? We have passed on finishes and fixtures that would have been gorgeous, but just too expensive to justify. (someday, silver-leafed accent wall, you might be mine...) We have invested heavily in infrastructure, in engineering, in creating a house that will function and grow with us for the rest of our lives. But built-out custom closets at the cost of a family sedan? Not so much.
Now we are furniture people, and had been making due with an amalgam of pieces up until now, so we took stock of all of the storage items we already owned. The items that could be repurposed or reimagined. I went back to my theater roots and bought a pair of used industrial Z-racks, the rolling two-tier hanging racks that theaters use to organize costumes, from our wonderful upholsterer Beth Laske-Miller who was reimagining her work studio. Are they gorgeous? Nope. Are they über functional? You betcha.
The big move upstairs was this past weekend. The space is 95% finished, done enough that we can live up there while the punch list is finished up. A big part of the past couple of days involved putting together our dressing rooms. Do they look like a magazine? Nope. Do they look like a luxury department store? Not in the least. But they do look like those small charming independent boutiques you find in adorable neighborhoods, the ones where a sassy proprietress will dig through a rack and find you something unique and fabulous.
They aren't as maximized in terms of storage as they would have been, the height of the rooms aren't quite utilized to their fullest, but most of our respective stuff is in them and it is a massive improvement. And there is something ultimately charming about them both. They look like us, instead of looking like everyone. And if that means that we still have to swap out tubs of clothes and shoes seasonally, so be it. I do think someday we will revisit the idea of building-out CS's dressing room, since he is bearing the brunt of the inconvenience, and ultimately, getting him better organization, and especially taking advantage of the ceiling height will make a huge difference for him. But I don't know that I will ever do mine. I'm sort of in love with the cobbled-together feel of it, and while I might swap out a piece here or there, I think I might just stick with the unique!
So, let's start with CS's room...
We painted it a very masculine deep brown called Otter from Sherwin-Williams, I know some people think dark colors in small spaces make the walls feel like they are closing in, but I disagree. I think it makes them cozy, and with white on the ceiling and white on the trim, it is very elegant. CS got one of the two Z-racks and it literally holds everything he has on a hanger on one unit! Sports coats and suits on the bottom, shirts, pants and vests up top. The little antique settee is wood and black leather and terribly mens-club.
the view from the door
Antique high boy CS has had this English Arts and Crafts piece forever, and it is just gorgeous. We found the brass freestanding valet at a flea market and repurposed one of the Elfa wire bin units from the former downstairs closet to help wrangle some bits and pieces, at least for now. Not super attractive, and I think as soon as we come across some sort of taller open shelving piece we can swap out for it, we will, but for the moment, it serves.
Dresser We used to have this dresser in our bedroom in the basement, but there was a second drawer unit in that room, and since it is now a guest room, we figured one storage piece would do just fine down there, so we stole this one for CS's dressing room. It was originally a gift from dear friends who were downsizing, belonging to their grandparents, so it makes me happy that it continues to have a functional life daily!
Shoes! CS might not have quite as many shoes as I do, but he does love a well-crafted piece of footwear. We use to have this arts and crafts glass-front bookcase in the butler's pantry holding glassware, but we weren't using it for that anymore, and at least for now, it makes a pretty decent shoe cabinet. We added more shelves (just had laminate shelves cut to size at Home Depot) to maximize the space.
The finished room!A lovely old rug keeps the room feeling warm and personal, and lucky for us, this one was living downstairs in CS's former office! All in all, I think it is a space that reflects his unique elegance, and I know that despite the few remaining flaws, it is still a massive improvement for him!
And now, for my space...
Never one to be shy, I wanted a bold color in here, and Dynamo from Sherwin-Williams was a hit. The deep magenta color pops against the white ceiling and trim and just makes me happy. The rug is a very old one, and I adore the patina and the way the colors play off each other.
The view from the door I had found this amazing 1920s Art Nouveau chandelier at a really great vintage store in our neighborhood. If you are in Chicago, check out the goods at the West of Western district on North Avenue, stores like An Orange Moon is awesome for mid-century stuff, I found the circular stool pictured above there, and North Avenue Collective across the street has proven to be a dangerous place to visit. I bought the chandelier first, but everytime we go, we find a new treasure!
Girly!Then it was time to think seating.
Have a seat! I always wanted some seating in the window, and this little settee used to be in our former kitchen. The small scale is perfect and made a bit cozier with some fun stripy pillows and an old knitted family afghan.
So. Many. Sweaters. This shelving unit was another gift from our dear downsizing friends, and I just love how fancy it is! And yes, that is a set of library stairs because I am a short person and if I tried to reach one of the sweaters on the top shelf from the floor, they would all tumble down on my head. Hypothetically.
Thank god for the Z rack! I still get some street cred with my theater peeps.This is my Z rack and just like CS's, it holds all of my hanging garb. The only thing that is a bit annoying is that my long dresses don't clear the bottom rod freely, but luckily I only need half of the bottom rod for pants, so at least they can hang in front, and still don't get wrinkled.
Shoes! Just like CS, I repurposed the other former butler's pantry storage piece, which used to contain china and serving pieces, and added some more shelving to house the most fabulous of my shoes.
More shoes!This little metal shelving unit used to be inside my closet downstairs, and while it isn't the prettiest, it does work really well for overflow shoe wrangling in a small space. If I ever come across a vintage wood bookshelf I might swap it out, just to keep the overall theme.
Armoire This armoire is very similar to what would likely have been used instead of closets when the house was built, and was downstairs in the former closet room. I am madly in love with the paw feet. I have to leave it a bit open since the key is long since lost, and it is a huge pain to open if you closet the doors tight, but someday I will find a key that fits! I'm using the top for purse wrangling.
Open sesame! I love this thing. It is like a swiss army knife. Drawers have dividers inside, that little flat thing at the top with the knob is actually a pull-out mirror, and there is even a secret compartment. the hanging rod on the right side holds a ton too!
PursesLucky for me, while I love a good bag, I hate being overly encumbered, so the majority of my purses are clutch size, which meant almost all of them fit neatly into this large tray that I used to use for clearing up after parties.
Time to accessorize!We had this antique cabinet in storage. It is from the late 1800s and was originally a dentist's office cabinet! That means oodles of shallow drawers perfect for organizing jewelry, and the four larger spaces at the bottom for scarves and such. I got everything in it, but it may take me the rest of my natural life before I don't have to open ten drawers before finding the one pair of earrings I'm looking for!
I know, the shoe thing is a problem. This over the door shoe wrangler may not be the most attractive, but it keeps all the athletic shoes and flats hidden away, since they don't quite call out for display the way the others do.
Hello, hamper! So a few weeks ago CS and I were at a flea market, and I spotted this clothes hamper. This 1970s fever dream of a swirly back-painted tambour mirror hamper, in lovely shades of ochre and avocado. I pulled him over to see a little piece of vintage home decor that looks like my early childhood threw up. I really was taking him to see it so that I could make fun of its awfulness and we could have a good chuckle. Except by the time we got there, I noticed something. It is in perfect condition. Really well made, on a steel frame, so solid as a rock. Not a scratch or a chip or a crack anywhere, and that is a 40+-year-old piece made of actual glass mirror! CS was still appalled, despite my insistence that perhaps it was so ghastly that it was actually fabulous. I would have let it go, had it not been for this...
Matching wastebasket. Yeah, this too, in absolutely perfect shape. I still might have been convinced to leave them behind, when I noticed....
Boom. Matching Kleenex holder.THE KLEENEX HOLDER. I mean, COME ON. You get it, right? I totally had to have them. The lady selling them informed me that they were originally from the home of the people who owned the Finkl steel plant of blessed memory. So not only do we have a complete set of perfect condition 1970s era accoutrements, they also have wonderful Chicago history! I haggled down to $45 for the set, and CS agreed that I could bring them home as long as I put them somewhere he would never have to look at them. So into my dressing room they went. They are still kind of horrible, but for some reason I just love them, they make me smile. Plus they look sort of insane against the deep magenta of the walls, in a good way.
So there you have it! Necessity being the mother of invention and all that, I'm awfully pleased with how they turned out!
Coming up soon-ish, more rooms from upstairs and an elevator update!
Yours in Good Taste, (except for the hamper set)The Polymath
It's time to start filling you in on the third-floor master suite, and for this one, we are going to go room by room. In part because a lot of the spaces are still shy of completed!
Today I'm going to talk about our closets. Because anyone who has lived in an old building knows, closet space is at a serious premium. When the buildings were built, everyone used armoires and other storage furniture, and while owners over the years have added some closets, they are small and minimally useful at best.
When our bedroom was on the first floor, I had all my stuff crammed into the closet in that room, you know the kind of space, bifold doors, one long rod across, one long shelf above. The space under the hanging clothes filled with an amalgam of bins and shelves, trying desperately to make everything fit, and stay organized, to little avail. My poor Charming Suitor was relegated to the even smaller closet in the guest room across the hall, making due with that and his antique highboy dresser. When we moved from the first-floor bedroom into the basement eighteen months ago, we temporarily converted our former bedroom into a shared dressing room, somewhat better, but still makeshift and frustrating, impossible to keep really organized, dark and dreary, and a constant source of disappointment and annoyance.
So when we designed the third-floor suite, we knew we would each get a proper dressing room. Since my CS is seriously amazing, he let me have the larger of the two available spaces, recognizing that the volume of shoes alone wouldn't fit in the smaller room. He gets major gold star hubby points for sure on this one, since my dressing room is probably about 30% bigger, and his has a corner cut off on the diagonal for the window, which adds to the complexity of space planning. And since he is a dapper gent, with no shortage of his own clothes and shoes to store, and he is the one who gets up every day to get really dressed for work, so he could easily and validly have argued for the bigger space himself. Especially since I spend 55% of my days in stretchy pants and long-sleeved t-shirts, one step up from pajamas, to commute one floor down to sit and make stuff up all day. But as ever, he spoils me, and while he will point out to everyone that his space is smaller, he really is thrilled that I get to have my girly sanctuary.
Originally we had visions of built-in closets like you see in all of the magazines. Mine would be spunky and bright, like a luxury department store, with all the bells and whistles, fabulous matching display shelves for my darling shoes, purse storage, an island for accessory wrangling, a window seat bench with tall boot storage beneath. CS dreamed of manly wood, with sliding pants organizers, and those awesome little pull-out rods for organizing clothes before a business trip. We'd both make use of the ceiling height to fully maximize storage.
And then we met with the closet people.
This is where things went a bit sideways. Two of the four companies we met with never got back to me with bids. Not even after two follow up emails and a phone message each to remind them that we were waiting on their ideas and pricing. The other two companies came back fairly quickly with designs. And an estimated cost so incredibly high that we thought perhaps they had misplaced the decimal point. Knowing that we were on a very tight budget, the suggested designs were as basic as they come, none of the fancies, none of the special, in both cases just a combination of hanging rods, open shelving, and some shoe storage. And even pared down like that? You could buy a brand new Honda Civic with all the bells and whistles for what they wanted to build out these two spaces with laminated particle board. Not even real wood!
We took a breath. Because in this house? While we obviously aren't above spending money (ahem, elevator), we have made every decision based on ultimate value. Every line item has to pass the orange test, i.e. Is the juice worth the squeeze? We have passed on finishes and fixtures that would have been gorgeous, but just too expensive to justify. (someday, silver-leafed accent wall, you might be mine...) We have invested heavily in infrastructure, in engineering, in creating a house that will function and grow with us for the rest of our lives. But built-out custom closets at the cost of a family sedan? Not so much.
Now we are furniture people, and had been making due with an amalgam of pieces up until now, so we took stock of all of the storage items we already owned. The items that could be repurposed or reimagined. I went back to my theater roots and bought a pair of used industrial Z-racks, the rolling two-tier hanging racks that theaters use to organize costumes, from our wonderful upholsterer Beth Laske-Miller who was reimagining her work studio. Are they gorgeous? Nope. Are they über functional? You betcha.
The big move upstairs was this past weekend. The space is 95% finished, done enough that we can live up there while the punch list is finished up. A big part of the past couple of days involved putting together our dressing rooms. Do they look like a magazine? Nope. Do they look like a luxury department store? Not in the least. But they do look like those small charming independent boutiques you find in adorable neighborhoods, the ones where a sassy proprietress will dig through a rack and find you something unique and fabulous.
They aren't as maximized in terms of storage as they would have been, the height of the rooms aren't quite utilized to their fullest, but most of our respective stuff is in them and it is a massive improvement. And there is something ultimately charming about them both. They look like us, instead of looking like everyone. And if that means that we still have to swap out tubs of clothes and shoes seasonally, so be it. I do think someday we will revisit the idea of building-out CS's dressing room, since he is bearing the brunt of the inconvenience, and ultimately, getting him better organization, and especially taking advantage of the ceiling height will make a huge difference for him. But I don't know that I will ever do mine. I'm sort of in love with the cobbled-together feel of it, and while I might swap out a piece here or there, I think I might just stick with the unique!
So, let's start with CS's room...
We painted it a very masculine deep brown called Otter from Sherwin-Williams, I know some people think dark colors in small spaces make the walls feel like they are closing in, but I disagree. I think it makes them cozy, and with white on the ceiling and white on the trim, it is very elegant. CS got one of the two Z-racks and it literally holds everything he has on a hanger on one unit! Sports coats and suits on the bottom, shirts, pants and vests up top. The little antique settee is wood and black leather and terribly mens-club.
the view from the door
Antique high boy CS has had this English Arts and Crafts piece forever, and it is just gorgeous. We found the brass freestanding valet at a flea market and repurposed one of the Elfa wire bin units from the former downstairs closet to help wrangle some bits and pieces, at least for now. Not super attractive, and I think as soon as we come across some sort of taller open shelving piece we can swap out for it, we will, but for the moment, it serves.
Dresser We used to have this dresser in our bedroom in the basement, but there was a second drawer unit in that room, and since it is now a guest room, we figured one storage piece would do just fine down there, so we stole this one for CS's dressing room. It was originally a gift from dear friends who were downsizing, belonging to their grandparents, so it makes me happy that it continues to have a functional life daily!
Shoes! CS might not have quite as many shoes as I do, but he does love a well-crafted piece of footwear. We use to have this arts and crafts glass-front bookcase in the butler's pantry holding glassware, but we weren't using it for that anymore, and at least for now, it makes a pretty decent shoe cabinet. We added more shelves (just had laminate shelves cut to size at Home Depot) to maximize the space.
The finished room!A lovely old rug keeps the room feeling warm and personal, and lucky for us, this one was living downstairs in CS's former office! All in all, I think it is a space that reflects his unique elegance, and I know that despite the few remaining flaws, it is still a massive improvement for him!And now, for my space...
Never one to be shy, I wanted a bold color in here, and Dynamo from Sherwin-Williams was a hit. The deep magenta color pops against the white ceiling and trim and just makes me happy. The rug is a very old one, and I adore the patina and the way the colors play off each other.
The view from the door I had found this amazing 1920s Art Nouveau chandelier at a really great vintage store in our neighborhood. If you are in Chicago, check out the goods at the West of Western district on North Avenue, stores like An Orange Moon is awesome for mid-century stuff, I found the circular stool pictured above there, and North Avenue Collective across the street has proven to be a dangerous place to visit. I bought the chandelier first, but everytime we go, we find a new treasure!
Girly!Then it was time to think seating.
Have a seat! I always wanted some seating in the window, and this little settee used to be in our former kitchen. The small scale is perfect and made a bit cozier with some fun stripy pillows and an old knitted family afghan.
So. Many. Sweaters. This shelving unit was another gift from our dear downsizing friends, and I just love how fancy it is! And yes, that is a set of library stairs because I am a short person and if I tried to reach one of the sweaters on the top shelf from the floor, they would all tumble down on my head. Hypothetically.
Thank god for the Z rack! I still get some street cred with my theater peeps.This is my Z rack and just like CS's, it holds all of my hanging garb. The only thing that is a bit annoying is that my long dresses don't clear the bottom rod freely, but luckily I only need half of the bottom rod for pants, so at least they can hang in front, and still don't get wrinkled.
Shoes! Just like CS, I repurposed the other former butler's pantry storage piece, which used to contain china and serving pieces, and added some more shelving to house the most fabulous of my shoes.
More shoes!This little metal shelving unit used to be inside my closet downstairs, and while it isn't the prettiest, it does work really well for overflow shoe wrangling in a small space. If I ever come across a vintage wood bookshelf I might swap it out, just to keep the overall theme.
Armoire This armoire is very similar to what would likely have been used instead of closets when the house was built, and was downstairs in the former closet room. I am madly in love with the paw feet. I have to leave it a bit open since the key is long since lost, and it is a huge pain to open if you closet the doors tight, but someday I will find a key that fits! I'm using the top for purse wrangling.
Open sesame! I love this thing. It is like a swiss army knife. Drawers have dividers inside, that little flat thing at the top with the knob is actually a pull-out mirror, and there is even a secret compartment. the hanging rod on the right side holds a ton too!
PursesLucky for me, while I love a good bag, I hate being overly encumbered, so the majority of my purses are clutch size, which meant almost all of them fit neatly into this large tray that I used to use for clearing up after parties.
Time to accessorize!We had this antique cabinet in storage. It is from the late 1800s and was originally a dentist's office cabinet! That means oodles of shallow drawers perfect for organizing jewelry, and the four larger spaces at the bottom for scarves and such. I got everything in it, but it may take me the rest of my natural life before I don't have to open ten drawers before finding the one pair of earrings I'm looking for!
I know, the shoe thing is a problem. This over the door shoe wrangler may not be the most attractive, but it keeps all the athletic shoes and flats hidden away, since they don't quite call out for display the way the others do. 
Hello, hamper! So a few weeks ago CS and I were at a flea market, and I spotted this clothes hamper. This 1970s fever dream of a swirly back-painted tambour mirror hamper, in lovely shades of ochre and avocado. I pulled him over to see a little piece of vintage home decor that looks like my early childhood threw up. I really was taking him to see it so that I could make fun of its awfulness and we could have a good chuckle. Except by the time we got there, I noticed something. It is in perfect condition. Really well made, on a steel frame, so solid as a rock. Not a scratch or a chip or a crack anywhere, and that is a 40+-year-old piece made of actual glass mirror! CS was still appalled, despite my insistence that perhaps it was so ghastly that it was actually fabulous. I would have let it go, had it not been for this...
Matching wastebasket. Yeah, this too, in absolutely perfect shape. I still might have been convinced to leave them behind, when I noticed....
Boom. Matching Kleenex holder.THE KLEENEX HOLDER. I mean, COME ON. You get it, right? I totally had to have them. The lady selling them informed me that they were originally from the home of the people who owned the Finkl steel plant of blessed memory. So not only do we have a complete set of perfect condition 1970s era accoutrements, they also have wonderful Chicago history! I haggled down to $45 for the set, and CS agreed that I could bring them home as long as I put them somewhere he would never have to look at them. So into my dressing room they went. They are still kind of horrible, but for some reason I just love them, they make me smile. Plus they look sort of insane against the deep magenta of the walls, in a good way.So there you have it! Necessity being the mother of invention and all that, I'm awfully pleased with how they turned out!
Coming up soon-ish, more rooms from upstairs and an elevator update!
Yours in Good Taste, (except for the hamper set)The Polymath
May 3, 2017
Thinking Ahead
Hello Chickens!
Spring is certainly taking its own sweet time here in Chicago, the rain has been relentless, the cold positively autumnal. But my hostas are a poppin' and our Mama Robin is back in her nest for the sixth year in a row, so we know it is going to settle in eventually.
And things here at the Chateau are really cranking along. Starting next week I'll be able to do the room-by-room design stuff, and I'm enormously excited about that! But today I want to talk about the future.
One of the things that can be difficult about renovations is that your focus is so much on the present. What do we need right now, how can life be made better/easier/prettier today? We know what needs fixing in the immediate, but sometimes forget to think about what we might need down the road.
How many people do you know who have spaces they renovated when their kids were small that now sit unused because the kids are out of the house? Or who have to completely redo projects that they completed not long ago because an aging family member comes to stay?
We knew when we began this project that we were looking at the long haul. We fully intend to be in this house until it is time for us to depart this earth, and we hope that means a very long time indeed. As such, when we began to design the building we took that into consideration with the renovations.
For example: There is only hardwood flooring throughout the house with no transition bumps or lips or changes in levels anywhere, and all hallways and doorways are wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs or walkers should the need ever arise either permanently or temporarily. Both our master bath shower and the shower in the basement are walk-in with no lip and large enough for equipment if needed. We put Charming Suitor's office on the same level as our master bedroom, and put in a closet and it's own small full bath with shower so that if we ever need to have someone come live-in to care for us, it can be converted to a bedroom conveniently located. While we put our main kitchen on the second floor, an unusual choice for many, we are keeping the first floor kitchen as a catering/prep kitchen. This means that if ever the house gets too big for us, we can choose to deconvert it back to two duplexed apartments if we want.
In the kitchen, there are no upper cabinets. I'm 5'3" and not getting taller as I age, not to mention I'm a klutz, so since we were lucky enough to have the room to do everything undercounter, I know that as long as I can cook, I won't have to get up on a stepladder to reach my everyday dishes.
Our hope, since we don't have kids and have several couples who are dear friends who also don't have kids, is that we essentially have built our own future retirement facility! Think Golden Girls but with couples. Nice retirement communities are wildly expensive, and a lot of what you pay for is good food and good socializing opportunities. We figure if we just move our besties in with us, we get all the socializing, and we know the food is great! We will pool our resources, hire whatever help we need, and as long as no one needs memory care, we can be a bunch of fabulous independent old folks up in here.
Which brings me to the elevator.
Yes. We are installing an elevator. In fact, we are installing an elevator right this very second as I am typing this. I know this sounds like the ultimate chi-chi fancy Warren Buffett sort of thing to do. But I am here to tell you that not only is an elevator sort of shockingly affordable, it is something that I think anyone in a multi-level home they adore should look into. I know so many people who have had to leave their family homes before they really wanted or needed to because they just could not handle stairs anymore.
We are already middle-aged people with wonky ankles, bad knees, and backs that occasionally slip out of alignment. We have a house that is a total of four living levels, with 18 steps to get from level to level. That means when I'm in the basement to workout, it is 54 stairs to get to my bedroom. This is fine right now, but won't be in 20 years. And you had better believe I intend to be here in 20 years!
When we were first designing the house I said we would need an elevator. And we would need the elevator to do a few unusual things. One, it would have to be able to open not only on each of the four floors, but also out the back in our parking pad at ground level. That means it would have to open on two contiguous sides, the front side and the left side. It would then also have to have some security features since one door is external to the building. And we would need it to be large enough to accommodate a wheelchair with a caregiver.
Lucky for us, we had the perfect spot! When the house was three apartments, there were a series of small powder rooms in the very back corner of the building, all stacked up on each other in perfect alignment. So we had a natural elevator shaft (or hoistway, as I have discovered the companies call them) just waiting for the interiors to be demoed and the floors to be removed to create 40 feet of elevator housing!
This is looking up the shaft from the first floor to the roof, you can see the two doors and the blocked off windows!
When we started looking into elevator companies, there were several local folks specializing in residential elevators. But only one could really do everything we wanted in our budget. That was Extended Home Living Services and their home elevator arm To The Top Home Elevators. From the first meeting they were great, giving us all of the information on how to get an elevator that would work best for our ongoing needs. They had all the best stuff, both hydraulic and winding drum mechanisms available, all sorts of options for the interior of the cab, and most importantly, they could do a residential elevator that would be able to do the full building and have the essential two-side opening feature! It has all sorts of extra features like accordion style gates that open and close automatically, the ability to turn it off completely when we go out of town, and an external access security system that uses a punch code to call the elevator, which means that when my family comes to visit and they park behind the house, they can just punch in the code and come right on in!
We got to pick interior finishes, which I will share later, but you can go as simple or fancy as you like. We went with winding drum instead of hydraulic since it is a bit easier to maintain. And when I tell you that we were truly blown away by how affordable this thing is, let me just say that it is less than half of what it is going to cost us to redo the stairs. Yeah.
this is our elevator being delivered!!!!
My contractors were able to prep the hoistway on their own and said it was pretty straightforward with the input EHLS gave them. But if you don't have a convenient spot already in your house like we did, you can actually build an elevator shaft on the outside of your home in a good location and then just open doorways to get internal access. Who knew?
Lucky for us, at the moment, we don't need any of their other services like stair lifts or ramps or stuff, but they do it all for accessible living. And while affordable elevators doesn't mean cheap elevators, if the only thing preventing you from getting another 10-15 years out of loving your house is a flight or two of stairs, they start to look practically cheap. If you have a parent who really doesn't want to leave the family home, and is still able to be independent but for your concern about stairs, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you at least call someone to come take a look and see what is possible. By the time you add up the cost of fixing a home up for sale, finding a new one, paying for moving expenses etc., you might find the cost is a wash!
Stay tuned, there will be more elevator updates as it gets installed.
Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath
Spring is certainly taking its own sweet time here in Chicago, the rain has been relentless, the cold positively autumnal. But my hostas are a poppin' and our Mama Robin is back in her nest for the sixth year in a row, so we know it is going to settle in eventually.
And things here at the Chateau are really cranking along. Starting next week I'll be able to do the room-by-room design stuff, and I'm enormously excited about that! But today I want to talk about the future.
One of the things that can be difficult about renovations is that your focus is so much on the present. What do we need right now, how can life be made better/easier/prettier today? We know what needs fixing in the immediate, but sometimes forget to think about what we might need down the road.
How many people do you know who have spaces they renovated when their kids were small that now sit unused because the kids are out of the house? Or who have to completely redo projects that they completed not long ago because an aging family member comes to stay?
We knew when we began this project that we were looking at the long haul. We fully intend to be in this house until it is time for us to depart this earth, and we hope that means a very long time indeed. As such, when we began to design the building we took that into consideration with the renovations.
For example: There is only hardwood flooring throughout the house with no transition bumps or lips or changes in levels anywhere, and all hallways and doorways are wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs or walkers should the need ever arise either permanently or temporarily. Both our master bath shower and the shower in the basement are walk-in with no lip and large enough for equipment if needed. We put Charming Suitor's office on the same level as our master bedroom, and put in a closet and it's own small full bath with shower so that if we ever need to have someone come live-in to care for us, it can be converted to a bedroom conveniently located. While we put our main kitchen on the second floor, an unusual choice for many, we are keeping the first floor kitchen as a catering/prep kitchen. This means that if ever the house gets too big for us, we can choose to deconvert it back to two duplexed apartments if we want.
In the kitchen, there are no upper cabinets. I'm 5'3" and not getting taller as I age, not to mention I'm a klutz, so since we were lucky enough to have the room to do everything undercounter, I know that as long as I can cook, I won't have to get up on a stepladder to reach my everyday dishes.
Our hope, since we don't have kids and have several couples who are dear friends who also don't have kids, is that we essentially have built our own future retirement facility! Think Golden Girls but with couples. Nice retirement communities are wildly expensive, and a lot of what you pay for is good food and good socializing opportunities. We figure if we just move our besties in with us, we get all the socializing, and we know the food is great! We will pool our resources, hire whatever help we need, and as long as no one needs memory care, we can be a bunch of fabulous independent old folks up in here.
Which brings me to the elevator.
Yes. We are installing an elevator. In fact, we are installing an elevator right this very second as I am typing this. I know this sounds like the ultimate chi-chi fancy Warren Buffett sort of thing to do. But I am here to tell you that not only is an elevator sort of shockingly affordable, it is something that I think anyone in a multi-level home they adore should look into. I know so many people who have had to leave their family homes before they really wanted or needed to because they just could not handle stairs anymore.
We are already middle-aged people with wonky ankles, bad knees, and backs that occasionally slip out of alignment. We have a house that is a total of four living levels, with 18 steps to get from level to level. That means when I'm in the basement to workout, it is 54 stairs to get to my bedroom. This is fine right now, but won't be in 20 years. And you had better believe I intend to be here in 20 years!
When we were first designing the house I said we would need an elevator. And we would need the elevator to do a few unusual things. One, it would have to be able to open not only on each of the four floors, but also out the back in our parking pad at ground level. That means it would have to open on two contiguous sides, the front side and the left side. It would then also have to have some security features since one door is external to the building. And we would need it to be large enough to accommodate a wheelchair with a caregiver.
Lucky for us, we had the perfect spot! When the house was three apartments, there were a series of small powder rooms in the very back corner of the building, all stacked up on each other in perfect alignment. So we had a natural elevator shaft (or hoistway, as I have discovered the companies call them) just waiting for the interiors to be demoed and the floors to be removed to create 40 feet of elevator housing!
This is looking up the shaft from the first floor to the roof, you can see the two doors and the blocked off windows!
When we started looking into elevator companies, there were several local folks specializing in residential elevators. But only one could really do everything we wanted in our budget. That was Extended Home Living Services and their home elevator arm To The Top Home Elevators. From the first meeting they were great, giving us all of the information on how to get an elevator that would work best for our ongoing needs. They had all the best stuff, both hydraulic and winding drum mechanisms available, all sorts of options for the interior of the cab, and most importantly, they could do a residential elevator that would be able to do the full building and have the essential two-side opening feature! It has all sorts of extra features like accordion style gates that open and close automatically, the ability to turn it off completely when we go out of town, and an external access security system that uses a punch code to call the elevator, which means that when my family comes to visit and they park behind the house, they can just punch in the code and come right on in!
We got to pick interior finishes, which I will share later, but you can go as simple or fancy as you like. We went with winding drum instead of hydraulic since it is a bit easier to maintain. And when I tell you that we were truly blown away by how affordable this thing is, let me just say that it is less than half of what it is going to cost us to redo the stairs. Yeah.
this is our elevator being delivered!!!!My contractors were able to prep the hoistway on their own and said it was pretty straightforward with the input EHLS gave them. But if you don't have a convenient spot already in your house like we did, you can actually build an elevator shaft on the outside of your home in a good location and then just open doorways to get internal access. Who knew?
Lucky for us, at the moment, we don't need any of their other services like stair lifts or ramps or stuff, but they do it all for accessible living. And while affordable elevators doesn't mean cheap elevators, if the only thing preventing you from getting another 10-15 years out of loving your house is a flight or two of stairs, they start to look practically cheap. If you have a parent who really doesn't want to leave the family home, and is still able to be independent but for your concern about stairs, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you at least call someone to come take a look and see what is possible. By the time you add up the cost of fixing a home up for sale, finding a new one, paying for moving expenses etc., you might find the cost is a wash!
Stay tuned, there will be more elevator updates as it gets installed.
Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath
April 5, 2017
Color Me Happy!
Hello Chickens!
In case you missed it, our lovely kitchen was profiled in the Washington Post!
Read the article HERE.
Things are hopping over here at the chateau, floors are being patched and refurbished, tile is going in, doors are being installed...it is very exciting! Which means it is time for the color conversation.
For those of you who have been with me for the whole process, I will jump right in. For those who might have missed the previous posts on paint and color choices, I refer to back to THIS and THIS.
Once again we are working with the amazing team at Sherwin-Williams. As we did before, we looked to their current Colormix 2017 for inspiration, and they did not disappoint. They spend the whole year looking into color trends and ideas, and while we aren't looking necessarily to do the "new best thing", since we are hoping for something timeless in this house, we have always found that the way they think about color can be really exciting and take us in unexpected directions.
As always, we look at the floor as a whole, and how it integrates into the rest of the house. The third floor is different. It is our sanctuary, our getaway, our oasis. There is not a single "public" space on the third level, so the color choices here are less about how they work with the rest of the house and more about how they just work for the two of us. From the moment you begin to ascend the stairs to the third floor, you are entering a very different space. This has actually been somewhat freeing, since we don't have to think about guests and how they will interact with the spaces, but rather, just about the two of us.
As I have mentioned before, the functions of these spaces are pretty basic. The master bedroom for sleeping, obviously, but also has a reading nook and a small area with a television. We each have our own dressing room, which we are VERY excited about. Charming Suitor is looking forward to not tripping over my endless shoes when he is getting dressed. The commode room has the main toilet and a sink, and will also serve as my vanity space for hair and makeup. The master bathroom has his and hers sinks, a lovely soaking tub, and a large two-person shower. The laundry room also has tons of storage and folding space, there is a small hall closet, and then CS's office and office bathroom.
We sat down with the Colormix brochure and took a look at what direction they think color is headed right now.
The first inspiration was NOIR. Sherwin-Williams describes it this way:
It’s among our most precious commodities: night. We’re craving a refuge from urban streetlights and glowing screens, space to turn our gaze inward and recharge the spirit. Mindful melancholy is fueling a new romanticism marked by medieval patterns, revived customs and bittersweet beauty. The Dutch masters knew the secret: dark hues set a dramatic stage for sensuous luster. This palette is rich with vineripe fruits, Nordic blues, moody neutrals and golden yellows.
We were very drawn to the soothing cool pale blue-gray called Icelandic that was part of this collection, and chose it for the master bedroom. We wanted to keep the light airy feel in this large space, and a color that would be Zen-like and calming. The furniture in this room will pull from taupes, straw colors, pale grays and silvers, with wood and metal accents, and the pale blue-gray will really allow all those other things to blend beautifully. It was a bit nerve-wracking, since CS is not a fan of pale blue, so it was essential that the color have enough gray in it. We ended up with a slightly different shade, called North Star, and it changes colors gorgeously throughout the day. In the morning it is very light blue-gray, by midday it deepens a bit, at disk it goes more blue, sort of matching the sky, and at night it reads more gray. CS really loves it, whew!
The second inspiration was HOLISTIC. Sherwin-Williams says:
Sustainable design and radical transparency are the new standards. As our daily transactions move further into the cloud, acquiring experiences is becoming preferable to buying more things. “Doing good” is the new looking good, and it’s taking the form of “voluntourism,” healing retreats and eco-travel. We’re in pursuit of an elusive ideal: a fair luxury. The roads of this journey are lined with arctic neutrals, blush rose and wild browns.
We loved the ideas behind this collection, as well as the palette. We pulled the pale gray Stardew as our inspiration for the master bathroom, and the Deep Forest brown for both Charming Suitor's dressing room and the laundry room. CS's dressing room will be very masculine, so it felt like a terrific choice. And the laundry room has all white cabinets and white washer/dryer, so the deep chocolately brown will make for a nice backdrop. And we have used that sort of deep brown in other spaces in the house and really love the way it looks.
The third inspiration was INTREPID. From Sherwin-Williams:
The virtual and the real are blurring in the form of seamless commerce and “office anywhere” collaboration. Impatient for social and political change, we’re reinventing ourselves first. Identity has never been more fluid. “You do you” is the mantra of a generation primed for self-expression, cheered on by their own #squad and tossing aside old categories. There’s a feisty energy to our present moment, arriving in fiery tones and vibrant, kimono colors.
I really loved the energy of this group of colors. I know you have all been with me long enough to know that I'm not afraid of color, and love to be surrounded by rich vibrant color where it works...hence the deep blue guest room, the peacock teal bathroom, and the bright orange ovens in the kitchen! While we wanted the third-floor suite to be our soothing spa-like getaway, we didn't want that to be bland and boring. After all, when you go to a spa, it can be very energizing as well as relaxing. So we really thought about the various spaces and what happens in them when looking at color. The bedroom, naturally, needed to be calming since that is a place of sleep and quiet. The master bath as well lent itself to that soothing feeling of light and cool. But my dressing room? That is a place I want to be fun and vibrant, and the Kimono Violet spoke to me. I have purple hair, it should not be a surprise that I loved this one! When we tested that particular color in the space, it didn't work very well with the light that is in that room, it made it muddy instead of luxuriously bright, so I ended up picking a color called Dynamo, which worked much better but still had that magenta/violet feel I was looking for. Same was true for the commode room, which is where I will have my vanity for hair and makeup and the like. I loved the Citronella color from this palette, the deep lichen green felt bright but also luxurious but it went a little too mustard yellow in the space, so we ended up picking a similar color called Grandiose, which was perfect.
The last inspiration was UNBOUNDED. Sherwin-Williams describes it as:
Global immigration is redefining borderlands, national identity and our sense of coexistence. We’re all citizens of the world now. Brands are becoming more purpose-driven, communities more connected. Design is adapting to more diverse populations. Overconsumption is, well, over. We’re more likely to invest in the best we can afford — crafted and customized — and then keep it forever. Global consciousness is a mural painted in earthy mustards, ocean blues, corals and mud.
Charming Suitor really responded to this palette and immediately chose the deep green Saguaro for his office. It will be a great backdrop to some of his artwork, and I think it brings out the green in his eyes!
As we have recommended before, we are unifying the space with all white on ceilings, hallway walls, as well as trim and doors, which allows us to use the various colors without making the spaces look like fruit salad.
We also chose white for the small bathroom off of CS's office, since it has a lot going on in a small space, so we wanted to keep it clean and bright.
So, here is the palette we ended up with :
You can see how all the colors work together. I've got them laid out in my Sherwin-Williams portfolio, which I use to keep track of all of the colors for the whole house in case I need to reference it. (Yes, I continue to be a terrible photographer, so the deep magenta of my dressing room is coming out weirdly red in this picture, but wait till you see it on the walls!)
As soon as the spaces are painted I will post the updated pics!
Much more coming soon....
Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath
Sherwin-Williams has provided discounted product for this project, but all opinions are, as always, my own.
In case you missed it, our lovely kitchen was profiled in the Washington Post!
Read the article HERE.
Things are hopping over here at the chateau, floors are being patched and refurbished, tile is going in, doors are being installed...it is very exciting! Which means it is time for the color conversation.
For those of you who have been with me for the whole process, I will jump right in. For those who might have missed the previous posts on paint and color choices, I refer to back to THIS and THIS.
Once again we are working with the amazing team at Sherwin-Williams. As we did before, we looked to their current Colormix 2017 for inspiration, and they did not disappoint. They spend the whole year looking into color trends and ideas, and while we aren't looking necessarily to do the "new best thing", since we are hoping for something timeless in this house, we have always found that the way they think about color can be really exciting and take us in unexpected directions.
As always, we look at the floor as a whole, and how it integrates into the rest of the house. The third floor is different. It is our sanctuary, our getaway, our oasis. There is not a single "public" space on the third level, so the color choices here are less about how they work with the rest of the house and more about how they just work for the two of us. From the moment you begin to ascend the stairs to the third floor, you are entering a very different space. This has actually been somewhat freeing, since we don't have to think about guests and how they will interact with the spaces, but rather, just about the two of us.
As I have mentioned before, the functions of these spaces are pretty basic. The master bedroom for sleeping, obviously, but also has a reading nook and a small area with a television. We each have our own dressing room, which we are VERY excited about. Charming Suitor is looking forward to not tripping over my endless shoes when he is getting dressed. The commode room has the main toilet and a sink, and will also serve as my vanity space for hair and makeup. The master bathroom has his and hers sinks, a lovely soaking tub, and a large two-person shower. The laundry room also has tons of storage and folding space, there is a small hall closet, and then CS's office and office bathroom.
We sat down with the Colormix brochure and took a look at what direction they think color is headed right now.
The first inspiration was NOIR. Sherwin-Williams describes it this way:
It’s among our most precious commodities: night. We’re craving a refuge from urban streetlights and glowing screens, space to turn our gaze inward and recharge the spirit. Mindful melancholy is fueling a new romanticism marked by medieval patterns, revived customs and bittersweet beauty. The Dutch masters knew the secret: dark hues set a dramatic stage for sensuous luster. This palette is rich with vineripe fruits, Nordic blues, moody neutrals and golden yellows.
We were very drawn to the soothing cool pale blue-gray called Icelandic that was part of this collection, and chose it for the master bedroom. We wanted to keep the light airy feel in this large space, and a color that would be Zen-like and calming. The furniture in this room will pull from taupes, straw colors, pale grays and silvers, with wood and metal accents, and the pale blue-gray will really allow all those other things to blend beautifully. It was a bit nerve-wracking, since CS is not a fan of pale blue, so it was essential that the color have enough gray in it. We ended up with a slightly different shade, called North Star, and it changes colors gorgeously throughout the day. In the morning it is very light blue-gray, by midday it deepens a bit, at disk it goes more blue, sort of matching the sky, and at night it reads more gray. CS really loves it, whew!
The second inspiration was HOLISTIC. Sherwin-Williams says:
Sustainable design and radical transparency are the new standards. As our daily transactions move further into the cloud, acquiring experiences is becoming preferable to buying more things. “Doing good” is the new looking good, and it’s taking the form of “voluntourism,” healing retreats and eco-travel. We’re in pursuit of an elusive ideal: a fair luxury. The roads of this journey are lined with arctic neutrals, blush rose and wild browns.
We loved the ideas behind this collection, as well as the palette. We pulled the pale gray Stardew as our inspiration for the master bathroom, and the Deep Forest brown for both Charming Suitor's dressing room and the laundry room. CS's dressing room will be very masculine, so it felt like a terrific choice. And the laundry room has all white cabinets and white washer/dryer, so the deep chocolately brown will make for a nice backdrop. And we have used that sort of deep brown in other spaces in the house and really love the way it looks.
The third inspiration was INTREPID. From Sherwin-Williams:
The virtual and the real are blurring in the form of seamless commerce and “office anywhere” collaboration. Impatient for social and political change, we’re reinventing ourselves first. Identity has never been more fluid. “You do you” is the mantra of a generation primed for self-expression, cheered on by their own #squad and tossing aside old categories. There’s a feisty energy to our present moment, arriving in fiery tones and vibrant, kimono colors.
I really loved the energy of this group of colors. I know you have all been with me long enough to know that I'm not afraid of color, and love to be surrounded by rich vibrant color where it works...hence the deep blue guest room, the peacock teal bathroom, and the bright orange ovens in the kitchen! While we wanted the third-floor suite to be our soothing spa-like getaway, we didn't want that to be bland and boring. After all, when you go to a spa, it can be very energizing as well as relaxing. So we really thought about the various spaces and what happens in them when looking at color. The bedroom, naturally, needed to be calming since that is a place of sleep and quiet. The master bath as well lent itself to that soothing feeling of light and cool. But my dressing room? That is a place I want to be fun and vibrant, and the Kimono Violet spoke to me. I have purple hair, it should not be a surprise that I loved this one! When we tested that particular color in the space, it didn't work very well with the light that is in that room, it made it muddy instead of luxuriously bright, so I ended up picking a color called Dynamo, which worked much better but still had that magenta/violet feel I was looking for. Same was true for the commode room, which is where I will have my vanity for hair and makeup and the like. I loved the Citronella color from this palette, the deep lichen green felt bright but also luxurious but it went a little too mustard yellow in the space, so we ended up picking a similar color called Grandiose, which was perfect.
The last inspiration was UNBOUNDED. Sherwin-Williams describes it as:
Global immigration is redefining borderlands, national identity and our sense of coexistence. We’re all citizens of the world now. Brands are becoming more purpose-driven, communities more connected. Design is adapting to more diverse populations. Overconsumption is, well, over. We’re more likely to invest in the best we can afford — crafted and customized — and then keep it forever. Global consciousness is a mural painted in earthy mustards, ocean blues, corals and mud.
Charming Suitor really responded to this palette and immediately chose the deep green Saguaro for his office. It will be a great backdrop to some of his artwork, and I think it brings out the green in his eyes!
As we have recommended before, we are unifying the space with all white on ceilings, hallway walls, as well as trim and doors, which allows us to use the various colors without making the spaces look like fruit salad.
We also chose white for the small bathroom off of CS's office, since it has a lot going on in a small space, so we wanted to keep it clean and bright.
So, here is the palette we ended up with :
You can see how all the colors work together. I've got them laid out in my Sherwin-Williams portfolio, which I use to keep track of all of the colors for the whole house in case I need to reference it. (Yes, I continue to be a terrible photographer, so the deep magenta of my dressing room is coming out weirdly red in this picture, but wait till you see it on the walls!)
As soon as the spaces are painted I will post the updated pics!
Much more coming soon....
Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath
Sherwin-Williams has provided discounted product for this project, but all opinions are, as always, my own.
March 29, 2017
One Year Anniversary of the NEW KITCHEN!
Hello Chickens-
As promised, I wanted to give you the one year anniversary update on the kitchen. I know for many of you, and certainly for me, the kitchen was the most exciting part of our entire renovation. Since this blog is most often a cooking and entertaining blog, it is no shock to anyone that the kitchen took the most research and was the most nerve-wracking part of the whole house to design. In general, if you are lucky, you get one shot at your dream kitchen, and you definitely don't want to screw it up!
So I thought I would circle back one year in and let you know how things are going.
Firstly, a lot of people thought we were crazy with the layout of our kitchen. Choosing to model a home kitchen on a zoned restaurant kitchen takes away all of the "rules" we were taught about home kitchens, that you need a triangle of space connecting the stove and the fridge and the prep area, that you should limit your need to move around the space and such. So we were already outside the box when we created a zone for both cold and pantry storage, two zones for cooking sharing one prep space and one cleaning space and a separate zone across the room for baking, all of which does require some thought about how to organize yourself.
The good news? It works PERFECTLY. Again, our kitchen design is not for everyone, if you are a family with kids, especially little ones, this would probably be a nightmare. But for us, for the way we cook, it has been a godsend. We have officially done a full year of holiday cooking and serving, a year of eating just the two of us, and eating with friends. We have done our everyday simple dinners, and weekend complex dinners and every permutation in between. Yes we have continued to tweak some things about what is stored where, to help limit the running around, and have had some surprising things we hadn't anticipated....like needing three salt cellars so that each cooking area has its own readily accessible! Overall, we keep saying that there is not a thing we would change about how the space works or about the materials and appliances we chose, which is pretty amazing.
Here are some of the gamechangers for us:
Our old kitchen was the size of a postage stamp, it was hard enough to cook with the two of us, let alone adding anyone else. But the scale of this space is so lovely and well thought out that it is now a joy to bring other people into the kitchen! I've started a regular "cooking class" days with my goddaughter, her mom, another dear friend and her daughter, and one of my besties from high school. The six of us get together every 6 weeks or so to do a day of cooking, usually based on what the girls (11 and 12) want to learn to make. We've done breads and soup, cupcakes, brownies, mandel bread, other cookies, and in a couple of weeks we are going to tackle eclairs! There is plenty of room for all six of us to move and participate, and the island is a great place for us all to gather for decorating our goodies. I never could have done this in the old kitchen, and these days are some of my favorites in the new space, I think we are building really special memories, and I hope these days continue for as long as we can convince the girls to hang out with old people.
After the election a dear friend reached out to say that he was feeling a bit adrift and asked if could we plan a super farty French dinner party where we could cook all day and make stuff he hadn't done since culinary school. It was an easy yes on my end, and the two of us spent an entire day in the kitchen, making puff pastry from scratch and chicken galantine, Marjolaine cake and Paris Brest, stuffed breast of veal and braised endives and a potato gratin. We had both ovens going at once, and often I was working something on the gas range while he was working the induction. He could do a turn and fold on the puff pastry in the baking area while I was fussing over a sauce across the room, and since I was in the other section of the kitchen, his space stayed cool and uncluttered. We knocked out an 8-course dinner for 7 people, and served and ate it in the kitchen, and the whole thing was smooth and fun, including the cleanup. A total win!
We've also done some larger holiday meals, and our annual New Year's Eve party where we cooked upstairs in the kitchen and served downstairs in the formal dining room. This too worked even better than we anticipated. While I do have to do some pre-planning to ensure that menus lend themselves to the arrangement, Thanksgiving, Fakesgiving, Passover and NYE all went without a hitch, and are about to get even better (stay tuned for why...). We were able to cook upstairs, and hold things in the warming drawers, cold things could get stashed in the downstairs kitchen so they were out of our way upstairs, and between the oven and burners in the downstairs kitchen and a couple of slow cookers, once we were downstairs, we never had to scamper back up till the meal was done.
And entertaining in the kitchen is wonderful. We have done many small dinners, 4-6 people, which is beyond easy, but I also did my mom's birthday ladies luncheon for 9, a brunch for 14 , and a cocktail party for 20 for Charming Suitor's whole office! The "chef's table" can seat up to 10 with the leaves in, making casual dinner parties super easy, and with the four seats at the counter, we can do seated for 14! There is enough room to move around that a standing cocktail party was totally comfortable. What has been really terrific is that when we just have one other couple over for dinner, we can do cocktails and nibbles right in the kitchen instead of the den, so we don't have to miss snippets of conversation when checking on dinner!
All in all, we could not be more delighted and would not change one thing! Here is a roundup of the major picks we made, and how they are functioning:
Poggenpohl Cabinets: We went with all lowers, since I am super short and I like the clean look of no uppers, and almost all drawers except for the corner cabinet solutions. These have been a dream, they hold all the stuff we needed them to hold, up to 200 pounds per drawer! And the smooth function and amazing organization inserts have been the stuff of genius. Cabinets are one of those things that you really don't appreciate until you have exceptionally good ones!
Dekton Countertops: You all know the saga of the countertops and how much we love our partners Cosentino and StoneMasters for hanging in there with us, but the results have been well worth the drama. The counters are gorgeous, and despite our best efforts, we have not been able to stain, scratch or scorch them. They look amazing and have been the perfect choice. Everyone comments on how gorgeous they look and feel, with their suede finish, but I keep extolling their functionality. I've been baking more and more, and can roll things right on the surface with about 1/4 the amount of flour as other surfaces, which means my biscuits are fluffier, and with all the sourdough I'm making lately, I don't have to flour the surface at all, giving me really good surface tension on my breads. I can pull a cast iron Dutch oven out of a 500 degree oven and put it right down, no trivets! This has made using our island as a buffet super easy, everything just goes right down without a worry. And even better, on baking days with the girls, we've been able to use commerical strength food coloring powders, which notoriously get everywhere and stain permanently, and while we have stained our fingers and shirts and aprons, the counters get wiped up and not a mark on them. I would absolutely do them again.
BlueStar Range, Hood and Ovens: I cannot recommend this company enough. These were the first decision we made for the kitchen, and it has proven to have been the best possible thing on every level. The range with the four burners and 24 inch French Top has made our everyday cooking a dream, the flexibility is just amazing. I have melted chocolate on the simmer burner with no double boiler, and have done extreme high heat wok cooking by removing the center rings from the French top. I have done huge batches of stock on the French top, in my giant rondeau that used to have to go over two burners and never heated properly, and the high heat burners are getting great sears on our steaks. The range is easy to clean, and we love the simple intuitive design. The hood is super powerful, so when we are doing those steaks we don't smoke out the kitchen, and I can finally make fish at home and not stink up the place for a week! The gas oven has been amazing for roasting, but the electric oven has really changed my life. The flexibility of the different cooking programs are still things that I am exploring, but I am baking more and more and enjoying more than I ever have. The built-in baking stone has been the most important thing, as I am now making sourdough breads regularly, and getting insanely crunchy crusts! I'm about to start playing with pizza, so stay tuned for those adventures. I have three other friends who have all purchased BlueStar ranges since we got ours, and everyone raves. If you take only one thing away from our kitchen experience, it is whatever kitchen you are doing, check out BlueStar for sure!
Marvel Fridge Freezer, wine fridge and cheese fridge: The 72-inch side by side has completely changed our lives for the better. Suddenly there is room in the freezer to really sock away stuff, so I can finally make big batches of homemade stock like I always wanted to, and not take up the whole freezer. That includes stashing old bones and carcasses and veggie scraps until I have enough for stock. I can start prepping for holiday meals a month out. I can put full sheet trays in the fridge! The fridge stays organized with the help of a bunch of clear plastic bins, and I always know where everything is. But I no longer have to remove all of the regular inhabitants when I load in groceries for a big party...everything just fits! Glorious. The wine fridge has been really great, Charming Suitor keeps it full of a variety of everyday wines, as well as the vermouth, Lillet, and other cocktail making supplies that used to take up a ton of room in the regular fridge. And the cheese fridge has been wonderful, we are getting twice to three times the life out of our cheeses and charcuterie as we used to in the regular fridge!
Gaggenau Induction Cooktop, steamer and warming drawers: Working with induction cookery has been really fun, the speed is astounding (boiling water in mere moments), but the range of temps is also amazing (perfect poached eggs), and since it puts off no heat, it has been terrific for cooking last minute stuff with guests over, since I can face them while I cook and not wilt everyone's hairdo. The warming drawers are in almost daily use, from just gently heating our dinner plates, to holding cooked foods until dinner time, to helping me proof breads. But it is the steamer that was the total surprise. This thing is amazing. From making steamed veggies for quick dinners to holding classic Chicago hot dogs and the buns nice and warm for a party, it's been making our life so much easier! We've gotten addicted to steamed new potatoes, which taste so much more potato-y than boiled ones. And our annual love affair with artichokes has been powerfully improved. The ease of cleanup, just drain and wipe out the base and stick the lid and steamer insert right in the dishwasher, makes it a dream.
LaCornue Rotisserie: You guys know that I wanted this thing like it was my JOB. Thank goodness for a milestone birthday just preceding the kitchen project, I will be forever grateful for turning 45. It is the gift that keeps on giving. Super easy, we do chicken at least once a week. Nothing fancy, straight out of the fridge with a spray of oil and a sprinkle of salt, and an hour later there is the perfect crispy-skinned super juicy chicken that somehow manages to taste seasoned to the bone despite no brining or special prep. We will do potatoes underneath, or our new obsession, cabbage, which cooks and caramelizes in the chicken fat and juices and chars on the edges. That and a green vegetable in the steamer and we have a quick and easy meal that practically made itself. People can invite themselves for dinner at 4PM, and all I have to do is get this thing going and there is no sweat. We've done leg of lamb, and even a whole pineapple for an unusual summer dessert. The only issue for us was that even though the company swears it does not need extra ventilation? It totally does. When we first started cooking with it, it set off the carbon monoxide detector every time, forcing us to cook with the back door open. So we recently installed a super quiet exhaust fan in the ceiling above it, and problem was solved. We were lucky because having the construction happening upstairs meant that we had easy access to drop it in from above, but if you are considering one for your home, be sure to plan a ceiling exhaust fan from the start. The true bonus is that with all these rotisserie chickens, I stash carcasses in our awesome freezer, so I never have to buy bones for stock!
Miele Dishwashers: These things are getting constant use, and while having two of them has been really wonderful for big parties, the fact is that for everyday or smaller dinners with one other couple, one is really all we need for cleanup! They are so well-designed and flexible that everything always manages to fit. The silverware drawer on top mean no more picking food bits off between spoons that got stuck together, and with the moveable racks, I can fit my tallest stock pot, and sheet pans with ease. But there is no question, if you love to cook and entertain, that second dishwasher is like a little miracle. And even better, they run so silently, that we can have a dinner party in the kitchen with the prep stuff running, and no one notices!
Blanco sinks and faucets: Last but not least, our pair of sinks with their professional grade faucets have finally made cleanup easy. The deep bowls hold plenty of stuff, and make cleaning larger pots and pans and serving pieces super easy. The elevated grates on the bottom have saved me a couple of time when I was filling pots and got a phone call! And all of the various extras, like the inset strainers and cutting boards have made them uber functional.
Larchwood Canada custom butcher block: This 5 inch thick butcher block has now seen a full year of slicing and dicing and chopping and it still looks amazing. The self-healing larchwood requires only an occasional treatment of butcher block conditioner and you can barely tell that we actually chop on it. It looks spectacular, and we love not having to pull out cutting boards every second.
We are so grateful to our partners at all of these amazing companies for helping us do the research, guiding us through the processes, and being at our sides, not only in the decision making process, but throughout delivery, install, and even checking in to be sure that everything is continuing to work well for us. It was so much fun to work with companies who really listened to what it is we were trying to achieve, and have them guide us towards the perfect choices. Poggenpohl even sent a wonderful photographer, Mike Kaskel, to take the amazing pics below!
That is the official one-year update on the kitchen, coming up this week...color choices for the third floor!
Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath
Do you BELIEVE what these drawers can hold????
Happiest girl ever!
As promised, I wanted to give you the one year anniversary update on the kitchen. I know for many of you, and certainly for me, the kitchen was the most exciting part of our entire renovation. Since this blog is most often a cooking and entertaining blog, it is no shock to anyone that the kitchen took the most research and was the most nerve-wracking part of the whole house to design. In general, if you are lucky, you get one shot at your dream kitchen, and you definitely don't want to screw it up!
So I thought I would circle back one year in and let you know how things are going.
Firstly, a lot of people thought we were crazy with the layout of our kitchen. Choosing to model a home kitchen on a zoned restaurant kitchen takes away all of the "rules" we were taught about home kitchens, that you need a triangle of space connecting the stove and the fridge and the prep area, that you should limit your need to move around the space and such. So we were already outside the box when we created a zone for both cold and pantry storage, two zones for cooking sharing one prep space and one cleaning space and a separate zone across the room for baking, all of which does require some thought about how to organize yourself.
The good news? It works PERFECTLY. Again, our kitchen design is not for everyone, if you are a family with kids, especially little ones, this would probably be a nightmare. But for us, for the way we cook, it has been a godsend. We have officially done a full year of holiday cooking and serving, a year of eating just the two of us, and eating with friends. We have done our everyday simple dinners, and weekend complex dinners and every permutation in between. Yes we have continued to tweak some things about what is stored where, to help limit the running around, and have had some surprising things we hadn't anticipated....like needing three salt cellars so that each cooking area has its own readily accessible! Overall, we keep saying that there is not a thing we would change about how the space works or about the materials and appliances we chose, which is pretty amazing.
Here are some of the gamechangers for us:
Our old kitchen was the size of a postage stamp, it was hard enough to cook with the two of us, let alone adding anyone else. But the scale of this space is so lovely and well thought out that it is now a joy to bring other people into the kitchen! I've started a regular "cooking class" days with my goddaughter, her mom, another dear friend and her daughter, and one of my besties from high school. The six of us get together every 6 weeks or so to do a day of cooking, usually based on what the girls (11 and 12) want to learn to make. We've done breads and soup, cupcakes, brownies, mandel bread, other cookies, and in a couple of weeks we are going to tackle eclairs! There is plenty of room for all six of us to move and participate, and the island is a great place for us all to gather for decorating our goodies. I never could have done this in the old kitchen, and these days are some of my favorites in the new space, I think we are building really special memories, and I hope these days continue for as long as we can convince the girls to hang out with old people.
After the election a dear friend reached out to say that he was feeling a bit adrift and asked if could we plan a super farty French dinner party where we could cook all day and make stuff he hadn't done since culinary school. It was an easy yes on my end, and the two of us spent an entire day in the kitchen, making puff pastry from scratch and chicken galantine, Marjolaine cake and Paris Brest, stuffed breast of veal and braised endives and a potato gratin. We had both ovens going at once, and often I was working something on the gas range while he was working the induction. He could do a turn and fold on the puff pastry in the baking area while I was fussing over a sauce across the room, and since I was in the other section of the kitchen, his space stayed cool and uncluttered. We knocked out an 8-course dinner for 7 people, and served and ate it in the kitchen, and the whole thing was smooth and fun, including the cleanup. A total win!
We've also done some larger holiday meals, and our annual New Year's Eve party where we cooked upstairs in the kitchen and served downstairs in the formal dining room. This too worked even better than we anticipated. While I do have to do some pre-planning to ensure that menus lend themselves to the arrangement, Thanksgiving, Fakesgiving, Passover and NYE all went without a hitch, and are about to get even better (stay tuned for why...). We were able to cook upstairs, and hold things in the warming drawers, cold things could get stashed in the downstairs kitchen so they were out of our way upstairs, and between the oven and burners in the downstairs kitchen and a couple of slow cookers, once we were downstairs, we never had to scamper back up till the meal was done.
And entertaining in the kitchen is wonderful. We have done many small dinners, 4-6 people, which is beyond easy, but I also did my mom's birthday ladies luncheon for 9, a brunch for 14 , and a cocktail party for 20 for Charming Suitor's whole office! The "chef's table" can seat up to 10 with the leaves in, making casual dinner parties super easy, and with the four seats at the counter, we can do seated for 14! There is enough room to move around that a standing cocktail party was totally comfortable. What has been really terrific is that when we just have one other couple over for dinner, we can do cocktails and nibbles right in the kitchen instead of the den, so we don't have to miss snippets of conversation when checking on dinner!
All in all, we could not be more delighted and would not change one thing! Here is a roundup of the major picks we made, and how they are functioning:
Poggenpohl Cabinets: We went with all lowers, since I am super short and I like the clean look of no uppers, and almost all drawers except for the corner cabinet solutions. These have been a dream, they hold all the stuff we needed them to hold, up to 200 pounds per drawer! And the smooth function and amazing organization inserts have been the stuff of genius. Cabinets are one of those things that you really don't appreciate until you have exceptionally good ones!
Dekton Countertops: You all know the saga of the countertops and how much we love our partners Cosentino and StoneMasters for hanging in there with us, but the results have been well worth the drama. The counters are gorgeous, and despite our best efforts, we have not been able to stain, scratch or scorch them. They look amazing and have been the perfect choice. Everyone comments on how gorgeous they look and feel, with their suede finish, but I keep extolling their functionality. I've been baking more and more, and can roll things right on the surface with about 1/4 the amount of flour as other surfaces, which means my biscuits are fluffier, and with all the sourdough I'm making lately, I don't have to flour the surface at all, giving me really good surface tension on my breads. I can pull a cast iron Dutch oven out of a 500 degree oven and put it right down, no trivets! This has made using our island as a buffet super easy, everything just goes right down without a worry. And even better, on baking days with the girls, we've been able to use commerical strength food coloring powders, which notoriously get everywhere and stain permanently, and while we have stained our fingers and shirts and aprons, the counters get wiped up and not a mark on them. I would absolutely do them again.
BlueStar Range, Hood and Ovens: I cannot recommend this company enough. These were the first decision we made for the kitchen, and it has proven to have been the best possible thing on every level. The range with the four burners and 24 inch French Top has made our everyday cooking a dream, the flexibility is just amazing. I have melted chocolate on the simmer burner with no double boiler, and have done extreme high heat wok cooking by removing the center rings from the French top. I have done huge batches of stock on the French top, in my giant rondeau that used to have to go over two burners and never heated properly, and the high heat burners are getting great sears on our steaks. The range is easy to clean, and we love the simple intuitive design. The hood is super powerful, so when we are doing those steaks we don't smoke out the kitchen, and I can finally make fish at home and not stink up the place for a week! The gas oven has been amazing for roasting, but the electric oven has really changed my life. The flexibility of the different cooking programs are still things that I am exploring, but I am baking more and more and enjoying more than I ever have. The built-in baking stone has been the most important thing, as I am now making sourdough breads regularly, and getting insanely crunchy crusts! I'm about to start playing with pizza, so stay tuned for those adventures. I have three other friends who have all purchased BlueStar ranges since we got ours, and everyone raves. If you take only one thing away from our kitchen experience, it is whatever kitchen you are doing, check out BlueStar for sure!
Marvel Fridge Freezer, wine fridge and cheese fridge: The 72-inch side by side has completely changed our lives for the better. Suddenly there is room in the freezer to really sock away stuff, so I can finally make big batches of homemade stock like I always wanted to, and not take up the whole freezer. That includes stashing old bones and carcasses and veggie scraps until I have enough for stock. I can start prepping for holiday meals a month out. I can put full sheet trays in the fridge! The fridge stays organized with the help of a bunch of clear plastic bins, and I always know where everything is. But I no longer have to remove all of the regular inhabitants when I load in groceries for a big party...everything just fits! Glorious. The wine fridge has been really great, Charming Suitor keeps it full of a variety of everyday wines, as well as the vermouth, Lillet, and other cocktail making supplies that used to take up a ton of room in the regular fridge. And the cheese fridge has been wonderful, we are getting twice to three times the life out of our cheeses and charcuterie as we used to in the regular fridge!
Gaggenau Induction Cooktop, steamer and warming drawers: Working with induction cookery has been really fun, the speed is astounding (boiling water in mere moments), but the range of temps is also amazing (perfect poached eggs), and since it puts off no heat, it has been terrific for cooking last minute stuff with guests over, since I can face them while I cook and not wilt everyone's hairdo. The warming drawers are in almost daily use, from just gently heating our dinner plates, to holding cooked foods until dinner time, to helping me proof breads. But it is the steamer that was the total surprise. This thing is amazing. From making steamed veggies for quick dinners to holding classic Chicago hot dogs and the buns nice and warm for a party, it's been making our life so much easier! We've gotten addicted to steamed new potatoes, which taste so much more potato-y than boiled ones. And our annual love affair with artichokes has been powerfully improved. The ease of cleanup, just drain and wipe out the base and stick the lid and steamer insert right in the dishwasher, makes it a dream.
LaCornue Rotisserie: You guys know that I wanted this thing like it was my JOB. Thank goodness for a milestone birthday just preceding the kitchen project, I will be forever grateful for turning 45. It is the gift that keeps on giving. Super easy, we do chicken at least once a week. Nothing fancy, straight out of the fridge with a spray of oil and a sprinkle of salt, and an hour later there is the perfect crispy-skinned super juicy chicken that somehow manages to taste seasoned to the bone despite no brining or special prep. We will do potatoes underneath, or our new obsession, cabbage, which cooks and caramelizes in the chicken fat and juices and chars on the edges. That and a green vegetable in the steamer and we have a quick and easy meal that practically made itself. People can invite themselves for dinner at 4PM, and all I have to do is get this thing going and there is no sweat. We've done leg of lamb, and even a whole pineapple for an unusual summer dessert. The only issue for us was that even though the company swears it does not need extra ventilation? It totally does. When we first started cooking with it, it set off the carbon monoxide detector every time, forcing us to cook with the back door open. So we recently installed a super quiet exhaust fan in the ceiling above it, and problem was solved. We were lucky because having the construction happening upstairs meant that we had easy access to drop it in from above, but if you are considering one for your home, be sure to plan a ceiling exhaust fan from the start. The true bonus is that with all these rotisserie chickens, I stash carcasses in our awesome freezer, so I never have to buy bones for stock!
Miele Dishwashers: These things are getting constant use, and while having two of them has been really wonderful for big parties, the fact is that for everyday or smaller dinners with one other couple, one is really all we need for cleanup! They are so well-designed and flexible that everything always manages to fit. The silverware drawer on top mean no more picking food bits off between spoons that got stuck together, and with the moveable racks, I can fit my tallest stock pot, and sheet pans with ease. But there is no question, if you love to cook and entertain, that second dishwasher is like a little miracle. And even better, they run so silently, that we can have a dinner party in the kitchen with the prep stuff running, and no one notices!
Blanco sinks and faucets: Last but not least, our pair of sinks with their professional grade faucets have finally made cleanup easy. The deep bowls hold plenty of stuff, and make cleaning larger pots and pans and serving pieces super easy. The elevated grates on the bottom have saved me a couple of time when I was filling pots and got a phone call! And all of the various extras, like the inset strainers and cutting boards have made them uber functional.
Larchwood Canada custom butcher block: This 5 inch thick butcher block has now seen a full year of slicing and dicing and chopping and it still looks amazing. The self-healing larchwood requires only an occasional treatment of butcher block conditioner and you can barely tell that we actually chop on it. It looks spectacular, and we love not having to pull out cutting boards every second.
We are so grateful to our partners at all of these amazing companies for helping us do the research, guiding us through the processes, and being at our sides, not only in the decision making process, but throughout delivery, install, and even checking in to be sure that everything is continuing to work well for us. It was so much fun to work with companies who really listened to what it is we were trying to achieve, and have them guide us towards the perfect choices. Poggenpohl even sent a wonderful photographer, Mike Kaskel, to take the amazing pics below!
That is the official one-year update on the kitchen, coming up this week...color choices for the third floor!
Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath
Do you BELIEVE what these drawers can hold????
Happiest girl ever!March 20, 2017
Quick tour
Chickens-
Get ready, because I'm about to be back with a vengeance! Not only have I finally finished edits on the new novel, but because the third floor suite is drywalled, primed, and about to be painted! So here is a quick tour of the blank canvas spaces, in preparation for the discussions of color choices and design elements that will be coming at you in the weeks ahead!
Also, I have some reports from the 2017 Housewares Show with some really cool new gadgets, and an update on how the first year in the new kitchen went!
So just to wet your whistles...
This is the entrance to the Master Bedroom at the top of the stairs.
This will be a small cozy place for us to watch TV.
I always wanted a bedroom with a bright sunny reading nook...
the turret is going to be the perfect place to snuggle up with a great book!
This is where the bed will go. I'm amazed at how bright it is up here, after 22 years sleeping on the first floor,
and another two in the basement, the idea of all of this light is just delightful!
This will be Charming Suitor's dressing room.
This will be my dressing room. Yes, CS has noticed the discrepancy in size. I blame the shoes.
The commode room.
The Master Bath entrance.
CS and I each have a vanity nook.
This is where the bathtub will live.
The shower.
Laundry room and storage.
Utility closet.
Bathroom for CS's office.
CS's office/music room.That's the tour! Stay tuned, because we have made some bold and possibly surprising color choices with our friends at Sherwin-Williams, more about that soon.
Anyone want to hazard any guesses about what colors we might have chosen for some of these spaces? Post your thoughts in the comments.
Yours in good taste,
The Polymath
Get ready, because I'm about to be back with a vengeance! Not only have I finally finished edits on the new novel, but because the third floor suite is drywalled, primed, and about to be painted! So here is a quick tour of the blank canvas spaces, in preparation for the discussions of color choices and design elements that will be coming at you in the weeks ahead!
Also, I have some reports from the 2017 Housewares Show with some really cool new gadgets, and an update on how the first year in the new kitchen went!
So just to wet your whistles...
This is the entrance to the Master Bedroom at the top of the stairs.
This will be a small cozy place for us to watch TV.
I always wanted a bedroom with a bright sunny reading nook...the turret is going to be the perfect place to snuggle up with a great book!
This is where the bed will go. I'm amazed at how bright it is up here, after 22 years sleeping on the first floor, and another two in the basement, the idea of all of this light is just delightful!
This will be Charming Suitor's dressing room.
This will be my dressing room. Yes, CS has noticed the discrepancy in size. I blame the shoes.
The commode room. 
The Master Bath entrance.
CS and I each have a vanity nook.
This is where the bathtub will live.
The shower.
Laundry room and storage.
Utility closet.
Bathroom for CS's office.
CS's office/music room.That's the tour! Stay tuned, because we have made some bold and possibly surprising color choices with our friends at Sherwin-Williams, more about that soon. Anyone want to hazard any guesses about what colors we might have chosen for some of these spaces? Post your thoughts in the comments.
Yours in good taste,
The Polymath
February 23, 2017
Happy, um, Spring?
Hello Chickens!
Not sure what the weather is doing where you are, but here in Chicago it has been in the mid to high sixties for nearly a week. You know, classic February weather. The tree outside my window is all abud, the birds and squirrels are chattering noisily, and the work on the third floor is going
swimmingly!
In some good news, I am delighted to share with you the cover of my new book, which will be released in August!
Isn't it cute???? I'm really excited about this book, people. It is the story of Eloise, a personal chef who is perfectly content with her small cozy life. She loves the quirky family she works for, with their gaggle of kids. She dotes on her snarky other client, an elderly gay interior designer with a million opinions. Her best gal pal Marcy provides all the girl time she needs. She has her mom and aunt nearby and shares her comfy house with her adorable corgi. And then she reconnects with her two best friends from high school, and when the three of them agree to a bucket list bet in honor of their impending 40th birthdays, suddenly her life is blown wide open. There is dating and socializing and testing her boundaries, and Eloise doesn't know if it is the best or worst thing to ever happen to her. Essentially it is a book about whether the friends of our youth can or even should be the friends of our middle years, and about whether you really can teach an old dog new tricks. It is funny and full of good food and I think you will like it. Feel free to pre-order now, just so you don't forget!
PRE-ORDER HERE
To give you the full Chateau update...
As we have mentioned before, since I fell in love with a three flat and not a two flat, we ended up with an excess of space. And embarrassment of riches. After much discussion, Charming Suitor and I decided that if we were going to design the world's best house for entertaining and overnight guests, it might be smart to work in something of an oasis for ourselves. We have put so much time and effort and thought into making spaces for the people we bring into our home, that we wanted to be sure that we were creating some sacred space just for us. Private space. So we have chosen to use the entire third floor as our sanctuary, a master suite that we can escape to no matter how full the house is with family and friends.
So here is the general plan:
There is a large L-shaped bedroom space, with the bed on the long part of the L, a small sitting area with a television on the short part and since they meet at our turret, a large sunny area for reading with big comfy chairs.
We each will have a walk-in dressing room, there is a commode room which will have the toilet, a sink, and an area for me to do hair and makeup. The master bathroom will have his and hers vanities, a large two-person walk-in shower, and a soaker tub. There is also a laundry room on this level, and CS's study/music room.
It is essentially going to be the world's best hotel suite, except we will get to live in it all the time!
We have passed our framing, HVAC, plumbing and eletrical inspections and have loaded in 153 sheets of 4'x12' drywall. As soon as that is up, then I can start to tell you about how the spaces are coming together, design wise, which is much more fun than ductwork and insulation! We are even putting is a secret bookshelf door...you know, like you do.
But here are some pics of where we are now...just to catch you up!
Stay tuned for a video walk-thru as soon as drywall is up!
Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath
Not sure what the weather is doing where you are, but here in Chicago it has been in the mid to high sixties for nearly a week. You know, classic February weather. The tree outside my window is all abud, the birds and squirrels are chattering noisily, and the work on the third floor is going
swimmingly!
In some good news, I am delighted to share with you the cover of my new book, which will be released in August!
Isn't it cute???? I'm really excited about this book, people. It is the story of Eloise, a personal chef who is perfectly content with her small cozy life. She loves the quirky family she works for, with their gaggle of kids. She dotes on her snarky other client, an elderly gay interior designer with a million opinions. Her best gal pal Marcy provides all the girl time she needs. She has her mom and aunt nearby and shares her comfy house with her adorable corgi. And then she reconnects with her two best friends from high school, and when the three of them agree to a bucket list bet in honor of their impending 40th birthdays, suddenly her life is blown wide open. There is dating and socializing and testing her boundaries, and Eloise doesn't know if it is the best or worst thing to ever happen to her. Essentially it is a book about whether the friends of our youth can or even should be the friends of our middle years, and about whether you really can teach an old dog new tricks. It is funny and full of good food and I think you will like it. Feel free to pre-order now, just so you don't forget!
PRE-ORDER HERE
To give you the full Chateau update...
As we have mentioned before, since I fell in love with a three flat and not a two flat, we ended up with an excess of space. And embarrassment of riches. After much discussion, Charming Suitor and I decided that if we were going to design the world's best house for entertaining and overnight guests, it might be smart to work in something of an oasis for ourselves. We have put so much time and effort and thought into making spaces for the people we bring into our home, that we wanted to be sure that we were creating some sacred space just for us. Private space. So we have chosen to use the entire third floor as our sanctuary, a master suite that we can escape to no matter how full the house is with family and friends.
So here is the general plan:
There is a large L-shaped bedroom space, with the bed on the long part of the L, a small sitting area with a television on the short part and since they meet at our turret, a large sunny area for reading with big comfy chairs.
We each will have a walk-in dressing room, there is a commode room which will have the toilet, a sink, and an area for me to do hair and makeup. The master bathroom will have his and hers vanities, a large two-person walk-in shower, and a soaker tub. There is also a laundry room on this level, and CS's study/music room.
It is essentially going to be the world's best hotel suite, except we will get to live in it all the time!
We have passed our framing, HVAC, plumbing and eletrical inspections and have loaded in 153 sheets of 4'x12' drywall. As soon as that is up, then I can start to tell you about how the spaces are coming together, design wise, which is much more fun than ductwork and insulation! We are even putting is a secret bookshelf door...you know, like you do.
But here are some pics of where we are now...just to catch you up!
Stay tuned for a video walk-thru as soon as drywall is up!
Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath
January 15, 2017
Grilled Cheese Manifesto
Chickens-
Happy New Year! I hope that you all had a wonderful festive season, full of family and friends and much deliciousness. Charming Suitor and I certainly did. We wined and dined and napped and binge-watched and cooked in and ate out and spent a lot of quality time with quality people. Despite the current political climate, we worked hard on focusing on the positive and celebrating our blessings. We had a terrific NYE party, for which this was the menu:
Boom.
The Chateau de Pamplemousse is back under construction full-force on Phase 3, which means that coming up shortly you will be getting a lot of information on the progress of the Master Bedroom Suite, which is awfully exciting. At the moment the entire third floor has been demo-ed, and frankly, I think you are all probably fairly sick of seeing pictures of framing and insulation at this point, so I'll focus more on the design elements of the spaces as they come together, as well as some really major decisions regarding bathrooms! Oh, and an elevator. You know, like you do.
Winter has settled in full-force, polar vortex and all, which always turns my fancy to soups. And since, for me, soup is nearly always mostly an excuse to have a grilled cheese sandwich, I was very excited to get invited to the Second Annual Grilled Cheese Takedown hosted by TimeOut Chicago.
Those of you who know me, know that I am something of a grilled cheese obsessive. I adore them. One of my fondest memories of overnight camp involves the rare treat of "grilled cheese day", where endless platters of perfectly cut triangles of plotchy golden buttery crunchy white bread oozing brilliant orange american cheese came out of the kitchen as fast as we could eat them. And we could eat as much as we wanted, which for me, was probably eleventy million triangles.
A good grilled cheese is a thing of beauty. It is simple, three ingredients, bread, butter, cheese. It is elemental. Salty, savory, buttery, crunchy, gooey. It is delightful on its own, but the perfect vehicle for a soup dunking. When CS and I go to visit our pals in Maine, and he begins his personal quest for eating his weight daily in lobster, I go full tilt boogie into grilled cheese, because the only thing those lobster roll shacks make that is as good as their lobster rolls is grilled cheese. I think in part it is because they know the value of a perfectly toasted buttered piece of bread. I order them for lunch in endless delis and diners wherever I roam, and it is the first thing I check for on a room service menu.
I make them at home when I'm in need of comfort, or feeling poorly. And I have rules. White bread only. Don't care if it is my homemade sourdough or Japanese pullman loaf, Texas Toast or even Pepperidge Farm Extra Thin, white it must be. Good salted butter, this is not the place for blandness. Butter the bread itself, don't just melt it in the pan, that way you get the butter over every speck of the bread for optimal golden goodness. I know a lot of people swear by mayo instead of butter, but I find mayo adds a slight sweetness that I don't love, I stick with the original. Bread goes butter side down in a cold nonstick pan, and good quality American cheese slices go on top of the bread, and then the heat goes on low. One slice of cheese per piece of bread of thin or regular size, an extra slice of cheese if you are working with Texas Toast or other thick-cut breads, balance and ratio are key. By the time the bread heats up enough to get golden and crispy at the low temp, the cheese on top should be melted, if the bread is thicker, I will use a lid to help the melting along. Low and slow, you want really crispy and golden brown on the outside and fully melted within. Once everything is nice and melty I flip the top of the sandwich over onto the bottom and give the whole sandwich a flip or two just to ensure all the browning is the way I want it. NO PRESSING! This is not a panini. Remove from the pan to a wire rack, very important, since you worked hard to get it crispy, and don't want the bottom to steam and get soggy. Rest it for three minutes, like you would rest a piece of meat before carving, just to let the cheese tighten up the tiniest bit, otherwise it will run all out when you cut the sandwich in half. On the diagonal, because we are not heathens, and the pointy bits are the best for soup dunking. You're welcome.
Grilled cheese, done well, with some thought and the simplest ingredients is a perfect food.
Here is my personal takeaway from the Grilled Cheese Takedown.
These people make amazing sandwiches.
Truly, some of them were insanely delicious. Gayle's Best Ever Grilled Cheese, one of my staples from the Logan Square Farmers Market, makes a terrific grilled cheese with Wisconsin Butterkäse that I adore. Her offering today, her Italian version tasted like delicious pizza bread with pepperoni and subtle garlic spread. Dusek's blew us away with a three-cheese truffle bomb with frisee jam, that was an amazing mouthful of richness. South Water kitchen had a killer sandwich full of bacon and chicken tenders, Cheesie's Pub and Grub introduced us to duck bacon, of which we approve whole heartedly. Wyler Road took an interesting turn down mashup lane with their PB&J Grilled Cheese, which was sadly marred by the decision to use brie as the cheese. Brie is never good in a 'melted on a sandwich' application. You lose the nuance of the cheese, and amp up the off-taste and texture of the rind, bad combo. Same Day Café had a killer tomato soup, and was on their way to grilled cheese perfection, but the volume of rosemary in the sandwich took it to a Pine Sol place that was disappointing. Michael Jordan's Steak House was doing short rib grilled cheese with a caramelized onion jus, but the short rib was sort of randomly placed, some bites had none, some were all short rib, the cheese had no flavor at all, and the bread was thick and very dry. The dunk in the jus helped the dryness, but was such a salt bomb that it didn't save anything. Jerry's we had saved for last, due in no small part to their "kitchen sink" approach, which included bacon, cashew butter, mango chipotle jam, arugula, and god knows what else. It was freaking delicious. Shockingly so. The perfect last bite to a pretty overall yummy experience. Rekorderling's Premium Cider was pouring both their pear and passionfruit ciders, I preferred the passionfruit, CS preferred the pear, but weirdly, we both preferred the sips where we blended the two half and half! And we were very glad we went, a fun Sunday lunch adventure, so thanks to TimeOut for the invite.
But here is the thing. It wasn't grilled cheese. In fact, NONE of the sandwiches in the grilled cheese takedown, were, in my opinion, grilled cheese, with the exception of Same Day Cafe. They were, almost all of them, really good sandwiches. Sandwiches I would absolutely recommend to others as sandwiches, or even order myself. As long as I wasn't craving grilled cheese. Because the essential thing about the grilled cheese sandwich? IS THE CHEESE. Cheese takes the lead, it isn't a garnish or an add on or the support staff. Cheese is supposed to be the star. And today, we had a lot of yummy flavors, but almost none of them were cheese. We tasted bacon and jam and chicken and truffles and cashews and blueberries and garlic and pepperoni and tomato and delicious breads, but I couldn't tell you one cheese we really tasted, except for the ill-conceived brie for not fun or delicious reasons. And the one sandwich that technically was grilled cheese, the rosemary was all we tasted, we couldn't taste the cheese at all, which was sad, because they had the rest of it just right, the crispy buttery bread, the ooey gooey temp, nice and hot. Sigh.
There is a reason that chefs, when testing other chefs for possible employment, will ask them to make a plain omelette or roast a chicken. Because in those dishes, there is nowhere to hide. Simple ingredients require perfect technique and only a good palate for seasoning to make them sing. The minute you start tarting them up with a zillion other ingredients, you start masking the essential elements of what they are. Which can be absolutely delicious, but not pure. I am usually a more is more girl, just ask CS. If one is good, a dozen is better. If you are bored with your usual tablescape, try adding glass bowls with live betta fish in them. (yes, I actually did this for NYE, and yes it was awesomely cool, and yes, it is possible that I might have worked the PetSmart 14 day return policy on live fish to my advantage, and no, I am not ashamed).
I think in a competition like this, you should be going for the platonic ideal. Chili competitions, BBQ competitions, no one is making shocking changes to the basics, they have their own spice blends or rubs, the length of the cook or the wood they use to smoke things over, but the essentials are the same, and then the question is whose technique and details make them the best when compared side by side. Charming Suitor asked me on the walk to the hall from the car what my criteria were. I said this: crispy golden browned bread that is not dry, well-melted flavorful cheese that is not greasy, cheese the star of the show. Well seasoned, not too salty, not too bland. Should be delicious all on its own, but you should be able to imagine it tasting great when dunked in a variety of soups. Simple.
I loved many of the sandwiches I ate today. But I didn't vote for my favorite grilled cheese because I felt like I hadn't eaten any. So I announce that my personal winner for the Chicago Grilled Cheese Takedown was a sandwich that wasn't competing. The Four Moon Tavern, in my humble opinion, makes the best grilled cheese I have ever eaten, and that includes my own, to which I am fairly partial. They use a great large Italian style sliced white loaf, good butter, good American cheese, it gets great crunch on the outside, good chew on the crust, and awesome gooeyness in the middle and they make a spectacular homemade tomato soup for serious dunking. It is a really good size, filling and substantial. I crave them fortnightly. Gayle's Best Ever Grilled Cheese gets honorable mention, not for the yummy pizza bread bite of today, but for their traditional grilled cheese which I have eaten many a warm summer Sunday and find deeply satisfying, and if you spot her truck at a farmer's market near you, get in line for sure.
If you want a great sandwich, I can say that Jerry's, Duseks, and South Water Kitchen would be well worth checking out, they had my favorite bites of the day. But for grilled cheese? Head to Four Moon on the corner of Roscoe and Wolcott for a bit of gooey heaven. Tell them I sent you.
In the meantime, to all the hardworking chefs and great dining establishments who knocked it out today, congrats. It was a lot of fun and a lot of yummy. Even if it wasn't grilled cheese.
Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath
Happy New Year! I hope that you all had a wonderful festive season, full of family and friends and much deliciousness. Charming Suitor and I certainly did. We wined and dined and napped and binge-watched and cooked in and ate out and spent a lot of quality time with quality people. Despite the current political climate, we worked hard on focusing on the positive and celebrating our blessings. We had a terrific NYE party, for which this was the menu:
Boom.
The Chateau de Pamplemousse is back under construction full-force on Phase 3, which means that coming up shortly you will be getting a lot of information on the progress of the Master Bedroom Suite, which is awfully exciting. At the moment the entire third floor has been demo-ed, and frankly, I think you are all probably fairly sick of seeing pictures of framing and insulation at this point, so I'll focus more on the design elements of the spaces as they come together, as well as some really major decisions regarding bathrooms! Oh, and an elevator. You know, like you do.
Winter has settled in full-force, polar vortex and all, which always turns my fancy to soups. And since, for me, soup is nearly always mostly an excuse to have a grilled cheese sandwich, I was very excited to get invited to the Second Annual Grilled Cheese Takedown hosted by TimeOut Chicago.
Those of you who know me, know that I am something of a grilled cheese obsessive. I adore them. One of my fondest memories of overnight camp involves the rare treat of "grilled cheese day", where endless platters of perfectly cut triangles of plotchy golden buttery crunchy white bread oozing brilliant orange american cheese came out of the kitchen as fast as we could eat them. And we could eat as much as we wanted, which for me, was probably eleventy million triangles.
A good grilled cheese is a thing of beauty. It is simple, three ingredients, bread, butter, cheese. It is elemental. Salty, savory, buttery, crunchy, gooey. It is delightful on its own, but the perfect vehicle for a soup dunking. When CS and I go to visit our pals in Maine, and he begins his personal quest for eating his weight daily in lobster, I go full tilt boogie into grilled cheese, because the only thing those lobster roll shacks make that is as good as their lobster rolls is grilled cheese. I think in part it is because they know the value of a perfectly toasted buttered piece of bread. I order them for lunch in endless delis and diners wherever I roam, and it is the first thing I check for on a room service menu.
I make them at home when I'm in need of comfort, or feeling poorly. And I have rules. White bread only. Don't care if it is my homemade sourdough or Japanese pullman loaf, Texas Toast or even Pepperidge Farm Extra Thin, white it must be. Good salted butter, this is not the place for blandness. Butter the bread itself, don't just melt it in the pan, that way you get the butter over every speck of the bread for optimal golden goodness. I know a lot of people swear by mayo instead of butter, but I find mayo adds a slight sweetness that I don't love, I stick with the original. Bread goes butter side down in a cold nonstick pan, and good quality American cheese slices go on top of the bread, and then the heat goes on low. One slice of cheese per piece of bread of thin or regular size, an extra slice of cheese if you are working with Texas Toast or other thick-cut breads, balance and ratio are key. By the time the bread heats up enough to get golden and crispy at the low temp, the cheese on top should be melted, if the bread is thicker, I will use a lid to help the melting along. Low and slow, you want really crispy and golden brown on the outside and fully melted within. Once everything is nice and melty I flip the top of the sandwich over onto the bottom and give the whole sandwich a flip or two just to ensure all the browning is the way I want it. NO PRESSING! This is not a panini. Remove from the pan to a wire rack, very important, since you worked hard to get it crispy, and don't want the bottom to steam and get soggy. Rest it for three minutes, like you would rest a piece of meat before carving, just to let the cheese tighten up the tiniest bit, otherwise it will run all out when you cut the sandwich in half. On the diagonal, because we are not heathens, and the pointy bits are the best for soup dunking. You're welcome.
Grilled cheese, done well, with some thought and the simplest ingredients is a perfect food.
Here is my personal takeaway from the Grilled Cheese Takedown.
These people make amazing sandwiches.
Truly, some of them were insanely delicious. Gayle's Best Ever Grilled Cheese, one of my staples from the Logan Square Farmers Market, makes a terrific grilled cheese with Wisconsin Butterkäse that I adore. Her offering today, her Italian version tasted like delicious pizza bread with pepperoni and subtle garlic spread. Dusek's blew us away with a three-cheese truffle bomb with frisee jam, that was an amazing mouthful of richness. South Water kitchen had a killer sandwich full of bacon and chicken tenders, Cheesie's Pub and Grub introduced us to duck bacon, of which we approve whole heartedly. Wyler Road took an interesting turn down mashup lane with their PB&J Grilled Cheese, which was sadly marred by the decision to use brie as the cheese. Brie is never good in a 'melted on a sandwich' application. You lose the nuance of the cheese, and amp up the off-taste and texture of the rind, bad combo. Same Day Café had a killer tomato soup, and was on their way to grilled cheese perfection, but the volume of rosemary in the sandwich took it to a Pine Sol place that was disappointing. Michael Jordan's Steak House was doing short rib grilled cheese with a caramelized onion jus, but the short rib was sort of randomly placed, some bites had none, some were all short rib, the cheese had no flavor at all, and the bread was thick and very dry. The dunk in the jus helped the dryness, but was such a salt bomb that it didn't save anything. Jerry's we had saved for last, due in no small part to their "kitchen sink" approach, which included bacon, cashew butter, mango chipotle jam, arugula, and god knows what else. It was freaking delicious. Shockingly so. The perfect last bite to a pretty overall yummy experience. Rekorderling's Premium Cider was pouring both their pear and passionfruit ciders, I preferred the passionfruit, CS preferred the pear, but weirdly, we both preferred the sips where we blended the two half and half! And we were very glad we went, a fun Sunday lunch adventure, so thanks to TimeOut for the invite.
But here is the thing. It wasn't grilled cheese. In fact, NONE of the sandwiches in the grilled cheese takedown, were, in my opinion, grilled cheese, with the exception of Same Day Cafe. They were, almost all of them, really good sandwiches. Sandwiches I would absolutely recommend to others as sandwiches, or even order myself. As long as I wasn't craving grilled cheese. Because the essential thing about the grilled cheese sandwich? IS THE CHEESE. Cheese takes the lead, it isn't a garnish or an add on or the support staff. Cheese is supposed to be the star. And today, we had a lot of yummy flavors, but almost none of them were cheese. We tasted bacon and jam and chicken and truffles and cashews and blueberries and garlic and pepperoni and tomato and delicious breads, but I couldn't tell you one cheese we really tasted, except for the ill-conceived brie for not fun or delicious reasons. And the one sandwich that technically was grilled cheese, the rosemary was all we tasted, we couldn't taste the cheese at all, which was sad, because they had the rest of it just right, the crispy buttery bread, the ooey gooey temp, nice and hot. Sigh.
There is a reason that chefs, when testing other chefs for possible employment, will ask them to make a plain omelette or roast a chicken. Because in those dishes, there is nowhere to hide. Simple ingredients require perfect technique and only a good palate for seasoning to make them sing. The minute you start tarting them up with a zillion other ingredients, you start masking the essential elements of what they are. Which can be absolutely delicious, but not pure. I am usually a more is more girl, just ask CS. If one is good, a dozen is better. If you are bored with your usual tablescape, try adding glass bowls with live betta fish in them. (yes, I actually did this for NYE, and yes it was awesomely cool, and yes, it is possible that I might have worked the PetSmart 14 day return policy on live fish to my advantage, and no, I am not ashamed).
I think in a competition like this, you should be going for the platonic ideal. Chili competitions, BBQ competitions, no one is making shocking changes to the basics, they have their own spice blends or rubs, the length of the cook or the wood they use to smoke things over, but the essentials are the same, and then the question is whose technique and details make them the best when compared side by side. Charming Suitor asked me on the walk to the hall from the car what my criteria were. I said this: crispy golden browned bread that is not dry, well-melted flavorful cheese that is not greasy, cheese the star of the show. Well seasoned, not too salty, not too bland. Should be delicious all on its own, but you should be able to imagine it tasting great when dunked in a variety of soups. Simple.
I loved many of the sandwiches I ate today. But I didn't vote for my favorite grilled cheese because I felt like I hadn't eaten any. So I announce that my personal winner for the Chicago Grilled Cheese Takedown was a sandwich that wasn't competing. The Four Moon Tavern, in my humble opinion, makes the best grilled cheese I have ever eaten, and that includes my own, to which I am fairly partial. They use a great large Italian style sliced white loaf, good butter, good American cheese, it gets great crunch on the outside, good chew on the crust, and awesome gooeyness in the middle and they make a spectacular homemade tomato soup for serious dunking. It is a really good size, filling and substantial. I crave them fortnightly. Gayle's Best Ever Grilled Cheese gets honorable mention, not for the yummy pizza bread bite of today, but for their traditional grilled cheese which I have eaten many a warm summer Sunday and find deeply satisfying, and if you spot her truck at a farmer's market near you, get in line for sure.
If you want a great sandwich, I can say that Jerry's, Duseks, and South Water Kitchen would be well worth checking out, they had my favorite bites of the day. But for grilled cheese? Head to Four Moon on the corner of Roscoe and Wolcott for a bit of gooey heaven. Tell them I sent you.
In the meantime, to all the hardworking chefs and great dining establishments who knocked it out today, congrats. It was a lot of fun and a lot of yummy. Even if it wasn't grilled cheese.
Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath
November 8, 2016
Thankful
Chickens-
This is a long one, but for those of you who hang in there till the end, there is a pretty amazing giveaway!
I have posted this piece, adjusted slightly year by year, since 2009. The essentials don’t change much. The sentiment changes not at all.
This year is a bit different.
This year is dedicated to the loving memory of my grandmother Jonnie, who left us in August, I’m reasonably certain so that she could watch the Cubs win the World Series with my grandfather.
Jonnie is the reason I cook, the reason I gather loved ones around my table, the reason that when there are four for dinner I make enough for eight because abundance rules and one can always do something interesting with the leftovers. Jonnie taught me Thanksgiving, in every permutation of that word and holiday and philosophy. They say that the human body completely renews all of its cells every seven years, every seven years you essentially become a brand new person. And while my family Thanksgiving, which I have been cooking for over 20 years now, has stayed effectively the same, my recipes have slowly shifted from the ones Jonnie taught me, little changes in technique or ingredients, so that now, while the meal is effectively the same, it has also become as much mine as hers. I no longer do her turkey with the buttered cheesecloth over the breast, and I don’t stuff the bird the way she did. My mashed potatoes now include sour cream and chives, and there is significantly less brown sugar in the sweet potatoes. I’ve given up the green bean casserole in favor of Brussels sprouts or broccolini or other less gloopy options, and I make milkbread rolls instead of her yeast rolls.
Her orange sherbet jello mold recipe has not been changed a whit.
The various parts of the whole remain the same; the traditions are there, deepened a bit, adjusted, but still full of memory and still honoring what came before.
This will be the 24th Thanksgiving meal I have cooked. It will be the first one that I will have to do without eleventy million phone calls over the weeks leading up, going over the menu, telling her about some new thing, some new dish. She won’t know that this year the stuffing will include my homemade sourdough bread, although she knew that I was nurturing a starter, and saw pictures of my early bread baking efforts.
Jonnie loved this post. She re-read it every year, and every year she would call me and tell me that she just loved my Thanksgiving advice. And I always said of course she did, since most of it I learned from her. So this year, I’m extra-thankful. I’m thankful for all the usual suspects, my family and friends, my health, my home, a job I love and all of my lovely chickens who read and connect and keep me going. I’m thankful that my holiday table will be surrounded by the faces of those I love, and that the buffet will groan with deliciousness, and I’m deeply profoundly thankful that Jonnie taught me how.
Here is the advice I share with you every year. It is mine, and hers, and I hope, now, yours.
As a passionate home cook, Thanksgiving is my grail, my marathon, my Everest. The ability to pull it off well is a source of pride, and no moments of my year are as purely pleasurable as the brief silence around the table when everyone tucks into their plates, followed by gradual exclamations of rapturous delight. And while there is always something a little bit new or different every year, the basics stay the same, and I’ve gotten a lot of it down to a science.
But science doesn’t mean clenched perfectionism.
With all due respect to Martha, you don’t need twenty-four matching turkey shaped bowls for the soup to taste good, you don’t have to grow your own cranberries, or even make your own pie crust (or pie for that matter) for this day to be wonderful. Good food, prepared with love (or purchased with love), and served with a smile is all anyone needs for the holiday to be sublime…to each at the level of his or her own ability.
For those of you who are thinking of tackling the big day, I’ve got some tips to help you out. The most important thing about Thanksgiving is right there in the name, be thankful. If you burn the turkey, eat all the side dishes and proclaim yourselves temporary vegetarians and laugh it off. If you are with your people, whatever that looks like for you, then you are doing it right, the rest is just details. And if at all possible, set yourself up for success with some simple advice and simpler recipes.
Whether you are having a huge event with five generations, a gathering of your best pals who aren’t able to be with their own families, or just a small dinner with you and your sweetie, there are ways to make this day less stressful, and more joyous.
Firstly, know thyself. Do you regularly make your own puff pastry, serve towering flaming Baked Alaskas, and finish your sauces with homemade demi-glace? Then find any challenging menu that inspires you and have at it. But if you burn the toast four days out of ten, this isn’t the time to try anything complicated. Keep things simple, and don’t be afraid to get help with the hard stuff or fiddly bits. People love to participate, so let guests bring something to take some of the pressure off you. If you’ve never made piecrust, buy a good quality frozen crust. Look at local prepared foods sections of grocery stores and see who is offering side dishes and do a tasting the week before. If Whole Foods is making a killer stuffing, there’s no shame in serving it. Does gravy make you nervous? Add five or six whole peeled shallots to the roasting pan along with your bird, and simply blend them into the de-fatted pan juices or some stock to thicken it easily, add some herbs, a splash of wine or sherry, and you have a flavorful jus without all that tricky flour business.
Secondly, know thy audience. You might be a major foodie, but is Aunt Marge? No point in fussing over individual pumpkin soufflés cooked in hollowed out roasted quinces with vanilla bean tuiles unless the rest of your guests will think it as awesome as you do, and not wonder dejectedly where the Entenmann’s Pumpkin Pie with Cool Whip is this year. You can take the essentials and just make them with the best ingredients you can get, and know that you have improved, even if you haven’t monumentally altered. Or think of it as a retro meal, all the rage these days, and revel in the kitschy quality of making the recipes the old way.
Thanksgiving is also a great time to connect with your family members who cook…call Mom or Uncle Al and ask for advice and recipes, they’ll be flattered and you’ll be amazed how many great tips they can give you.
So, if you’re getting ready for the big day, here are Stacey’s (via Jonnie) Thanksgiving Commandments:
1. Thou shalt buy a fresh turkey from a butcher, and brine or dry brine before roasting. I know Butterball seems like a good idea, and awfully convenient, but they are so filled with preservatives and water and other unnatural stuff, they don’t really taste like turkey. Call your local butcher and order a fresh turkey for pick up the Monday before Thanksgiving. The bonus will be that you won't have to thaw it! Take it home and dry brine for two days, essentially giving it a good salting and slapping it in a large Ziploc bag to hang out. I recommend the Food52 recipe for this. If you prefer a wet brine, go for it, I’ve been preferring the dry brine of late, especially since it saves a ton of room in the fridge, but do one or the other. Then cook as you usually do. You’ll be delighted with the moist, well-seasoned results.
2. Thou shalt discover how easy it is to make awesome cranberry sauce. Cranberry sauce is not just the easiest part of the meal; it can be made up to a week in advance. It’s the perfect thing for even a reluctant cook to offer to bring to someone else’s meal, or an easy addition to your own. (and yes, I know some of you love that shimmering jiggling tube with all the ridges, and if you must, have some on hand…but do at least TRY homemade…you can always serve both)
3. Thou shalt not be ashamed to make the green bean casserole with the Campbell’s Condensed Soup. Sure, I’m a foodie-slash-crazy-person, so I make my cream of mushroom soup from scratch before assembling the ubiquitous casserole if I’m going that direction…but honestly, it’s a tradition for a reason, the original recipe is pretty comforting and delicious in its own way, and easy to make, so even if you consider yourself a major gourmet, pull out the processed food version and serve with a smile. Ditto sweet potatoes with marshmallows. This is not the day for food snobbery or elitism, and even if you choose not to partake of one of these less elegant classics, be sure to let those who love them enjoy without commentary.
4. Thou shalt not overdo the appetizers. And by overdo, I mean serving any if you can help it. You’re going to spend at least two days cooking for this meal. Let your guests be hungry when they get to the table. Keep your pre-dinner nibbles to small bowls of nuts or olives or pretzels or the like, think basic bar snacks…you just want your guests to have something to nosh on with their pre-dinner drinks, but if they fill up on hors d’oeuvres you’ll all be sad when you get to the table and can’t manage seconds. (this is good advice for any dinner party…either plan heavy hors d’ouevres and a light supper, or vice versa) If you must do soup, despite the fact that all good Thanksgiving soups are guaranteed to fill up your guests overmuch, plan on little espresso cups or dainty tea cups during the cocktail hour and not bowls at the table. Serving a soup course adds a level of stress to getting the buffet out that no one needs. I make soup essentially because if I don’t make the soup my family pouts, and the leftovers are pretty great all weekend. But I don’t do a soup course, they get just about three to four lovely sips to go with their pre-dinner bubbles, and when we get to the table, it is turkey time.
5. Thou shalt not bother with salad. I know it always seems like such a good idea to make a fresh green salad. But frankly, it takes up valuable space on a plate that should be devoted to fourteen different carbohydrates, and you’re just going to throw most of it away, since it will be all wilty and depressed by the time you go to put the leftovers away. No one will miss it. Seriously. Stop even thinking about it.
6. Thou shalt not count calories, skimp on ingredients, or whine and pout about how bad the food is for you. We are all very sensitive to healthy eating these days, and more than a few of us are dealing with the need to lose a couple of pounds. Or a couple of dozen. THIS IS NOT THE DAY TO DO IT. Thanksgiving is, at its very core, a celebration of food and the memories that food invokes and the new memories created at the table. You do yourself, your host, and the day a disservice if you think of it as anything else, or deprive yourself of the sheer joy of this meal. If you’re the cook, don’t alter recipes with low fat/low salt/low taste versions of things unless you have a guest with medically prescribed dietary restrictions. Don’t skip meals before, so that you aren’t blindly starving by the time you get to the buffet, and if you’re really concerned, fill your plate anyway you like, but either don’t go back for seconds, or on your second round, stick to the less gloopy veggies and turkey and the cranberry sauce. Any nutritionist worth their salt will tell you that one meal cannot derail your overall progress, especially if you get back to your program the next day and maybe add a workout that week. And any counselor will tell you that the surest way to be cranky is to deprive yourself while all around you are celebrating. Give yourself a break…you’ll be amazed that if you give yourself permission to have everything you want, how easy it is not to overdo it.
7. Thou shalt not stuff your bird. I can hear you crying about it now….you are used to the bird packed with stuffing, you dream about the really crispy good part in the front over the neck, why can’t we stuff our turkeys? Here’s why….one, a stuffed bird is the best possible way to get food borne illness on the agenda. If the stuffing doesn’t get up to at least 180 degrees internally, it can breed bacteria, not fun for anyone’s tummy. Two, in order to get the stuffing to 180, you are going to overcook the crap out of the turkey itself, especially the breast meat. Three, all that moistness you love in the in-the-bird stuffing? That is all the juices from the meat that are getting sucked out by the huge stuffing sponge, and you not only dry out your bird, you have many fewer juices with which to make gravy. Make your stuffing and bake in a separate dish, and if you really miss that dense moistness, buy a couple of extra turkey wings and lay them on top of the casserole as it bakes, and/or melt a stick of butter in a cup of chicken stock and pour it over the stuffing ten minutes before taking it out of the oven. And get over it. Stuffing that wasn’t actually stuffed is always going to be better than food poisoning. We’ve started doing Julia Child’s recipe for a deconstructed turkey cooked on top of a pile of stuffing, which gives you the perfect stuffing and perfect bird, and in a fraction of the time. Cook’s Illustrated has the technique and recipe, including video, just Google it. But be prepared, it means no pan juices at all for gravy (which I love since then I can just make gravy the week before and freeze it), and no big whole bird to bring to the table.
8. Thou shalt not test more than one new recipe for this meal. Thanksgiving is a wonderful meal to add to, but don’t do everything at once. I know that the cooking mags have all sorts of new-fangled versions of things, but they have to reinvent the holiday menu every year. Experimentation is good, but if you change the whole thing up at once, people are going to miss their old standby favorites. Pick one dish that you think is ready for a revamp, and throw in that curveball. If you love it, add it to the repertoire. But don’t do the chipotle rubbed smoked turkey, sweet potato kale bake, barley stuffing, green beans with fresh ricotta, and sherried fig cranberry coulis all in one meal. Someone will weep openly, and everyone will have to run out the next day and make a few traditional items to get them through to next year.
9. Thou shalt be neither The Thanksgiving Dictator, nor The Absent Host, nor That Annoying Guest. If people want to help in the kitchen, let them. And don’t criticize the quality of their small dice, or the way they wash the pots. Ditto assigning specific foods to guests who want to bring something…if someone offers to bring a dish, ask them what they love to make or what they crave most about Thanksgiving and let them bring that. Who cares if you have two kinds of sweet potatoes, or both cornbread and regular stuffing? On Thanksgiving, more is more, and abundance rules. Besides, you have a three-day weekend that needs quality leftovers. By its nature, hosting is complicated and hard work. But please do not be the host who spends the entire party in the kitchen cooking, serving and cleaning, and missing out on spending time with your guests. Make as much of the food ahead of time as possible, so that it needs only reheating to get it to the buffet. Put pitchers or bottles of water and wine all down the table for folks to serve themselves. When the food is set out, sit and eat! For the whole meal! Don’t jump up to make the coffee or organize dessert, everyone will be grateful for a brief break between the two courses. When the main meal is done, package up the leftovers, and if you are using real stuff and not disposable, scrape and stack plates, dump the silverware in a tub or pot of soapy water, and put it all to the side. Put out the desserts and then go be with your people. Until they decide to leave. In my house, the rule is no cleaning till guests are gone, even for big parties, I prefer to have the time with my Charming Suitor, we have a cleanup routine, and we know where everything goes. Put on some music, do some kitchen dancing, eat an extra cookie, talk about what worked particularly well, finish the wine, get a little snarky about your cousin Joey’s new girlfriend with the ultra tiny mini and the ultra big hair. Make it your decompression time. If you do want to have help, designate the two people who will be the easiest to work with and ask if they might stay an extra hour after everyone else goes to give you a hand. More than three people cleaning is too much, you are all elbows and there is never that much space. One person washing, one drying, one putting away or organizing it for getting put away later. If you are the guest, offering to bring something, be clear about what you are capable of; make sure to ask how many people you are expected to serve, and DO NOT BRING ANYTHING THAT NEEDS ASSEMBLY OR COOKING ONSITE! Do you have any idea how supremely annoying it is for someone to arrive with a grocery bag full of ingredients to begin making their dish while you are doing a kitchen dance that requires logistics only slightly less complicated than the opening ceremonies for the Olympics? Or with their frozen or chilled item that they need to wedge into the one oven? Keep it simple. If your dish is to be served warm, bring it already hot in an insulated container, or in your own slow cooker so that you can plug it in somewhere unobtrusive till it is time to serve. Speaking of serving, my best trick for holidays and dinner parties alike is to bring my offering with a serving piece that doubles as my hostess gift. Target, Home Goods, etc. all sell very inexpensive serveware, and it is a huge relief to your hosts for you to hand off your contribution, already on or in its final destination, and say "The platter/bowl/basket is our gift to thank you for your hospitality." Nothing is more annoying after the meal than making sure everyone's serveware gets cleaned so they can take it back home. Ditto Tupperware, only bring something you want to leave behind. And if you bring a dish in your slow cooker, insist on taking it home dirty to clean at your house. I'm just saying.
10. Thou shalt be THANKFUL. We are all very blessed in our own ways. Even if you are going through a rough time, there are those who have it rougher. The times in which we live are a little bit scary and sad, and we all deserve a day to focus on the good. Take a few moments to think about all of the gifts you have in your life, the family and friends who surround you, all of the wonderful things you may take for granted in the hustle and bustle of your day to day. Close your eyes, be joyful, and in all sincerity and humbleness thank the universe for your life.
I am deeply thankful for each and every one of you for reading, supporting my work, and me, and being kind and gentle ears in the world for my words.
And for sticking with me, a special treat! The lovely people at Larchwood Canada, who made my custom butcher block for me, have sent me one of their gorgeous cutting boards to give to one of you, a $220 value! And I’m doing this post early so that you can have it in time for the holiday. These handmade boards are endgrain larch wood, which is naturally anti-microbial and self-healing. Yeah, you can cut on it and it will heal itself. Magic. Plus, you know, completely gorgeous.
So, in Jonnie’s honor, just comment below with the name of the person you are most grateful for this year, and feel free to share a tip, trick, recipe, or memory. Do it by 11:59pm on November 15, and I will announce the winner by random drawing on the 16th.
Yours in Good Taste,The Polymath
Here are some of my go-to turkey day recipes. Follow to the letter or use as a springboard for your own touches… All recipes are designed to accommodate 12-14 people with leftovers. And if you have recipes of your own to share, be sure to leave them in the comments section!
Cranberry sauce
2 bags cranberries1 ½ c port1 c sugar1 t salt5 T orange juice1 ½ t cornstarch1 t ground mustard1 t lemon juiceZest of 1 orangePinch ground clovePinch fresh gingerZest of 1 lemon½ c dried cherries-rehydrate in ¼ c port
Cook cranberries and port in a saucepan over med-high heat 10 minutes, until cranberries burst. Add sugar and salt. Whisk OJ, cornstarch, mustard, lemon juice in a bowl and add to berries. Stir to combine. Add rest of ingredients, cook 5-6 minutes more, cool.
Mashed potatoes
10 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes (peeled, cubed)2 sticks butter, cubed1 cup whole milk, warmed (or half and half or cream, depending on how rich you like it)1 pt. sour cream1 tub whipped cream cheese with chives (or plain) at room temp1 bunch chives, chopped fineS&P to taste
Boil potatoes till soft. Drain completely. Put potatoes through ricer, or just use hand mixer to mash. Add butter first, then cream cheese, and then milk to just shy of your preferred texture. Once the potatoes are almost there, add in the sour cream, cream cheese and chives and season well. Hold in double boiler or slow cooker to keep warm. Can be held about an hour in a double boiler or up to two in a slow cooker on warm without breaking.
Basic Stuffing
1 XL loaf country bread or French bread cubed and toasted till totally dry (2 lbs.) (or 2 lbs of the plain crouton cubes from the store)1 pkg soft egg rolls or hot dog buns torn coarsely2 ½ sticks butter1 ½ c finely chopped onion1 ½ c finely chopped celeryCelery leaves from 2 heads, chopped¼ c chopped flat leaf parsleyDried sage, thyme, marjoram (1 T each)S/P to taste4 lg eggs, beaten1 32 oz box chicken stock…add as necessary to moisten½ c toasted bread crumbs
Saute veggies and herbs in 1 ½ sticks butter. Toss with bread. Add stock slowly till moist but not overly soggy. Taste for seasoning. Stir in eggs and mix well. Put in deep foil pan. Drizzle with melted stick of butter and sprinkle of breadcrumbs.
400 degrees for 25 minutes covered, then 20 uncovered. If you want extra turkey flavor, lay the pieces of 2-3 turkey wings on top of the casserole for all but the last 10 minutes, and for extra moistness, melt another 4-8 T butter in 1 c chicken or turkey stock and pour over top when you uncover the stuffing, then continue cooking.
Can be made up to two days in advance, and reheated in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes before serving.
Sweet Potato Casserole
8 large sweet potatoes1 stick butter½ c brown sugarCinnamon, nutmeg, s/p3 eggs
1 bag mini marshmallows
Roast potatoes till soft. Mash with butter, sugar, and cinnamon, s/p, nutmeg. Mix in eggs.
Bake 350 for 25 minutes, add marshmallows to top in one layer, put back in oven for 10-15 more minutes until the marshmallows are golden brown.
Pumpkin/Butternut Squash Soup
If you want this soup all pumpkin, replace the butternut squash with fresh or frozen cubed pumpkin. If you want it all squash, eliminate the canned pumpkin and add another 2 lbs of cubed squash.
4 c cubed peeled butternut squash2 large cans pumpkin puree (29.5 oz organic…not pumpkin pie filling!)3 quarts chicken stock (or veggie stock if you have vegetarians coming)1 pt. heavy cream2 med. (or one large) yellow onions1 stick butterFresh ground nutmegs/p
Sauté onions in butter till soft but not browned, add squash and pumpkin. Pour in enough chicken stock to cover the vegetables by about 1 ½ - 2 inches. Cook over medium heat till very soft, about 35-45 minutes. Blend with immersion blender or in batches in regular blender till very smooth, for extra velvety soup strain thru Chinois or fine mesh strainer. Add cream and season to taste with salt and pepper and fresh nutmeg.
Freezes beautifully pre-cream, I often make a double batch and freeze half without the cream in it. Is also delish without the cream if you want to be healthier J
Toppings:
½ c heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks8-10 amaretti cookies, crumbled but not powderedBlend together right before serving and garnish each bowl or cup with a generous spoon.
Have also topped with:
Crushed gingersnaps and mini marshmallowsCrème fraiche mixed with crystallized gingerCandied orange zest and toasted pine nuts Toasted gingerbread croutonsCaramel cornWhipped cream blended with cranberry sauceCrouton with melted asiago cheeseFried sage leavesCurried nuts (pumpkin seeds, pecans, walnuts)
Balsamic Cipollini Onions
2 lbs cipollini onions, peeled (blanch in boiling water one minute, shock in ice water, skins should slip right off)3 T olive oil3 T butter1 ½ T sugar6 T balsamic vinegar 1 T chopped fresh parsley
Preheat oven to 500°F. Place onions in medium bowl; toss with oil. Arrange onions on baking sheet or in roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast until onions are brown and tender, rotating pan in oven and turn onions once, about 35 minutes (they will caramelize and be quite dark in parts but, if you have coated them well with olive oil, will not have a 'burnt' taste). Meanwhile, melt butter in heavy small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Add vinegar. Return to heat. Simmer until mixture thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Pour over onions and continue to cook in oven 10 more minutes. Sprinkle with parsley before serving.
Pickled carrots (great pre-dinner nibble! A bowl of these and a bowl of nuts are all you need.)
1 large bag baby carrots (2 1bs)1 bottle apple cider vinegar1 large jar honey4 T mustard seed1 bunch dill Combine vinegar, honey and mustard seed in saucepan. Add carrots and cook over med-high heat till carrots are cooked but still crisp, 5-8 minutes. Store in pickling liquid in fridge. Before serving, drain liquid, add chopped fresh dill.
Jonnie’s Orange Sherbet Jell-O Mold
A family fave, and a bit of old-school fun on the plate.
4 3-oz pks orange jello4 cups boiling water2/3 cup lemon juice2 pt. orange sherbet, softened
Dissolve jello in water, add juice. Chill till jelly-like consistency. Blend in softened sherbet with electric beaters. Put in greased 2 quart mold and chill overnight. To release, dip mold in hot water to loosen and invert over plate.
June 9, 2016
A Tale of Two Bathrooms
Hello Chickens!
Popping in today with a quick house update. The next few weeks are going to be somewhat quiet here on the blog, as my next novel, Happily Ever After Forty, is due on August 1, so I am going to be hunkered down getting that finished. I may pop in briefly to say hello, but know that the summer hiatus will be well-spent.
In the meantime, I wanted to update you quickly on the new bathrooms that have been completed! While our primary construction focus was on the second floor, the second floor bathroom and first floor bathroom are stacked right on top of each other, which, from a systems standpoint, meant that we had to treat them as one big bathroom project.
The different floors of the house have different personalities. The first floor is very formal, traditional, special occasion kind of spaces. The second floor is day to day, uber functional, more casual spaces.
As you can imagine, Charming Suitor and I, while enormously aesthetically compatible, do have some places where we diverge in our style. He has always leaned in an Arts and Crafts simple elegant function direction, while I have always been a little more Art Nouveau with swirls and pretty stuff putting the fun in functionality. Or as CS will say, I am A LOT more decorative than he is. So when we were presented with the need to design two complete bathrooms at once, we decided to divide and conquer.
CS took the second floor bathroom, since that is the one we will use the most, and he was inspired by one of his favorite artists, Robert Ryman. Ryman is famous for his white paintings, which, while completely white, have depth and texture and stuff that actually makes them interesting. I swear! The second floor bathroom is almost a bridge between the two guest rooms, which are colorful and visually dense, and the kitchen, which also has a lot going on. So CS thought that a clean, white bathroom would be a nice breath, a bit of respite for the senses. Taking his cue from Ryman, and wanting to keep a space that at least nodded to the history of the building, we went to meet with our tile guru Rachel at Fine Line Tile and gave her the brief. She immediately knew what we were going for, and pulled a bunch of tiles that would fit our budget, and be the right thing for the space. We embraced clean white porcelain tilework in pieces that would be period appropriate. The floor is hexagonal penny tiles, which is actually what we found when we pulled up the linoleum, but not in good enough condition to save. The walls are wainscoted in subtly beveled subway tile for texture and depth, with porcelain baseboard and chair rail, all very affordable choices from Sonoma Tile Company's Pure line. We painted in Sherwin-Williams Superwhite. For fixtures we went directly to Kohler, choosing a toilet and pedestal sink from their traditional looking Tresham line, and polished nickel faucets and sink fixtures, as well as shower set. As we did in the basement bathroom, we added an old railway shelf for some interesting wall storage.
A local glass place called GlassWorks did beautiful frameless shower surrounds, and our geniuses at StoneMasters and Cosentino provided the smartest Silestone shower threshold and surround shelf, as well as a very key corner piece on the exterior of the shower, since beveled tiles need something flat to end into, so we needed a piece to cover the outside corner. We also extended the surround shelf four inches into the shower so that we didn't need to add any nooks or hardware to deal with shampoo and soap etc.
The view from the door
Kohler Tresham toilet and old railway shelf, you can see the cool corner piece on the outside of the shower
Tresham sink with mirror and sconces from Restoration Hardware
Shower
Deep interior shelf keeps things clean on the inside while still providing storage
The original window with leaded glass sidelights and bottom of window converted to mirrorCS was very pleased with the choices, and I love the clean simplicity of the room. It really does have a soothing effect to go into such a lovely white space, and with the addition of an old rug, it is surprisingly warm feeling. I was worried it would come off cold and surgical, but it really turned out beautifully!
Of course, then it was my turn, and as you can imagine, I went in something of a different direction. The first floor bathroom will eventually be entered through the library, which will serve as something of an anteroom between the formal dining room and the bathroom, just that added layer of privacy. I hate houses where they have bathrooms or powder rooms that open right into a dining room, it seems very gross to me! The old bathroom didn't quite do that, the door was in the hallway and opened essentially just North of the dining room, not ideal but not awful. But when we do the new dining room, it is doubling in size and then the hallway goes away and the bathroom door would indeed have opened right into the middle of our dinner parties, which is gauche and I was not having it! So we moved the doorway into the library, CS's former mancave and dressing room, so that everyone's privacy will be protected.
I also knew that I loved the wainscot detail on the walls of the white bathroom, but that tile was not going to be the right choice for a more formal space. We toyed with the idea of marble slabs, but while period appropriate, that would have been egregiously expensive. But the other period appropriate choice was wood. Now, I have to point out that while this is a full bathroom, so there is a shower in it, it will only be used as such during such times as we have a 100% full house with everyone needing to shower at once. Something that might occur once or twice a year. If this were going to be a full-time bathroom, I would be very reluctant to do wood wainscoting, since the moisture would be a big issue. If you love the look of wood, but need to be able to shower in your bathroom daily, look into some of the naturally water-resistant woods, like Ipe. They will be more expensive up front, but will save you from warping and cracking issues down the road. Lucky for us, we could go with white oak, which is the predominant wood in all of our original millwork. Our amazing contractors were able to design a pattern for the paneling that pulled details from the original woodwork, and once it was stained to match, you would never know it wasn't original to the building!
The paneling on the walls immediately sent me in a rich, saturated color direction. I had fallen in love with a marble called Verde Luna, sort of a mid-tone green with ivory veining and little bits of sparkle, and knew that I wanted to do the shower interior in those tiles. The only company that I found that works with Verde Luna is New Ravenna, and one of the other products they produce with it is a fantastic, and shockingly period appropriate floor tile called Euclid, which merges it with creamy New Horizon marble and dark brown (near-black) St. Laurent in a cubist design. Rachel at Fine Line suggested we go with a large scale brick pattern in the shower to the wainscot height, using 6x12 tiles, and then a pencil tile of cararra marble to have a break, with herringbone 3x6 tiles above.
We had an antique dresser that we knew we wanted to repurpose as a vanity, and I had fallen in mad love with an art nouveau cast bronze sink from Kohler called Lilies Lore. Again, the intricate carved detail of the sink would not be great if you had people brushing teeth and shaving over it on a daily basis, but for a formal bathroom that will mostly host party guests four to six times a year? Totally worth it!
Cosentino found us a Silestone quartz product that was a near perfect match to the St. Laurent in the floor tile, so we could use that as vanity counter and the shower surround pieces, and Kohler stepped up with great fixtures in oiled bronze, and a toilet in an ideal shade of medium gray.
Yes, a gray toilet. Because in a room of such deep richness, with no other white anywhere, a white toilet would stick out like a sore thumb. We didn't want to go black, after all, we were shooting for more1890s not 1990s, but gray turned out to be the perfect color.
Our darling general contractor Patrick gifted us an antique mirror he had in his garage, we found yet another railway shelf, this one in wood and cast iron, and the same sconces from Restoration Hardware that we had used in all the other bathrooms, these in oiled bronze finish. The final touches were a deep rick peacock teal blue in high gloss on the walls, Sherwin-Williams Ocean, and mounted three antique wood paper maché forms from France to serve as art.
It is about as opposite a bathroom style-wise as CS's Ryman inspired bathroom upstairs, but it works beautifully, and even CS has fallen in love with it.
The view from the door
Yep, a gray toilet.
Verde Luna tiles from New Ravenna inside the shower
Same interior shelf detail as upstairs, in a different rich Silestone
Original windows with new sconces
Railway shelf and wood moonface antique paper maché forms from France
The floors. 
Kohler's Lilies Lore sink. Shut the front door! I love this thing.So, there you go, a full tour of two very different bathrooms! I adore them both, frankly, and cannot choose a favorite. And even though there were some times on the first floor bathroom that I thought I might have lost my mind and was going to create a bathroom that looked like fruit salad, I think we are both glad that we took the design risks that we did. It is an inviting space, with great details, and I think if we had backed off anywhere for "safer" choices, the room would not have come together completely.I send you all off into your summer with many hopes for good weather and great barbecues and fun times with friends and family. If you don't hear from me until after August 1, know that I am still thinking of you, and as soon as the new book is finished, I will be back with updates on the rest of the renovations!
Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath
May 16, 2016
Kitchen Reveal!
Hello Chickens!
Goodness we are having a time trying to get Spring to really get Sprung over here. But the weather foibles are not dampening the mood over at the Chateau, because I am delighted to report that the kitchen is finally 100% finished! Which seems appropriate because it coincided with the release of my new book, WEDDING GIRL, which so far, people seem to be enjoying... if you haven't picked up your copy yet, I hope you will, it is the perfect thing to get you into your summer reading!
Now on to the yummies! Today I have some great pics to share with you of the new kitchen. Credit for all photos to the most excellent Mike Kaskel, architectural photographer extraordinaire.
Ready to see????
This is the view facing South, of the U shaped main cooking section. On the back wall are the BlueStar Rangetop, hood and gas oven with and the La Cornue Flamberge rotisserie. On the peninsula the Gaggenau induction cooktop and steamer. Under the window, the Blanco sink and faucet. And of course, the glorious Poggenpohl cabinetry throughout.
A different view of the U, capturing some of the steel beam details...we love how these original beams are fitting into the contemporary design!
A pretty good view from the back porch door of the whole space, you can see the baking area across the way, and you can really see the Cosentino/StoneMasters counters in all their glory, plus a peek at the custom Larchwood Canada butcher block.
Standing in front of the rangetop looking across at the baking section with the BlueStar electric wall oven and the Gaggenau warming drawer underneath.
Getting a look from the end of the island, you can see the integrated Miele dishwasher to the left of the sink.
The baking nook! Another hidden Miele dishwasher to the left of the sink, and the Marvel wine cooler to the right. The TV is hidden behind the artwork!
Standing behind the dining table and looking out, you can get a look at the Marvel fridge and freezer.
Final look at the main cooking wall, highlights the backsplash, a single pane of back-painted glass...so easy to keep clean and a really slick look!
Poggenpohl drawers can hold up to 200 pounds of stuff! And I'm in love with these plate and bowl organizers, the racks lift right out of the drawers for easy use on buffets or for setting the table. Genius!
This is what a happy Polymath looks like!
That is the little photo tour of the day...I hope you like seeing the finished product as much as I am enjoying cooking in it! There will be many more details to come, but when I saw these pictures, I couldn't resist sharing them with everyone who has been following along on the journey!
Yours in Good Taste,The Polymath
Goodness we are having a time trying to get Spring to really get Sprung over here. But the weather foibles are not dampening the mood over at the Chateau, because I am delighted to report that the kitchen is finally 100% finished! Which seems appropriate because it coincided with the release of my new book, WEDDING GIRL, which so far, people seem to be enjoying... if you haven't picked up your copy yet, I hope you will, it is the perfect thing to get you into your summer reading!
Now on to the yummies! Today I have some great pics to share with you of the new kitchen. Credit for all photos to the most excellent Mike Kaskel, architectural photographer extraordinaire.
Ready to see????
This is the view facing South, of the U shaped main cooking section. On the back wall are the BlueStar Rangetop, hood and gas oven with and the La Cornue Flamberge rotisserie. On the peninsula the Gaggenau induction cooktop and steamer. Under the window, the Blanco sink and faucet. And of course, the glorious Poggenpohl cabinetry throughout.
A different view of the U, capturing some of the steel beam details...we love how these original beams are fitting into the contemporary design!
A pretty good view from the back porch door of the whole space, you can see the baking area across the way, and you can really see the Cosentino/StoneMasters counters in all their glory, plus a peek at the custom Larchwood Canada butcher block.
Standing in front of the rangetop looking across at the baking section with the BlueStar electric wall oven and the Gaggenau warming drawer underneath.
Getting a look from the end of the island, you can see the integrated Miele dishwasher to the left of the sink.
The baking nook! Another hidden Miele dishwasher to the left of the sink, and the Marvel wine cooler to the right. The TV is hidden behind the artwork!
Standing behind the dining table and looking out, you can get a look at the Marvel fridge and freezer.
Final look at the main cooking wall, highlights the backsplash, a single pane of back-painted glass...so easy to keep clean and a really slick look!
Poggenpohl drawers can hold up to 200 pounds of stuff! And I'm in love with these plate and bowl organizers, the racks lift right out of the drawers for easy use on buffets or for setting the table. Genius!
This is what a happy Polymath looks like!That is the little photo tour of the day...I hope you like seeing the finished product as much as I am enjoying cooking in it! There will be many more details to come, but when I saw these pictures, I couldn't resist sharing them with everyone who has been following along on the journey!
Yours in Good Taste,The Polymath
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