Please don't try this at home

So yesterday I went onto Apartment Therapy for the first time in a while. That website drives me crazy with their endless fawning and insipid use of the second person plural when they mean to use the singular. Read a couple of entries on that site and you'll know what I mean. "We think that our bunny rabbit's smart!" "We think that orange throw pillows can be a neutral in the right room!" "We feel guilty for using a Swiffer!" "We paid $125 a piece for embossed photo albums and this weekend we're getting organized!" Argh! Enough already.

Anyhow, just as a blind pig can find an acorn from time to time, sometimes Apartment Therapy can uncover something useful. It's rare, but it does happen. More often than not though, I stumble upon something that reminds me why I don't frequent that site.

Yesterday however, they were fawning over some one's foolish idea and I have to speak on it. To wit:

Another one for the "worth the effort" DIY files... Cathy and her husband wanted a chlorine-free pool big enough for the whole family to splash around in during the hot Santa Rosa summer. Hoping for something more attractive than a big vinyl tub, they finally decided on a galvanized steel stock tank. All it took was some clever DIY plumbing, and for about $500 they were living the good life. Learn how they did it after the jump...

The stock tank pool is eight feet in diameter and about two feet deep. Cathy's husband used plumber's putty and some gaskets to pipe in a pool filter and pump. After using the pool for about a month, so far they haven't had to add any chemicals to keep the water clean. All it takes is some regular swipes with a pool net, and of course regular changing of the filter, which collects algae and other miscellaneous debris. Cathy says the pump keeps the water moving enough to discourage mosquitoes, too.

This is an idea so dangerously naive I have a hard time believing it. I don't doubt that the use of a pool filter is keeping that water clear. But the problem with pools is not the stuff you can see, the actual danger from pools is the stuff you can't see. The very same things that chlorinated water kills.

These people are no doubt motivated by an attempt to keep their kids safe, but what they've done instead is provide them with a steaming bowl of E. coli soup. The contaminated water in that pool represents a far larger threat than the minuscule amount of chlorine used to keep pool water safe. You cannot recirculate water people swim in without sterilizing it. If you have an ill-informed problem with chlorine then for the love of God put in an ozone or UV filter.

That harmless-looking backyard pool is an Amoebiasis, Cryptosporidiosis or Giardiasis outbreak waiting to happen. If not that rogue's gallery of water borne diseases, how about the staphylococcus aureus I can guarantee you is already in that water? People will get sick from swimming in this pool. It's not a matter of maybe either, it's a matter of when.

I'm all for taking a look at the way I live my life and for rooting out things that do more harm than good. However, chlorinated water is not one of them. The safe water supplies those of us in the developed world enjoy and take for granted are one of humanity's crowning achievements. Imagine, I can drink from the tap in my kitchen and not get cholera. That verges on the miraculous frankly.

The headlines were screaming this week about the amazing and unprecedented increase in the number of people in the US and the rest of the developed world who are living past 100. That did not happen because those centenarians swam in unchlorinated pools. In fact, it happened precisely because they swam in chlorinated pools.

Human beings' increased life spans and the fact that we're healthier today than we were a hundred years ago is due to advances in public health. Period. Do not throw the baby out with the bath water, no pun intended. Please do not swim in untreated swimming pools or hot tubs. You will get sick. Chlorine is your friend folks, really.

Damn! Amazon just bought Zappos

I'm going to believe that this is somehow a good thing until I'm proved wrong. I will. Really.

Read about it here.

More modern baths

I'm turning into the busy designer guy all of the sudden. Believe me when I tell you that this is a most welcome development. I don't want to put a hex on anything I have going on now, but I'm coming out of the worst two quarters of my career. Go figure, I did the least amount of business I can remember but the business I did do was the best I've ever produced. There's a lesson there somewhere and some day, not today, I'll go back and figure out what that lesson is.

But in the meantime, I have a lot of work to do. Woo hoo!

I presented another lavatory design as part of a much larger project the other day and I like the direction it's headed in. This is yet another modern design for a small-ish powder room. There's a separate water closet so the primary part of the room is a rectangle that's only three feet wide and six-and-a-half feet deep. Since it's a powder room there's no real need to store anything in there so I want to keep it as open as I can.

Here's the actual lavatory I'm specifying. It's the Block from LaCava. This lavatory will hang on the wall directly with a mirror right above it. I'm looking for an oval mirror about 30" wide and 18" tall. Anybody have a source? I've drawn the shape I want, now I just need to find one.

The wall behind the lavatory will be covered from floor to ceiling with either this glass mosaic,

or this one. Both patterns are from Mirage Glass Tiles in New York.

I know I want a translucent glass tile because I want to make this powder room feel larger than it is. Between the seriously pared down lavatory and the translucent glass on the wall, this room's going to feel like it's ten feet deep instead of six-and-a-half. The floors are going to be wide plank, clear maple. Again, my goal here is to be expansive and light while staying true to a contemporary aesthetic. I say I'm well on my way. Boy oh boy is it good to be busy.

Life's too short for cheap hardware

I had a conversation with a client about hardware yesterday. Hardware in the sense of cabinet knobs and pulls, door hardware's another animal all together. Anyhow, I told him that if he doesn't know what constitutes "good" hardware he shouldn't learn or he'll never look at a cabinet knob the same way again. I was joking of course, I think everyone should have an idea of why things cost what they do and what separates the good stuff from the dreck.

There is a world of difference between a dollar knob at Home Depot and $30 knob from me. There's more to it than the fact that I have a dog in this race too.

Good cabinet hardware comes from foundries where solid metals are turned into art. Not good cabinet hardware is cast in a cheap alloy and then plated in whatever the finish du jour is. Trust me, that dollar knob only looks like brass.

I'm fortunate to sell good hardware from Schaub and Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Schaub designs and sells some of what I say is the best hardware in the business. Schaub doesn't shy away from getting creative and they do some really amazing and unexpected things with shell inlays and semi-precious stones.

This Branches series is from their Symphony collection. They are not for everybody, but for the right person, nothing else will do. Schaub uses black pearls and crystals in these handles and knobs and they have to be seen to be believed.

This series, also from the Symphony collection, uses shell inlays in a nouveau Art Nouveau style I like.

Here's a continuation from the same collection.

And a little more shell inlay here. The crab knobs are my favorite. What a great idea to use pen shell inlays to form a crab shell. Those crabs are gorgeous and light-hearted at the same time.

When I'm looking at the offerings of a hardware supplier, the first thing I look for is whether or not they work with bronze. I'm no metallurgist, but as I understand it, bronze is a more difficult metal to work with. Like brass, it's an alloy of copper and zinc, but bronze is a more dense metal. For my money though, nothing looks or feels like it. It's also nearly impossible to produce cheaply. The presence of bronze in a hardware collection is an indicator of quality.

Bronze hardware is usually really rustic-looking but it needn't be. Schaub just rolled out a new collection of modern-ish bronze handles and I think I'm in love. Again.

This is the co-ordinated knob. Ahhhhhh.

Of course, Schaub does a really good job with truly modern and contemporary stuff too.

I searched for years to find a good hardware supplier and I settled on Schaub and Company about two years ago. For my money, nobody else had as well-rounded a range and though no one will ever accuse them of being cheap, their hardware packs a lot of value into their price point. This is hardware for the long haul.

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