What does "too taste-specific" mean?

A client came to me yesterday with a photograph very similar to this one as one of his few inspiration images. The image is from Graham and Brown, the British wallpaper people. Further, the pattern is one by Umbra for Graham and Brown. The guy didn't know where to start other than he wanted the feeling of that image interpreted and extrapolated over his entire open floor plan condominium. Perfect, this is just the kind of challenge I love. I asked him what was it about the photograph he liked so much and without hesitation, he said it was the wallpaper.

So I started talking about wallpaper and how cool it is and how my great friend Given Campbell has some patterns he ought to see. He stopped me and said, "Oh I can't use wallpaper."

I reminded him that it was wallpaper that started our conversation and it was wallpaper that was so appealing to him. He went on to explain that he can't use wallpaper in his home because it's too "taste specific." Mind you, this is a man who'd also told me he had no intention of selling any time soon and he was interested in making his house really his.

So when did making a home "taste specific" to the man who owns it become a bad thing? Isn't my whole life spent helping other people make their homes taste-specific to them?

From Awkward Family Photos

It reminds me of a conversation I had with a woman about a year ago, I think I wrote about it in fact. Anyhow, she wanted to know if it's OK to hang family photographs in the "public" areas of her home. I explained to her that hotels have public areas but homes don't. She looked at me as if I were speaking Russian.

I hear things like that with shocking regularity. "I can't do what I want because it's what I like and nobody else will." Or "I can't leave to personal an impression in my living room." Or "I drip a little vanilla extract on a light bulb every night, how do I keep it from leaving a stain?" How about "I want to paint my dining room a bright color but I'm worried about resale." Has everyone become a home stager all of the sudden?

I know where all of this crap's coming from. It's that great Satan HGTV. I swear, they are the Fox News of the design press. Turn it off please. And leave it off.

Your home is your home and by virtue of the fact that you're an adult, you get to do anything inside of it you want to do. Even if it's stuff I find repugnant, who cares? I'm some guy with a big mouth in Florida, not some final arbiter and neither is anyone else. So go ahead, paint your walls with chalkboard paint, put a damn chicken coop in the back yard, hang exciting wallpaper and for the love of God, stop asking for permission to put photos of your kids on the mantle.

If you're going to put your house on the market sometime down the road, deal with it then but you can't live your life for a potential buyer. And seriously, when is the last time you walked out of a house tour because someone had a perfectly painted red dining room? People walk out of house tours because the place is falling down. Gah!

Don't be a Mr. or Ms. Cellophane. Hey! That makes me want to sing some Kander and Ebb!

Life's over faster than anyone wants to admit. Leave a mark already.

How big is the Gulf oil spill?

Paul Rademacher is an Engineer at Google and yesterday he came up with a new application for Google Earth that shows just how big it is.

Paul's application then shows how big the spill would be if it were superimposed over a series of world cities and then you can superimpose it anywhere on earth you want to.

The map of the spill that Paul used was from May 6th, almost a week ago.

Here it is over New York.

And over LA.

And over Vancouver.

And over London.

Drill baby drill, right?

Here's that link again.

Brava! A reader shares her successful renovation story

A reader sent me her final after photos from her kitchen renovation yesterday and in her note she paid me the ultimate compliment. She's been reading K&RD for the last year and she used this site as a resource for ideas and advice. I am a flattered and grateful somebody today, that's for sure.

Here's where she started and here are some of her own words to describe her project.

We’ve owned our house for 11 years and lived in it for all but two when we rented it out while my husband went to graduate school. This is not our forever home and our goal is to move sometime in the next 2-3 years to a larger house. We renovated the kitchen mostly because the old one was literally crumbling in our hands.

I am a stay at home mom of 2 preschoolers.  The major advantage was that I was available for a good part of most days to keep an eye on things and answer questions.  My schedule was flexible enough to be able to get estimates and talk with tradespeople during the day. However, I don’t have many hours free during the day without one or both kids, so it was difficult to make many appointments during normal business hours.  I used the internet to do a lot of research; I bought things online or through Craigslist (dryer, faucet, stove hood, sink) and I bought the cabinets from Thomasville via Home Depot- largely because they let me walk out the door with their catalog and I could just run in at any random time and place my order.

Our house was built sometime in the late 1800s.  It’s a row house and is on a 14’ wide lot.  The kitchen is 12’5” x 7’10” and includes a 3’x 6’ space for the boiler and hot water heater. It’s a modified galley with a small “L” at one end which contains the kitchen sink. There are no square corners, or level surfaces.  The floor slopes in different directions and the walls are all crooked. I had a white kitchen before and I kept it white. We really wanted something in keeping with the wide moldings and baseboards in the rest of the house, but did want some sense of contemporary style as well.

We retained the basic configuration of the kitchen but changed all of the appliance locations. We moved the stove to an exterior wall so that it could be directly vented to the outside --no more smelling a meal the day after we cook it!  This configuration meant that we didn’t have to buy as powerful a hood and it allowed us to retain cupboard space above the stove. It also puts all the meal prep on one side of the kitchen.  We moved the refrigerator to the side of the kitchen where the stove had been. On one side of the refrigerator we installed a 6” utility closet. On the other side is a pantry which consists of a base cabinet, a narrow counter, and wall cabinets resting directly on the base. We had found a very reasonably priced counter depth side-by-side, however, the day we went to buy appliances, I measured across the back of the space --which had not been accessible when I made the original plan --and found that it was an inch smaller than the front. So we have a narrower, deeper refrigerator with a bottom freezer. Finally we moved the dishwasher which had been in the corner by the sink. There had been about six inches to stand sideways to the sink to rinse dishes and load the dishwasher. We put in a blind corner cabinet and moved the dishwasher out 21”.

In addition to the blind corner cabinet, we now have a pullout trash/recycling bin and to the right of the stove we have drawers for pots and pans and cooking utensils.  Above that we have a microwave shelf and upper cabinets above that.  This area has a toaster and electric tea kettle.  Our major run of counter is 7’ or so.

We also redid the laundry area which consists of a double closet. The closet was made deeper, given doors and we put the washer and dryer side-by-side. We replaced our dryer with a ventless Bosch (awesome Craigslist find) and added a counter and wire shelving above. We added a small electronics station in one corner of the foyer which is a charging station and has drawers and shelves. It also gives us a little space for things like vases and candles.

Finishes:

The lighting is can lighting placed straight down the middle of the room.  We didn’t put any pendants in because the ceiling is lower than the main living area and the window is off center.  The under cabinet lighting are Xenon fixtures by Kichler.  All are on dimmers.

Cabinets are Eden by Thomasville painted white. I honestly did look at Ikea cabinets, but I hate their white cabinets and think that the wood cabinets are too modern looking for our space.  The other even more vital issue was the lack of choices in size.  The Thomasville cabinets had a much larger range- allowing me to get a 6 inch utility cabinet, as well as 33 inch and 27 inch cabinets.  This made a huge difference in how I was able to utilize our space. Hardware is brushed nickel with round pulls on doors and handles on drawers.  Nothing special- will wait for that long term house.

The counter is bianco romano granite with a very minimal amount of red and a decent amount of movement.  The counter choice was tough.  I wanted a light color, but didn’t want anything from India.  Try googling things like “labor standards” “India” “quarries”.  It makes China look like a nice place to get a job.

The backsplash is white subway tile- of the Home Depot special variety.

We left a bookshelf and a small alcove to the left of the sink intact.

We retained the original moldings, but replaced baseboards due to lead concerns and damage.

The sink is an apron front sink by Elkay.  I started out with a Kohler faucet (Finial Traditional) that I got on Craig’s List still attached to its kitchen sink.  It was really beautiful except that it was brushed chrome instead of brushed nickel.  I didn’t figure that out until the plumber installed it.  This isn’t a kitchen that needs 3 different kinds of metal. So- I now have the quick-run-to-the-big-box Moen faucet.

The floor is wood.  We wanted to unify the floor with the rest of the house, so we installed unfinished red oak.  It’s finished in Minwax “Special Walnut” which is about as close a match as you could hope for.  Unfortunately, the floors in each of the 3 parts of the house aren’t even, so we had to install thresholds between each space.

The appliances are stainless steel and a mix of brands.  I have an older GE spacesaver microwave, a Kenmore Elite range with a warming drawer and a couple of other nice features. I have to say it’s glorious not to be cooking on a white range that got completely scratched up by our renters. The refrigerator is from Kitchen Aid and the dishwasher is Bosch. The dishwasher is actually white --I wanted it to be a little more unobtrusive.  The appliances are not fabulous, but I really wasn’t excited about putting a bunch of money into appliances that I’m leaving in a couple of years.  They are a sight better than what I had.

Finally the walls are Benjamin Moore Potpourri Green and ceiling is white.

Things I would do differently:

Consider using a kitchen designer especially on a shorter time frame.  For various reasons, I had months and months to work on the planning.

Put in additional lighting in front of the bookshelf/pantry area.

I loved working with the contractor but he doesn’t have years of established relationships with subs.  The subs were the cause of most of the problems we had.  The granite people were especially problematic.

I would pay for more babysitting for the kids.  We probably would have ended up with different appliances had we not had kids in tow.

I should not have let the granite people do business the way they did.  It’s a long story, but the snowstorms and scheduling snafus made me feel pressured.  The person measuring was late and I needed to leave to pick my daughter up, so he was rushed.  The installers came late in the day when the kids were in need of too much attention, so I couldn’t pay as much attention to the granite installation as I should have.  The granite didn’t fit as well as it should have, so the contractor ended up with a bit of work to compensate.

I would pay more attention to the faucet set-up then I did.

Best Problem solved:

The tile across the bottom of the window looked crooked because it was level to the counter but not to the window which is leveled to the crooked ceiling.  It really wrecked the look of the kitchen.  On the last day, I looked at it and asked the contractor to install a deeper window sill- fortunately there was enough room to install a sill over the top of the old sill.  He was kind enough to agree at the last minute and that camouflaged the problem sufficiently.

Biggest Gut Check

Ordering the cabinets based on my own design and measurements.

The One Thing that Makes Me Grind My Teeth:

The contractor’s assistant used a roller on one coat on my woodwork.  Newsflash: the roller marks are hard to cover.

Things I love:

Not having a trash bin in the middle of the kitchen.

Having a new stovetop

Having room for food storage

Having a broom closet

Having a counter to fold clothes on

Room to stand between the sink and dishwasher

Awesome lighting

And now here are her after shots. Again, brava!

As my reader shows here, it's possible to do a terrific job without breaking the bank. What a thrill and thanks so much for showing me these photos and allowing me to let you tell your story.

An appropriate light fixture for an Octopus's Garden

The great Daniel Ogassian posted a link to these on Twitter the other day and I think they're entirely too cool. They're by artist Adam Wallacavage and they make me want to break into song.

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus's garden in the shade

He'd let us in, knows where we've been

In his octopus's garden in the shade

I'd ask my friends to come and see

An octopus's garden with me

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus's garden in the shade

We would be warm below the storm

In our little hideaway beneath the waves

Resting our head on the sea bed

In an octopus's garden near a cave

We would sing and dance around

Because we know we can't be found

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus's garden in the shade

We would shout and swim about

The coral that lies beneath the waves

(Lies beneath the ocean waves)

Oh what joy for every girl and boy

Knowing they're happy and they're safe

(Happy and they're safe)

We would be so happy you and me

No one there to tell us what to do

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus's garden with you

In an octopus's garden with you

In an octopus's garden with you

An Octopus's Garden was written by Ringo Starr in 1968 and here we are, 42 years later, and somebody finally found a way to light that Octopus's Garden.

From the Beatles Bible:

Ringo Starr's second composition for The Beatles was written in Sardinia. On 22 August 1968 he temporarily walked out of sessions for the White Album after becoming disenchanted with the increasing tensions within the group. He took his family abroad for a boating holiday, returning to Abbey Road on 5 September.

"I wrote Octopus's Garden in Sardinia. Peter Sellers had lent us his yacht and we went out for the day... I stayed out on deck with [the captain] and we talked about octopuses. He told me that they hang out in their caves and they go around the seabed finding shiny stones and tin cans and bottles to put in front of their cave like a garden. I thought this was fabulous, because at the time I just wanted to be under the sea too. A couple of tokes later with the guitar - and we had Octopus's Garden!"

Get a grouper reuben while you can

I live along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

via Flickr

That body of water is why I live here. Usually, it's a calm, warm stretch of emerald sea that forms a backdrop to much of life in this part of the world. No other body of water I know exerts the pull on me that the Gulf, my Gulf, does. I've dallied in The Atlantic. I've dabbled in the Pacific. The Mediterranean's good for an occasional affair and the Caribbean's a nice fling too. But none of them can compare with my Gulf of Mexico.

I'm sick over what's going on 5,000 feet below a spot 250 miles from where I'm sitting. Our beaches aren't likely to be fouled the way the beaches of Prince William Sound were 21 years ago. But the waters here will be fouled by something far more insidious. In the coming months and years, the contamination spreading outward from that spot on the floor of the Gulf is going to spread into every life form, including the ones I like to eat, along this coast.

The Gulf of Mexico is a treasure trove of resources, and all of those resources are linked together. You can't isolate the fisheries from the oil deposits, or the people from from either. Allowing an essentially self-regulated industry to Drill Baby Drill is an insanity on par with enabling unsustainable fish catches or encouraging endless, pointless suburban sprawl. The spill wreaking havoc to my northwest is a symptom of a deeper problem and it has a lot more to do with a human inability to think and act for the long term than it does with which party's in the White House. So instead of Drill Baby Drill, how about a chorus of Manage Baby Manage?

To the outside world Florida has no culture of its own but those of us who live here know it does just as surely as any other place on earth. For better or for worse, Florida does have a culture and it has foods unique to the region. Many of those foods are linked to the Gulf of Mexico. Chief among them is the grouper sandwich. Every restaurant and every aficionado in the region has a pet variation on the theme.

I walked along the beach at Pass-a-Grille yesterday and I stopped at The Wharf for what well may be my last Gulf grouper sandwich for a long time. It was at The Wharf that I first experienced a grouper reuben. While The Wharf's reuben isn't exactly sublime, whatever it's lacking is more than made up for by the jukebox full of Elvis songs.

via Flickr

My grouper reuben is sublime and here it is. It starts with some Thousand Dressing.

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons bottled sweet pickle relish
• 2 tablespoons bottled chili sauce
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Mix together all of the ingredients and sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to let the flavors blend.

Onto the sandwich.

• 4 grouper filets
• 1/8 cup milk
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• pepper and salt
• olive oil to saute
• 2 cups of sauerkraut.
• 12 slices of a good aged swiss cheese
• 8 slices of good pumpernickel or marble rye
• butter to brush on the bread to grill

To prepare the grouper, I just put the milk in a zip lock bag and then add each piece of grouper, one at a time. It just gives a light base so the flour sticks well.

Mix the flour, cayenne and salt and pepper again in a dish or a separate bag and then drag each fillet in until it's lightly coated. Heat up the oil in a pan over medium high and saute the grouper until lightly golden on each side. 4-5 minutes per side is about right but it varies with the thickness of the fish.

Drain the sauerkraut and set aside, butter your bread and have the cheese slices ready to go.

Now heat up the pan to medium heat and build your sandwiches. Now lets build the sandwich. Take a slice of bread and smear it with Thousand Island dressing. Add a slice of cheese. Add your grouper filet and cover it with sauerkraut and another slice of cheese. Add the top slice of bread and grill until lightly golden on each side. The cheese should be melted and the sauerkraut nicely warmed.

So whatever happens out there in the coming weeks and months, I'm swearing off the grouper, the oysters, the stone crabs, the shrimp and the rest of the fruits of the Gulf fisheries 'til further notice. Thanks BP.