Once on this island

After painting the sideboard and wall shelf in the dining room a dark gray I got a scathingly brilliant idea: why not try to update the farm table I've been using in the kitchen as an island? What's always bothered me about it was that it was table height and not counter height, a little too low. So I decided to look to the internet for answers. I Googled "how to turn a farm table into a kitchen island" and, VOILA!, the perfect piece of scrap popped up. Here it is:

It's so simple and brilliant...and best of all, it looked easy to achieve. Just get a piece of wood and some roller wheels and do-it-yourself! 

That's when I decided to get worried tho...there were any number of places this could go horribly wrong, but I said, "what the hell" and jumped in with both feet.
First the wood. I went to the lumber yard and found out a real piece of wood was pricey, over 80 bucks. Ouch. I asked about MDF and it was $30 cheaper. Sold. But would it be easy to cut? Would it be so cheap that it would fall apart as I worked with it? I had the huge board cut to size and I ended up with a similar piece in size. I thought it would come in handy in case i screwed up the first piece. Then I looked for the wheels. I went to two hardware stores out here and, again, the wheels were costly, almost $25 apiece! Amazon to the rescue: I found 4 nice looking wheels for a TOTAL of $25! With my nephew's Amazon Prime account I'd get them in only two days. Done and done.
When I tried to get the existing roller wheels off the table the screws gave me a major hard time, they were ancient. I ended up smashing the base of the wheel off one and pounded in the screws. Crisis averted.
I was really worried about cutting out the pattern of the wood with my jigsaw. I drew the curve freehand and cut out a pattern out of poster board. Then I just measured off the sides from the corners and flipped the pattern so all the ends would match and be the same. It worked! The jigsawing was also easier than I thought. MDF cuts like pine, pretty smooth. There's a bit of minor wave in places but you don't notice it.
I flipped the table over and nailed the bottom shelf into place on the table legs with some long nails I got from the hardware store. Then it was simply a matter of attaching the wheels on the bottom with some wood screws and washers.
I primed and painted the base with the same gray paint I used on the sideboard, Benjamin Moore "Gray" 2121-10. That way, everything would tie in together. I'm SUPER pleased and proud of how the whole thing turned out. It's just shy of counter height...perfect. I think I'll add either a dish towel hook or a towel bar, or both. Stay tuned for that...

BEFORE

Bottom shelf and roller wheels added

Scalloped edge done with my jigsaw

AFTER

AFTER, WITH STORAGE

I decided to add a couple of utility hooks on the sides of the table, one to hold my grocery bag and the other for dishtowels.

50 shades of gray

I was so tired of my dining room. It needed some 'oomph'. But I didn't feel like doing a major overhaul. I resorted to the easiest decorating trick of all: paint!
The sideboard and wall shelf were a pale sage green...SO early 21st Century. Time for something new. I decided to paint them both a dark charcoal gray, "graphite" to borrow a color name from my Jeep!
Both pieces are heavy as HELL, so i decided to paint them in place. I taped off the wall around the shelf with butcher paper and painter's tape and laid newspaper around the sideboard on the floor and went to town.
They both look more modern and masculine, very happy with the results.

BFORE...BORING SAGE GREEN

AFTER...MODERN!

The ivy league

I love English ivy. It's clean simple greenery. And it's ability to form shapes in topiaries. I decided to pull a bunch of it from the yard and form it around some topiary forms I've had lying around. They're now all inside the dining room for the cold months. Let's see how long I can keep them alive.

Bob

I met Bob this week. He lives in one of the most beautiful houses in all of Sag Harbor. It sits on an odd little corner at Jefferson and Suffolk Streets. There's a carriage house next door and a pool. I've often walked by it on the way to the library and wondered "who lives in the stunning home?" and know I know! The inside has been totally re-thought, it's almost loft-like in it's openness, in a palette of creams, ocean blues, and sand. I didn't get to see upstairs, just the first floor and a downstairs guest room with a treadmill, but what I saw was gorgeous. I walked over from my place because it was such a beautiful night, no one was out on the streets on that cool October night.

What a dump(ster)!

I did one of my favorite things IN LIFE the other day. I ordered a dumpster from my garbage pickup service, a "4 yard" one, and threw away a TON of stuff that has been cluttering up the house, especially in the basement and yard. Old TV's, clothes, busted shutters, suitcases, clay pots, the old birdbath, that cracked big urn on the back deck, old chairs, on and on and on. It feels SO GOOD to purge. Now the basement is clean and orderly again. The deck is minimal and unfussy. It had been over 10 years since I had last done this, let's hope I don't wait another ten to do it again!

BEFORE

and AFTER

Mark

I met Mark yesterday and went to his stunning house on Sherrill Road in East Hampton. He's an interior designer and his place is my dream home. Not too big, not too small. Tastefully furnished with a cozy backyard, complex with pool and pool house. I have to admit I was a little jealous. But I'm always thankful for what I have in my little cape.

Jeepers!

I'm selling my apartment in the city. It's an extravagance I just can't afford any longer, and the city brings no joy when you can't do all the things there that make it an experience. Ordering takeout, going to restaurants, shopping, etc. So I'm moving on! But one of the benefits of selling is that I could take a chunk of the money and buy a new car, something I'd really need in the Hamptons if I were to live here full time. I can't close until February of next month so I figured that's when I'd purchase the new vehicle.
As I was telling my financial advisor all this--my portfolio is with a brokerage firm--and he reminded me that I have a $550K line of credit with them. Why wait til February when I could borrow the money for the car against that line now at a low interest rate, and then pay it off completely when the money from the sale of the apartment comes through next year? Genius, right?
So I trotted off to a car dealer in Southampton with my eye on a make that I've been eyeing for eons: a Jeep. Specifically a Jeep Wrangler 4x4. Two door. Preferably black.
The Jeep website said a basic model goes for between $28K and $30K. Of course all they had in Southampton were more loaded models, loaded with up to $8K worth of stuff to be exact. Ugh. Too pricey for my budget. There was a black one, but it was the most expensive. No. There was a red one. No, again. You know what they say about men who drive red cars. Then there were two gray ones, a light gray and a dark charcoal, they were both $7K over my budget. I haggles with the salesman and got him down another thousand, so the total was $36K. There was also a white one at $35K but it was a manual. I decided to test drive that one just to see how it handled. It was a no-go. Between the color and the shifting I just wasn't into it. I gave sigh and bit on the charcoal one. Jeeps hold their value really well and this was going to be a car I'm gonna keep for the next 15 years. So I bought it.
It's Friday, I'm picking it up next Thursday. That'll give me time to have the money wired to my bank and then get a bank check. It's exciting stuff. I just try not to think that I have to sell my apartment to get it (wonk-wohhh).