Month: August 2009

Fab under feet

Shopping for rugs is the home-decor equivalent of shopping for shoes: so much fun that it veers toward the addictive. Maybe that’s because what lies beneath has the potential to kick a room into a higher gear. Consider laying down one of these beauties on the floor of your choice.

Cow-hide Duke Collection rug from The Artful Lodger, $688

Indian-style Sara Qashgai wool runner from Kane Furniture, $277

Brown and white wool Morreni rug from Floor Fashions, $599

Mid-20th century tribal rug sourced from Iran’s Hamadan region by Sun Bow Trading Company, $2,850

Faux zebra Nourison rug in New Zealand wool from For the Floor, price available on request

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Face off

You perch on your couch between the classical visages on this pair of pillows from Pillow Mint, reading The Iliad for the umpteenth time. You feel like you’re being watched. Maybe that’s no accident: These ancient faces have seen it all. Are you bold enough to stare back?

 

 

 

Fruit on the vine

It’s tomato time. What’s in your garden? Cataloguing hundreds of varieties from currant to beefsteak, The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table is Amy Goldman’s love song to that summer staple. You’ll find detailed notes on each variety, recipes (even desserts!), and plenty of portraits (yes, portraits): Each of these juicy beauties positively bursts off the page with personality.

 

 

 

 

Seeing something new

Each year, if I’m lucky, a new plant catches my fancy and all of a sudden everywhere I look I see something that’s been there all the time. Last summer it was smokebush (Cotinus), a medium sized sun-loving shrub with pleated plum-colored leaves and sprays of puff-ball flowers. It led me on to discovering complementary blue-flowered companions like dwarf plumbago and Russian sage.

Once you start looking, you may find swamp milkweed everywhere.

This year, it’s swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata, which arose phoenix-like from the late winter burn pile at the edge of our meadow and grows abundantly along roadsides, ditches and hedgerows. Related to the bright orange butterfly weed (A. tuberosa), swamp milkweed is more modestly arrayed in dusky hues of pink and magenta that waft a soft talcum powder fragrance. It echoes the pink-tinged blossoms of the oak leaf hydrangea.

Like all milkweeds, Asclepias incarnata sustains a diversity of pollinators—butterflies, flies, wasps, bees and the like. Later in the season, angel-winged seed capsules break open to disperse silky clouds of airborne seeds. Nurture it where you find it at the edges of your property or in wild places, or make it a part of a native planting. Sandy’s Plants in Mechanicsville (sandysplants.com) sells it wholesale, so area garden centers should be able to get it.

In addition to inspecting the local flora, late summer finds me making plans for a fall garden and new perennial bed. The first two weeks of August are prime time to begin succession sowings of carrots, lettuce, collards, spinach, mesclun and arugula which will thrive in the cooler temperatures to come. Try another sowing of zucchini and bush beans. Broccoli and cabbage plants, available from garden centers or started from seed by the prudent gardener can also be transplanted. Don’t let them dry out.

Lawn people, listen up: Late August and September is the time to do what needs to be done for a healthy greensward. Break out of the poisonous mindset of high-nitrogen spring fertilizing which does nothing so well as line the pockets of chemical companies and pollute the Chesapeake Bay. Adopt a dead zone and resolve not to feed it.

Fight the power instead and get a soil test from the extension agency (872-4580) so you know how much lime to add to maintain a proper pH (6.2), without which the grass will not grow happily regardless of how much fertilizer you pour down the drain. Divide lime applications over fall and spring to give it a chance to work down into the soil.

AUGUST IN THE GARDEN – Look into the milkweeds. – Sow greens and late beans. – Divide iris and peony.

If you have a compacted area, rent a de-thatching machine (basically a giant cleat) to open up the ground to air and water. Rake up the little pellets of soil and put them on the compost pile, then broadcast compost or other slow release organic fertilizer. Re-seed bare patches with a thin sprinkling of a fescue mix from the local co-op (bluegrass is too temperamental for us—does this look like Kentucky?), dust with straw and keep moist until it sprouts.

August is also the best time to divide those staples of the perennial border, bearded iris and peonies, which appreciate warm soil and a chance to establish roots before winter dormancy. I have a number of peonies that have become shaded and crowded as well as a patch of overgrown iris that’s distracting from the edge of a bed. Since they’re both sun lovers as well as spring blooming companions, they’ll make a fine new border in front of a low stucco retaining wall that gets afternoon sun.

Keep your eyes open and you’ll see all sorts of possibilities in the end of summer.—Cathy Clary

After the tornado

Here’s the scenario: soccer practice is in T-minus 10, Timmy and Tammy’s room is in shambles, and the cleats are MIA. While it’s probably too late to save you from pre-practice meltdown, there are plenty of strategies to keep kids’ rooms cleaner and more efficiently organized without additional hair-pulling:

1) Take a walk in their shoes. Get down and see for yourself what life looks like on their level. While folding closet doors, dresser drawers, and closet rods may be scaled for adult heights and hands, they can be frustrating for kids and discourage organization. Lowering clothing rods, using floor-level containers or baskets, and fitting furniture to kids’ proportions can make neatness more accessible.
 
2) Weed it out. Sorting through your child’s belongings to pick out outgrown clothing, old toys, and other abandoned items can help free up loads of space. Encourage your kid to donate unwanted items or host a garage sale for a lesson in charity or kiddie entrepreneurship.

3) Contain it. Making a system of tubs, crates or other plastic containers, with fun, clear labels, can make clean-up a game. Remember to keep more frequently used items accessible and easy to put away, while leaving higher shelves for stuff Tammy won’t usually need: Think porcelain dolls and Grandma-made sweaters.
 
4) Consistency is key. A clean-up routine will help avoid plunges and spikes in messiness levels. By making morning and evening tidying sessions sweet and simple—straightening the bed before breakfast, putting away toys and picking out tomorrow’s clothes before bed—you keep frustration low and cleanliness high.—Lucy Zhou

Millions of melons

The thermometer reads 100 but it feels like one million degrees out there—sunburn, mosquito bites and foot-burning tarmac have just one remedy, and it is a chilled, locally grown melon applied directly to the tastebuds.  Melons fall into two categories. The first is the well-known watermelon family, typically sold by the pound (and there are some whoppers!) and, in heritage varieties, sporting such colorful names as “Moon and Stars,” “White Wonder,” and “Sugar Baby.” The muskmelon family includes green and orange fleshed melons, and consists of regional favorites with unbelievably heady aromas and succulent flesh—check the City Market for Hales Best (dating from 1924), Pike and Sweet Passion.

Selecting a melon can be challenging. Look for firm, well-rounded flesh that yields slightly to your hand but lacks any soft spots or discolored rind. Do sniff the blossom end to make certain the melon is fragrant and ripe. If you have a large melon, play with some classic presentations from around the world, such as wrapping it in prosciutto (Northern Italian finger food) or spiking with fresh lime juice, chili powder and salt (classic Mexican street food). Refrigeration will make a cut melon deteriorate rapidly, so simply eat as much as you can the first time around or cover cut portions with plastic wrap and keep on a drip plate in a cool, dark place.—Lisa Reeder

Flavor shot

Summertime vegetables are often best when eaten raw, which keeps the cook sane, the house cool and the fresh flavors intact. To turn veggies into a meal, consider making a few vinegar purchases now that will serve you all summer long. When combined with quality sea salt, olive oil, and fresh herbs the varietal wine vinegars from Virginia Vinegar Works will leave your lips pursed and your tastebuds tingling. If you see them at the Charlottesville City Market or the Nellysford Market, ask proprietors Jay and Steph for a taste and let your imagination run wild.
 
This vinegar is handcrafted from Virginia wine, so consider using it as an addition to marinades, as a poaching liquid, and drizzled directly atop your homegrown tomatoes. (Visit virginiavinegarworks.com, or browse the whole product line at C’ville Market, cvillemarket.com, 984-0545.)—L.R.

 

 

Five years ago, David and Jordan Phemister were feeling pretty good about what they’d just bought: an 800-square-foot bungalow in a prime Belmont location. Built in 1920, it still had original flooring and plaster, plus a charming front porch. Though it was small, it was enough space for the two of them.

The Phemisters travel a soapstone-edged walkway, designed by Jordan, from the contemporary rear to the 89-year-old front of their house.

“I remember we had a bunch of family here,” remembers David, thinking back to one of the first weekends they lived in the house. “Several of the folks said, ‘You could do so much with this.’ We were so relieved to have gotten a house in Belmont we could afford. We didn’t have kids. I didn’t have any vision of expanding at that point.” But it wasn’t long before the idea took hold.
 
The sticking point was the kitchen, found at the back of the little house. “It was a tight galley kitchen,” says Jordan, an enthusiastic cook. The Phemisters thought about redoing the space, but, says David, “We realized it may be better to save our money and do something bigger down the road.”

Fast-forward three years to 2007, when the couple spent the July 4 weekend embarking on that “something bigger” with some good old-fashioned demolition on the rear parts of their home. They were expecting their first child. And along with their family, the Phemisters’ vision for the house was expanding: They’d taken that notion of redoing the kitchen and, with the help of local architecture firm Wolf-Ackerman, turned it into a plan for an exciting two-story addition that would double the size of their living space.

A marriage of styles

One of the main challenges in the design process for the Phemisters’ addition was that, in David’s words, “We knew we wanted something modern, but we wanted to fit into the existing fabric of the neighborhood.” Indeed, the addition is unapologetic about its contemporary bent, at least when viewed from the backyard.

A cedar rain screen and cedar plywood define the exterior look of the new addition, which replaced two earlier (and awkwardly proportioned) ones.

A cedar rain screen covers most of the exterior, except where it gives way to cedar plywood and cement board—all of them in contrast to the original building’s stucco. Lines are crisp, and structural elements, like glue-laminated ceiling beams that penetrate through the rear wall to the outdoors, remain exposed and visible. Architect Dave Ackerman explains that it’s all part of an “attitude of not covering things up. Let things be themselves—that dictated the aesthetics of the space.”

That’s clearly a modernist approach, but one tempered by the Phemisters’ desire not to impose on their very close neighbors. Stand on the sidewalk in front of their house, and you can barely see the addition, as tall as it is. “[Wolf-Ackerman] really took advantage of the site,” says Jordan, referring to the slope away from the street that allows two stories in the back to nearly hide behind one story in the front. The addition’s roof slopes upward at the back, too, meaning there’s no façade popping up behind the roof of the original structure.

Inside, the transition is just as well-managed. Walking from front to back, one passes through the very small, boxy rooms built in 1920 and through the former kitchen (now a pair of closets). Then this close, low-ceilinged space gives way to a generous, open one, where a beautiful new kitchen overlooks the sunken living/dining space. On one side, a staircase leads up to the master bedroom and bathroom. The feeling is one of light, backyard views, and upward motion.

“It’s the classic thing,” says Jordan, reflecting on how the addition draws her and her family out from the older rooms. “They’ve created such a great space that we’re always back there now.”

Upward and outward

That “great space” is certainly a world away from what it replaced—a pair of earlier 20’x7′ rear additions that, in Ackerman’s dry assessment, were “hard to furnish.” If a better kitchen was the seed of the Phemisters’ urge to remodel, they certainly got what they wanted: lots more storage and work room, and total integration with the space where they do their living.

Little of the rear addition is visible from the street.

Jordan especially appreciates how, looking out and down from the sink or counters, she has an easy sightline to her daughter, now 21 months old and often found playing under the staircase. “It’s so easy to keep an eye on her. That space [under the stairs] becomes such a natural alley for her. [Before construction] we couldn’t imagine not putting storage under the stairs, but it would have been horrible,” she laughs. “The kitchen is the threshold between old and new; I wouldn’t have anticipated how well that works.”

Meanwhile, the kitchen easily accommodates two cooks. “The aisle is really generous. We can be back-to-back and not bump into each other,” says Jordan. Guests often find informal seating on the steps that lead down into the dining area.

The combined living/dining space exemplifies something that the Phemisters, Dave Ackerman and the contractors (design-build firm Alloy Workshop) all say was special about this project: a fluid exchange of ideas among all the parties. “It was the most collaborative process I’ve been part of,” says Zach Snider, an Alloy partner. For example, the staircase to the second floor was designed by Alloy while Wolf-Ackerman suggested the railing detail. “It was a hybrid way of doing it, because [the Phemisters and Alloy] were willing to do more,” says Ackerman.

Sliding doors and pocket doors make the most of the space.

For their part, the Phemisters contributed a considerable amount of sweat equity: David and his father put a galvanized standing-seam roof on both the old and new portions of the house, and the couple took on gutters, painting, drywall, bath fixture installation and other tasks. “It makes you more vested in the project,” says David. “That was important to us beyond the cost savings.”

If the living room ceiling hints at what’s above (the yellow pine planking doubles as the master bedroom floor), the staircase firmly links upper and lower stories. It’s flanked by a massive two-story panel made of Polygal, a translucent material that lets in light but not a clear view. “This was Wolf-Ackerman’s suggestion,” says David. “We wanted to do a big window, but it would have been an insulation and privacy issue.” The Polygal makes the most of morning sun from the east, but minimizes energy loss by trapping air between its two layers.

The Phemisters were interested generally in an efficient building envelope. The addition has soy-based insulation, which kept the heating and cooling cost increase down to $25-30 per month. Cross-breezes through the space mean A/C isn’t usually needed at night.

Back to front

Jordan says that in the bedroom, from the vantage point of the low bed, she has another reason to appreciate the addition’s upward-sloping roofline: “It’s nice from an experiential side,” she says. Indeed, from any point in the room—not just the bed—the space feels extremely airy, with its white walls and ceiling and minimal furniture. Three large windows to the south overlook the backyard and, in winter, Carter Mountain and the Ragged Mountains. “The ceiling height makes it feel bigger than it is,” says David.

Architect Dave Ackerman calls the yellow pine flooring of the master bedroom “an opportunity to let something do more than one thing”: The planks double as the ceiling of the living area below.

A subtle detail emphasizes the modern nature of this design: Instead of moulding around the edge of the floor, Wolf-Ackerman suggested that the wallboard simply stop, appearing to hover an inch or so above the floor. A pocket door leads to the bathroom, done up in white cabinets and tile, its shower graced with an eye-level window that was a last-minute addition to the design. “The shower is the closest thing to an outdoor shower you can get,” says David.
 
The building process took just over a year, during which the Phemisters’ daughter was born. They cocooned her in the old section of the house while construction continued in the back. It was tight, they say, but Alloy made it work. “You hear more horror stories than great stories about builders. But it all just worked,” says David. “I thought it was fun.”

In some ways, the process continues. The couple plan to add a deck that will wrap around the new addition and take full advantage of their oasis-like backyard, with its fig tree, tomato patch and soapstone-edged walkway (which Jordan, a landscape architect, designed).
 
And they’d like to give some attention to the old section of the house—the part that originally caught their eye back in 2004. “When we walked in, we liked it right away,” says David. Now, though “we didn’t want these rooms to be obsolete,” it’s clear that the heart of their home has shifted to the addition. “[The front] is mainly transitional space,” David says, “because the back is so great.”

The biggest real estate kerfuffle of the summer—lowball appraisals.
 
Many Charlottesville homeowners have had to shelve or cancel plans to refinance or sell their homes due to appraisals coming in much lower—sometimes as much as 12 to 15 percent—than expected.

Why is this happening? Two reasons, explains Bill Hamrick, vice president and branch manager of C&F Mortgage Charlottesville, who sees lowball appraisals as a growing concern among Charlottesville homeowners.

Number one, government-sponsored mortgage investors Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae put new, highly abstemious appraisal rules into effect nationwide on May 1. The new rules are designed to curtail laissez-faire lending practices and freewheeling home valuations that fueled the housing market crash.
 
Number two, “Many appraisals conducted during the boom were inflated to begin with,” says Hamrick. “So a lot of these ‘lowball appraisals’ people are talking about may actually be a more accurate reflection of a home’s real value.”
 
Under the old rules, a homeowner seeking to sell or refinance a home would tell his real estate agent or lender what he thought the house is worth—say, $300,000. The agent or lender would run this number by an appraiser, the inference being this was the target number needed for the sale or loan to go through. If an appraiser came back with a valuation of $270,000—less than the target—the parties involved would obviously want to reconsider doing future business with this person. So it was in the appraiser’s self-interest to manipulate the numbers to better coincide with the target valuation. Not surprisingly, values became inflated. Enter the mortgage meltdown.

The new rules—outlined in a document called Home Valuation Code of Conduct which can be found at freddiemac.com—seek to eliminate the cozy relationship that existed between sellers, mortgage brokers and appraisers.
 
No longer are mortgage brokers allowed to order an appraisal or influence an appraisal report. Indeed, the new code prohibits mortgage brokers and real estate agents from taking any part in the selection of appraisers at all. Critics charge this has led to lenders outsourcing the selection of appraisers to independent appraisal-management companies, who assign appraisers with little to no knowledge of neighborhoods in question.
 
What’s more, appraisers are using short sales, foreclosures and other distressed properties as “comparables,” which distorts property values further. “Banks have suffered huge losses, so they’re leaning on appraisers to be more cautious,” says Hamrack.

What to do if an appraisal comes back less than expected? Unfortunately, right now, not much, says Hamrick.

Last week, the National Association of Realtors urged Congress to pass a bill that would impose an 18-month moratorium on the new appraisal guidelines. The issue is still being debated in Washington.
 
In the meantime, Freddie Mac issued another round of guidelines for lenders (and homeowners) aimed to encourage fair and accurate appraisals. Among their recommendations: utilizing only appraisers who are state licensed and show adequate knowledge of a neighborhood in question.

 

Adventures in trim

Top: Painting the trim pieces was half the fun. Bottom: The results made us feel all finished and stuff.

We were very happy to get to the stage in our renovation where we could focus on trim. Nonessential, almost purely aesthetic, trim was a sure sign we’d made progress from our early days of bathroom plumbing and floor-framing. However, the task was intimidating too. Unlike those earlier projects, trim would not be hidden. Our work not only had to be perfect, it had to act as camouflage for a multitude of imperfections.

We began with trim where the tops of walls meet beadboard ceilings. Measuring, cutting, painting and nailing up lengths of 1"x4" went pretty well, especially with the assistance of a nailgun, and we got better at measuring and marking with practice.
 
That was good, because the quirky nature of our old house meant that we needed to use trim pieces of many different sizes and styles. It seemed that at every corner or edge we were inventing something new. We spent many painstaking weeks trotting up and down the stairs to the basement, where the miter saw lives. My favorite part of the job was trimming along the big oak posts and beams we’d installed. Readymade oak “cove,” as it was labeled at the store, needed only to be cut and nailed, with no priming or painting.
 
Best thing about trimming? Just as we’d hoped, it really made us feel like we had completed something. It was the icing on the cake. And we no longer have to gaze at our earlier shortcomings.

Tray chic

If you’re a true Recessionista, you know the benefits of repurposing. This month’s project, then, is tailor-made for you. What was once an old tray now becomes a kitschy—yet chic—bulletin board, complete with magnets, for all your last-minute reminders. The best part? It’s almost embarrassingly easy.—Caite White

Materials: One metal tray (found at Goodwill or a local thrift store); super glue; saw tooth picture hanger; nail.

Tool: Hammer.

Glue picture hanger to the back of the tray.

Hammer a nail into the wall.

Hang the tray on the nail.

Materials: Three big buttons; super glue; small, round magnets (found at any craft store).

Glue button onto a magnet.

Enjoy!

No surprise: Lynsie Steele, who owns the Waynesboro-based gourmet ice cream business Perfect Flavor, is a foodie. She owns four copies of Julia Child’s classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking—including one signed by Child. “I cried when Colin gave it to me,” she says.

That would be Colin Steele, Lynsie’s husband. Their shared passion for food would be evident to any visitor walking into the kitchen of their Albemarle house, even if the Steeles themselves were not in the room. But then, they’re very often in the room. They’ve made their mark on it through hours and hours of cooking there, and through a recent renovation that brought in bright Mediterranean colors and an updated look.

The pair met several years ago at Greenberry’s, where Lynsie worked and Colin was a customer. Even though they “never exchanged more than 10 words,” as Colin says, they noticed each other—Lynsie could feel Colin’s presence whenever he walked in, even when her back was turned.

Eventually, she left to start her business. Six months later, some friends invited her to a party, at the home of someone she didn’t know. That someone turned out to be Colin. And in a fleeting moment during the party, standing in the kitchen, they fell in love. “We started talking and it was like no one else existed,” says Lynsie. “It was like the world fell away at that moment,” Colin adds. Later, Lynsie was reaching to put crackers away in one of Colin’s cabinets and “had this flash of doing that motion hundreds and thousands of times my whole life.”

Now, the pair are weaving a life together and with Colin’s two children, 13-year-old Nick and 10-year-old Kate. “Our kitchen is the beating heart of our home,” says Colin. “We do all of our cooking, eating, and socializing here; we have our fights, we make our plans.”—Erika Howsare

Lynsie: “Our relationship started in the kitchen and it’s grown in the kitchen. Our first batch of ice cream was in here.”

Colin: “We catered our own engagement party. When we got married we had Lynsie’s friend Ingrid, who’s an amazing chef, cater it for us out of this kitchen. We got married at our house. It’s a really important house to us.

“The house was built in ‘66 when the kitchen was a different place culturally. It was all closed off. There were salmon-colored countertops and the rest was stark off-white. We knocked out [a former wall that’s now a breakfast bar] and got rid of the closet. There’s tons of soapstone all over the property so [making countertops out of it] was the first thing we did. I love it. You can beat the hell out of it, put hot pans on it…”

Lynsie: “My favorite part is a different knob for every door.”

Colin: “We pulled the cabinets down and painted them. I did the lighting. We got a nice stove and put in gas—a propane tank.”

Lynsie: “We don’t have a microwave. It’s not 30-minute meals. On a life level, we have trouble hearing people say ‘I don’t have time to cook.’ We both have demanding full-time jobs but we cook from scratch. If we have mac’n’cheese it’s all from scratch. Not only is it better for us health-wise but it’s a great education for the kids. We share responsibility really equally about cooking. The kids are in here and they’re like, ‘What can I do to help?’ They can make things that a lot of adults can’t make; they can make bread better than me. They can whip up a salad dressing, roast vegetables, chop an onion the right way. If we sleep in on the weekend we hear pots banging and they’re making breakfast.

“People ask us [if we’ll expand the kitchen]. But I think it’s the perfect size. All the drawers are full; everything has its place. We do need a bigger fridge, though. We get excited and cook for 10. We’re trying to get better about using leftovers.

“This was the family life I did not have growing up because my mother never cooked. We had frozen dinners, fast food. I used to watch ’50s sitcoms and wish it was like that. Here I am in 2009 and I’ve recreated that ’50s sitcom. My idea of a home and a family is good smells coming out of the house. Colin wanted the same thing—having a family in this environment where your existence revolves around food.”