Month: November 2011

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Living

November ABODE: Matt McClellan crafts an ideal kitchen in black and white

Kitchen renovations never finish on time. For Matt McClellan, a graduate of UVA’s School of Architecture working toward his license, the process of designing a major addition onto the side of his 1949 house took five months longer than expected. He and his wife, Meredith, bought the house in 2007 and tore the existing kitchen off before they even moved in. When it became evident that things weren’t going to finish on time, the father of three knew to go with the flow in order to get exactly the space he had envisioned: a traditional, simple, stunning kitchen where his family could easily congregate and live life.

“We really wanted a place where we could sit down and eat. We find that we never really use our proper dining room; it’s not really convenient for sitting the kids down for breakfast,” he said. McClellan decided to give the kitchen a turned roof line, perpendicular to the original house. The result is a spacious, light-filled kitchen complete with a massive island, eating area, a mudroom/laundry facility, and plenty of storage and cooking space in between.

The space shows restraint on McClellan’s part. “I wanted to keep it traditional and simple. I didn’t want to try to do too much. At the same time, we wanted a really functional kitchen with materials that spoke for themselves,” McClellan said. Those include a stained cherry island, black granite countertops, custom birch cabinetry painted Dove White, and a white subway tile back-splash that has a slight crackle finish.

While the overall aesthetic is in keeping with the traditional bones of the house, it is in no way an old-fashioned kitchen. “We wanted something that wouldn’t be dated in five or 10 years. We wanted something that has some staying power,” said McClellan. Considering the fact that McClellan claims the family spends 75 percent of their life occupying some part of the kitchen “zone,” his simple, functional, durable design was worth the investment.—Cate West Zahl

 

“Our old kitchen was really tiny. We realized what a lot of people end up realizing, and that’s that we spend a lot more time in the kitchen, certainly more than the people who built these older houses originally occupied the kitchen. Now it’s definitely more of a family space.

“I’ve always liked stainless. I mean, if I can’t live in some cool loft outfitted with mid-century modern furniture, at least I can have stainless steel appliances! You take what you can get. It’s got a nice clean quality to it.

“The concept of the kitchen was that the black granite countertops would be a durable and attractive workspace. The black-and-white color combination is classic, without feeling too old fashioned. It’s a timeless color scheme that I knew we wouldn’t tire of.

“My only regret is that the three windows are a little too tall, because my wife has a hard time seeing outside the windows. It’s fine for me, and it is nice when you sit at the island.
“I love the light fixtures. I was looking for something round to counterbalance all the edges in the room, which is actually pretty angular and geometric. I got a consultation from designers in town, called Fifth Wall. They helped me pick out the lighting which really keeps the space up to date.

“Meredith was involved in a lot of the decision making. We agreed on almost everything, except for the faucet, which we almost got divorced over. I just had to have it, and she was like, ‘We are not spending that much money on a single fixture!’

“I scoured the Internet for deals. So I ended up buying most of the appliances at discount prices. The stove had been returned and was a floor model. The budget wasn’t going to support doing everything Viking or Wolf. We wanted nice appliances. The refrigerator was a floor model. The process was dragging out for so long, so I left my ame at Ferguson and said, ‘If anything comes in that is dented, I want it, give me a call.’”

 

Virginia Organizing holds annual soup dinner fundraiser

PRESS RELEASE: Virginia Organizing–– Virginia Organizing will hold its Social Justice Bowl VIII on Friday, November 18, at 6:00 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Rugby Road.

Please help Virginia Organizing tackle injustice. Come for a soup and bread supper and take home your soup bowl, handcrafted by a local potter.

Tickets must be purchased in advance. They are $25 and are available at Quest Bookshop, Timberlake’s Drug Store, and at the Virginia Organizing office at 703 Concord Avenue. Or purchase your tickets by calling 984-4655 x229. Please also consider sponsoring individuals who would like to attend, but cannot afford tickets.

EVENT SPONSORS:
UNION BANK & TRUST, REBECCA’S NATURAL FOOD, BANKERS INSURANCE, CVILLE IMPORTS, CHARLOTTESVILLE DERBY DAMES AND RUDY’S RUG CLEANING

Virginia Organizing is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to challenging injustice by organizing people in local communities to address issues that affect the quality of their lives. Virginia Organizing especially encourages the participation of those who have traditionally had little or no voice in our society.
 

Charles Wright and Olivia Ellis lead us Out West

Guest post by Sarah Matalone

In his novel All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren suggested, “West is where we all plan to go some day.” That westward instinct shines in the Poems of the American West anthology, which was previewed with a reading at New Dominion Bookshop on Sunday afternoon. 

From Laguna Beach to Montana, from Houston to the Mojave, we traversed a swath of the great American west, seated comfortably in the landing of the bookshop. A six-year old poet began the afternoon with a seasonally appropriate poem about Halloween. Following the young poet and in lieu of a promised performance by Chamomile and Whiskey, a friend of the band named Jimbo stepped in to play us some guitar and harmonica music, swooning us out of time and place with the words, “I love those cowboys, I love their gold.”

Toes still tapping, we quickly shifted gears. Pulitzer-prize winning poet Charles Wright read a few of his west-centered poems, one of which is included in the anthology. Wright, aptly sporting a silver bear claw-inscribed belt buckle, started us off with “Laguna Blues,” wherein the hot California weather conveys the speaker’s intangible unease. Loath to leave the west coast, Wright read his poem “California Dreaming,” the tile of which, he admits, he stole from The Mammas and Poppas. “Yesterday hung like a porcelain cup behind the eyes,” he read, his voice low. This wasn’t the California most tourists are used to. 

From California, we moved to Montana, where Wright’s wife inherited a property and where he completes the majority of his writing. In “Sun-Saddled, Coke-Copping, Bad-Boozing Blues," an elegy for Wright’s brother-in-law, who died in 1986, we get the life of a man whose life was equally as hard as his death: “Renaissance boy, / With coke up your nose and marijuana in your eye, / We loved you the best we could, but nobody loved you enough. / Except Miss Whiskey. / You roll in your sweet baby’s arms now, as once you said you / would, / And lay your body down, / In your meadow, in the mountains, all alone.”

After Wright’s reading, we heard a variety of poems from the collection: “B.H. Fairchild’s “Brazil,” Nancy Ware’s “No Name,” Robert Frost’s “Once by the Pacific,” followed by a few poems from Olivia Ellis. Ellis, whose work is also included in the anthology, read us poems depicting the events from her own western experiences, bringing characters such as her father, mother, grandmother, and brother (who had flown from out west to see her read) to life in the poems “Signing Your Life Away” and “Looking West, Academy Cemetery.” 

The sun setting on our eastern town, and Jimbo led us in a final sing-along. Like cowboys (and cowgirls) around a campfire, we sang the old folk ballad “The Streets of Laredo.” Even for just an hour, it was nice to get out west for a little while.

 

Cuccinelli talks Vinegar Hill ahead of eminent domain amendment

Come January, the Virginia General Assembly will revisit local delegate Rob Bell’s state constitution amendment to limit eminent domain, the process that contribtued to the creation of Shenandoah National Park as well as the destruction of Vinegar Hill during urban renewal. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who authored an eminent domain bill in 2007, is stoking the fires for Bell’s bill now.

Bell’s bill makes explicit the costs for reimbursing property owners whose land is seized for public use, but also states that any group condemning property must "bear the burden" of proving the public, rather than private, nature of the use. Cuccinelli told the Virginia NAACP convention that protection against eminent domain can be "chipped away" by subsequent assemblies if not "enshrined" in the Constitution.

"Right now, the people of Charlottesville are still hurting over the razing of the once-thriving Vinegar Hill, where many African-American homes and businesses were located," said Cuccinelli on Saturday. "Although that urban renewal project happened decades ago, city council has just drafted up a formal apology that they’ll vote on November 7. We need to make sure that what happened to Vinegar Hill, what happened in Roanoke and Norfolk and all over Virginia, doesn’t happen again-not now, not ever."

Do such specifications need to be codified in the state constitution? A February op-ed in the Times-Dispatch outlines a few instances of what the writer calls David v. Goliath cases, but a March follow-up suggested that perhaps the Davids and Goliaths were capable of rational negotations. Leave your thoughts on the eminent domain amendment below.

Canines, Costumes, Charity

Man’s best friends got a chance to dress up and raise money for local charity at the Doggie Howl-o-Ween event on Sunday at the downtown mall.

Led by members of Charlottesville’s Doxie Meetup Group, around forty participants—some with tails, many without—gathered together to dress up for Halloween and participate in various contests. The event was sponsored by NWG Solutions and raised about $1,000 for Service Dogs of Virginia.

The C-ville Doxie Meetup group was established in late 2008 as a way for fellow dachshund owners to come together. It is one of approximately 109 dachshund meetup groups in the world.

For pictures of the dogs in action, visit local photo blogger Keith Alan Sprouse’s site here. 

Last day to apply for Albemarle, Charlottesville absentee ballots

Consider this a gentle prod or poke in the direction of the polls. If you are unable to vote in person during the November 8 General Election—you know, that thing we keep talking about—you have one hour left to apply for an absentee ballot. Go here for information on Charlottesville absentee ballots, and here for Albemarle info.