The Second Home Book: The Can-Do, How-to, Get-Through Guide
272
The Second Home Book: The Can-Do, How-to, Get-Through Guide
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Overview
The Ultimate Guide to Organize and Inspire You So You Can—Really!—Sit Back and Enjoy Your Second Home
The Second Home Book is the first of its kind – a conversational, comprehensive and convenient guide to setting up, operating and, most of all, enjoying a second home. It is cheerful and useful—funny, fact-filled, anecdotal – appealing to both those already ensconced in or encumbered with a 2nd residence as well as those imagining a future, fantastic home.
In The Second Home Book, you'll learn:
--how to furnish your second home on a shoestring (without relying on castoffs from your primary residence)
--how to run your second home efficiently from afar
--how to assemble a dream team of helpers (from handymen to cleaning help) and keep them motivated
--how to entertain (even other people's children) without exhausting yourself
--why you should avoid renovating your second home's kitchen
--how to handle bills, routine maintenance, and emergencies
--how to turn any house into your dream house
The Second Home Book is not about how to finance a second home—it's about absolutely everything else you need to know in one cheerful, easy-to-navigate volume.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781429930154 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | St. Martin's Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 02/19/2008 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 272 |
| File size: | 238 KB |
About the Author
Marylouise Oates is a journalist who is the former society columnist for the Los Angeles Times and the author of Making Peace. She is married to Democratic political consultant, commentator and author Robert Shrum, with whom she has enjoyed homes and second homes in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York City, Cape Cod and on the Jersey shore.
Marylouise Oates is a journalist who is the former society columnist for the Los Angeles Times and the author of Making Peace. She is married to Democratic political consultant, commentator and author Robert Shrum, with whom she has enjoyed homes and second homes in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York City, Cape Cod and on the Jersey shore.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Getting Going
It's in the Bag
From day one, you need a second home bag. It can be one of those cute boating bags from L. L. Bean; it can be a leftover diaper bag, or a formerly fashionable tote. It should be roomy but certainly not bigger than a bread box. It cannot be paper. It has to have a sense and spirit of permanence, since it is toting around a chunk of your life. In the bag stick a spiral notebook (available in any drugstore) along with several pens, preferably different colors. Also drop in a "measure" — that's a tape, but carpenters always call it a measure, and saying that makes you sound professional.
Now, walk around your second home and write down the measurements of everything in your notebook. Everything — that includes rooms, closets, the space between the sink and the tub where the toilet sits, the length of the tub, the ceiling height in every room (in any house more than twenty years old, there will be differences), the perimeter of every window, the space between the windows and the ceiling, ditto between the windowsill and the floor, the length of the kitchen cabinets, any wall space in the kitchen that doesn't currently have a cabinet. You get the idea.
Measure everything, inside and out. If it is during a growing season, get your graph paper and chart what is growing where. If it is off season, you'll have to wait until the blooming starts, or check with the former owner or the Realtor. Most owners and real estate agents have photographs of the house taken for advertising. Ask them to dig them out to give you some idea of what you've got.
If this is new construction, you can probably trust the floor plans or blueprints. If someone has lived in the space before you, even one tenant, it is likely that they will have made some adjustments, so you will have to make adjustments on the plans. If you have plans or drawings, put them in the bag. Don't be afraid to fold them. They belong to you. Listen to me: Stick them in the bag.
Keep measuring — the appliances (36-inch refrigerators are never just 36 inches), the kitchen sink, the length and width of any hallway, the heights and depths of the closets, the space between the windows in each bedroom (so you know how big a bed you can fit), and the space (if any) between the bathroom medicine cabinets and the top of the sink. Even if you are doing a quick clean and moving right in, you will probably need better closet rods and/or a sense of how much storage you actually have for hanging clothes or stacking sheets. The rule is the older the house, the smaller the closets.
Put all these carefully collected measurements in your notebook. (If you want to be extra careful, make a Xerox the next time you pass a machine, and stick the Xerox in your underwear drawer. No one ever loses anything that has been placed in an underwear drawer.) Along with your measurement-filled notebook, stick in your tote any photograph from a decorating magazine, any sample of fabric or paint (you can tape these into your notebook), any estimate for work to be done, any price quoted for new appliances or windows or fabric. Also make sure you write down every phone and cell number from anyone who has anything to do with your new house. Do not trust inputting these numbers into your cell phone or keeping them on your computer or even writing them down in your phone book. You want a single ready reference for your second home.
Take photographs — especially if you have a digital camera, but a throwaway will do if that is what's available. Take pictures from all sides of the house or condo or apartment. Take at least one picture of each room from each corner in the room. In the kitchen, take photos of all the appliances. Photos are key, especially if you are going to be making long-distance decisions. The photos remind you that there are three drawers on the left side of the stove, shelves above the poles in the closets and a vanity under the sink in the guest bathroom. They help in several other ways: they will answer those nagging questions of how many windows really are in the living room; they will help you think about furniture for the house, along with window treatments and lighting; they will assist in making color choices. That last one seems a stretch, but when you are sitting with seventeen various shades of celadon on teeny little pieces of paper, it does help to remind your eye what the room you are going to paint actually looks like.
This does not, repeat does not, resemble moving into a primary residence. You want to get this place up and running at quickly as possible so you can actually enjoy it. You are going to take some shortcuts. You are also going to be frugal. It doesn't matter that you are well fixed enough to own second home. You be the judge of which shortcuts you will take and what splurges you will indulge.
It's all about control. You get to decide when enough is enough. You are so lucky to have this second home — and now you get to put emotion aside for a few minutes and make some hardcore plans.
A Little Tarting Up
You have bought a second home. You have learned the second home mantra (it practically comes with the mortgage papers): "We are just going to move in and see how it all works. And then, in a couple of years, we'll get rehabbing under way."
I've done that. I've lived with kitchen counters built for people whose previous home was on the Yellow Brick Road; I've cooked at stoves that were probably designed by the man who invented fire; I had one minor project that kept carpenters in my home for so many months that they would make the coffee when they arrived in the morning; I had a painter in Los Angeles many years ago (where those in the contracting business are frequently out-of-work actors) who got a recurring role as a baby-faced killer and could only paint in alternating weeks; I had another painter who had a day job, not as a painter, and loved painting late at night, just about one A.M. (I'll put up with almost anything for a fabulous faux finish.)
On minor repairs or cosmetic work, there is a certain attitude that has to be adopted in dealing with skilled workers — plumbers and electricians being chief among them, painters and carpenters less so. The same deep-breathing exercises used for natural childbirth are helpful, as are any spiritual guides to peace and contentment. What skilled craftsmen usually believe is that you need them more than they need you. And, amazingly, they're right on target. So try to fit your schedule to theirs, and never, on a small but urgent job, feel embarrassed at offering a little extra cash.
I always feed everybody who works fixing up any house I'm working on. Not every day, and certainly not always with home-cooked food. But I try, if there is a weeklong job, to offer to buy the pizza or the subs or the lobster rolls at least once during that week. I make coffee and offer it. And I make sure always to ask everyone on the job their name and I introduce myself. This is especially important in a second home, where you might be coming and going and want to be sure that you have made a good impression on the craftsperson. Besides, it's the polite thing to do.
Eschewing major construction and all it entails, here are some random pointers that may be helpful in doing smaller jobs:
• Painting: For small paint jobs, always check the "returned paint" rack in a Home Depot store. A can of customized paint, ordered by a customer who suffers second thoughts and never takes it out of the store, usually costs around $5.
• Painting: If your second home is in a fancy area, you might be thinking about custom-finish painting, i.e. striating, fauxing, stenciling. Do not rely on a photograph of a job that the painter supposedly did in someone else's house. Get a sample of the custom-finish on a board, with the colors you want to use in your home. Then you will know that this particular painter actually knows how to do that particular technique.
• Painting: All whites are not created the same and nowhere is this more apparent than in a bathroom. Even a teensy difference between wall color and wall tile can be jarring. Check and double check. Buy the tiny bottle that many paint stores will sell you — usually about $5 — and put it on the wall next to the tile.
• Painting: The job always takes longer than you expect, and you can't put up drapes/shades/blinds until the painting is done. You are living in the house and would like to walk through the kitchen without being on display for the whole neighborhood. Go to Bed Bath and Beyond, Lowe's or any large hardware store. Buy the nifty little pleated paper shades that stick on to the wood or the glass itself. Cost: about $7 a window, and they are surprisingly sturdy. You are out of the spotlight.
• Wallpapering: My dear, you are ambitious! Good wallpaper comes in lots. So if you need six rolls, make sure the numbers of the rolls are in order, i.e. no. 17 through no. 22. This is especially important if you are shopping for wallpaper at an outlet or clearance sale. Even if the rolls are in the same box, check out the numbers.
• Electrical: If you are having piecemeal electrical work done, make sure that the electrician has a written list of exactly which switches should operate what lights. If you leave the light-switch decision in the hands of the electrician, you will wind up turning on the living room lights from the upstairs bedroom. We lived for years at the Cape with what I came to think of as random lighting — it was always a guess as to what switch worked which set of cans or plugs.
• Electrical: If you are installing a dishwasher, a microwave, a garbage disposal, or a monster fridge where none existed before, you must upgrade your electrical. And when you do, ask for designated lines for the devices that really suck up the juice. That is the only way to make sure that you can wash the clothes, the dishes, and warm-up supper simultaneously.
• Electrical: If you are more into primitive and have purchased or live in a home that still has a fuse box, give it a break. This is not safe. Upgrade at once to circuit breakers.
• Plumbing: Someday, somehow, you will need a plumber. It's a fact of life. Maybe you see a plumbing truck at a nearby neighbor's and go by to introduce yourself, a potential new customer. Maybe that plumber is retiring, has too much business already, or simply seems like a mean, nasty no-goodnik when you talk to him. Over the years, I have asked plumbers how they would find a plumber. (So you haven't had that kind of conversation, huh? Well, do you have a good plumber?) Repeatedly, in small towns, plumbers tell you to check with the Chamber of Commerce. Established businesses join the chamber — businesses that want to connect with the community. Also, it is not such a bad idea, when you think you have located a decent plumber, to set up an appointment and go through the house. Pay the plumber for his time. See if he shows up on time — or at least on the same day. Plumbers are just like lawyers, except lawyers have to deal with a lot of stuff a decent plumber wouldn't touch.
• For all jobs: Make a list of what you want done. A punch list, as the boys call it. It doesn't matter how minor — hanging up a robe hook on the back of a bathroom door or putting in a new screen — make a list. First, if you don't, you will forget what you asked the worker to finish, especially easy when you are running two houses. Second, you will have no proof of what you asked the worker to do when it turns out he didn't finish the job. A list doesn't solve all problems. No matter how many times you set up an appointment for a skilled worker in a primarily second home community, you have a better-thaneven chance that an "emergency" somewhere else will keep your worker in that other place. It seems illogical that a carpenter or painter has an urgent duty: "Quick, give me a faux finish in my powder room or I will simply die!" No, but they have seen electricians and plumbers pull this stunt, and they have listened and learned.
Shopping Your Closet
I am a lifelong admirer of Richard Scarry, his wonderful children's books and their characters, Huckle Cat, Bananas Gorilla, Mr. Frumble, and my favorite, Lowly Worm, as in the classic Scarry sentence: "Lowly was getting dressed. He put on his shoe."
Since I live in more than one place, I often think of Lowly as I deal with the one-shoe-in-this-house dilemma. But that is not my point. Scarry wrote all those wonderful, complexly illustrated and sly books, showing how the everyday things that people do are fascinating and fun when they are done by animal characters. That's how I feel about furnishing a second home. It's playing house. Chores and choices that are routine in putting together your primary residence become captivating and charming when they are part of building your second venue.
To begin: If you are living in the normal, American middleclass home, you have extra stuff. Towels, silverware, kitchen chairs, sheets, mugs with cocker spaniels, or "I Love Toledo" on them. You have the pillows you took off your bed when you bought the new ones that you've now used for three years. (If you are in more luxurious financial circumstances or you have limited closet space, you tossed those old pillows — and as soon as you did, you hated the replacement ones.)
With so much stuff, it might seem as though you can troll your primary house and, except for a sofa and three box springs and mattresses, you will be able to furnish your new second home. Think again. You are not going to all this expense to have a home you envision as restive or exciting or both, and then fill it with secondhand stuff you'd be embarrassed to contribute to a neighborhood garage sale. (The exceptions would be people directly descended from the Mayflower, who seem to be able to make any piece of shredded or peeling furniture look exceedingly chic. We all missed that boat!)
Some of your already-owned stuff will work. Notice my use of language. Most used cars are "used." But luxury cars are always "pre-owned." Think of your good stuff as befitting this description. But be warned: A chair you detest but send to temporarily reside in your second home will put down roots. Your partner or housemate will develop an inordinate fondness for it. The cat will become even more attached to it. This disliked chair will never, never, never go away. So, please, you've seen enough horror movies: Don't ever move anything into your second home that is truly nasty. Better you should invite a goblin home to dinner.
As you shop your primary house, your first job is to classify everything extra into three broad categories:
• Absolutely okay/pre-owned — I wouldn't be embarrassed if my ex-husband, ex-roommate, or ex-employer saw it.
• Might make it, but only until I get something better.
• Now I can finally get rid of it.
This is also a good time to look at what is actually furnishing or accenting your primary residence to see if there is something there you want to upgrade. Send the slightly used stuff to the country or the mountain.
My favorite transferables are drinking glasses, cloth napkins, bed linens, pots and pans, cooking utensils, throw pillows, soap dishes, television sets (no matter what you say, you will too watch TV in your vacation home), paperback books, especially the ones from college with the underlining, and cotton bathrobes. You will be tempted to include the vacuum cleaner you bought on a whim at the discount store. Forget it. You don't want it in your primary residence; you won't use it in your second home. Give it away.
The second home will become your house much quicker if you bring things that are old favorites and that add a mildly layered look. I was given a lovely velour throw several years ago. Sabrina, my Clumber spaniel, had a hankering one day and ate a big hole through one end of it. No matter. I used it for several years at the Cape house because nobody could see the big hole as long as the throw was draped over the back of a sofa, pretty and still convenient for afternoon naps. A favorite friend had given it to me, and, the few times someone out of the immediate family wrapped themselves up in it, I could tell the highly amusing story of my ill behaved dog who consumes throws. (Oddly, after that first adventure in velour, Sabrina never went back for a second bite, even though she would frequently lie on the sofa, throw adjacent.)
Speaking of throwing, a second home is a great place to throw around cotton paisleys, usually sold as either tablecloths or bedspreads. Buy several with colors that match and simply throw them on the mismatched furniture in your living room. They are also great if you have dogs who believe the sofa is their bed, since the paisleys — check this out — are now color safe and machine washable.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Second Home Book"
by .
Copyright © 2008 Marylouise Oates.
Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Title Page,
Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
1 - Getting Going,
2 - Furnishings,
3 - The Kitchen,
4 - While You're Up, Why Don't You ...,
5 - Tidy and Clean,
6 - Help, Help — I Have Two Houses,
7 - Guests,
8 - Children,
9 - Getting There,
10 - Business and Bills,
11 - Emergencies,
12 - The Great or Not-So Outdoors,
13 - Entertaining,
14 - Acquiring Your (Almost) Dreamhouse,
ALSO BY MARYLOUISE OATES,
THE TOPICS COVERED IN THE SECOND HOME BOOK, FROM A TO Z, INCLUDE:,
Index,
Copyright Page,