Beacon Hill Job…

I wrote most of this post yesterday, but I am having some technical difficulties with TypePad. After I insert a picture or two, my screen is freezing and the post is lost. 🙁 So… no post yesterday because I was too tired and too frustrated to rewrite all that was lost. TypePad is very helpful though and reports others with FireFox as their browser are also experiencing this and they are trying to sort it all out. I am going to "save" every few seconds this time, so hopefully, all will not be lost if this problem happens again!

Monday, I began a new job in a fantastic brownstone in Boston’s historic Beacon Hill area. This job is quite interesting and poses some new challenges for me. The first challenge is actually getting to the job site! There is no parking. I mean NO parking anywhere near this brownstone. The streets in this area are all one way, very narrow and the only way to park on the street if you do not actually live there and are a contractor is to secure a bond through your insurance agency and pay $20 each day for a space from 7 am-3 pm. The contractors that are doing the major construction have 2 spaces out front. There is a lot of construction going on all over this neighborhood and you see the same drill each morning. The streets are lined with contractor trucks, each one pulling up in front of their designated brownstone, stopping in the middle of the very narrow street to quickly unload, then moving to park out of the area. It’s like an assembly line. Everyone just waits their turn behind the vehicle unloading. I did this Monday when I had to bring in all of my supplies and then I parked in the closest public parking garage, to the tune of $22/day. This was no shock, since I knew the rate, but nonetheless, it’s painful to pay that fee on top of the high cost of gas. Today I took I drove to my local "T" station (commuter rail) and paid $5 to park all day and took the train. There is a stop about 5 minutes from the job site. Once I finish this job, I’ll just drive in, double park and quickly get my supplies into my vehicle.

A little background about this job before I post some pics. This is a new client, a husband and wife, with grown children not at home. They are moving here from Maryland. Their house is still very much a construction site, but the master bedroom is partially set up and there are 2 working bathrooms. The husband is living there because his new job has started. The wife is not living here yet. To date, I have not met either one of them, although I did meet with their daughter to initially see the place and go over design concepts. I have been in touch with the wife via email and phone. She’s very open and receptive to ideas and is giving me wide berth to do as I please, within the design concepts chosen. So far, a dream job! This job came to me via Stacy, the decorative painter whom I often team up with on jobs. Stacy has done a beautiful Venetian Plaster finish in one room so far. When the homeowner had a request for something artistic vs. a faux finish, she passed this client on to me. I hope Stacy and I will be teaming up to do some other work somewhere in this house. I am eying the beautiful new, flat ceilings which I just begging for some design elements! 😉

This brownstone unit has 5 levels for living space. The basement level is pretty much gutted at this stage, but a new kitchen and breakfast area are under construction. The first floor will have a dining room and living room. The second floor seems to have an office and guest bedroom. The the third floor has the master bedroom and another room that I am not sure what is will be used for. The fourth floor, where I am working, is the lady of house’s retreat room to entertain her girlfriends. This room is a good size with a great compact kitchen area in one corner. There is a small bath off of this room. Here you see the stairs that lead up to this top floor. Lots of fun carrying my supplies up 4 flights of these steep, narrow stairs. 😉 Remember, this is still a construction site, so these paint splattered wooden stairs will be carpeted.

As soon as I spoke to this client on the phone for the first time, I immediately knew what I wanted to do in both of these rooms. Once I saw the space, I modified the concepts to fit and it was a go. I have wanted to do this "Strand of Pearls" ever since I first saw this over at Rachel and Helen Morris’s blog, Design Inspiration, Stencil Library So, once again Rachel and Helen, thank you for making my job so easy! I credit their blog site and Melanie Royals sites for increasing my sales and allowing me to do more and more creative designs. Whenever they post a design concept that I know I want to do, I print it out and put it in a sheet protector in my 3 ring binder. Then, when the right space/client comes along, I present them with the concept and modify to fit their space and need. Both Stencil Library and Royal Designs/Modellos will custom cut to the size needed.

This was my inspiration picture for the bathroom. My client did not want her initial, although I did try my best to get her to write an inspirational word with some pearls, but she opted for just the strand of pearls around the room.

Here are a few "Before" and "After" pictures of the small bathroom.

Could this heart sink be any cuter????

More to follow tomorrow!