My husband and I have been living in an apartment since July while our century-old one-bathroom bungalow has been undergoing a significant renovation. As a Principal at SALA Architects, I’ve guided many clients through this process but it was our first project at this scale and an immeasurably valuable experience.
While the architectural solutions and design decisions were ours, they were influenced by savvy design friends, professionals, and product reps whose patience was endless and deeply appreciated. The physical work was made possible by the detailed attention of Terra Firma Building and Remodeling, our general contractor, and their skilled collaborators. It is a season for gratitude, and while this list is bound to be incomplete, it is a start. In this spirit, we offer our gratitude to:
…the demo and framing crews who took care to disassemble the center of our home without collapse and create a sound and spectacular execution of a shaped ceiling with skylight;
…the roofer and insulators for collaborating and phasing their work to provide new venting, flashing, membranes and shingles over a warm and air-sealed lid;
…the drywallers, mudders and tapers for treating the ceiling as the work of art it was intended to be;
…the siders for working indoors to visually extend our entry porch through the living space while magically making everything appear level, even while being far from;
…the finish carpenters for installing, shimming, aligning, and routing nearly everything into place,
…and the electricians for making use of the “switch to nowhere” and, quite literally, powering our daily experience;
…the patient plumber who told me to wait for the part I wanted and didn’t chastise me when I said “go ahead,” only to come back later with the part I should have waited for in the first place;
…the tile setter who regarded the drawings and confirmed our intentions, setting the hand-made tile pattern around the shower drain and dialing in the wall niche to exact tile dimensions;
…the cabinet makers who precisely matched the details of our existing millwork to make what is new and newly functional look original;
…the painters for patiently taping two-hundred and forty-two individual lights and setting appropriate expectations for my particular millwork paint selection, and then exceeding them;
…the folks we’ll never know who hand-crafted the objects we’ve selected to touch, operate, color, light and otherwise imbue our days with delight.
Trades and craftsmanship require skill. But time and attention are a gift. And we are grateful, particularly at this time and in this year, to return to our home. We share our gratitude not only with this extraordinary team but with clients of SALA who seek our creativity and expertise, and entrust all who participate in bringing these dreams to fruition. We will be home just in time to celebrate the new year. We went without a Christmas tree this year, but we are keenly aware of the gifts we’ve received.