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A signature piece

Posted on June 26, 2008 by Staff

By Catherine Devine

For starters, I told Tim Peck, I love the way this place is laid out. But the junky cabinets and pink formica have to go, and the circa 1920 floor is caving in. I want the island to be a work of art. Tim smiled. “It’s a small job.”

Tim pulled out his phone immediately. Before he left, I had appointments with Tracy at Wilkinson Supply and Nancy at Prescott Stone three days hence. Jon Noyes would come over with Tim to measure the floor tomorrow. The painters would size things up real soon. The 11-foot-high bead-board ceiling was a mess. I said they’d need Michelangelo for that. Tim said, “Michelangelo is on the other crew.” Tim has this intriguing way of grinning.

For custom cabinets, Tim suggested James Carnahan. I didn’t know James makes cabinets. James arrived with a camera and took “before” pictures along with notes on my fairly challenging wishes. I wanted all drawers. I lost the use of my arms and my heart to breast cancer last year and can’t reach down and back anymore. I asked James for drawers with no doors. As I get older, I’ll appreciate this luxury as much as I love living on one floor.

Tim closed our second meeting on a voice-of-experience note. “You say this is your project, but some men don’t like their wife in charge when the house is full of men.” I appreciated that, but his hand-picked artisans all seem enlightened with regard to customer relations. Even Gil got used to having them around. We didn’t have to send the pooch to camp until the real stuff hit the fan — fumes, chaos, etc.

On Monday morning, Tim called and said he had a crew on the way to tear out the kitchen. Yikes! The kitchen was obliterated by noon. Let the games begin.

The painters came the next day with Michelangelo on board. They sang and laughed all day. They covered all of the furniture and painted expertly. I was putting color on the walls for a change. Bold move! I told Berkeley about the painters that night: “You’d think they’d never met each other, they liked each other so much.” Every day was like that. Not a single grumble.

The next step was clearing all the furniture off the floor.

From the front door to the back of the kitchen is one big room. The front is all musical instruments and sound equipment. The middle has a baby grand piano, two very large tables and a bunch of chairs. The rear is the kitchen. The stove and fridge were parked in the “library” where all books, couch and TV share space with three large pieces of furniture. I lost sleep for several nights worrying how everything else would fit in there. Well folks, Hector figured it out like a puzzle. (Hector is Tim’s right-hand man, and Hector only has one hand.) They cleared the entire floor, making liberal use of the front porch. “Look honey, the Grimballs have nice things!”

Jon Noyes and crew laid out the new floor — ash — loosely for several days so it could acclimate. Jon is another Carrboro artisan. He and Keith (who also sings while he works) put the ash over top of the old floor. They nailed it down invisibly and coated it with stinky sealant. Jon said, “I think the bird will be okay.” The cockatiel’s chirper still works. The dog was at camp by then, and the floor is gorgeous.

James in the meantime was building the cabinets and invited me into his shop one morning. Oh my god. I can’t believe how smooth and beautiful his work is, the real deal. Natural maple. Everything timed out perfectly for James to install the new cabinets and the new island as soon as the floor was done. The front of the island is round. James’s rounded front doors look like a vertical roll-top desk. Carrboro artisan Mike Roig fashioned a hidden metal tab. The drawer pulls I chose at a glance.

I made all snap decisions. I wanted black granite for the countertops. Nancy Lau and I spent less than half an hour at Prescott Stone looking at Absolute Black (yes!) and she popped a slab of that next to natural maple with a drawer pull that knocked my socks off. Sold! Why shop around?

Chuck Prescott cuts granite perfectly to fit the cabinetry, sink and stove underneath. My rounded island called for some tricky cutting. Chuck makes a template first. James was finishing his installation when Chuck arrived. Those two collaborated like old friends on the first pass. My Absolute Black countertops took only eight days to materialize. No kitchen until then. No sink. No plumbing. Sigh …

We went to the beach and came home to heaven. Tim Peck & Artisans finished everything while we played house in a dandy oceanfront rental. Tim was here when we got back. They had repositioned the furniture. The new farm sink and bridge faucet were in place, sploosh! Everything perfect.

This entire project took less than four weeks to complete — a “feel-good job” in Tim’s words. Green building means perfectionism at every step. A tight schedule and a generous enough budget to get the job done right. Knowing what to jettison and what to keep. This old mill house is very happy with what we’ve done, and most of the credit goes to Carrboro artisans — a signature piece, charmed from the very beginning.

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