Archive for the ‘Homes’ Category

6/6/16, Spring Cleaning

Posted on June 3, 2016

Hi Everyone,

I hope that all is well with you, and that things are going well. I have had a bussssyyyyyy month, jam packed with projects, things on my ‘to do’ list, and writing. I feel like I haven’t stopped.

As I shared with you recently, I ‘attacked’ a big storage unit we had filled with years of old stuff, right down to my children’s art projects and baby clothes from years ago, one of my daughters saved every homework assignment from first grade through college. I kept all of that. But we also had A LOT of ‘stuff’, furniture of my mother’s that no one wanted, some REALLY ugly chairs of my grandmother’s, and some pretty things too, mostly furniture. For years anytime someone had something they didn’t know what to do with, the battle cry was ‘send it to storage’. They did, and for years I have wanted to weed it down, and get rid of what no one wanted, and never will again. I managed to reduce it to about half, and it was a HUGE job. I felt very virtuous for finally doing it. I set a date, and stuck to it, and did it. And I set a trend for the month: cleaning house and spring cleaning. I’ve been on a roll all month!!

Every year, I help one of my daughters get the family vacation home that they share, ready for summer. I don’t know how, but things just gather all year, and that turns into a huge cleanup project too before every summer, hosing things down, setting out cushions, repainting patio furniture. The place is very old, but has a lot of charm and they love it. They spent their childhood summers there, so they really love it. And having just cleared out a lot of the storage unit, I was much ‘tougher’ this year. If it was broken, we fixed it, if it couldn’t be fixed, we replaced it (at Ikea—–one of my favorite stores at very reasonable prices, and you can find everything for the home!!), if it was ugly, we finally faced that and dumped it, if no one wanted it and it was decent we sold it, and if it was less terrific, we donated it. We cleared the decks, and worked like dogs!!! With great results. They’re starting the summer free of cobwebs, and the junk that collected all year.

They also have a really small house they rent out, and that needed spring cleaning too for a new tenant, and we did the same thing there. I feel like I have spent the month moving furniture, cleaning everything, buying clean potholders, throwing out old ones. I have definitely done my spring cleaning for the year. Let me loose in your house right now, and I can strip it in an hour, dump all that stuff you don’t want, and convince you to go to Ikea to buy something (cheaper) and new!!! I’m a menace right now. After three major cleaning sessions—by the end of it, my battle cry was ‘get rid of it!! And we got some really cute stuff at Ikea, some new plates, pots and pans, some rugs, 2 benches. We had a ball!!! I love shopping there!!

So the illusion that I have a glamourous life is dispelled. I wore combat boots for most of the month, hauling a lot of broken old stuff to the trash. I love projects where you start out with a mess, and can see real results in a short time. It takes a long time to finish a book, and to solve most problems. Spring Cleaning has fast results, and you’re all proud of yourself when it’s done.

And after all that, I got to work on a new book. So it has been a busy month, now we can enjoy the summer—-and spend the rest of the year making a mess again!!! And as summer begins now, I hope you have some wonderful plans, to relax and take some time off (and read of course!!) Have a wonderful week!!

love, Danielle

6/23/14, Feast or Famine

Posted on June 23, 2014

Hi Everyone,

Wow….busy times here, and I hope that all is well with you.

Oddly, I always find that my social life is very irregular. In New York and San Francisco, I very seldom see friends, and try to spend as much time as I can with my kids. They always have the priority when I’m in their cities. And given the nature of my work, I tend to hole up and disappear whenever I’m writing. Everyone has their own style, and I’m always impressed by writers who have a regular pace and schedule, write for a few hours in the morning, and then go out, see their friends, play golf, or whatever. That sure doesn’t work for me. When I’m writing, I can’t deal with any distraction, I don’t see anyone, talk to anyone (except my kids if they need me), I don’t even read phone messages or mail. Anything distracts me from the work, so I lock myself up in my office and don’t leave my house for weeks at a time. My writing style is to keep my foot on the gas, and keep it there until I finish whatever I’m working on. It can keep me locked up in my house for weeks or a month at a time, with no contact with the outside world. If I interrupt the writing to go to dinner with friends, it can take me days or even a week to get back into the book afterwards. So I don’t do that, and stick with the story, and usually write 20 or even 22 hours a day at a time when I’m working on a first draft, sleep for a few hours, and then go back to work. I’m very energized when I write, and hopefully excited about the story, and don’t want to think about anything else. (I used to have to be more civilized about my writing schedule when my kids were young and at home, but now that they’ve grown up, I can indulge my preference to stick with the story). And coming back from a long writing binge like that is like returning from a trip. I catch up with everything I’ve missed, return calls, open mail, and get back to real life. It makes for a somewhat erratic social life, since I don’t accept invitations to anything while I’m writing. And I find that one’s social life can be erratic anyway, even without writing, since people kind of hibernate in winter and don’t entertain much except for holidays, or everyone goes their separate ways in summer, and then catch up with friends in the fall. And I’ve found that there are times when I don’t go out socially for a long time, and then I get a bunch of invitations and go out every night. And for the last ten days, it has indeed been a feast of seeing friends, and fun invitations, and I’ve been out every night, which is very unlike me. But friends have come through town, childhood friends have surfaced after years of losing touch, and I’ve just had a bunch of fun activities and invitations, and even did a little work, though not serious writing, at least not this week. I’m always working on something!! But it’s only when I’m in the heat of the first draft of a book that I disappear. The rest of the time, I can edit or correct or work on an outline, and not go at it 22 hours a day, and manage to do other things. » read more »

4/7/14, New Chapters (2)

Posted on April 7, 2014

Hi Everyone,

I hope that all is well with you.  Every book must have them, and every life: new chapters. And that’s never been my strong suit. I love the old and familiar, favorite restaurants, favorite places, favorite people, those we know well. I get attached to houses; I even keep my cars forever. New is exciting, but old and familiar feels safe and warm.

My first husband was French, but had an American grandfather, and we came to San Francisco when we were engaged. I was seventeen, ridiculously young, and the grandfather was a remarkable person, who lived to be 103. During our visit to San Francisco, I discovered a remarkable beach that I thought was spectacular. Years later, long after I had moved to San Francisco and we were divorced, I rented a house there for a few weeks. It was a beautiful long stretch of beach, it wasn’t fashionable, it was rugged and simple, natural and peaceful, and I loved it. I remarried, to a man who loved the country, and I spent 20 years spending weekends and summers in the Napa Valley, and it was lovely….but it wasn’t the beach. And I could never ‘sell’ my beloved beach to my husband, who preferred Napa, and the country life there. By then ‘my beach’ had become a bit more fashionable, though not very, and it still had a simple natural feel to it. And finally, divorced and alone again, I looked at some houses at the beach, and my longtime dream came true. I bought a house at the beach I loved. I fell in love with it instantly, and called the house “Coup de Coeur”, which means love at first sight in French. And I spent some wonderful years there, entertained friends, my kids were still at home, and in middle school and high school. They wanted to be in the city with their friends, and I never got to spend a summer at the beach house, but I went there a lot. It was where I went to find peace, or entertain friends, or spend time with my children. It was a happy place and a happy house. I loved it.

Fast forward the film again. The kids have grown up, half of them moved to other cities for their work, and seldom come home because they have jobs and lives somewhere else. And the peaceful beach is too peaceful for them. And 10 years ago, I went back to France, and live there half the year. When I come back to San Francisco, I want to spend time with my kids, who don’t want to go to the beach, understandably. And I’m too busy when I’m home. So the beach house stands empty now, and makes no sense. When I go there, I am still in awe of how beautiful the beach is. The area is more polished now, the real estate more expensive, and it’s as lovely as when I first saw it, and the house cuter than ever, but we just never go there anymore. And owning a house you never go to makes no sense, economically, practically, even emotionally. And I realized recently that it was time to end the chapter, and for someone else to enjoy the house I once fell in love with, but never go to anymore. In recent years, we’ve gone there for a few weekends a year, which makes no sense. So I decided to put the house on the market and sell it.

I only made the decision a few weeks ago. It made perfect sense, and still does. So I dove in, called realtors, and decided to get the house ready to sell, and clear it of our things. I’ve owned the house for 13 years, and in a perfect world, I would love to keep it as a little gem, a wonderful escape to retreat to when I need peace. (But that’s a high price to pay for peace. I can rent a house there for a few weekends a year). In reality, I wont miss it, but I’ll miss the idea of it. Buying a house there was the fulfillment of a dream. It was my happy place. But now I have a life in Paris, and my children are grown up. So I just spent the week at the beach house, emptying closets, reading old notes, finding forgotten treasures, smiling at old photographs, and boxing things up to send to the children, or bring home, and in some cases just throwing things away. It’s the right thing to do, but the right things are not always easy. As much as missing my beach retreat, it marks the passage of time, and reminds one that life has changed and moved on, and what makes sense at one time in our life, no longer makes sense a dozen years later. I am grateful that I was able to have that house, and the fun times we had there. When I had my art gallery, I used to invite all my artists and their partners out for a beach day once a year, and we had a ball.

I finished getting the house ready to sell today, and it was bittersweet. It looked wonderful when I left it, and it may not sell for a while, so we’ll get to enjoy it a few more times. But I have put it out there, for someone else to fall in love with it at first sight. To me, houses are like romance, you can walk into 50 houses, and they do nothing for you, and then you walk into The One, the right one for you, and you know it instantly.  I hope that happens to someone when they see my beach house, it’s time to pass the baton to someone else, who will enjoy it, and spend happy times there, and watch their children grow up there. And then it will be someone else’s turn. It would be greedy and foolish to hang onto a house I no longer use, so I am setting it free, to be loved and enjoyed by others who will spend more time there, and have as much fun there as I once did. The chapter of my life at that beach is over. I had the dream, and now it’s time for the chapter to end. Paris is where I go for fun now, and to relax, and spend time with friends, and with my children when they visit me. I will miss the idea of the beach house, more than the reality.

So I spent the week packing boxes, and tucking away memories. The chapter ends. And a new one begins. The house isn’t sold yet, and will be put on the market in the next few weeks. And the new chapter will be full of surprises, and whatever life has in store. I’m grateful for the 13 years I had there. And now a new chapter will begin.

love, Danielle

Filed Under Family, Homes | 11 Comments