Community , Design , Home 5 by Moneca Kaiser , December, 12 2010
it was yummy Last night Michael and Gillian had our team over for dinner to celebrate their new home and the culmination of their vision and it was pretty delightful. Both ovens and almost all six of the burners got used on the gas stove and it was very lovely. While I was sitting at the table my head kept moving, taking it all in, seeing if there was anything that needed to be changed, The guys looked a little nervous cause they have known me to pull apart something that was very much finished and everyone liked… to change it, and it’s always better but in most worlds done is done. Not ours, its called design build intentionally and sometimes it’s build design and the guys were in the middle of dinner…
They’d already hung each upper cabinet at least twice cause what I thought would work on paper didn’t quite in place and very much does now, so they could rest easy.
It was almost unsettling for me to be in a space that works, that is so easy, I asked my guys to move their love seat to this little space at the top of the stairs that I knew would make sense and also made me just a little nervous cause I am not a fan of weird spaces and it’s enchanting there now that the love seat has found it’s home. Everything felt so calm and right, and being there with them and this awesome team that works with me it seemed like we all felt a little bit proud and very much at home.
we had about 11 people working there on finishing touches the last day Later when Michael and Gillian and I were hanging out on the couch and just enjoying the space, they tried to tell me what the original idea for the renovation was and reminded me that when I walked in the first time and they told me their idea I just said, “I won’t build that.” and they were like ok. I was the 8th designer they had met with and the first one who said no, lets do this instead (I ask them to add at least 2 more designers to the story every time they tell it but I’m not allowed too cause it will just go to my head).
It feels so right in their home now that I can’t even understand when they try to tell me what the original idea was even while we are in the space cause this is the only way it wants to be and it’s so much Gillian’s vision. This is what she saw or felt but couldn’t articulate and I felt and translated for her and it happened because we were attuned with each, other our team and what this house wanted to be when it grew up.
It’s so beautiful the way it all works and how by letting go and letting me … we together realized their homes, I feel pretty confident, highest potential. It feels alchemic the way we arrived here and sounds perhaps a little too groovy … I am not sure I would be able to write about this stuff if I didn’t have such a strong body of work and track record, things in my company work well even though it’s a right brained approach and unconventional, it’s not linear, it’s round…
By allowing for the iterative and intuitive to emerge and inform all the way along together we created something of beauty and harmony,and then we all sat down to dinner together.
And then we all sat down to dinner
2 Comments
Sharing a Meal Is the most Sustainable Thing We Can Do — Where The HEART Issays:
February 6, 2011 at 6:54 pm[…] On our last major Renovation Gillian our Flient got right into spirit and took over shf duties and wow, the woman can cook ! She made these amazing grilled steak focascia sandwiches with grillled pepers if I remember rightly believe me the guys do… not to mention the amazing dinner she made good on using all six burners of the gourmet gas range we installed in the new kitchen we built for her when Gillian and Michael hosted a thank you party for our team. […]
Kayliasays:
February 9, 2011 at 10:34 amGreat work, Moneca! Beautiful.
Leave a Reply