This past weekend, Susan and I hosted our friend, Tiho Dimitrov, the Santa Fe based architect with whom we’ve collaborated on several projects over the years including ADK Oasis Lakeside and Rosslyn’s icehouse rehabilitation. Tiho’s site visit to both properties was an exciting culmination, especially as we glide into the home stretch of icehouse v2.0 now almost ready for relaunch.
Several icehouse delays, including cabinetry and stairway railing, have made it challenging in recent weeks to wrap everything up in time for Tiho‘s site visit. But we were pretty close by Friday when he arrived. Peter was putting the finishing touches on the coffee bar cabinetry, and I was putting the finishing touches on the loft cabinetry. Most of the handrail and balusters still need to be installed, but Glen has done an impressive job finishing up all of the painting, and Pam has outperformed all of us tidying up, moving tools and equipment out, and generally transforming the space so that Tiho could gain a semi accurate sense of how it will look (albeit pre-furnishings) upon completion.
Although Tiho‘s site visit was ostensibly a followup on two projects for which he’d created the architectural plans and construction drawings, Carley was 100% certain that he’d flown in to visit her. She’s a huge fan, and she rarely left his side all weekend. I love that photo above. Carley and Tiho are gazing happily at one another in the middle of the almost finished icehouse. So many levels of contentment in this image!
I talked to Tiho through the still incomplete bits and answered his questions about a couple of small deviations from the drawings. The backstories and the almost-readies helped contextualize this delightfully reimagined utility barn, and Tiho seemed pleased with the trajectory. I’m hoping to solicit Tiho’s takeaways once he recovers from travel. Stay tuned.
We also headed up to ADK Oasis Lakeside where the generous tenants, dear friends partway through construction of a new lakeside home, made the home available for us to show Tiho this considerably larger remodel he undertook with us in 2020-2021. In the photograph above, we are standing in the master bedroom, new construction with a spectacular view of Lake Champlain. This has been an ambitious renovation with an even more ambitious timeline, and Tiho seemed pleased with the transformation that he helped catalyze.
Friday night we enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Westport Yacht Club by boat, and Saturday — rainier than we had hoped — offered us plenty of time to review renovation projects past, present, and future. Yes, Tiho just might be adventurous enough to collaborate with us yet again in the future! Another tasting meal, this time at the Essex Inn during a tremendous thunderstorm, and before things had even begun to dry out, Tiho had flown off again on Sunday morning. A whirlwind weekend, but a tremendous privilege and pleasure to show Tiho the spaces that he has collectively conjured. There is something profoundly fulfilling about shepherding a construction project from ideas to plans to bricks and mortar.
Tiho, thank you!
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