The story behind the glass.

Surprise!  I’m back!  I have so missed you guys.  Even though it seems like I have been lost to the MY Town Friday Shoot-out,  I’ve been here, lurking.  Watching all your posts and making an occasional comment; keeping track of the topics, but not finding the ambition to actually post.  This last week when glass showed as the next topic I felt a surge of interest, of energy, and the next few weeks are all topics I can see myself showing so I thought it a good time to come back and rejoin the (world) group. 

 

Lets talk GLASS - Over the life of ‘Flowers’ I have posted two times about the apartment in Rio.  Both times I mentioned the windows but didn’t really talk about the why and how.  Now I’d like to go there with you.  

Because we looked specifically for an apartment that needed to be refurbished, we found one that was in pretty sad shape.  The apartment had nice large windows in each room but being limited by a ‘normal people’ budget, the view from those windows is a blank, rather unpleasant looking wall of the neighboring building.  When making our plan for modernizing the apartment it was apparent that we would need to change out the old metal windows and one idea led to the next and we ended up visiting with a small company in Friburgo to find out how much it would cost to have special glass made for the new frames.  The idea was to make the windows with scenes from around Rio, creating our own view.   The dining area would have an Italian look, tiled steps with old pottery. The small living room would have four panels made of scenes from photos of of Rio, connected by oceans waves which surround the city.  The Master bedrooms has what started out to be a woman lying on the beach (a line drawing of mine) but ended up looking like an abstract of the country side – I am sure it is much more appropriate for a bedroom.  

    
Fernando took my photos and drawings, recreated them on heavy paper the size of the windows, cut out the negative space and after we approved the drawings attached the drawing to an extra thick glass and sandblasted the designs to our specs.
[CRISTAL arte decorativa em vidros, by Luiz Fernando Paiva: Alameda Barao de Nova Friburgo, # 129, Olaria: (22) 2522-9578]
I thought it would be interesting for you to see how this process happened.  Camillo and I stopped by the Artisan's shop and ask if I could take photos… I was a bit disappointed, there were no projects in the works so I could show drawings taped to the glass – that sort of thing, but they did allow me to take a photo or two….There were a lot of finished orders, I wasn’t able to get good shots for you – they were leaning against other windows and had lite and reflections, but here is small sample of his work if you are in need a decorative window or two.
 
 
   

Rio Apartment – the completion

 

The story of our apartment in Rio is a combination of success story and one of frustration and compromise.  From the final signing of the ownership papers to the completion of the remodeling work was 10 months. Over the years I have been lucky enough to be involved in maybe 20 remodeling projects, 4 of them places I would live, and only 1 in a foreign country where I didn’t know the language or how the system worked. And believe me when I say it works differently here from in the USA.  For example, the labor we hired lived in the apartment during the week and went home to Friburgo on weekends. He and his son would come into Rio by bus every Monday morning, arriving late morning and start to work. It is against our condominium rules to begin working (making noise) before 8am and you have to quit by 5pm. and, of course, he had to quit early on Fridays to make his way home for the weekend. There is no surprise then that this job took a good 6 months longer than it would in the USA. That all said he and his son did a great job.

This work included tearing out old ceramic walls and floors by sledge hammer, breaking plaster to put in new electric, telephone and internet wires, changing out plumbing and gas pipes, and opening some walls and moving door openings to make the rooms more efficient. Then it had to be put all back together.

Camillo and I had to stay a step ahead of the labor buying floor tiles, wall tiles, water heaters, lighting fixtures, A/C units, doors, kitchen cabinets – the list seemed to go on and on. This isn’t like you can go to one big supper store like Lowes – we took taxis to the Barra, buses and taxis downtown, to Copacabana all the while traveling back and forth from Friburgo and living in hotels.

I know some of the problem with finding all that we needed centered around wanting a certain level of quality, a certain modern look but it was still about 10 months of searching and deciding – Miracle of all miracles was that we got it done and we stayed married. (and I stayed here)

By the end of November 2003, we had moved me to Brasil, received my permanent residence card, gotten our limited household goods out of customs (a major feat in itself), had bought a bed and a refrigerator for the apartment, determined all the construction detail and finally kicked the workers out so we could start to move in. After nearly one long grueling year we needed to begin to furnish this apartment.

Except for a cedar chest in the main bedroom, an antique umbrella stand in the small hall leading to the kitchen and a few paintings by our Columbian friend Silvia Souza, all the furniture are things we managed to find in Rio.

We bought on piece at a time, never sure how the pieces would fit into the small space.

 

We had the office spaces, the cloths closet, platform bed and a credenza in the sala (living room) built by a wood worker in Friburgo. Not all at once mind you but as we saw things we liked but couldn’t afford we

would say why not have it made.   We saved 1000s doing this and were happier with the result.

 

Finally we have added a piece of art here and there. One from Salvador, Bahia that we bought for ourselves at Christmas, a big splash of blue, greens and yellow for over the credenza and smaller paintings and clay figures that we liked, and we are finally finished. A total of five years from start to finish.

 

Now whether in Nova Friburgo or in Rio we are absolutely at home.

 

Rio Apartment

Camillo and I bought the Rio apartment in February of 2003. When we decided to move here in mid - 2002 we started looking for available apartments via internet and when we would find something promising we would send his son or daughter or even a friend living in Rio at the time to check it out – Our requirements sounded like this; small, in need of repair, in Ipanema or Leblon, no parking required, and if no elevator then on the bottom two floors, and we did not need a view (we knew we couldn’t afford a view.) In November of 2002, Camillo found this apartment and when I came down for Christmas we checked it out and made an offer. The whole thing was more complicated than that but this was the basics.   I came down again in February to sign the papers and we started remodeling – me in Houston and Camillo in Rio. NOW that is a feat worth a wedding band.

By the way we found an apartment that met and exceeded our list and with the dollar at nearly 4:1 with the Real (right before Lula’s election) we were able to afford the place and the reformation. This is a 3rd floor with elevator apartment, 100 sq meter (about 900 sq ft), one parking spot, 160 steps from the beach, walking distance to good restaurants, the subway bus, and desperately in need of reformation – so we could do it our way. We opened up spaces turning this 4 bedroom into a one bedroom with sitting and one bedroom/office, reused the original wood floor, used ceramic in the kitchen (Cozinha) and dinette (copa) area and replaced all the windows with sandblasted glass that depicts scenes around RIO (creating our own views).

I thought that it might be interesting for you to see the before and the after – the before starting and the after when mostly finished.