Greek Easter

The building is progressing well under Panagiotis' management. It MUST! It is nearly the time of year when he shifts his business from construction to landscaping, gardening and running his seaside restaurant and guest cottages. Now the decisions that need to be made are coming in a flurry. Do we want marble toppings on the walls surrounding the terraces or do we want them rounded and covered in stucco? I'd never thought about it but it seems it is an important question because where does one set drinks and plates of food when one is outside? There will be tables surely, but wouldn't it be convenient to have a marble ledge in addition? Always the thought is for food and for convenience. I like the way these people think! The tiles we selected for the floors are no longer in stock. What do we want instead? Given that we selected the purple interior door color to "go with" the floor tiles, should we reconsider using purple? Aqua is more universal and is sure to complement whatever terracotta tiles we now select. Back to the internet for searches. Do we want niches in the walls for icons as a nod to the local traditions? I don't think so, but then again, will we regret NOT having them? Do we want two refrigerators and one freezer or two freezers and one super sized refrigerator? Stainless steel fronts or white or black? Our evenings speed past as we research, consider, discuss, decide and then sleep on it before sending our decisions by email to Panagiotis.

Our breakfast talk now is of our future life in Greece. MG and I always make it a practice to have breakfast together. Even on mornings when I don't need to arise early and the covers feel so heavy, I still roll out to join him for breakfast. It makes a beautiful start to the day to sit across from the one you love, chit chat, feel the sun streaming in the window, hear the birds in the background and eat what my mother would call "a breakfast that sticks to your ribs."

The other morning MG wondered aloud, "Where will we eat breakfast when we are living on the island?" We enjoyed coming up with locations such as, side by side at the dining room table facing the sea or on the front terrace when the weather is fine, or on the terrace off our bedroom when we want a change. Note to self: I'll need lots of trays.

With Greek Easter approaching we also mused about how we would celebrate that holiday when living in Greece. In Boston, we annually have a table full of family and friends that typically includes the two grandchildren, son and daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law's mother and grandmother, mother's "new" husband, "new' husband's grown children with significant others, MG's ex-wife, plus assorted friends for a total of 12 to 14 people.

I spend 3 days in preparations that include developing the menu and selecting recipes, placing the order with the butcher for lamb, food shopping, advance sous chef work and cooking, hard boiling and dyeing eggs, and setting the table. We gather around 3 PM for cocktails and appetizers of hummus, pistachios and Greek olives. MG will have already hidden, challengingly well, the eggs, candies and miscellany for the grandchildren's egg hunt. In previous years I dressed up in a too elaborate, somewhat believable and very hot Easter Bunny costume and accompanied the children on the hunt. It involved a lot of pantomime plus back-breaking squat jumps. It became a bit too much with things needing attention in the kitchen and me hopping about in the back garden sweating jelly beans. Some years I was able to fob it off on an unsuspecting adult child of "new" husband's. Soon everyone began arriving late, in hopes, I suspect, that an earlier arrival would have been recruited to wear the costume. By the time the grandchildren were 9 and 5 the costume was retired.

In recollecting his childhood Easter meals in Athens, MG remembers everyone gathering in the outside garden, drinking, talking, smoking, snacking and taking turns turning the crank for the lamb as it roasted on a spit over an open fire. Here we don't roast a whole lamb over a spit outside, but I have found a fantastic recipe that everyone raves about for Sun Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese stuffed Lamb with Red Wine Sauce. Dinner also includes potatoes, a green salad, and two vegetables that I vary from year to year. After dinner, a dessert course of Greek baklava, galactobureko and kataifi with strong coffee, lots of stories and talking. However, before the children pass out from sugar overdose, we play the game "crack-the-egg" or chugrisma ton avghon. The children love this tradition their Papou has continued from his childhood and new guests are always delighted to be introduced to it.

I hard boil, dye red (it must be red...to symbolize the blood of Christ?), rub with olive oil, and finally, buff to a shine, enough eggs for each guest to have one egg. First everyone selects their egg from a bowl. The game begins with two people tapping their eggs together, either pointed end to pointed end or rounded end to rounded end. One egg will crack and the holder of the uncracked egg is the winner, who then goes on to challenge-tap someone else. An egg is "dead" only when both ends are cracked. The game continues until there remains only one egg with one uncracked end left. That egg is declared the winner. It sounds so silly, but we really have a good time doing it. Funny how one of the grandchildren always manages to pick the winning egg (wink, wink) Eating deviled eggs the next day is the consolation prize for everyone else!

I truly am looking forward to Easter next year in Greece to see the genuine, non-Americanized traditions unfold in real time. Our family will mix and dine, laugh and play chugrisma ton avghon with new friends and neighbors. MG and I will discuss over breakfast final details for the event and probably reminisce about past Greek Easter celebrations in Boston. Truth be told, I'd much rather take a turn with the spit than wear that bunny suit again.

Island Color

A bit uncertain about how to select colors for a house that is thousands of miles away and that we would live with for many years (MG doesn't particularly love change) I decided there was nothing to do but simply plunge in. First I needed some inspiration.

I began by going to my bookshelves where I rounded up books and magazines. I luxuriously spent two evenings flipping through gorgeous full color photos of interiors and exteriors of houses located in warm climates: the American South and Southwest, California, islands around the world, Southeast Asia, India. The books resembled porcupines with hundreds of post-it notes fluttering from the edges. I paid particular attention to bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms and outdoor terraces as these were the colors and materials I needed to nail down.

Next, I went to several book stores with the intention of purchasing books showing the interiors of Greek or Greek island homes. I searched everywhere and with the help of reference librarians, discovered with surprise that there are no books in print on modern Greek interior design or Greek style. Yes, opportunity for sarcasm to think, well, Greeks have no style, but there is plenty available on ancient Greek style and quaint villages. All these, however, contain only exterior shots. Hmmm...perhaps after I have lived there a few years I'll publish my own book about interior Greek style. I know several professional photographers in Athens, a publisher in New York...but STOP! Focus on the task at hand.

I next went to two local libraries and not finding any books there on modern Greek style either, I checked out an armload of books on modern kitchens, bathrooms and terraces/landscapes. Two more evenings of study and research and my head was crammed with images and ideas. My dreams were vivid and colorful as I floated through many houses and countries in my sleep.

The next day, I took out my trusty color wheel and began dialing. Ultimately, I decided on a tetrad color scheme so there would be 4 main colors to play with and use repeatedly throughout the house to give a sense of cohesion, unity and flow overall. I decided on red-violet, red-orange, blue-green and yellow-orange. The main driver for the scheme was the flooring. During this period MG was in Greece overseeing construction and scouting for tiles. By taking photos and sending them to me online, we selected the stones for the terraces and outside walkways. The outside stones will be blue-gray flagstones. We decided on terracotta tiles for the interior floors rather than the more traditional white marble. Knowing I could liven up the place with textiles, I previously agreed to stark white interior and exterior walls as MG wished and as is traditional. He agreed to terracotta flooring to add some warmth to the "cold" of the massive expanses of white walls and ceilings. The tetrad was driven by the red-orange of the flooring.

With all that settled, I played with my Benjamin Moore color deck to find shades and tones I LOVED in the red-violet, blue-green and yellow-orange colors. I then went to my local paint shop to pull color chips of the shades.

Meanwhile a decision was needed on whether to pave all external terraces in the flagstones or to make an exception and use the terracotta tiles on the main terrace. This terrace is visible and accessible from both the dining and living rooms. An argument could be made that a better sense of the desired effect of the indoors merging with the outdoors would be had if the main terrace was tiled rather than paved with stones. The eye would be pulled across the rooms to the outdoors. Using the flagstones on the terrace, while creating unity for the outside surfaces, could create a hard dividing line between the inside and the outside. I was a bit unsettled by not having all outside surfaces the same and by using what seemed to me to be an indoors material(tiles) outside, but I did want that indoor-outdoor flow. After all, that is why we were particular to modify the original plans so that these two "walls" would be built almost entirely of glass.

One morning while not thinking about this at all, I had the insight that if we used a gray colored grout on the inside tiles and the outside stones, this could be the color and material that created the indoor/outdoor flow. I re-looked at all the books and magazines to find photos of indoor terracotta tiles with gray grout and outdoor terraces with gray flagstones and gray grout. I much preferred the gray grout. In the case of the terracotta tiles, it made the floor less noticeable and appear old. I preferred this look to a white grout which made the tiles "pop" and everything scream I'M HERE AND I'M NEW. In the case of the outside paving, I had been somewhat "bothered" by the way the island masons leave large patches of white cement between the stones, which did not please my eye. In a strange case of figure-ground, the patches were dominant in my sight when looking at island flagstone walks and terraces. With the gray grout, I felt sure that I would not notice the cement areas and the stones would blend better. Voila! We could use tile indoors and flagstone outdoors without creating a dividing line to interrupt the continuity between inside and outside.

I created a mock up to show MG the color scheme and materials on the architectural renderings. He was due home from Greece that evening and I couldn't wait for "show and tell" to begin! We needed decisions quite soon on colors for the exterior doors and window frames, the interior doors, the bathroom tiles, and the kitchen cabinets and countertops. The doors, frames and kitchen cabinets are custom made and painted at the factory in Poland so dithering on these decisions would bring the entire construction to a halt.

We came to our decision quite easily as I was able to demonstrate the logic of my recommendations and show examples of what the finished product would look like. The exterior color would be that vibrant island blue you see everywhere in the Greek islands, the terracotta tiles are a warm red-orange with areas of gray tones, the interior doors and door frames would be red-violet (aka purple), the one inch mosaic tiles in the various bathrooms yellow-green (aka peridot), red-orange (aka persimmon),blue-green (aka aqua) and white in the 1/2 bath/powder room. These same colors would be repeated in various rooms in differing combinations throughout the house with textiles (table linens, dishes, bedding, drapes, couches and chairs, pillows, etc.) The kitchen cabinets would be gray with black granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, which would pick up the grout and the gray n the floor tiles. Great! I THRILL at the image in my head of how the house will look aglow with these colors, the strong sun shining in, guests on the terrace, grapes in the garden. I love it already.

AAARRRRGGGGHH! It isn't as easy as sending BF or the contractor the names and numbers of the Benjamin Moore colors I want because, I belatedly discover, in Europe another system is used. The color system in Europe is standardized and based on a German scheme known as RAL. The only way I could communicate what I want is to provide the RAL color codes. Well in this modern era of technology, amazing things can happen. I researched RAL online, located one company in the Northeast that would sell me a single RAL color deck, ordered it and it was on my doorstep via UPS the next day. Fine Paints of Europe came to the rescue. I selected the RAL colors closest to the Benjamin Moore colors and sent off an email the following day.

The only problem remaining is that when MG was in Greece we didn't know the colors we want for bathroom tiles. None of the photos he took show the colors on which I now had my heart set. It is too risky to send the RAL colors to the tile showroom in Athens and ask a random salesperson to select tiles closest to those colors. At the end of the day, we decided to have the house complete all but the bathroom tiles. When we travel to Greece in May we will select tiles in person, order them and have them installed after the fact. What a relief. All things are possible.

Next stage...finding textiles. Or would it be better at this point to think through whether it makes more sense to buy pots, pans, dishes, sheets, etc in Greece, or buy them here, fill a container with new and extra things we already own and ship it to Greece? I received a flier in the mail advertising a big one day sale at Bloomingdale's. Hmmmmm...how do I find out about shipping household goods overseas?