Page 42 - Amanda Andrei

42 WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 2008
THE CURRENT
CHINATOWN
From Page 14
intern, two labels I was all too
familiar with.
My main problem with
Chinatown was grounded in its
sleepy appearance, its lack of
kitschy tourism and gewgaws, and
the absence of huge stores filled
with ginger, anise and fresh fish. It
barely resembles the vibrant
Chinatowns of Manhattan or
Queens, where Alex and I were
about to spend the weekend.
At the moment, though, the
most important thing about
Chinatown was deciding what to
order. After settling on some
dumplings, wonton soup and hot
tea, we discussed our weekend
plans. We were proud of ourselves.
We were poor college kids with
an itch to travel and a wallet that
made that itch hard to scratch. But
we knew how to work the system.
We would split our meals and
halve the costs. We would sleep on
the floor of a friend’s apartment
instead of in a hostel. We would
buy a day pass for the subway and
work that city’s public transportation until we had gotten our
money’s worth. But our best deal
yet, the marvelous bargain that we
scored, was the $35, roundtrip
Bill Petros/The Current
Amanda Andrei discovered Chinatown on her way to New York.
Apex Bus ride from 610 I St. in
Washington to 88 East Broadway
in Manhattan. We were good, we
were golden, we were set.
The only problem was the bus
left at 2 a.m.
At 1:30 a.m., we headed to the
Apex stop and sat inside the bus
office. We watched a video on the
TV set, which featured a man and
woman teaching useful phrases in
Mandarin. I tried to pick out characters that I remembered from my
semester of Chinese 101. I wasn’t
doing so badly when the bus pulled
up in the side parking lot to let the
RENOVATION
From Page 13
Dwellings. An industrial and environmental designer,
he had gone green when chronic fatigue syndrome and
depression affected his family. It occurred to him that
the materials used in his house might be responsible.
He repainted with nontoxic paints and replaced floor
covering with bamboo flooring, eliminating glues and
using only organic compounds.
“In just six months I saw a difference in the family’s well-being. I really believe in building with low
volatile organic compounds,” he said.
In Weiss’
apartment, the
kitchen — a typical jumble of
standard appli— Betty Weiss, on her utility bills
ances squeezed
after a green renovation
any which way
into a cramped
space — posed the biggest challenge for Guerra and
Hall.
First, Guerra enlarged a small aperture out onto the
living room into a generous opening. Then he tackled
the kitchen itself. Part of the problem with the original
was its ill-considered storage space. He tore out the old
off-the-peg cabinets, replacing them with custom-made
designs. The space now houses fewer cabinets, but
they have been so well-designed — for instance, two
of them, which pull out on either side of the oven,
carry bottles and spices on several narrow shelves —
that Weiss finds she has plenty of storage. Made by
suppliers in Vermont and Maryland, they are built from
sustainable woods without the use of formaldehyde or
toxic glues. These constituted the most expensive part
of the project. But the results made for prime efficiency.
An enormous hot water tank took up a large floorto-ceiling two-door closet just inside the kitchen, with
only a few inches left alongside to store an ironing
board and broom. Guerra tore it out and replaced it
with a tankless water heater. It’s about the size of a
fuse box and kicks on only when Weiss needs to use
hot water. So while she’s out of town, she’s not spending money keeping a large tank heated. The extra
❝They’re $55 a month,
down from $96.❞
passengers — all five of us! — put
in our luggage and board.
We stretched out our legs and
put on our headphones. Maybe it
wasn’t such a bad thing that the
D.C. Chinatown was quieter and
more laid back than the others.
Maybe it doesn’t need an enormous
Chinese supermarket to give it
authenticity — a CVS with
Chinese characters suffices. It wasn’t bustling and thick with different
dialects — but it gave us what we
needed and what we wanted. New
York’s Chinatown was for visiting,
but D.C.’s Chinatown is for me.
space made room for a stacked Bosch Axxis washer
and dryer, which she says are very energy-efficient, as
well as her vacuum, ironing board and shelving for her
cleaning equipment.
Along with her washer and dryer, her key appliances are smaller than the norm. Her dishwasher is a
GE Monogram with room for only four place settings.
Her oven is an electric convection model by Elba that
is only 24 inches wide. Her refrigerator, by Summit, is
just less than 24 inches wide. The only appliance she
couldn’t find in a small size was a microwave, so she
went with a standard model.
The sink has been set across the corner on the diagonal, giving her a large storage space beneath. Running
behind the stove and the corner sink is a backsplash
that looks like a piece of art: bright-red flowers and
stalks pressed between two sheets made of an eco
resin.
Before she began, Weiss said, the scariest thing
was finding the right contractor and choosing what
to put in the apartment. But while Weiss was away,
she left Hill to track down materials and samples for
her approval.
The countertop is Silestone, a sustainable quartz,
and the floor is Marmoleum, a linoleum made with
100 percent natural ingredients. Guerra floated it above
a warm wool underlay for heat and sound insulation,
and clicked it in place under a thin wood lip to avoid
using toxic glues. He painted the walls with colors
from Benjamin Moore’s Aura paints collection, which
release one-third as much volatile organic compounds
as regular paint does.
“The feeling in here is impossible to describe,”
Weiss said of a space that had suddenly become a
practical and pleasant place in which to work. “You
can fit two people in here to cook, which you couldn’t
before.”
She’s equally delighted with her utility bills.
“They’re $55 a month, down from $96.”
Guerra said the decreased costs can be attributed
not just to her energy-saving appliances and the tankless water heater, but also to the new vinyl-framed
windows that replaced her old leaking bedroom windows and the new double-glazed windows overlooking
the street. “People don’t realize how much heat goes
out through bad fitting windows.”
“I really enjoy the space now,” said Weiss.