Innkeeper’s Diary

I’ve always liked stand-alone clawfoot bathtubs, and now I get a chance to own four of them!  Since the bathrooms aren’t big enough to have both a tub and a shower stall (a glass shower stall probably doesn’t fit the house anyways), we needed to also outfit the tub with shower curtains.  Simple, right?  Normally, a tub in a modern house/apartment is tucked in between two walls, so all you need is a straight rod and you’re done.  In our case, the free standing tubs needed L-shaped rod since there’s no wall on one end.  Thus began my endless quest for that perfect L-shaped rod.

The construction guy first put up some some white paint-coated aluminum tubes with a right angle connector, but the corner was too sharp that the curtain couldn’t really make the turn smoothly.  Also without a vertical support, the rod was droopy and would fall off eventually.  I went on-line to see what Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware were selling and discovered that their designs, while good looking, were very unusable — you’d need a vertical rod that is affixed to the ceiling to support the L-shape, which means you can’t pull the curtain all the way through.  Nowhere in their product descriptions did they explain how you’re supposed to cope with that problem.  However, in several of the L-shape curtain rod discussions I found on-line (yes, you can find anything discussed on-line!) said that you need a vertical support or the rod will invariably droop down the road.  I was then convinced the only way to do that is to make use of a railing with under-track (normally used with fabric curtains) and run a wire through above the track for vertical support.  Quickly, these new under-tracks were ordered and nailed to the wood strips on the bathroom wall, and then we found out that the ceilings were too weak to hold up the support wires; without the support wires, the under-tracks cannot hold up the weight of the curtains.  As a result, these 2nd batch of rods dangled in mid-air for another few weeks.

Finally, I found on taobao.com, the eBay of China, that there’s a manufacturer in nearby Zhejiang province who can custom make steel rods.  To be on the cautious side, I ordered one first to see if this version would work.  Initially, the construction guys looked at the 6cm expansion nails that needed to go into the walls and said that the old mud’n'straw walls cannot support the nails.  I kept pressing them to come up other solutions, and finally the construction boss said he’ll try to find 12cm nails and maybe those can hit the bricks deep inside the walls.  I ignored the uncertainty in his tone and boldly went back to order more curtains rods.  This is how things work here — you need to leave them with no ifs and buts and they’d magically find a way to do it.

When these 3rd generation rods were nicely secured on the walls with those super long nails, I almost cried out of joy.  They don’t even need vertical support rods!  Even the construction boss admitted that it was a lot better looking than the previous two versions (these guys normally have NO sense of esthetics).  Before this struggle to find the perfect rod, I always deferred to Don or the construction guys for finding solutions.  Now I do feel that I am the owner of this house and I have control over its destiny. 

The construction was supposed to be done by 7/20 but by 8/1, it didn’t look like it was anywhere near finished.  I have to admit that I’ve been in La La Land and thought somehow things will just finish by themselves.  So I cracked my whip for the first time and threatened the crew to have the rooms be ready for furniture delivery by 8/9 or else.  I also made an project open item list to keep track of everything to bring up to the construction boss.  For the entire week, I never saw the crew worked harder.  The fabrics were put up on the walls, wooden floors were sanded, and walls were painted.  The place was buzzing with machines, people — the way it should’ve been last month.  And then I went to work on scheduling the different deliveries — first the bed frames and desks, then the antique tables and chairs, the mattresses and the appliances, and then finally the bedding and curtains.  Some of the items were so big and heavy that I swore that they were to never leave this house again!  There were even sweat marks on the hallway walls to prove how gruelling moving stuff up the narrow staircase was.

There were more things to buy and get into the house.  Trash cans, teapots, cleaning supplies, trays and boxes, LCD TVs, DVD players, satellite boxes, arghhh~  standard items are easier to find, while deco items are scattered and harder to find, since we wanted stuff that bring in some Chinese elements but also work with the art deco styles of the house.  Don cautioned against Chinese-kitch.

Short-term goal is to get the rooms into a photo-ready state so we can finish the website!

While the construction was taking place, I started digging into the history of so-called Old Shanghai. Shanghai went through a pretty fascinating hundred years, from the Opium War in 1840 up until end of WWII in 1945. As the resulting of a weakening Qing Dynasty, China lost a series of wars and was forced to open up Shanghai to western countries as an important international port of call. The French and British, among other European countries, set up concession zones in Shanghai and ran these areas according to their own rules.

The interesting thing about the French Concession was that the French population (no more than 2000 at the peak) was outnumbered by the Russians (who fled from the new communist Russia), British, Americans, and even the Germans. There were also a significant number of successful middle-class Chinese professionals who lived in the area. Nevertheless, the French ran their own municipal counsel and named all the streets after French generals, martyred soldiers, and other famous personalities.

By the 1930’s, Shanghai and the French Concession were at the height of their glamour and also decadence. I found this old Fortune Magazine article published in 1935 that described a day in the life of a “Taipan” (typically refers to a westerner who is a boss or an employee of a foreign trading company). It bears striking similarities to the expat life in Shanghai today (minus the dozen or so of the servants the typical old-day taipan kept)

For Quintet, I wanted to bring in names and places of that wild time in Old Shanghai; there was plenty of glitz and romance, but to be sure, there was also lots of shady business taking place, not to mention sorrow of the lost and deprived. Old Shanghai was like opium (ok, also like a beautiful woman) – you know it’s perilous to your health, yet you can’t get away from it…

The modern-day Shanghai is every bit as exciting as the old one to the rest of the world. You see the optimism and entrepreneur spirits in the eyes of every hopeful newcomer. I hope this time around, the good times are here to stay for a long time to come…

Ever since coming back from my guilty Vietnam trip, things have not been going well.  The landlord hasn’t signed the sublease agreement and I was back to working on the contracts.  Kelley was not happy about the changes in the terms I promised (or we assumed).  And coming up with a name for the B&B has been like pulling teeth.  I realize that part of the reason for the difficulty was that I haven’t found its personality yet — and I’m a bit worried that I myself do not match the 5-star high-style decor that Don seems to be shaping towards.  This is back the question of identity, and there’s really no escape in it.  I’ll have to figure that out for myself eventually.

During the course of 2 weeks, I’ve written up 6 note pages of various names, concocted by yours truly and sympathetic friends.  Special thanks for Cathy, who called me enthusiastically and contributed “Nightingale” at the end of a long work day.  The first thing I looked into was ChangLe Rd’s old French Concession name:  Rue Bourgeat.  Way too hard to pronounce.  I don’t speak French so can’t even pronounce it properly, as I imagine most customers won’t either.  Ok, the Chinese translation is 蒲石路… what? pushy?  Nah..  How about the beautiful Wutong 梧桐 plane trees that line the street?  Both names sound bad (“no pain” and “plain tree”?).  Hsun suggested that I look into fabric/touch or smell, since I’m into those things myself.  She came up with Velvet Lane, but I shot it down since Velvet Lounge is around the corner.  I tried out flower names but somehow the names were either too abused (rose, orchid, peony, mudan) or too much of a tongue twister (michelis alba 白玉蘭 huh??, osmanthus, cereus 曇花).  How about just plain Lane House 808?  “It’s been done already…” Don said.  Don liked “Trellis” since he’s planning to put one up on the rooftop but I thought it was too random and not a major feature of the house.  Also thought along the line of jewel box and gems, but got similar issues as with the flowers.  Then there’s the “oasis” cluster:  Tranquility, Haven, Retreat, Hammock…sleepy…  I thought about using “Opium Lane,” but was afraid that my rich, baby boomer couples would be too intimidated and skip my B&B altogether.  Tried easy-to-pronounce Chinese words that have deep and far-reaching meaning, like “Hui” 匯 and “Ju” 聚, which both mean “convergence”.  The Summit across the street is called 匯賢居, which means the gathering or convergence of the respected.  Darn, what a perfect name!   I dare not dabble too much into Chinese names too much for I often jumble up my Chinese idioms 成語.  Alice, being the English teacher she is, came up with “Au Contraire” (you said you want to be an alternative 5-star hotel right?) and “Diamondita” (Jewel and jewel box?).

The closest runner-up was “TBD”.  To be determined.  To be developed.  To be destroyed ;-p If reflects my indecisiveness toward the nature of this B&B.  Credit goes to Monica.  We somehow came up with the idea from her commenting about a Oakley knock-off “Oyay”.  How about “Oright”, “Oshit”, and “Omygod”?  That’s a hotel chain right there, lol.  I slept on “TBD” for one night until today, when amidst thunder and downpour, Hsun, Monique, and me sat around after dinner and came up with “Quintet”.  “How about 5xxx?”  “5 Senses?”  “Quartet?”  “How do you call quartet with 5 people?”  “Quintet.”  Voila~ Hsun and I also agreed that our favorite instrument is the cello.  Here’s what I wrote to Don just now:  “I think I came up with the name of the hotel — Quintet B&B.  It speaks to Shanghai being a place of variety, collaboration, and harmony (or dissonance if put together poorly).  It’s also classy and intimate which fit our little house and alludes to the five rooms we have.  But no need to be so literal about Quintet’s musical definition.
I’ll wait a few days and see if Quintet sticks!

As the proprietor of this future B&B, I felt that it’s important for me to partake in the selection of certain key materials that will go into the house. So when Don invited to go shop at Yishan Rd (think Home Depot but many times bigger and less organized) for toilets and tiles, I was elated. I was like a kid on field trip, touching everything and asking all kinds of questions. But pretty soon, I realized that I simply do not have the trained eye that’s required for the job. Our first task was to pick out a toilet that would fit our deco-style house and bathroom. Don stressed on the simple lines and curves that I must look for when picking out our candidates. Everytime I thought I found something, I was instantly shot down by Don: “No, that’s too modern. We’re looking for modernist.” “That’s too round.” “The proportion is off.” “That’s too…” Ten shops into our search, I became very sullen and quiet. My eyes also became blurred with white visions of toilets flashing in front of me. At the end of a four-hour rummage, we (or Don) settled on only two choices. Don wanted me to be the final judge but honestly, they looked pretty much the same to me!!

A perfect house fell from the sky into my lap

After running Fay’s Rooms for 8 months, I decided that I should look for a single location with multiple rooms rather than trying to look for more apartment units scattered around the city.  While the demand for short-term rentals is high and growing, I see that my major bottleneck is in acquiring more units.  I thought, wouldn’t it be great if I can find an old house with character and run a bed and breakfast from it?  Then, the whole thing came together miraculously.  Everything started when I casually mentioned to my Shanghai relatives that I wish I had a lane house from which I can run a B&B.  Surprisingly, my cousin Weiwei mentioned that his college friend’s family owns a house on the same block as where I live and has moved out last year.  I urged him to contact his friend for me and he did.

6 bedrooms with 2 1/2 bathrooms

The following week, I met with his friend Jim to see the house.  This house has belonged to his mother’s family since it was built in 1939, and was given to his mother as a wedding present.  However, the house was confiscated during the Cultural Revolution, when strangers moved in to the house and shared the space with Jim’s family for nearly 20 years.  They finally got the house back in the 80′s and continued to live in it until last year.  After years of heavy usage and minimum maintenance, the house is understandably run down.  The house is a 3-story garden lane house with 2 bedrooms facing the garden plus a bathroom on the 2nd and 3rd floors, and 2 “tingzijian”, or mezzanine rooms on the 1.5 and 2.5 floors.  The ground floor has a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a half bath, which is a classical double-width lane house layout.  There’s a sizable garden facing Changle Rd with some beautiful Japanese maple trees.

I liked the house a lot but the immediate problem I saw was that there were 6 bedrooms but only 2 bathrooms — not ideal for an upscale B&B where most guests would probably want to enjoy the privacy of having their own bathrooms.  I left the house thinking:  too bad.  A couple weeks went by, and I was still thinking about the house.  Then, when I talked to my architect friend Ken about it, he mentioned that he has a former colleague, Don, who’s done several renovation projects on old houses and may be able to help me take a look.  So I eventually met Don and took him over to the house to take a look.  He thought the house was in great condition structurally, and it wouldn’t be very costly to do it up.  We then discussed the possibilities of adding more bathrooms to the house, as it was key for me to decide whether I can take up the house or not.  We first wanted to add a big communal spa tub and a couple showers/toilets on the rooftop, but felt that the house would still feel like a hostel rather than a nice B&B.  We then came up with a interesting solution:  why don’t we convert one of the mezzanine rooms into 2 bathrooms, and connect the 2 bedrooms 0.5 floor above and below to each of the new bathrooms?  After some excited sketching and validating, we decided that it was doable!  This gave me the confidence to pursue the project further.

Cafe + B&B:  Win-win proposition

While Don and his contractor set out to put some estimates together, I started thinking about how I’m gonna provide breakfast for my guests.  Also, with only 5 rooms and a handful of guests at any given time, the ground floor dining and living rooms will be empty most of the time.  Immediately, I thought of my friend Kelley, who runs iiiit cafe nearby in the Summit Clubhouse.  I gave her a call to see if she’d be interested in running a cafe out of the ground floor and the garden.  Guess what, I found out that her lease is up end of June!  I described the house to her and right away she took interest and wanted to see the place.  She’s been looking around the area for a new spot and hasn’t’ been able to find a suitable one.  The next day, I took her to see the house, and voila, I’ve got myself a partner.

So, things happened quickly in the last 2 weeks, with me running around talking to people, working out rental agreements and cost estimates, even buying some pieces of furniture already!  Really looking forward to signing the lease this weekend!