Candy at Last (30 page)

One of my favorite unexpected finds was the glass that is the backdrop for the water wall in my conservatory. One afternoon I was out looking for marble, and I drove past a shop that had what looked to be a giant slab of brown marble displayed outside. It didn’t have any seams and was just incredible. This shop wasn’t even on my radar, so I was so very happy to have had noticed it. I had my driver pull over, and then I went into the store. The slab wasn’t marble at all. It was glass and was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It looked like thousands of iridescent glass tiles that had been pressed into hundreds of layers. I bought a slab in a beautiful shade of sea-foam green and used it for the wall of my conservatory that has a sheet of water cascading down it.

Another great find that brought the “wow factor” I was looking for was the pink onyx I used in my bathroom. It is visually stunning and, I have to say, creates such a unique look. The lattice work I had done in the conservatory is also very unconventional and creates an incredible amount of atmosphere. The conservatory is enclosed in glass and has skylights, so it feels like you are outside. It is a perfect place to host our weekly Mahjong games. In general, every one of the rooms has its own look, and I am not afraid to mix different periods. In some rooms I’ve paired Art Deco lighting pieces with antiques.

One of my big money savers was having my existing sofas reupholstered and re-covered. If you have a good frame, there’s no reason to buy a new sofa. I even had the arms on some of my older sofas cut down and reshaped to give them a more modern and updated look. I also repurposed quite a bit of fabric from The Manor and used it to create drapes for different rooms in the condo. I got very lucky with the bathtub from Tori’s bathroom at The Manor. They don’t make this kind anymore, and I was able to extract it and bring it over to The Century to use in my bathroom.

I get so many e-mails every day asking me for decorating tips and ideas. I think the one thing I consistently have to remind everyone of is that you don’t have to need to have what I call “pedigree furniture pieces.” Believe it or not, I know how to decorate on a budget. When we bought our house in Malibu, we were definitely stretching it. Aaron gave me a budget of $6,000 to do the whole house.

There are so many wonderful online resources these days. I’ve even bought a couple of wooden headboards for under $200. I’ve also bought a couple of nice sofas for about the same price. If you know your color palette, I also highly recommend going to The Home Depot. They have everything from blinds and furniture to wall décor and bedding.

Based on the success of
Selling Spelling Manor
, HGTV wanted to create another reality miniseries around designing and building The Century. Filming for HGTV brought on a layer of stress that really took me by surprise. We were on a tight time line for filming and yet we had no control over the obstacles
being faced by the construction crew. We had the typical delays anybody building or remodeling experiences. The only difference is that a delay for the construction crew meant a delay on the shooting schedule.

At The Manor our challenge had been to get out of the house on time. At The Century, our challenge was getting in. Truthfully, we could have staged some rooms or cheated the cameras so that we didn’t capture the vendors who were still working on the condo. I know this would have made my producer’s life much easier, but I am a true perfectionist and didn’t want anyone to film anything that didn’t meet my standards.

As each room was finished, The Century felt more like my home, but I didn’t have more than a few minutes to appreciate it because then we had to get the crew over to film it. That’s how it was. We raced to finish a room and then we raced to film it.

What most people don’t know is that I took all of the furniture and artwork from The Manor and integrated them into my new home. I think one of the biggest compliments I got was from one of my security personnel who has been with me for ten years. He was very familiar with The Manor, yet when he stepped off the elevator at the finished condo for the first time, he was speechless. He walked around and looked at the artwork, family photographs, furniture, and accessories and recognized them all from The Manor. They were the same pieces arranged differently, so they all seemed new.

Ironically, my master suite was the last room to be finished. It was a long time coming, and I was finally home. I think in my mind, I had imagined a big celebration when I was finally done with what ended up being a three-year journey. I didn’t have any energy left for celebrating. Madison and I were both exhausted, so we just went to bed. A few weeks later, I christened my Manor in the Sky by hosting a fund-raiser for L.A.’s BEST. We had about seventy people over for drinks and appetizers. It was very exciting to have my first gathering in my new home.

We shot some footage of the fund-raiser for
Beyond Spelling Manor
. It was icing on the cake when the show, which aired recently, was a top
ten–rated show on HGTV. We beat out TLC, Style Network (now Esquire Network), and AMC’s movie of the week.

At some point during the construction, I realized that this would be the first time that I would be moving into a new home alone since my L-shaped apartment in New York City. Somewhere along the line, the unforeseen adventure of my life had propelled me forward. Everything fell into place, and I went from being a decorator to the architect of my own world. I never saw it coming, but I was ready for it when it happened.

31

Candy Gram

It’s hard to believe that I am the grandmother of six little grandchildren. It seems like just yesterday I was awaiting the arrival of my first grandchild, Liam. Once he arrived, he opened the floodgates for the rest of his cousins to follow. Tori and Dean have three other children, Stella, Hattie, and Finn. Since Tori and Dean have enjoyed so much success in television, I think most of America is very familiar with the McDermott clan. They’re really sort of like a modern-day
Partridge Family.

Randy has given me two precious granddaughters, Sage and Lotus. Sage is almost three, and Lotus turned one a few months ago. Lotus has a very cute nickname; they call her “Lolo.” For some reason, the last time I visited, I just couldn’t get the nickname right. I kept getting tongue-tied and calling her “Lulu” or “Lola.” It was one of those things where I kept worrying I was going to say it wrong and then I did. The kids all know what to call me since I am their “Candy Gram.”

Aaron, I know, would have adored these little ones. It breaks my heart that he did not live to see them. They would have been so spoiled by him, and if he were still around, I could see him playing in the pool with them or using movie
magic to create the same kind of spectacles he created for our children at the holidays.

I try to spend as much time with all of my grandchildren as I can. Tori and Dean are a real showbiz family, so they travel a lot for work, and it’s hard to keep up with their hectic schedules. Back when it was just Liam and Stella, I bought two car seats and had them both installed in the back of my car. It was so much fun to pick the children up and take them places. Before my condo at The Century was ready and I had officially moved in, the children’s playroom on the ground level of the building was complete, so I brought the kids with me and we went and played in there. I loved being able to incorporate the kids into my day that way. I was able to check in at the job site and spend time with them.

Another time, Tori let me have Liam and Stella for an extended sleepover at our home in Malibu. I thought of it as their first official “Spelling Staycation.” Dean was away in Canada, so it was a good opportunity for Tori to have some time to herself. She was so nervous about being away from her children. It was very sweet. I got a steady stream of texts from her.

“If you need anything or need me I’m right here.”

The children weren’t sleeping through the night yet, so this was weighing heavily on her mind. I think she was worried that they might not be able to sleep in unfamiliar surroundings or that I might not hear them if they called out. To be honest, I think she was also worried about me.

Here I was looking after two children under the age of five after more than three decades of not being around children. That’s a tall order for any woman. Then when you factor in my age, let’s just say I could see why Tori thought it was a little too much for me to handle. The kids were out of diapers by that time, but as all mothers remember, sometimes there are those middle-of-the-night accidents. I told Tori not to give it a second thought.

“If Stella has an accident, she has an accident.”

I was more concerned about my dog Madison than I was my bedding or my mattress. Madison is very sweet but a little shy, and Stella was more accustomed to dogs that were more outgoing and gregarious. So she and Madison
are both a little nervous around each other, and neither one of them wants to make the first move. I wanted Stella to be completely comfortable, so I had Madison sleep downstairs, which is something she hasn’t done since she was being housebroken as a puppy.

At that age, the kids thought sleeping in the same bed with Grandma was just the “most fun,” so we all tucked in together that night. I think we must have all looked liked three baked potatoes lined up in my king-size bed. At about two in the morning, Stella was sitting bolt upright.

“Grandma! Grandma! Look what I did!”

I started feeling around the sheet, patting it down with my palms, thinking that for sure the bed was wet. Stella knew exactly what I was looking for.

“No, Grandma! I went to the bathroom all by myself and then I got back in my bed all by myself!”

Stella just melted my heart. She was so proud of herself, and I was so proud of her. Those rhythmic ocean waves must have done the trick because both Liam and Stella slept through the rest of the night. In fact, I had to wake them up at ten-thirty in the morning. It’s not too often that anyone sleeps later than I do, but they did. We all had such an amazing time. We played in the sand and made lunch. One day we drove out to the Malibu Country Mart and saw a movie.

I had forgotten how many questions children ask at that age and how your attention has to be 100 percent focused on them at all times. By the end of the third day, my batteries were starting to run down, and I wanted to somebody to put me down for a nap. It made me very happy that at the end of our staycation, the kids had gotten so attached to me that they were sad to go home.

That really is one of the most wonderful parts of being the grandmother and not the mother. You get to experience all of the good stuff without the responsibility of parenting. As grandma, I am just the greatest person on earth. The kids love me unconditionally, and they don’t judge me.

The tough part of being a grandma is that you have to keep quiet and let your children parent their children. I have to say I am learning this as I go
along and haven’t quite perfected it. Like any other grandparent, I make mistakes.

One afternoon, Tori and I were both at Stella’s ballet class. They were giving a recital that day and Stella was overly excited that we were all there together. I think it was so emotional for her that she suddenly got very vulnerable and wanted to sit with us instead of dancing with her class. She was especially clingy with Tori and just wanted to be held and cuddled. Tori kept encouraging her to get back into class and dance. Stella surprised us all by saying she would go only if she got some chewing gum. Tori didn’t think this was a good idea since she would be dancing, and it was also against the rules to chew gum during class.

Well, I just knew that Stella was not going to get herself back in there unless she had some gum. So I very discreetly reached into my purse and broke off not even half a piece of gum and then slipped to it my granddaughter. She was so cute. She knew not to call attention to herself or ask any questions. She knew Grandma was there to give her anything her parents didn’t want to. She quickly popped the gum into her mouth before anyone could catch her and then skipped her way back to her group.

A few minutes later, we could all see Stella’s little mouth chewing away as she pirouetted and leapt her way through the recital. Tori knew immediately I was the guilty party.

“Mom?”

Tori usually calls me “Mommy.” I’m only “Mom” when she is upset with me, so I kept my attention focused on all the little ballerinas and pretended not to hear her.

“Mom! You gave Stella some chewing gum!”

I continued my pretense that I couldn’t hear her above the recital music. Then a better strategy came to me. I adjusted my posture to look slightly offended and took in a breath so I could deliver my line with just enough of a little huff, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I’m not the world’s greatest actress, so I wasn’t very convincing. In all honesty, the way I saw it with the gum was that it was part of what my job as
grandmother entails. The day after the recital, I took Liam and Stella to their favorite frozen yogurt parlor, Menchie’s. It was so terrific to watch them make their own yogurt sundaes and pile on the condiments. Honestly, their enthusiasm is contagious. Those kids just make everything fun. I’m really looking forward to Hattie and Finn being old enough so that I can indulge them in special time with Candy Gram too.

Randy and his wife, Leah, are incredible parents as well. They have transplanted themselves to the conscientious city of Portland, Oregon. It’s a great city with the beautiful Columbia River running through it. It’s a large, sophisticated city but with progressive, small-town values. They are raising their kids in a completely different way from Tori and Dean. It’s funny to think that Tori and Dean’s children are on television and Randy’s kids don’t even watch television. I have to say I was a bit skeptical of this at first, but after my last visit, I am a convert. My granddaughter Sage is only two, but she must have the vocabulary and motor skills of a four- or five-year-old. She is so articulate and friendly that even strangers she interacts with at the farmer’s market or other public places notice it.