It is not clear why the reforms are taking so long, said a government official, but it is a situation that has made Harris increasingly and understandably uncomfortable, according to several people who spoke to CNN about their situation. “She’s getting frustrated,” said another government official, noting with each passing day the desire to move into her designated home – a stately mansion with towers two and a half kilometers from the White House – gets more intense.
The second couple continues to live in temporary accommodation at Blair House, the president’s official accommodation, across the White House’s Pennsylvania Avenue.
The government did not provide any official explanation for the delay, and a Harris spokesman did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
CNN has examined several government contracts, awarded for a myriad of issues at the vice president’s residence over the past few years, many of which detail intensive grassroots work. From projects recently completed on a holding tank to a tank system replaced with $ 164,000 as of last September, repairs and maintenance appear constant. There is also an ongoing $ 3.8 million contract for “plumbing, heating and air conditioning contractors,” according to the contract on the United States government’s spending website.
The contracts, while substantial, are not overtly blatant in terms of cost and expectation, considering that the house is over 9,000 square feet and was built in 1893. 2018 tax records indicate $ 119,000 in expenses were used to provide updates and improvements in and around the residence grounds, for example. However, current contracts do not specifically address the reason why the vice president does not yet live there, which has been generating questions – and agitation – about the pace of work.
Harris was recently spotted at her future home, showing up for an hour-long visit three weeks ago, according to CNN. Two administration officials with knowledge of the ongoing updates told CNN that Harris – who likes to cook – requested that work be done in the kitchen.
It is not uncommon that there are at least a few weeks between residents, so that Navy personnel who operate the house can cool off, said Elizabeth Haenle, who served as deputy residency manager and social secretary for former Vice President Dick Cheney . “From time to time, the Navy will ask the vice president and their respective families to delay the move so that they have time for maintenance and improvements that are not easy to make after the vice president takes up residence,” said Haenle.
Shortly after taking office, a Harris aide told CNN that the vice president would not move out immediately, citing the need for some repairs to the house “which are more easily carried out with the house unoccupied”. The date of the move was not yet determined at the time. Another government official told CNN that some of the works included renovating the house’s chimneys – there are seven fireplaces working – as well as other upgrades.
Without the comfort of home
Although Blair House offers comfortable and even luxurious accommodations, the current surroundings of Harris and Emhoff do not have the comforts of home. Museum-quality antiques and pieces of American history adorn each of the more than 100 rooms, which include a gym and a private hair salon. And while the professional team of more than a dozen full-time employees offers amenities as comfortable as a luxury hotel, Blair House does not offer the relaxed atmosphere that Harris and Emhoff prefer when they are at home. The couple enjoys a more casual West Coast informality, with frequent visits from family members and large Sunday dinners, said the former California senator.
The main suite at Blair House was redecorated by the famous interior designer Thomas Pheasant, hired in 2012 to update the general decor, and includes a huge four-poster bed wrapped in luxurious fabrics and furniture that reminds more of Mount Vernon than California mood. modern. Her Washington, DC, condo, where she moved to Blair House, was housed in an elegant, eco-chic and minimalist building in the city’s West End neighborhood.
When the second couple finally moves to the One Observatory Circle, where the vice president’s residence is located on the grounds of the Naval Observatory, they will find a house quite different from their condo or Blair House, but also very different from the White House. There are far fewer formalities, fewer employees and more freedom.
“The White House is the president’s office and home, so there is that feeling of living above the White House ‘store’,” said Haenle. “For the vice president and his family, the Vice President’s Residence – or VPR – is quiet in the middle of a Washington storm, both politically and logistically. At the end of the day, the vice president can travel a short distance- go northwest and find rest in a country setting. “Deer often roam the property, although in reality it is just steps away from downtown DC’s office buildings and city traffic.
‘You will love the pool’
The dozens of hectares that make up the Naval Observatory’s land offer privacy and the ability to move around with more leisure than the president and first lady at the White House. Biden last month in a CNN City Council referred to the White House as a “golden cage” and regretted not having the same equipment at his disposal as when he lived at the vice president’s residence for eight years.
“You are on 80 acres, overlooking the rest of the city,” said Biden. “You can walk and there’s a swimming pool … You can ride a bike and never leave the property and work out – but the White House is very different.” (The vice president’s mansion actually sits on 13 acres of land, not 80 – the entire Naval Observatory complex, with several separate buildings and offices unrelated to the residence, is 72 acres.)
It was former Vice President Dan Quayle who installed the heated pool, which has become Biden’s most precious haven. As vice president, Biden threw loud parties at the pool for employees and their families, bringing water cannons and participating in shootings with the children who attended. In 2017, shortly after moving, then second lady Karen Pence shared Biden’s parting words to her in an interview shortly after her husband, Mike Pence, took an oath: “That’s what Joe Biden told us when he came in in the limo and left the Capitol on the opening day – he said, ‘You’re going to love the pool.’ ”
Harris, who at the start of his vice presidency was seen walking up and down the Lincoln Memorial stairs to exercise, Secret Service agents nearby will have outdoor space to run, swim and exercise in their new home – without the public noticing her and posting videos on social media. Harris said she works out every morning, and swimming can sometimes be part of her routine – another reason why the vice presidential pool is a privilege.
A vice president who likes to cook
If she wants to add her personal signature to the residence or her land – as Quayle did with the pool or George HW Bush did with an outdoor horseshoe pit or the Bidens did it with a garden where the names of all the occupants of the house, pets included, are recorded – updates and adjustments can bypass the elaborate approval process that any changes to the White House must go through.
However, as with the White House, a separate foundation was established to cover most updates with funds provided by the government. Also like the White House, the vice president has at her disposal a variety of historic furniture and decorative arts to choose from as part of a private collection reserved for the president and vice president to make their temporary homes look cozy and according to their needs. personal tastes. . Karen Pence once said that she left the residence rooms organized in the same way that the Biden had done before them, since the Pences liked the layout and saw no reason to change it.
“It is a house with a lot of history and personality, but over the years the Navy has kept it well maintained and updated it,” said Haenle. “During my time with the Cheney, we recorded the home’s inventory and restored the furniture and art that went back to the Rockefellers and Mondale.”
For home entertainment, the residence offers “a wraparound porch that is away from the busy streets of northwest Washington,” notes Haenle. “It is a special place and provides great family gatherings on Sunday afternoons”, while being formal enough to welcome heads of state.
But it is the meditative and relaxing quality of preparing family meals that Harris has cited in several interviews as therapy, and it is something she is still waiting to do at her official residence.
CNN’s Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.