A Shot of Style - Apartment Therapy Cure 2007

the end, my friends

2007-11-12T19:34:00.001-08:00

So this is the end of the 2007 Cure. Thanks to those of you who visited and commented! I have to admit that I'm more than a little disappointed not to have any photos included on the graduation page, since I put so much time and effort into this, but I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles. I might participate again in the Spring Cure and do another room or two - after all, I haven't even touched the bathrooms.

after photos!

2007-11-04T12:46:00.000-08:00

It's finished! We styled the kitchen and study and took photos this afternoon. Highlights are below; if you'd like to see all of them, the set is here. You can click on any of the photos below for a larger version.

The finished study:

Obviously our cat thought this was a photo shoot all about her. This is my side of the study; when we rearranged the furniture, I even had room to add a bookcase.

Raymond's side of the study, with his new desk.

The walkway, storage shelves, hermit crab cage and laundry closet door.

Closer view of the shadowbox.

Hallway:

We moved these prints out of the study to outside the kitchen, so I figured I'd toss them in here too. They look so much better here.

Kitchen:

The new blue barrier looks a lot nicer than the old pegboard-and-duct-tape (wince) combo we had there before.

Looking back out at the hallway - new dishtowels and utensil holder.

Shiny new colander and curtains. I've started using a hanging basket behind one of the curtains to store dishtowels and washcloths and it works really well.

The vase normally holds flowers but we didn't happen to have any today. I'm happy to have finally found a good home for my oil lamps too.

Alton Brown quote on the newly blue kitchen backsplash.

Overview from the living room.

2007-11-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

I'll have "after" photos up later today, but for now, here's a few photos from when I painted the kitchen barrier. It's a piece of sanded pine, 32" x 42", that we had cut at Home Depot. I used some of the leftover blue paint from the kitchen backsplash to paint it. I did two coats on each side, and since it dried so fast on the wood it only took one evening to do it all.

I haven't abandoned you, I swear!

2007-10-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

We've mainly been doing very small things here and there this last week that aren't really worth photographing and putting up. I'm trying to hold off on photos so I can take some really nice ones this weekend and put them up as "afters."

I was pondering doing some after photos tonight, but last night after I went to bed one of my Ikea frames crashed down from the wall, breaking the frame but not the glass. It's not repairable, so I'll have to swing by there on Friday and pick up another one.

One of the more interesting effects of the Cure has been the ripple effect it's had on other areas of my life. We've gotten things done in other parts of the house that weren't strictly Cure-related, but needed to be done (hanging curtains over the closet in the bedroom). In cleaning out my files, I found a bunch of papers that could be taken to work and scanned, then discarded, so I'm lighter on the paper end. All kinds of things are coming to light.

photos! kitchen and study walls

2007-10-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

The kitchen, prepped and ready.

The study, prepped and ready.

Our friends J. and D., who helped us paint on Saturday.

View out the study window. I just liked the photo.

Hey, it's the one shot of me painting! That's what happens when I'm behind the camera all the time.

First coat of Emerald Lake, the color that turned out to be way too light.

Raymond painting the kitchen backsplash. The brush he's holding is the one that J. reviews in this blog post. Sadly, it didn't actually hook to our kitchen sink, so we couldn't test its magical cleaning abilities.

Raymond finishing the first coat of Alpine Pool. You can see the brighter Emerald Lake at the top.

Part of the problem with the original lighter green was that it clashed horribly with the nature photos I'd had printed. This is Raymond helpfully holding one of the prints up against the first coat of the deeper green. It goes much better with the new color.

The backsplash is now blue. I love it. It occasionally gets an odd lavender appearance from the sun shining through the red curtains.

An overall view of the new study layout. I'm thrilled with it! It's like standing in a pine forest, which is exactly what I wanted. We have yet to put up curtains and some of the wall decorations (a couple of prints and a shadowbox).

Raymond's side of the study, featuring his new glass-and-wood desk. We still have a few things to put up on the wall here.

View of my side from the center of the room. The prints on the wall are photos I took at Linville Falls near Linville, NC and printed through Shutterfly. I'm pretty proud of them. The bookshelf was originally in the living room but I want to try using it in here; after all, what good is a study without books?

smaller updates

2007-10-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

Done:

- Glued shells into the shadowbox and left it to cure overnight; it should be ready to go onto the wall tonight.
- My nature photos came in from Shutterfly and they look wonderful. I put them in frames yesterday and we put nails in the wall for them; they can also go up tonight.
- Ordered red colander from Amazon (waiting on arrival).

- Touched up inevitable marks on ceiling/bleed-through from tape in study. Need to do a bit more touchup on the larger window.
- Replaced all litter pans with new ones that minimize scattered litter on the floor.

Some things we still need to do:

- Put the red letters of the quote back up onto the kitchen wall now that the paint's cured. Spray adhesive?
- Hang curtain rods in the study.
- Hang shadowbox on white wall in study.

- Set my computer desk back up.
- Go by Home Depot and buy a flat-plug extension cord (the new desk arrangement puts me very far away from an outlet).
- Move living room bookcase to study.

- Clean blinds and re-hang (we're going to leave them in place, but all the way up, in case we need them later).
- Hang lighthouse print in study with shadowbox.
- Try to figure out a way to keep ferrets from digging under laundry door that doesn't involve duct tape on the carpet.

I think we may end up not using Lexan/plexiglass in the kitchen entrance after all. It's just so expensive, and it would always look dirty or fingerprint-y or smudged. We have tons of blue paint left over, so I'm pondering having a nice piece of wood cut to size and painting it blue to match the backsplash.

we have paintage!

2007-10-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

Although this weekend was basically an exercise in frustration, we finally have painted rooms! Our friends D. and J. came over on Saturday to help, and we painted the kitchen backsplash a lovely light blue (Behr's Tidal Pool) and the study an emerald green (Behr's Emerald Lake).

Unfortunately, the emerald green turned out to be way way too bright. It was like standing in a locker room. Or a green Skittle. I ended up going back out and getting Ralph Lauren's Alpine Pool, and we spent Sunday repainting. The room now feels like standing in the middle of a pine tree, which is exactly what I wanted. We win! I'm really, really tired today, though. We're not "handy" people in the least so painting is a huge ordeal for us. I'm thrilled with the result but I'm so glad it's over.

If you've been reading, you may remember that Raymond had found a computer desk he wanted, but OfficeMax promptly discontinued it. He's one of those people who hates change with a passion (this whole painting this has been really traumatic for him), so he was reluctant to get rid of his nasty old college desk at all. To give him credit, he did look online for desks, but just couldn't find one he was willing to exchange the old desk for.

The only one he found that we both liked was this pretty cherry, glass and chrome computer desk at Office Depot, but he didn't want to buy it without seeing it in person. I don't blame him, because the website photo is godawful.

So I spent Friday calling five different Office Depots in the area. None of them had a floor sample. By a brilliant stroke of luck, though, we just happened to stop for supper on our way to a concert Friday night, and an Office Depot just happened to be next door, and we just happened to pop in to see if they had it, and they did! He fell in love with it and I promptly bought it before anything could get in the way. It was on sale, so we were even able to get the matching file drawer so he has some storage space. We were just barely able to squeeze the two gigantic flatpacks into the Mini.

After the (second batch of) green paint dried in the study, Raymond put together both the desk and drawers. Since the desk is L-shaped, we're trying a desk configuration in the study that's different from anything we've done before. My desktop computer isn't set up yet, so I haven't processed the photos, but hopefully I'll get them up tomorrow. The whole room looks fantastic!

woohoo, progress! kitchen, hallway

2007-10-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

Finally, progress! I love, love, love the new red curtains. They're a huge punch of color for our small kitchen - I'm really glad now we didn't try to cover the cabinets with red fabric as well.

I put the letters up for our wall quote so that we could see how they work this week before we paint that wall. It's an Alton Brown quote that says, "That is kosher salt, right?" You can check out how we made the letters here.

And finally, we hung these anime wall scrolls gallery-style in our upstairs hallway. We used to have one hanging in the study and had planned to rotate it every few months, but we never did. Now, they're a nice bit of color, they're out where we can enjoy them, and now I don't have to design an entire room around them.

plugging away at small things

2007-10-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

I've managed to catch an early autumn flu bug,* so I've fallen a bit behind on plans. I've managed to get more done than I thought, though; even if the general state of the apartment is lacking, we've repaired/organized a lot of small things that needed doing either way.

We still haven't decided on a desk. I'd mentioned in this post that the one he wanted was discontinued, and he hasn't chosen another yet. That's fine, since we're tight on money anyhow - he's got time to decide.

Also, we got the red curtains up in the kitchen today! They look fantastic. I don't have enough energy to photograph and post it, but I'll try to do that tomorrow. For now, here's a completely off-topic and gratuitous piece of cute:

(A good friend, on seeing this, said, "Is that the inbox or the outbox?" I replied, "Obviously, it's the catbox.")

Here's a crosspost from the AT Cure thread about the other stuff we've gotten done lately:

We're a bit stalled out money- and time-wise, so we're focusing on small things and trying not to fall too far behind. We're still plugging away, though!

One major repair we're in the process of making is getting our defective mattress replaced. I delegated that one to my husband and he's been doing a great job of it. The warranty guy was out to our place the other day and said that it's definitely a defect and is covered (basically a random piece of wire is sticking out of the corner), so we should hear back from the manufacturer in a few weeks about a replacement. That may mean it gets replaced after the cure's over, but this gave us the incentive to do it!

I've also been doing some smaller repair and organizational stuff:

- Replaced the labels on my filing system, which for some reason were missing
- Bought new office supply boxes at Ikea that match the new color scheme in the study
- Attempted to buy the bowls I chose for kitchen counter storage, but they were out of stock, so when we get money I'll order from Amazon

- Bought a furniture pencil/crayon to repair both a scratch the cat made on a nice wooden bench and some streaky pine-colored lines that opened up on our dark brown West Elm bed frame last year just after we got it (wasn't happy about that!)
- Finalized paint color for the kitchen (Behr's Sea Sprite) and narrowed it to two for the study (Behr's Parsley and another one I don't remember the name of offhand)
- Received new towels and dishcloths in the mail for the kitchen and we're really happy with the color (red!)

Also finalized and purchased both curtain rods for the kitchen/study and picture frames for the study (still need to order prints). They're all ready to go up after we paint.

* What is is with the health stuff this year? I'm normally healthy as a horse but all this year I've had a variety of annoying respiratory problems. The only reason I'm mentioning it here is because it's causing setbacks, though - it'll be fine.

denied!

2007-10-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

It seems that the moment we decided to order the Futura desk from OfficeMax, it was discontinued. None of their warehouses have it. I called again today and they simply can't get it for us. Back to the drawing board with that, I suppose. At least he didn't have his heart completely set on that one.

Despite the general grumpiness I've been displaying here this week, I still feel pretty good about how things are going. It's just hard to express wry humor in print.

shadowbox

2007-10-09T08:50:00.001-07:00

shadowbox
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

This will go on the wall in the study. My mom sent me this - thank you! I've filled it with shells and am still messing with the arrangement before I attach them to the wood. (Still pondering how to do that, too.) The vine balls beside the box are things I may or may not use downstairs.

what on earth??

2007-10-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

Raymond's finally decided on a desk he likes, this L-shaped glass desk from OfficeMax. (You may have to click on the link twice to get it to go to the product page.) It's gigantic and I'm a bit afraid it'll devour too much space in our little study, but at least he's made a decision.

We tried to order it and the website said that they're "out of stock in your area." If it's being shipped, why does it matter? Raymond called them today and they said that the only way to find out if we could get one would be to place an order for one. WTF? That makes no sense whatsoever.

oh, and I did find that colander online

2007-10-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

Amazon has it. Painfully expensive, though.

you win some, you lose some

2007-10-08T06:15:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning, on my way to the Intergem show in Baltimore, I stopped by IKEA to pick up those picture frames. I was in and out in under 20 minutes, which has to be some sort of world record. I wasn't sure it was even possible to visit IKEA in under three hours. To be fair, it's much less crowded at 9:30 on a Saturday morning! I did end up getting the Ribba frames and they're going to look gorgeous. I need to measure them (to see what actual picture size they hold) and order prints.

Yesterday evening was basically made of fail, in amusing ways. I've sort of gotten to the point where I have lots of little things to pick up from different stores, but I have rather bad luck with actually acquiring things once I pick them out.

I saw a pretty little red enamel and metal colander at Home Goods the other day that I was considering using in the kitchen to hold snacks and things. I decided I wanted it, so I dragged Raymond out of the house yesterday afternoon to go get it. Of course, they were sold out by the time I got there. Fail.

We wandered the store for a bit and didn't see anything else we liked. I did pick up a throw blanket to replace the ugly green one Raymond keeps on his desk chair, though. It's a Serasoft blanket like the ones we have upstairs for the bed and it's soft and a lovely brown. And really cheap, too. Win!

Since we were close to the local Bed Bath & Beyond, I thought we'd pop in there and see if they had a red colander. We got there at 6:05 and they were closed. Fail. I'd forgotten that those kinds of stores close early on Sunday; after all, the parking lot was full and people were still obviously out shopping. Fail.

So we needed to stop at the pet store too, for some litter pans that won't spill litter all over the floor (that would make cleaning so much easier!).* They didn't have any of the type we were looking for. Fail.

So then I thought we'd pop into Office Depot next door and look for a red notebook to keep our recipes in. We'd looked at Staples the other day and they didn't have any. Office Depot had closed at 6. Fail.

But then we went to Olive Garden and that made it all better. I'd made a vow not to go to this one because every time we go it's a disaster, but they managed not to fail miserably so we had a good meal (and I have chicken marsala in the fridge for lunch!). Win!

I'm excited about putting our curtain rods up; we'll try to get to that this week. I've also found a brand new Behr paint color, Parsley, in a magazine and it looks divine. I wonder if Home Depot has paint chips for it yet; it could be a contender for the study walls.

* Since we have both a cat and ferrets, our litter box needs are a little weird. PetSmart probably has the ones we need, since Petco didn't.

not having so much luck this week on the health end

2007-10-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

For some reason I developed a horrible sick headache at work. I still managed to stop by Lowe's on the way home, which is good - otherwise I'd have had to wait a week to do it. (The Lowe's near us didn't have what we wanted so I had to stop on the way home from my weekly visit to another office.)

Because by that point my head was throbbing in time to my footsteps, I didn't manage to pick up spackle for the kitchen wall or white paint for touchups,* but I did get curtain rods. Yay! I had planned to get this antique white "key" curtain rod for the kitchen because it's more or less the color of our walls and I thought it was cute. Apparently the manufacturer thinks that "antique" should look exactly like someone took the curtain rod, threw it down on asphalt, and stomped on it, judging by the nasty black "antique" streaks on the white finial. Um. No. So I got this instead, which in real life is an extremely dark, subtle red that I think will go well with the other reds in the room. I'd originally wanted that exact plain rod in white, but Lowe's didn't have one and the Crate & Barrel one was too expensive. Ah well, this works well enough.

I also changed my mind about the curtain rods for the study after seeing them, and ended up getting these. I think they're adorable.

So that's $70 spent on curtain rods today. I hope to God they look good. So many of the people who do the Cure seem to have thousands and thousands of dollars to spend, and we're struggling just to do paint and curtains (and we already had 2/3 of our curtains, I got them at the Salvation Army last year!). Once again, ah well. I guess we all work with what we have, you know?

Quick note: I'm pondering taking the blinds, down, somehow washing them in the bathtub, then putting them back up and leaving them all the way up unless they're needed. Since the windows in our two focus rooms look out on the parking lot, I'm not entirely comfortable with just sheer curtains if I'm wandering around nekkid in the kitchen making brownies or whatever at night.

I posted this over at AT a few minutes ago, just recording here so it's in one place:

I'm being a bad curee: I've had to drop the Deep Treatment for a while and concentrate on just the study and kitchen. There's just too much else going on in my life right now, and since I'm totally Type A anyhow I maintain a rolling deep treatment in our apartment that's more or less like the AT deep treatment, so I don't feel too bad about it.

Those two rooms are coming together nicely, though. We've got all our curtains and rods together, and can hopefully put them up next week. We've decided on a color for the kitchen accent wall and are debating between two beautiful deep greens for the study walls. (There's more over at the blog if you're interested.)

The only major thing we're still really stuck on is a new desk for my husband. He needs lots of space, preferably an L-shaped desk, because he works on computers; he's partial to glass; and he has very exacting requirements for height and keyboard tray width. He has found a couple of wooden desks he likes, but they're all too short (and he's not all that tall!), so we're back to glass, but just can't find the perfect desk. Budget's $250 max for that item (gotta love student loan and medical debts), so we're a bit frustrated with that right now.

* Hmph. The Sherwin-Williams store down the street closes at 6 pm, and I can't seem to get there in time after work to pick up the Dover White paint sample. That's what our apartment complex uses, so I figure I might as well get something that matches to touch things up.

i'm still here, I promise

2007-10-05T07:08:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been a while. I've been busy, and fall allergies are hitting me hard. Not being able to breathe makes it harder to concentrate on my apartment. I've gone back and replied to several older comments - thank you everyone who's left a comment! You've all been a tremendous amount of help already.

Earlier this week I was really not feeling well, so I stayed at home to work that day. I had a full day's work and then some to do, but in breaks I slogged around the house and cleaned. I even did some deep cleaning in the kitchen, so that's good.

I think at this point I may have to concentrate on the study and kitchen and let the deep treatment go.* I'm so Type A that I generally have a rolling deep treatment going on all the time, so that'll be okay. If I can manage to keep up with the two rooms that's all I ask for right now.

General update: We got our curtains from BB&B and they're lovely, a perfect shade of red. I think we made the right choice there. I'm going tonight to Lowe's to get curtain rods for both kitchen and study, so if we're lucky (read: have time) we can paint and hang curtains next week. I've also found the perfect frames for the study (thanks, "curing what ails me!") and received a beautiful shadowbox in the mail from my mom for shells for the study wall. I've laid out the shells but haven't attached them yet. Will take a photo soon.

A friend and I were talking about color choices and neutrals the other day. Her opinion goes more or less along with Maxwell's, that there should be 80% neutrals in a room and 20% color to give it life. I've lived with bland, boring, beige dorm rooms and apartments for so many years that my working theory is currently somewhere around 50/50. I want intense gem colors that make my rooms vibrant and full of life. (You can see this pretty well in the already-painted rooms upstairs, the bedroom and studio.) I can't do anything about the depressing beige carpet (and can't afford to change things like crappy cheap light fixtures), but I can change almost everything else.

Maybe in a few years I'll be completely tired of colorcolorcolor! and want some nice neutrals everywhere, but for right now, I want life and vivid colors.

In case you're wondering what that has to do with anything, we're looking at some beautiful very deep green for the study. It'll either be masterful or awful.

* In the next six weeks I have (besides a full-time job): a bead show to attend; two events at which I'll be selling jewelry, one of which is a three-day show; a three-day visit from a friend; at least one visit from family; and five or six portrait photography appointments.

new dishtowels!

2007-10-01T11:48:00.001-07:00

new dishtowels!
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

Our dishtowels and cloths were getting really really old and ratty, so it was time to replace them anyhow. These are from Beth, Bath & Beyond. They weren't all that expensive and feel like they'll last for a while. Annoyingly, the oven mitt is so small Raymond can barely get his hand in it, so we'll probably end up keeping the old one around too (it's black).

Also moved our cooking utensils to that red vase, which had been sitting aimlessly in the kitchen for a year.

Also added this red dishtowel to go under the dish drainer. We usually keep a towel under there anyhow so it might as well match. I thought about replacing this one with a red drainer, but I like this one and it functions just fine, so this works.

And to add a little smile to your Monday:

cord organization

2007-10-01T11:45:00.001-07:00

cord organization
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

Alana had asked to see how we organized the cords under my desk, so I snapped a few pics this morning.

An outlet adapter thingy from Ikea gives us six outlets there instead of two. The gray cord goes to a power strip and the black is a giant box powering something or other. I also plug my work laptop in here and other temporary things. The black wraps you can see further down are velcro wire wraps from cableorganizer.com.

Under the desk. Everything possible feeds into that power strip so there aren't a zillion things plugged into the wall. It still looks kind of messy but since it's in the shadows under the desk it's hard to see.

The right side of the desk.

This is looking down the right side of the desk (the big gray surface). There's a cord hole where the cords come out; from there they go down and are hidden by the router. They're still a bit of a rat's nest there but that's as organized as they can get and still be flexible enough to keep from having to redo the entire thing every time we need to pull out my computer for any reason.

progress! my desk area, a little cleaner than usual

2007-09-30T07:42:00.001-07:00

my desk area, a little cleaner than usual
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

We took care of the cords, yay! Raymond rearranged them all so they're either in the cord tray on the back of the desk (you can sort of see it in this pic as blobs of black and gray) or bundled up neatly out of sight. His cords are going to be a different story, esp. if he gets a glass desk. We'll worry about his when we find the right desk. He did go ahead and trade out his loooooooooooooong coaxial cable for a much shorter one, though, which improves things a bit on his end.

hmph

2007-09-30T07:41:00.001-07:00

hmph
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

Part of our personal deep cleaning has been to take care of certain organizational or necessary items that we've been putting off getting or repairing. Just before the Cure started, we finally went out and got a shredder (Staples, $70) to shred important and/or sensitive documents. (Read: anything with info that could theoretically be used to steal our identities.) The first one ran happily for a week and then died.

We took it back and got another. The second one was DOA. At this point, in the interests of simplicity, we'll probably just return it and I'll use the shredder at work.

because it's friday and I'm tired

2007-09-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

Totally unrelated to the Cure and only vaguely related to anything else:

If I could, I'd wave a magic wand and change the white balance of my bathrooms.

geekery

2007-09-27T08:38:00.001-07:00

Alana's comment on the last post reminds me that I did finally find a solution to the problem of retaining the geekness in the study. Sadly, it doesn't involved keeping it there, but it does at least keep it in the house. I'm moving the space-themed framed pictures into the hallway in front of the kitchen, and the anime wall scrolls into the upstairs hallway. That way we can keep them but they won't interfere with the forest theme in the study and will hopefully keep the place from looking like we're still college students.

The framed space pages are pretty easy to take care of. They'll just go in the hallway exactly like they went on the wall in the study. (These are nifty pages from a Time magazine article on the space walk in 1965; gorgeous photos of astronauts. I was lucky enough to find an original copy of the magazine at a flea market.)

We actually have four wall scrolls, only one of which could hang in the study at any given time. The upstairs hallway has enough room for three, so I think I'll hang three there gallery-style and let that be our anime geek area. Our anime and game-related figurines are in the studio, which is off that hallway, so it works. Maybe I'll even do some more geeky stuff in that hallway.

It makes me sad to relegate our geeky stuff too hallways, since this stuff is pretty central to our life. I'm desperately trying to get past our college decor, though, although I refuse to get rid of it entirely. Putting it in the hallways is a good compromise, I think: our place is small enough that we're in those areas all the time, and it frees up our actual rooms for some more mature colors and themes.

But hey, I do have a rather nice collection of swords and daggers to hang on the living room wall next spring when I get time. *grin* That'll infuse some geek back in, all right.

bamboo for the study walls

2007-09-27T06:52:00.001-07:00

bamboo for the study walls
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

I found a bamboo image I liked on istockphoto.com and brought it into Illustrator. I deleted the background colors so only the bamboo was left and printed out a very small part of it to test. I cut out the small portion in green and stuck it in place on the wall so we can see how we like it for the next few weeks. At the moment I'm planning to do a set in green on the white wall and in brown on the green wall.

repair complete! sticky streak

2007-09-24T08:50:00.001-07:00

repair complete! sticky streak
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

When we moved into this apartment, there was this weird stripe on the bedroom carpet. It's three feet long, dark, and sticky. I couldn't figure out what to do with it at the time, so I bought a rug from Pier 1 and threw it over it.

It was on my repair list for the Cure, so I went ahead and tackled it yesterday. Since it was sticky I thought Goo-Gone might help, and it absolutely did the trick. Well, with a lot of scrubbing it did. Now the carpet's greasy in that spot, but hey, it's not nearly as dark and sticky!

(And yes, that's my greatly beloved Roomba zooming around in the background. It was worth every single penny.)

buried in papers

2007-09-24T08:45:00.003-07:00

buried in papers
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

In the interests of getting the mattress replaced, I dug through mountains of papers yesterday looking for the warranty. Like a total doofus I'd managed to somehow stick it in with paperwork for my jewelry business, so I ended up going through every paper in the house to find it, including old manila envelopes labeled things like "Papers 2002-2005."

The good news is that I got rid of a foot-high stack of papers while doing it; I'm good about cleaning out papers every year but we were obviously due so I just went ahead and did my 2007 cleaning that would normally wait until December.

let's talk repairs: mattress attack

2007-09-24T08:45:00.001-07:00

repair needed: mattress attack
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

We've had this Sealy mattress for less than a year and last month it sprouted this piece of wire through the corner like some frozen tentacle. Bah. There's no danger of injuring ourselves on it since it's at the foot of the bed, but it's torn the mattress pad and is in danger of tearing our sheets. I've delegated this one to Raymond: he's going to call the mattress place and see what he can do to get it replaced. Don't get me wrong, this mattress is heaven to sleep on, but wires sticking out are kind of not cool.

framed photos for the study

2007-09-24T08:06:00.001-07:00

potterybarn_006
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

I think I'm going to use an arrangement like this to feature some of my nature photography in the study. I need to find frames that aren't ungodly expensive in some kind of medium-toned wood that matches my desk.

Here are the photos I plan to put up:

curtain rod - pottery barn

2007-09-24T06:51:00.001-07:00

curtain rod - pottery barn
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

This is the curtain rod I want to use in the kitchen. I haven't ordered it yet - I'm hoping to find it a bit cheaper, since it's so plain. I'd need the Medium one. here is the nearest PB for my own reference.

found curtains for the kitchen!

2007-09-24T06:43:00.001-07:00

found curtains for the kitchen!
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

I ordered these curtains from Bed, Bath & Beyond's website last night (after looking for them in the store with no luck). They were on clearance for $15 each. I was originally going to put white curtains in the kitchen, but since we're not doing red on the cabinets we decided we liked having a big shot of red at the window. Raymond really liked the ties at the top of these.

go with the flow

2007-09-24T06:39:00.000-07:00

Things are really starting to move fast for me, mentally. The more I set aside time to actually think about and concentrate on my apartment, the more solutions I come up with.

For example, I'd planned to use quinncx's wonderful guide to making a plexiglass poster frame for the anti-ferret barrier for the kitchen, but I just don't think we can afford $100 for two sheets of plexiglass right now. (And the good plexiglass I priced at a frame shop ran even more expensive than that! Ouch.) Instead, I think I'll just buy one really good sheet (price: $60-70) and let that be the barrier. I'll be constantly having to clean fingerprints off it, but it can't possibly look worse than that stupid pegboard (with duct tape!) we have there now.

Then again, cleaning off fingerprints every single day? Hm. I hadn't really thought about that. Maybe I could artfully drape a kitchen towel across the top where we tend to grab the current barrier to move it, and we could use that instead of getting grubby hands all over it.

At any rate, the ideas are flowing, and not just for the rooms we're concentrating on this Cure. I've been able to make some adjustments in other rooms already too, although I'm trying not to spend money on those rooms right now. One major thing I've done that benefits both kitchen and study is to buy four recycling bins from the Container Store and put them on the balcony. We didn't have enough room for recycling in the kitchen and were putting cans and bottles in grocery bags attached to the fridge. Not very attractive or functional.

I'm really on a roll right now, so expect lots of posts for the next few days!

no new photos today...

2007-09-22T13:00:00.001-07:00

fontsforquote
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

It's hot and sticky and I'm actually at two friends' house playing D&D today, so nothing productive is getting done at home lately. I'm also trying to figure out how to cut down costs on things so I can afford to do at least most of what I want to do with the kitchen and study.

I took a screenshot in Word of the fonts I'm playing around with for the kitchen wall. Raymond likes the last one best. I need to print it in larger letters and hang it on the wall to see how it looks.

nitpicking

2007-09-21T12:21:00.001-07:00

wall details
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

I picked up some art paper at the craft store yesterday in green and brown, to experiment with bamboo shapes for the walls. I'm thinking a spray of life-size bamboo on each wall; a green one on the white wall and brown one on the green wall. I'd buy some wall stickies instead, but it's simply not in our budget this time around and I think this will look good anyhow.

I want to put a quote in red on our kitchen wall against the theoretical blue, but I'm not entirely sure how to go about it yet, so I got art paper, sticky felt and some foam to try cutting letters out of.

We may have a larger issue as well: Raymond's computer finally died*, and we had to replace it completely. That's a $500 expense we weren't expecting and it puts a major, major dent in my Cure budget. I may have to scale things back or put some extras (like a Brita filter for the faucet, and nice curtains) on hold.

* It figures that the programmer has horrendous luck with computer parts! This system's been giving him trouble for over a year now and when he tried to take it apart and fix it, it just died altogether. We finally decided it was worth the money to just get new parts rather than keep fighting and fighting and fighting with it.

i am, in fact, a huge dork

2007-09-20T07:07:00.000-07:00

Because I just took pictures of my refrigerator.

I despise cleaning the fridge, so it was just as well I had the AT incentive to do it this week. We never let it get really filthy or anything, but it desperately needed sorting. I'm the one who usually takes care of it, but I was sick for two months, then we went on vacation (and I got sick again), then we were busy, so we've just been shoving good food in the front and ignoring the rotten celery in the back.

So last night I pulled everything out of both freezer and fridge and cleaned them out and wiped them down. The freezer's so small that old food simply doesn't have room to stick around, but I found lots to get rid of in the fridge.

Here's how completely inept I tend to be in the kitchen (thank God my husband doesn't mind cooking):

Me: Who on earth thought it was a good idea to put grooves on the bottom of the freezer that keep me from actually getting any dirt out?
Raymond: That's so the water has somewhere to run when it defrosts.
Me: ...So, you're saying it would be a bad idea for me to put waxed paper down so the grooves don't collect dirt?
Raymond: Yes. Yes, it would be a bad idea.

Also tossed our two big storage bowls in the Outbox for now. We really need that storage space - they sit on the counter, one for home snacks and one for snacks to take to work - but they don't match in the slightest. Maybe red or white bowls instead? Nothing transparent, it's too easy for junk to show through. I'm afraid that white would make our old off-white counters look dirty. Maybe some bright red bowls would work.

Debating kitchen colors

2007-09-17T12:01:00.001-07:00

debating kitchen colors
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

As we finished the first week of the Cure, we started debating some specifics. We're pondering using this color scheme for our kitchen. We'd paint one wall in that ice blue (the kitchen really only has one full wall anyhow) and cover the cabinets in starched fabric in the red. If you click on the photo, you can then mouse over it on its Flickr page and see the exact colors from the samples that we're looking at using.

On further discussion (and a helpful reality check from someone on Flickr), I think we may not be able to use fabric on the cabinets after all. As they pointed out, starched fabric is very likely to peel, bubble, and/or get nasty quickly when there's heat and moisture around. Bah.

I have some red accessories that would go just fine in the kitchen and might provide a nice counterpoint to the blue, but I really want some way to cover those horrible cabinets. The ones in the photo don't look that bad, but the lower cabinets are milky and gross because the varnish is old. We can't afford to replace the cabinet doors entirely; we can't paint them; and I'm not sure how I feel about taking the doors off and trying to cover the cabinets another way.

Well, well, well

2007-09-17T11:20:00.001-07:00

well, well, well
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

The style tray exercise has been very, very interesting so far. When we moved in, I decided that I wanted the study to be a space for our geeky interests: computers, anime, space. It just hasn't been working, and I had no idea why. I knew my style wasn't modern or retro, so doing a space-age room wasn't working, but I couldn't figure out why I just had no ideas for it whatsoever.

I just went back through my style tray and pulled out everything that appealed to me for this specific room. Check out the style tray for the study. Organic modern! No wonder I couldn't do anything with the space/geeky theme.

It's obvious that my style for this room should be a romantic, natural, organic theme, using brown and green and wood and vines and the occasional flower. That feels right to me like the space theme never really did.

The question is how to do it, particularly since Raymond really wants to replace his ratty desk with glass and we already have glass shelves in there as well. Hmm...

layout as of Sept. 10, 2007

2007-09-17T11:17:00.001-07:00

layout as of Sept. 10, 2007
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

This is what I'm starting out with. Click on the photo, then mouse over it on its Flickr page to see a zillion labels marking what things are. I had to edit the base floor plan a bit to include our laundry closet; I did this in Paint Shop Pro and saved each room as a layer so I can move things around. Round objects are table or standing lamps.

I'm going to be looking at these rooms for flow and layout as I go.

Apartment layout

2007-09-16T17:59:00.001-07:00

apartment layout
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

This is the basic layout of our apartment. I'll post another version later that shows a more accurate/complete layout plus furniture blocks. I stole this photo from my apartment complex's website.

It's a townhouse-style apartment, so we have a downstairs and an upstairs. Overall we have plenty of room for two people, two ferrets, and a cat. Bedroom 2 is our bedroom; Bedroom 1 is my jewelry studio.

Diagnostic

2007-09-16T17:57:00.001-07:00

the beginning
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

I have to defend my housekeeping skills here and say that this is Raymond's desk, not mine. I took this last night while I was getting ready for bed. The immediate and obvious problem is that he needs a trash can closer to his desk so that stray receipts and papers don't hang around.

The second issue: see the computer parts? His computer's not working, so parts are currently strewn everywhere. Since he's a programmer and frequently works on computers for friends and co-workers, he really needs more space to work on them.

Diagnostic:

Head
1. Does your home support everything you want to do? NO
2. Do you use your home often? YES
3. Is there room for everything you want to do at home? NO
4. Is there a good space for what is most important to you? YES

Heart
5. Do you consider your home beautiful? NO
6. Do you feel you have a sense of style? NO
7. Does your clothing express your style? YES
8. Does your home express your style? NO

Breath
9. Do you consider your home comfortable? YES
10. Do you sleep well at night? YES
11. Is your apartment organized? YES
12. Is it easy to clean and declutter? YES

Bones
13. Do you consider your home to be in good shape? YES
14. Is everything in good working order? YES
15. Do you take care of repairs quickly? YES
16. Do you clean your home often? YES

Result: 9-11: Healthy. Comfortable. Could use improvement in at least one area and toning all around.

This set is for the 2007 Apartment Therapy Fall Cure. General information on our apartment is located here. Many of these photos have notes; please mouse over the photo to see them.

Beginning the Cure

2007-09-16T17:55:00.001-07:00

the beginning
Originally uploaded by Angel's Lens

Here are the results from the "interview" quiz:

Favorites:

Actress: Rosamund Pike *
Actor: Jackie Chan, Cary Elwes *
Artist: William Bouguereau, John William Waterhouse, my mom
Writer: David Eddings, Anne McCaffrey, Melanie Rawn
Music: Vienna Teng, Sarah McLachlan, Delerium
Restaurant: La Casa, Dos Amigos, Olive Garden
Automobile: Mitsubishi Lancer, Ford Mustang, little red BMW convertibles
TV show: Magic Knights Rayearth (an old Japanese anime)*
Clothing: romantic, practical, comfortable

Your style:
1. romantic
2. organic
3. meditative

Personal History:

Where have you lived?
Where you were born: Hickory, NC
Where you grew up: Hickory, NC
As an adult: Boone, NC (college); Alexandria, VA

Role model:
Three adjectives you admire about them:
1.
2.
3.

Apartment

What is the problem with your apartment?
1. nothing matches
2. seems unfinished
3. TOO MUCH BEIGE

If your apartment could speak, what would it say is the problem?

I'm just sitting here. Make me sing!

What one thing would you like to do or do more of in your apartment?

I'd like it to reflect the different facets of our personality. It doesn't currently cover them all well.

When friends come to visit, how would you like them to describe your home?
1. comfortable
2. friendly
3. fascinating to look at

* I don't watch standard American TV if I can help it, so I'm a little vague on these.

study "before" photos

2007-09-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

We are major, major geeks, so the study is the nerve center of our apartment. We spend more time in this room than anywhere else (except the bedroom, because we sleep there!). The room needs to be an inviting, pleasant place, and right now (like the kitchen) it's just sort of drab and cluttered and plain.

The room serves several purposes: the laundry closet is off this room; the hermit crab tank is here; we both game and relax in this room; and Raymond works on computers here. The study doesn't currently offer him enough room for his computer work - that's really the only function the room doesn't do well.

Clicking on each photo below will take you to its Flickr page, where you can read more details and comment if you like.

Here's the study:

- This room really needs help tying the disparate elements together. The space stuff doesn't really match the computer stuff, which doesn't really match the wood furniture, which doesn't really match the blue boxes on the glass shelves. Eep!

- Replacing my desk (at left) is not an option. It's about time to replace my husband's, so that is an option. The printer table is just sort of there; I'm not sure whether I'd be willing to replace it or not.

This is my desk corner. I love my desk, but I really want some color around me.

Raymond's desk corner. We need to corral the wires (again) and do something about the clutter here. We're definitely replacing his desk, it's old and worn out.

- The rest of the study. The door leads to the laundry closet and can't be blocked.

- The ghetto plastic and tape combo in front of the laundry closet is there because the ferrets try to dig under the door. Could use a genius inspiration to get rid of the eyesore.

More background info, and kitchen "before"

2007-09-16T17:15:00.000-07:00

Why are we doing the Cure this year? I've been following Apartment Therapy's website for a year or two now and really enjoy the information and discussions there. I figured it was time to jump in this round and finally fix up two rooms in our apartment that really need some attention.

Here are some of the "before" photos. I was trying to capture exactly what is and isn't working for us, so the photos are all candid: I didn't style the rooms or even pick up. Some of the areas are painfully messy. Since we decided to focus on the kitchen and study, I'm posting those photos here. The rest of the apartment is located in this Flickr set if you'd like to see.

Clicking on each photo below will take you to its Flickr page, where you can read more details and comment if you like.

Here's the kitchen:

We have ferrets and must keep the kitchen blocked off from them (weasels and large appliances don't mix). The pegboard we're using (which sits at the entrance about where I'm standing to take this) works fine, but it's pretty ugly. We had to cover the outside in white duct tape to keep them from climbing it, which adds to the ghetto effect. Would like to replace it but can't afford a three-foot-high sheet of lucite.

Cabinets: We have enough storage space, but the cabinets are godawful. They're your fairly inoffensive, if ugly, apartment cabinetry, but the finish has turned white with age and is peeling and flaking. Disgusting. Possibly cover them with starched fabric?

I've known since we moved in that I want red in the kitchen. I need a punch of strong color to wake me up in the mornings and, since I'm a terrible cook, to entice me to go into the kitchen at all. I have a variety of red accessories and some red towels, but nothing matches and it's all scattered and messy. I need something to pull it together.

Who, what, where?

2007-09-16T17:08:00.000-07:00

Here's some background info on us.

I'm Lindley. I'm married to Raymond, a totally wonderful guy, and we live in Alexandria, VA (right next to Washington, DC). I work as an editor for an environmental consulting company in DC; Raymond's a programmer for a government contractor.

I also design and sell jewelry. If you like reading blogs, you might enjoy ours. I'm lucky enough to have a second bedroom that I use as a studio; we painted it earlier this year and I'm completely in love with it.

We live in a 1060 square foot townhouse-style apartment. We can paint, but we have to paint it back when we leave. We don't plan on leaving any time soon; I don't mind painting, but it's not exactly my favorite activity.

Neither of us is particularly handy, although we do know how to use a screwdriver and a drill. My budget for this is small, but reasonable. I'd like to keep it under $500 for everything but that may not be realistic.

Appliances, cabinets, carpet and other major furnishings are the way they are. One of the sad facts of renting. We rent from a Faceless Corporation, so offering to install new things isn't an option.

We have two ferrets and a cat. It's like having in your house, between the three of them, a toddler on crack that can jump tall buildings in a single leap.

Welcome!

2007-09-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

This is my blog for the 2007 Apartment Therapy Fall Cure, based on the book Apartment Therapy by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan.

I was originally going to post updates with the photos on my Flickr photos as I go through the Cure, but the photo descriptions were getting lengthy and I like to talk, so here I am. I'll be posting photos of my progress as I go, along with other ponderings and meditations.