apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Am I the only one in Boston that's Curing?!

I put off signing up for a while because I'm still not sure if the boyfriend and I are staying in our current place (in an old chocolate factory!) or moving come June 1st - we should know for sure this weekend. I had pulled out my book and started reading because I figured it wouldn't hurt and then I wouldn't be far behind if we decide to stay and I would do the Cure...then I got so inspired I decided to just sign up. I can't lose, right? If we move the place will be in good shape, clean, and I'll have less to pack (so easier moving and better chance of getting our deposit back), and if we don't move than the place will be in good shape, clean, and I'll have made some changes to freshen it up and improve.

So come on other Boston Curers, I need some moral support here - that was the whole point of signing up rather than just doing it on my own at some point, right?!

I don't have many pictures of my place, but I'm an avid photog so I'll certainly work on taking some this weekend for a "before" and throughout the process.

hey cowbark, if you're feeling inspired then by all means go for it! i'm hoping to get myself to do things like put eco shopping bags in my car and get husband to stop buying 7 boxes of my cereal at one time. these are things that could last a lifetime whether we move or not (hopefully buying next year.) i'm actually blogging my cure if you're interested (link in my profile.) a mouse died in one of my dresser drawers a year ago and the drawer is still in the cellar. this is the kind of silliness i hope i can cure myself of!

Hi casapinka!

I love that you're blogging the cure - I thought about it but I have enough trouble keeping up with my photo blog and my 3 Day training blog (I haven't updated for this year and I've been training for 3 weeks!), I didn't think I should add another blog to the mix. :)

I LOVE my reusable shopping bags! We just have the ones that Shaw's sells for a buck or 2, and we use them for everything - bringing things to our friends place, packing for vacation, carrying bulkier items to work. We alos carry our groceries the 1.5 blocks home from the store, so it's nice to have more comfortable, larger bags to do that with.

As for buying so much cereal at once, our galley kitchen certainly doesn't allow for that, so the BF doesn't have a choice but to only buy his weekly 2-3 at a time! If you guys always buy a specific brand, you should check out Amazon Subscribe & Save.

Thanks cowbark, we absolutely do not have room for that much cereal. Wait til you see the photos next week. Also, there are FIVE tubes of toothpaste in the bathroom, I just noticed. I think Husband might be planning for a natural disaster or the economy is affecting him. I'll have to figure out what's going on.
We have no excuse not to use renewable shopping bags and I'm going to make sure that we somehow do it.
Have you done any repairs or bought flowers yet? I have to admit, they are really brightening up the place...I'm getting inspired to do a display of terrariums or something.

I bought daffodils the other day and they're cheering up my dining table! I saved repairs for the weekend so I wouldn't do a crappy job just to squeeze it in on a work night - but there are certainly repairs to be done! I need to run up to the local hardware store and pick up a few things to fix the screens over our skylights, which are currently the most annoying broken thing in our apartment.

Does calling maintenance when our door wouldn't close properly and having them fix it count as a repair?! ;) I need to call them about a window, too - now that we're opening windows to get the fresh spring air in we're finding all these problems with the windows and screens...but the cats love us for it - one happy cat in each of the two living room windows!

Hi Boston!

Good luck on the Spring Cure and keep one another going.

It's great to finally have a place for local voices. Please let us know how it works for you.

Hi there Cowbark and Casapinka! Looks like there are at least 3 of us now... ;) I'm doing Week 1 this weekend to catch up in time for Week 2, so wish me luck!

Dear cowbark and casapinka and sarenia, Hello, have tried to post & let you know I'm here for you too, but the comments hit some kind of an error & didn't go thru. Will post some pics tomarrow - right now just want to see if this gets out!
Looked at your profiles, looking forward to this project.

Hi I'm curing, but I'm being very cautious about it. Last fall I got ambitious and then completely ran out of steam. But I will try and take pictures. :)

Hi Trilobyte. welcome aboard. I'm just doing a storage thing in the bathroom so that it can succeed & not get me down in frustration. pics coming of the before & the big idea after I clean.

ok Boston, here's why I need help.
I was all set to clean up the bathroom and take the before pics. So after coffee, I said to myself "hey self, why don't you switch over to the yellow/pink &green towels, that will be cheery and look nice in the picture...." Looked for the towels, nowhere to be found. Then I remembered my recently 18 yr old asking for them. Since she has moved to an undesirable/unstable situation, I said no - knowing that the towels will just be lost. (I gave her some others to take)
Appparently she wanted the towels real bad.
So I stomped around here, read my emails, ate some pastry,...
anything but clean.
Got back in gear, want to be sure the sun is still out when I take pictures, & started sweeping out under the space (you'll see) I want to transform, & found a magazine that my son left behind. Not just a girlie-booby magazine, but a horrible one of girls looking underage. It is easy to say - gee, good thing I found it to get it out of here, but right now I'm just pissed off and feel kind of sickened.
I finished sweeping the floor. I'm leaving to go buy some towels.

ok guys. got the towels and went to the bar. I'm telling you, I was disturbed by what I found. So new towels meant I had to get a shower curtain & rug too.
Now it's late. Oh, what? no pics?. yeah. no pics. I was disturbed, remember? Hope your projects are going better than mine.

& yes, calling maintenance counts as getting it done. Getting it done being the main idea.

All for calling maintenance! I look at my kitchen and reeeeeeally don't feel like cleaning stuff out of the fridge etc. Today I'm going to attack the sippy cup/bottle cabinet and that corner. Moral support needed! Oh, I have a before and after of a dresser for my kids' room, which I'm working on throughout the cure, if you guys want to see it:

www.casapinka.typepad.com

Glad there are a few of us out there now!

Oh Chloe! What a crappy start to your Cure!!! Mine wasn't quite that disturbing, but it was certainly unproductive. I'm determined to get back on track this week, and I'm confident I can do it. And this avid photog managed to take very few pictures this weekend, let alone before pictures of the apt!!!

Help me out if I'm just not looking in the right places, but I need a checklist of each week's todos. I'm thinking about just typing one up and printing it out - or hopefully finding a dry erase board to slap on the back of the front door and putting the weekly list on there. I feel like the weekly posts don't lay it out in such a bullet pointed manner, but maybe I'm missing it.

Also, I'm doing the deep treatment but when I read the book I walk away with one idea of what I'm meant to be doing, and then when I read the posts I get the feeling that they're geared a bit more towards the one room. It's possible that I already have a million pictures/style trays put together and have a very good picture of my "vision" and style, so I was just overloaded with that being the focus for this week.

Casapinka - I managed to guilt the SO into cleaning all the too old leftovers out of the fridge last night since I did the grocery shopping (which includes carrying it all 1.5 blocks back home!) by myself yesterday, so at least all that's left for me is the actual cleaning of the fridge, woohoo! We also luck out (well, probably the only good thing about it) - with a teeny galley kitchen we don't have much of a choice but to keep the expired/not being eaten food constantly cleared out.

Choloe - maybe we need a Boston AT:Curers happy hour so we can all get drinks and commiserate together! ;)

Cowbark, it is easy to get overwhelmed, so just do what you said and make yourself a list. I think it's a bit of a free for all in terms of which rooms you want to do the Deep Treatment on - just do whatever you want! I love the idea of guilting SO into cleaning fridge...will get on this.

Chloe, it sounds like a stressful time. Be easy on yourself - I'm glad you found the towels, though!

Trilobyte, I'm taking your advice to pace myself so I don't burn out...I'm so full of ideas at the moment, it's difficult.

I think a happy hour in Boston would be a great idea!

Pink

Thank you everyone. Your encouraging words mean a lot.
Yes! to a Boston AT happy hour. I see that Trilobyte is on the Cape, don't know how far out, one of you is North. I am in Providence every day. So we have a bit of stratagizing, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.
Have 1 1/2 hrs before 24. So am going to do the scrubbing I wanted to do yesterday. You know we all have to get something done or they will talk all snarkey about us. "What about that Boston group? Oh man, they just punked out & went drinkin'......"
By the way, I tried to write to you guys at lunchtime, but again got the error message & didn't get thru. Will try to figure that out in the coming weeks, but not right now.

Hey Guys, haven't guilted Husband into cleaning out the fridge yet but I cleaned out two shelves of bottles/sippy cups and cleared out all the stuff on TOP of the fridge (where no human should tread.) I'm prepping the fridge for a wallpaper job which I really, really hope works. The wallpaper was my big splurge for The Cure. Is anyone else's pantry a nightmare? DREADING that task. The kitchen brings out the procrastinator in me.

Casapinka - I love that guilting husband into cleaning to fridge is on your todo list! ;) Honestly though, there are only three things that I really despise cleaning and that's the fridge, the microwave, and the toilet. I'll scrub the rest of the house clean, but those three belong to the boyfriend when they need doing!

Chloe - I love your competitive spirit about not wanting anyone to think we punked out...but I bet they'll be jealous if we ended up going for drinks instead! They're just sorry they didn't think of that first. :)

I took a night off last night because I was busy with some other things, but I'm tackling our "junk cabinet" and the top of the fridge tonight - that's where things go to die in our house. I need to sort out a trip to Ikea for this weekend - my spices are in disarray and it's time to get them under control! I also need to get drawer organizers. I'm thinking about the 1-month box trick for the "misc utensil" drawer...throw everything from the drawer into a box and remove it as I use it, then whatever is left after a month goes in the outbox. Also need to take our old tube TV to Best Buy for recycling this weekend...I think I need to go book myself a Zipcar before I wimp out of all these weekend errands.

The good news on my front is that we got our mgmt company to come down on the rent increase, so we're re-signing and staying another year...and they said I could pain as long as I prime it before we move out! Woohoo! Orange wall in the kitchen, here I come!

Hi all,

I just joined last night. After a four year relationship, my boyfriend suddenly decided he needed "something else," and moved out a week ago. (Can you tell I'm a bit bitter?) I've been looking at the posts for the Cure for a few weeks now and I think this may be exactly what I need to reclaim the apartment and make it my own. I'm starting a bit behind - getting all his leftover crap into the basement and sorting out my own before I can even mop all the floors is proving to be an impressive task, but I think I need to push forward to keep the funk from setting in.

It's nice to meet you all and I hope I'm going to have some minor success stories within the next few days. I think I should probably take some "before" pictures in order to compare in the coming weeks, but I think I'd be a bit embarrassed to post them. :oP

dear Lizzishone welcome aboard. I totally relate to crap left behind from having the 18 yr old leave, & leave her crap & reptiles to take care of. Part of what pains me is that she had the only "designed" & put together room in our apt.
I do know that that is not the same as having your boyfriend gone, just sharing that I know it is hard to deal with the stuff.
Casapinka, will send you a pic of the 4 ft Pink poster the local framing guys found for me that is hanging in my room to cheer me up. It is the poster for Pink's latest album that was in Newberry Comics. Mine came from Newton.
Cowbark, glad yer still staying and look forward to meeting you. I put a few pics on the Flickr site, & submitted to AT.
You guys can see (kinda) where I want to make the shelves.
Can't even talk about the kitchen.

Everyone who is going through a tough time, I really hope it passes quickly and spring brings you good things. :)

Myself, I'm sick. Not terribly, but I'm sneezy, croaky and listless. I'm trying to throw away stuff in our kitchen cupboards though.

Hello,

I just started last night so I am currently trying to play catch up! Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I am unemployed so I will have lots of time to work on my spring cure.

I have already taken photos of every room in the house. I hope to post them today and start deep cleaning.

I definitely have some problem areas in my place that I am hoping you guys can give me some advise on how to make my space more functional, and of course stylish!

Nice to meet all of you! Good luck!

Cowbark - I, too, am planning an Ikea trip this weekend. Drawer organizers are on my list although I did see a cool diy for these. I don't have a jigsaw, though. I cleaned off the top of the fridge and YUCK. I put off actually cleaning it.

Joymich - It doesn't matter if you're late. I think a lot of us aren't really following a strict timeline. Just do one thing at a time and pat yourself on the back when you've done something.

Trilobyte - Chicken soup, Tylenol and get some rest!

Chloe - Will check out where you want to put those shelves. Reptiles? Ewwww. Or are they friendly?

Lizishome - You're not at all behind. I'm glad we're here for you and we'll try to encourage you to reclaim your space. Maybe this will help you deal with the breakup a bit. Be nice to yourself.

Hi everyone,

I too have been under the weather and didn't realize until today that the Spring Cure had started. I read the book a few years ago and made some of the basic changes (green cleaning products, slowly ridding the apartment of stuff we don't love/use). For awhile I was keeping fresh flowers around, but I just realized this week that somewhere along the line I stopped doing that. And while we've been very good at getting rid of things, we haven't done much about bringing new, beautiful things into our home to create a space that we really love.

So. . . I think it is time for a Spring Cure in our house!

Dear Larrabbee and Joymich, Welcome. I think you will find this a fairly earnest and non judgmental crew that will be your cheerleaders for whatever you want to get done.
I am sick sick sick.
I gave the Bearded Dragon from the departed 18yr old to friends who have already made him a beautiful habitat.
She was PO'd, but jeeeeez....
so I am left with 2 Firebelly toads, a tree frog and an
Asian Hingeback tortoise. & 2 cats & 2 rabbits. Only one thing for cat hair on the furniture - duct tape. I keep it in the coffee table drawer. 4 mammals are stressful for someone who primarily wears Black. oh well.
Too sick to stay up & try to write. Much love and best wishes to all of you working to make improvements.
Which IKEA are you guys going to? I have an animal shelter rabies clinic Sat AM but could use some IKEA.

Hi Chloe, you have quite the zoo there. I laughed when I read Asian Hingeback Tortoise! The only local Ikea I know of is Stoughton and it would be fun to meet for lunch there or something, wouldn't it? Anyone else in?

Yay! Look at our numbers growing! Hi everyone! (I'm excitable, sorry)

Lizzishone - The cure will be great for helping you work through this...as will the happy hour we've been talking about! ;) Good luck, and take care of yourself.

Chloe - we have two cats and I have kind of given up on the fur on the furniture, but duct tape is what I attack it with when I have the energy. Someone recently recomended some kind of rubber brush thing that is supposed to be really good, but I haven't figured out what they're talking about yet!

Casapinka I'm planning on Ikea first thing Sunday morning - hoping to get there 10-10:15 so it's not too crowded and nutty. How about cinamon rolls for a late brekky instead of lunch?

I haven't made a ton of progress this week, although I did get maintenance in yesterday and they took care of my entire repairs list in one fell swoop (coming back for one in depth repair next week) - woohoo! I think I'll be baking cookies to leave for them, I love the maintenance crew at my apartments.

My curing this week looks like this (while the boyfriend is glued to Sweet Sixteen basketball)...
Friday night - do laundry and start kitchen cleaning
Saturday - AM take before pictures of entire apt, PM finish kitchen cleaning
Sunday - Zipcar booked for early trip to Ikea (drawer organizers and spice jars for kitchen, shelf for bathroom, shelf and hooks for future landing strip) & Home Despot (paint for orange kitchen wall, paint for bathroom and something to clean bathroom tile grout). Then back home to organize spices & kitchen drawers, hit up the grocery store, and cook new recipe (tbd) for dinner.

Wish me luck! It should help that the BF is stuck on the couch watching basketball and out of my way! :)

yes Stoughton, was hoping you weren't going to Somerville.
I realize I don't have Saturday at all, the rabies clinic in the AM & my middle daughter is having a Champagne birthday party Sat nite. She will be borrowing my 48 Ikea Champagne flutes that she thought I was nuts to buy. Stuff is a problem, but you would not believe how many opprtunities I find to break out my 48 flutes. I love to cook and entertain, and it is something that has been missing in my life.
Does Sunday work for you? Did you see my Pink poster on Flickr?

Chloe and Cowbark, Sunday would be great. Cinnamon rolls and coffee, just name the time. And Cowbark, I need dividers and spice thingies as well so good moral support shall be had. I just bought some bins for my pantry which is disgraceful. Husband buys me 7 boxes of cereal (my fave kind) at a TIME. I think the economy has him squirreling things away. I'm planning on priming and wallpapering my fridge, doing pantry and making a cute iron cover and mounting iron holder on the wall. We'll SEE if I actually do all this with two rugrats at my feet. Chloe, I'll go check out your Flickr - I missed your picture. Hope this works out for Sunday - anyone else game? It'll be a laugh, that's for sure.

Thanks for the encouragement! So, I have a stupid question...
I took "before photos" of my apt, do i post them on the flickr group myself or do I upload them on the "submit pics" page, or do I do both? Does it all end up in the flickr group stream? SO confused....

How are you guys dealing with your pics?

joymich I'm glad you asked about the pictures, I've been wondering the same...but I haven't managed to take mine yet.

casapinka & chloe you guys are on for Ikea Sunday AM - I'm planning on being there between 10:15 and 10:30. I may need to start with food so I don't run out of energy trying to get through the store! I'm hoping it won't be super crowded that early and I can find what I need without losing my mind. I've been scouting on the website and have a shopping list, but there are a few things I'm not 100% sure about.

Casapinka - have you seen dividers at Ikea that you're thinking about? They don't seem to have anything I really like on the website. Container Store has some I want to check out, but they're in the opposite direction!

On an Ikea related note - wouldn't it be awesome if their website had a shopping list option, where you could click to add items to your list, and then it would organize the list by the dept you find the items in at the store, then format it so you can print and bring with you into the store? That would kick butt. Ikea, are you listening?! Get on that!

If you want your pictures considered for a Cure post on AT.com, then submit them to the AT site.

If you want to share your pictures just for comments or feedback or GOOD JOB! or whatever, then join the Flickr group and add them to the group. Adding to the Flickr group is good for real time comments and feedback and sharing.

Submitting them to Flickr group won't get them featured on AT.com, and submitting to AT won't get them added to the Flickr stream, they are sort of independent.

SanDiegoAT, Thank you for clarifying!

Yes Sun 10:15 ishat Ikea! can't linger here, will write later. Hope all is going well with everyone.

Love it! No more worries about other cities thinking we just punked out and went to the bar...we meet up and shop together (for the Cure!). I bet other cities aren't planning get togethers. ;) Is the Cure not supposed to be competitive? I can't help it.

My curing and working out ideas and plans for what I'm doing keeps expanding to include other projects throughout the apt. A friend of mine assured me that switching out the ceiling fixture in my kitchen wouldn't be hard and he'd help, so I think I'm adding a ceiling fixture to my Ikea shopping list. If that goes well, I may just go back to replace the hallway light fixture, too!!!

I need to get back to what they pay me for, see you all Sunday, 10:15 by the cafe (see picture in my profile so you can find me).

Good luck with your shopping trip to Ikea on Sunday, post pics of the stuff you get.

Cowbark, your Ikea shopping list is fantastic! i always get overwhelmed and distracted there and ultimately forgetting why I went in the first place!

So far I have done a deep kitchen cleaning, took before photos, and posted them to the flickr group. Check them out and let me know if you have any good suggestions!

If anyone is doing any heavy renovation, this might be useful:

Q & A Day at Boston Building Materials Co-op – Tomorrow!
Saturday, March 28, 2009, 3:00-5:00 pm.
100 Terrace Street Roxbury MA 02120 617-442-2262

From 3:00 to 5:00 pm you can ask questions of a carpenter, plumber, window restoration contractor, painter & drywall specialist, electrician, energy efficiency specialist, insulation contractor, landscaper, and roofer. This is also a great chance to learn more about the Boston Building Materials Co-op and The Building Materials Resource Center, both of which are great resources for Boston area homeowners and do-it-yourselfers.

ok, i'm curing. :)

i moved into a new apartment in september, having sold my condo (YAY!!!). i now rent - i like it much better than owning right now.

so, i moved in september, started an intensive class, and didn't do much of anything with the apartment. so now it's MARCH, well practically APRIL, and i'm ready to get this place gorgeous and comfy.

and today i spent moving at my office! i'm tired. :)

so that's me, i'm here, hello fellow curers!

does anyone have suggestions for an inexpensive digital camera? i have NO camera. i think it would be good to be able to document before and after. tks!

poppet I'll sell you my old point and shoot for $50 - it's a canon powershot SD600, and it works fine, I just upgraded to a DSLR and haven't touched it since! You can email me at cowbarkpad (at) gmail (dot) com if you're interested. Certainly not the newest/fanciest thing on the market, but it gets the job done. I think I even have a spare 1 Gig memory card you can have with it. Will this count towards emptying my outbox?! ;)

joymich I just saw that post and am so bummed - I already have a full packed tomorrow, but I wish I could go and talk with the electrician since I've decided I want to swap out the light fixture in my kitchen!

cowbark and chloe - that's the cafeteria upstairs or the cafe downstairs by the checkout?

joymich, will have a look at your befores and get back to you. also, that's a great resource you've given us - thanks so much.

hi poppet, welcome!

casapinka I forgot there were two...um, whichever one has warm yummy cinamon rolls? I feel like the downstairs one might be a bit easier. Should I just bring my book and hold it over my head until I find you guys? ;)

I envy you guys your trip to Ikea (budget-wise, I've been trying to limit myself to craigslist)!

Also, welcome to poppet. This is my last semester at Tufts and SMFA and I know how hard it is to find time to do all of the dishes, much less fix up the apartment while taking classes.

Thus far I've got before photos, I've been getting rid of a good chunk of my book collection, and all of the ex's stuff has it's own corner in the basement, out-of-sight, out-of-mind. I'm planning on taking this weekend to finish getting everything sorted and off the floor, and deep clean the kitchen. Hopefully I'll have at least a couple of "during" if not "after" photos by Sunday.

Did everyone see we have a star as casapinka was posted more than once on the AT site?!?!! You go girl!
Alrighty!
Do we invite SanDiegoAT to be part of Boston? She seems alright & gave me a complex about my balcony.
Ladies, I am booked tomarrow & probably will not write - but will break out my Ramones shirt for identification in Ikea.
UPSTAIRS****downstairs is for when yer all burnt out & getting ice cream on the way out. & if you close Ikea in Minneapolis, the hot dogs are 50c.

A happy post for a sunny Saturday: My husband and I finally moved his dark veneer media cabinet outside to the curb today. He bought it before we were married and I was never a big fan, and we decided months ago to get rid of it--around the time he converted our music to a wireless streaming format and put all the CDs in the basement. But. The cabinet is tall and heavy, and it has been a cold and snowy winter, so we have lived with the thing in our dining area for quite some time.

Today, in honor of starting the Cure, I asked him to help me take it outside and he happily agreed. And you know what? It really wasn't that hard to move after all! And the best part was that an hour later, I looked out the window to see a boy of maybe 11 or 12 and his father loading the cabinet into their minivan. A little girl was inside the car watching them. Hooray for freecycling!

Yea Larrabee! Now, THAT's good karma.
I think we should invite SanDiegoAT...she's a keeper.
Ok, upstairs it is. I always get ice cream for my kiddos and me on the way out. We sit by the escalator and watch people try to get the wrong carts on. Then my five year old instructs them to the elevator. It's about every 4th person who does this so she is really an unofficial Ikea employee.
Keep going, Lizishome...I think you are doing a very brave thing.
I'll have two braids and bangs (brown hair.) Loud flowered coat.
Can't wait!

Woot! I was doing my training walk (for the Breast Cancer 3 Day) this morning with a friend and mentioned heading to Ikea and HD tomorrow, and now she's coming along!

Also, uploaded my befores to Flickr - very, very honest befores. Time to get my ass in gear and start cleaning!

Alright Cowbark...Im signed up! Haha. I'm Cowbark's Breast Cancer 3-Day friend... she has a way of talking people into doing things! Ok, so maybe I was already headed in the direction and she nudged.

Anywho, I have been in a one bedroom in Beacon Hill for about 10months now and just recently decided that I am resigning my least until June 2010, so it's finally time to settle in!!

I have a long list of repairs/to-do's that have been piling up but I have been putting off if I was going to move. Now that I am staying, let the work begin!

I am going to do some blogging and before & after posting here:
http://projectboston25.blogspot.com/
an old blog that I started when I first moved out here last April.

Unlike Cowbark, I do not take many pics, and so when I went to dig out my dusty point & shoot to take some before pics, the thing is broken and auto zooms in all the way when you turn it on, but won't zoom back out! So I had to take my before pics on my cr@ppy camera phone for now... Those will be up on the blog soon

See some of you at Ikea tomorrow!

Hi everyone!

I've been following your saga and can't wait to hear how your Ikea meet went! (don't live in Boston area or I'd be trying to invite myself along.)

I think it's incredible and great that you are all making friends here (or at least trying!) So good luck to you all, and let us know how it was.

i started my cure because I was home sick for two weeks and finally said "Enough" ( very emphatically). I cleaned out the fridge, washed and put some shelf liners on the reefer door. I really want those bottles and such not to slide around. I also corralled some of the small jams and mustard jars into small plastic baskets. It looks lovely and I am so happy. then washed down all cabinets, shelves and counter tops. It looks great, bought an orchid at Ikea looks even better. next I have too, have too deal with the home office. No before pictures just went at it!

Chloe, Cowbark,and Sassysar: It was so good meeting you and discussing ideas, wandering through Ikea and having breakfast. Thanks for the rug advice and all of the design chat! You guys are great. Chloe, I'll keep my eyes open for a couch for you, and I really enjoyed our talk at Jordan's. You'll have to post our photo at Flickr for Jendavid so we can prove that we tried out the Ikea couch she was considering, and we'll all have to give her our two cents worth. Happy Curing! -Pink

trulijules, well done. Don't you feel good? While I was meeting the girls at Ikea, my husband replaced a screw (yes, a single screw) to fix our kitchen cabinet door. He was soooo proud of himself (he's not so handy) and I think he might be getting into this cure. How did we let a door stay broken for a year when all it needed was a single screw?! (ok, that sentence doesn't sound so good, hope MGR doesn't kick me off, heh heh.)

Hey Guys, Nice pic on the couch at Ikea!

So it was a pretty productive weekend for me. My husband purged ALOT, gave some stuff away, listed some items to sell, and went shopping at the container store.

I outfitted my pantry with the elfa system (all on sale!) So today I worked on getting that together and putting everything back in the pantry as well as giving my fridge a thorough cleaning AND reorganizing some kitchen drawers. I am so tired! Hope to take and take pics tonight of the new pantry.

I'm starting week 3 tomorrow :) How is everyone else coming along? Any good finds at Ikea?

joymich, that's awesome! Can your husband give my boyfriend lessons on purging? He's a pack rat - has to save everything because we might need it later. I have a ceramic cow cookie jar that was a Christmas gift but I never wanted. I never bake, and I have never had a place for it to live. When I used to drink wine I'd throw my corks in it because I figured I'd do something with them someday. Someday is here and I'm sending them off to be recycled, because it's time for the cow cookie jar to go...and you know what the BF says? "we might have more space in a future apartment, what if we need it then?"

I got halfway through the kitchen and WOW, what a difference! I'll work on the last 3 or 4 cabinets over the course of this week, and I'm so ready to work on my landing strip next weekend! Need to make a decision about hooks, but otherwise I've got my shelf and I'm ready to declutter and move my bookcase and get it on the wall, woohoo!

Cowbark, too funny on BFs reaction to trashing the cow cookie jar!
Since I am a little behind, and like to do things out of order anyways... I spent this evening rearranging my living room furniture, only to move it back to how it started, minus some minor tweaks. I did fix and rearrange all the wall art in the living room. A few more tweaks needed, but enough was done that added a good amount of energy in the room.
Ikea was a success...but I know I will definitely need another trip before this Cure is over! I got a few things to help out the pantry and bathroom. I heart my new purchases and improvements!

OMG, Cowbark, trash the cookie jar! That's so funny...
We have had conversations like that too, but its mostly about boxes of all things! Our storage unit is filled with empty boxes! lol... I guess it would come in handy if we ever move again ;)

My kitchen is almost done. I too still have to make coat rack decisions but I found my key hook!

Hello Boston: have to pay the rent, so am a little behind.
I enjoyed Sun in Ikea very much. So great to put faces and animation on names! Love love love yer fridge casapinka!
So enjoyed seeing another perspective from cowbark and sassysar, with the list and efficiency.
Did give away the living room furniture to my son. One folding chair to sit on, so watched 24 in the bar and told people to shut the .... up, there was no furniture at home.
They were good natured about it. Went to Cardi's clearance basement and scoped out the clearance couches. I took pics of before & will post, but it is too late tonight. Much love to all of you.

joymich I moved offices a while back and we had movers provide supplies and do the moving, so as we unpacked I hoarded the boxes - interlocking top flaps (don't need tape!), handles on the sides, collapse to store completely flat. BF and I used them to move, then passed them on to friends to move, and now they're storing them (collapsed flat in a bundle!) for whoever moves next. Those boxes make moving such a nicer experience! If you ever get your hands on some, never let go! :) Also, I LOVE your Elfa panty, totally jealous. And yes, the cookie jar will exit the house sometime when BF is not looking!!!

Chloe It was great meeting you, too! I'm going back to Ikea Saturday to buy the light fixture for my kitchen, woohoo! Good luck with the couch search...when I bought mine a while back it took me almost a month to find, but that was almost entirely due to the fact that I had strict size restrictions in order to get it up the stairs into my apartment. I found plenty of couches I loved but were just too big to get through the stairs.

sassysar so excited all your purchases worked out! Did you end up hanging stuff on the wall above the couch? Or do you still need some non-ghetto frames?

hallo!

i am so very far behind. SIGH. all i can do is plug along as best i can.

i'm having my first guest since starting the Cure over on saturday -- the realtor who got my condo sold and found this apartment for me. he whipped me into shape and we staged that condo so it was *gorgeous*. and now he's gonna see my dump of an apartment.

i'd much rather be home than at the office, but someone must pay the bills. :)

oh poppet! Don't be sad! I know that there is no way I'll be done on time. and the more I get into it, the more I see needs to be done. or changed. or fixed....
You guys are making the difference for me - without this contact I would probably have just made one little(not enough to be a tipping point) change and given up.
So I will plug along with you and by Summer things will be better!

Hi everyone, sorry I'm late to the conversation. I'm out in Worcester, just bought my first condo, then had pneumonia for over a month, and now finally my first Cure! Things are going pretty well, more has been done in the past 3 weeks than in the six months I've been here!

It's great to hear everyone elses' motivational stories, the great refrigerator re-do's and the pet fur issues, and everything else I can relate to!

While I'm curing I'm also training for my first Olympic distance triathlon that I'll be racing in June 6th as part of the Team in Training for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, so I get a little overwhelmed sometimes. I know I'm not gonna be able to get the whole condo done in the 12 weeks, but I'll be happy if I'm well on my way!

Good luck everyone, keep plugging along!
Linnea

i decide to tackle the home office, went crazy purging paper and stacking things to file. bought a new desk at Ikea, assembled it, reconnected the computer and phone etc. and whoomp, ran out of steam. I am hoping to get at it this weekend when I have saturday free. My landing strip is in good shape though, worked on that a few weeks ago. Even though it is small/contained it appears to be working. YAY! Keep up the good work all!

boy we have ambitious people here. Boston group rocks.
Today left before 9 & not home till 10:30. Did do my dishes before I left in the am tho. Have pics of the furniture before it left, thinking about couches & chairs. Would it be just too much for me to have a Chloe couch?

poppet don't even worry about being behind...I only manage to get half of each week's "to dos" done! Just do what you can...a lot of us have found that it's a bit like a snowball rolling downhill...once you start you gain momentum! Maybe your realtor will show up ready to help you with your Curing! ;)

Linnealoves I'm training for the Breast Cancer 3 Day while Curing...pretty sure yours is exhausting, but I can commiserate on getting overwhelmed with the training and Curing (and work and life)! I don't think I'll get everything I want done in the next 8 weeks, but I'm just happy to be making the progress I am.

trulijules I'm DREADING office week - I don't have an office, I have this crazy nook under our stairs. I sit at the dining table to do any work I don't do on the couch, so the nook has turned into mounds of crap and clutter. Ugh. I'm impressed by your progress!!

chloe Great job doing dishes before you left for work! I hate doing dishes to begin with, but I hate doing them in the morning even more!

Boston Does Rock!

Yesterday I spend ALL DAY doing laundry! My husband got a hold of this metal trash can and decided that is what he using for a hamper. Bad idea. It fits so many clothes that i had to 4 loads to get all done! I'm surprised he had any socks or underwear left to wear. Luckily he agreed to get rid of it! Then I cleaned up my dressing room/laundry area because that is going to be a partial landing strip (no wall space at my entrance), at least where the coats and shoes go. I got a really cool key rack for the entrance wall. And I hope to paint by this weekend! We are doing chalkboard paint all around the door! Not sure if we are going to do it ourselves or hire someone to do it... We have really high ceiling and concrete floors, its a little dangerous for someone as klutzy as me!

Today I am going through the rest of my mail/magazines and trying to be patient for the next project...

joymich You're so productive! I need you to bottle some of the productivity and send it along to me, please! :)

I hate that I'm having a slow day at work, yet I'm stuck here in the office when I could be swapping bookcases to make room for my new landing strip (currently we drop everything on top of the bookcase, but I need someone to hang my bags when I come in otherwise they end up on our arm chair). Grrrr! 5:00, where are you?!?

I've been trying to find a hamper that is attractive and will work for me, but I'm not having a ton of luck. I love this guy from Container Store, but ideally I'd have one for lights and one for darks, and I'm way too cheap to spend that much for hampers. I don't like wicker, and I'm tired of piling everything into my laundry basket and watching it over flow. Do I just need to accept that I'll never find a laundry hamper that I love...because there's not much to love about hampers?

Hi Boston! I'm behind, too, just as I expected. Want to finish the kitchen before starting the landing strip. Husband keeps saying "Quit calling it that!" (landing strip) bec. it makes him think of a bikini wax. Making terrariums today and Peeps Art!

casapinka: landing strip comment - oh my. hee hee!!

cowbark: tks for meeting me yesterday to swap the camera. i already love it. guess this means i MUST really do some work on the Cure, so i can take pix to post. that's the point, yeah?

and, re: laundry hampers -- my hampers are similar to these. the one you linked to is much prettier! but these do the trick. when i'm organized i shove them into the closet. if the rest of the bedroom is picked up, i'll toss clothes in the hamper just to keep it all tidy. i've had my hampers for about five years now, and they're starting to show some wear. good deal for the price.

Hi guys. sounds like everyone is moving along. Last nite I vacumned thoroughly, after removing the equivelant of another cat out of the vacumn. If I didn't I was going to have to virtual vacumn in photoshop before posting the pics. One of my goals this year was to get better at the pic/posting/communication thing, so this project is helping with that. Tonight, before the last episode of ER, I will make my lists with cowbark's templates.(thank you!) I have to get the old shelves out of the bathroom, draw my plan, & pick up the materials for the new shelves at Leow's. Sat nite I'm going out, but want to continue the couch/chair quest sometime over the weekend. and make stuffed manicotti. Hope everything is going well for all of you. Sometimes when you are trying to make a change or do a good thing it seems like everything gets harder or everything goes wrong. Muscle thru it!
A good book about this is The War of Art. It's short.
I'll get the author for you if anybody wants.

Chloe, I have that book, The War of Art, its been sitting on my nightstand waiting for me to read it for months now! Maybe now is the time....

Cowbark, I have a lot of free time, which I should probably spend looking for a job! But this is way more fun! And concerning the hamper, you can always find something you love even practical uses like laundry! Also, if you really like that Umbra hamper it would be worth spending the money, you will use and look at them alot!

Today I plan on cleaning my bar and picking up my coat rack tonight! Possibly tackling my closet....

chloe when I read "muscle through it!" my first thought was "or drink through it!" which is an old college quote from a good friend of mine. Don't feel well? DTI! Hung over? DTI! Tired? DTI! I think maybe I should stick with muscling instead of drinking for the cure though...may end up with holes all over the walls and bad design choices. But what about my other friend's fall back - "if I'm going to work any harder than this, I'm gonna need a beer!" (while trying to fix a paddle boat we broke on vacation in NH - then he put down the tools, walked over to the beer fridge, grabbed a beer, and started work again).

Am I telling stories, or discussing the cure?! ANYWAY, I have to do the remove-a-cat-from-the-vacuum and then vacuum thing this weekend as well, I totally know what you mean. We have one of those see through bagless, so it's kind of satisfying to vacuum and see exactly how much cat fur you're picking up...and yet there always seems to be more!

poppet great to meet you (even quickly!) and glad the camera is working out...taking/seeing the pictures is sure motivation...my befores were pretty eye opening even though I look at my apartment every day! I actually found a very similar hamper to the one I linked on Amazon for $25, so I need to measure the bedroom and see if they'll fit where I want them, and then I'm ordering (or hunting for a different), woohoo!

casapinka I think there are a lot of people that echo your husband's thoughts on "landing strip". They need to do an update of the book (which was my first thought when they recommended Hold Everything as a resource somewhere in the first few chapters!) and find a better name for it! Also, look at you superstar, on D*S today with your Orla fridge! I feel like I know a celebrity! ;)

I've been chipping away at cleaning and decluttering to get ready to put together my landing strip this weekend. I had decided to pick up the hooks at Urban that I was thinking about because they were the only ones I could buy in store instead of ordering online, and having something on hand makes it much more likely that I'll get the project finished instead of letting it languish for months. The hooks were almost DOUBLE the price in the store as they were online!! I asked them to match the price and they said they would if it was the same product, so they looked and then told me they were different because they come in a two pack online...yet they're really exactly the same. I didn't have any fight in me, so I just left them since they weren't my first choice anyway. Ordering this guy in orange instead, with a 25% discount from Daily Candy, and will order a magnetic strip at the same time to go above BFs desk at the bottom of a gallery wall I'm putting together.

Could I write any more here?!?

Cowbark have you seen Tubtrugs? You can find them at http://www.tubtrugs.us/index.html. This is a cool alternative for a hamper and fairly inexpensive!

ok guys, cried all the way thru ER. You laugh, you die.
Sitting on the floor, leftovers for dinner. Did not get my lists done. boo hoo.
Muscle thru it.
Drink thru it .
Muscle thru it.
Drink thru it......drinkin' thru tonight because was asked to draw/sculpt something that went against every design bone in my body. Oh, this forum has not heard my speech about "all designers are whores." not meaning to offend anyone. Meaning that you have to sell what is precious to you. Will try again tomarrow. Love, Chloe C.

and now, as they say on BRU after the Retro Lunch, back to modern times. Taking a break from my Baroque nightmare that they love.
Suddenly got booked for more over the weekend & am going to have to be very efficient to make progress. The 18 yr old called & wants me to come & see her, so of course I will do that, & the animal shelter is short Sun. for dog people.
Guys, I love my empty living room! Who knew! Only thing is, all that nice space really makes the rest of the rooms look terrible. Oh well, little by little. Kind of like when you lose a couple pounds & your jeans fit better- not dropping a whole size yet, but better.
if you have a chance, you might want to go to D*S & comment for casapinka - some of the crabby people wrote in there.

chloe, don't be impressed by my progress because I totally ran out of steam and have done nothing since my last post. i think I went shopping for stuff instead of doing stuff. TODAY will be different. AM listening to WBUR all day and will once again tackle the office, ugh in addition to some general cleaning. I had to laugh when I read the "remove a cat from the vacuum thing" that is so true here as well.

alrighty trulijules! have to run out the door here but wanted to let everyone know that I did officially invite sandiegoAT in. Maybe will bring us a little West coast sunshine. A guy from the bar is coming over this week with power tools for the shelves in the bathroom. OMG now I have to clean my room and my kitchen. He thinks my oldest daughter is hot :( so I don't have to clean them that well.

joymich That's funny you mention tubtrugs...I really love them and have wanted to buy one for a while, but didn't really have a use. I emailed them to get dimensions (couldn't find them on the site) and need to see if they'll fit where I want them, because that would be awesome for laundry! I did find a knockoff of the Umbra hamper I like for $25 on Amazon, but I think I'd prefer the tubtrugs if I can make them work!

trulijules I love that we're all listening to WBUR while we Cure...I've got it on now and have been planning out placement of frames for my gallery wall in the living room while I'm waiting for a friend to come over and walk...and I'm sure it will be my painting and shelf hanging soundtrack as well!

poppet I know you've got a camera, so no excuses for not sharing your pictures and progress with us now! How's the curing doing? How was the visit with your realtor?

Chloe I don't know how you help with the dogs at the shelter without bringing them all home, I could never do it. We'd have ten cats and ten dogs if I did that!

Went to Ikea to return hooks and buy a light fixture for the kitchen and Home Depot to buy paint & supplies yesterday...today installing shelf for landing strip and kitchen light fixture (hopefully...I'm pretty handy, but never done electric/lighting stuff so a little nervous about that). Maybe first coat of orange on the kitchen wall, but we'll see if I run out of steam first. The folks at Home Depot in Stoughton/Avon were so helpful I wanted to hug them, seriously! They were teasing my about the orange for my wall - it's Fiesta Orange from Glidden, but they kept telling me it was Home Depot orange...and it's pretty darn close!

I'm making progress, but please tell me I'm not the only one still working on my kitchen! :O

trilobyte - I can't lie, I only got 1/2 way through each week's official to do list each week, but I know I need to keep going with the next week instead of trying to finish the last week or I'll never get anything done!!

I've been pretty productive today though - got my shelf hung and tufted one of my couch cushions as a kind of test. Also tightened the legs that had gotten wobbly on our coffee table, which resulted in cleaning it and moving a LOT of stuff from the shelf underneath to the outbox. Still need to work on the kitchen light fixture, but still nervous about it so haven't started yet. Should probably do that before it gets dark!

Hi guys, poppet is having trouble posting, so I'm playing messenger! Here's what she sent me...

poppet says:
hi all!

i do have 'before' pix now, but i need to get them online. yes, it
will be a slow process.

i did cook at home! made dinner for my realtor (who honestly at this
point is family, not a business acquaintance) - marinated roast
chicken, sauteed veggies, and pears poached in wine. YUMMM.

trilobyte - how about having not made it to the kitchen yet? yup. slow.

i need some ideas re: bathroom lighting. i have a medicine
cabinet fluorescent fixture - blech. i need MUCH more lighting. maybe
hanging a pendant, running from the outlet to hang in the center of
the ceiling. i'm not swapping out the fixture at this time.

i'm very excited about making a shower curtain in some funky fabric.
and i have a friend who's offered to help! but i must be able to SEE
the damned pink and gray tiles to be able to determine which fabric
will really work.

found tons of lovely fabrics on sale at equilter.com. yes, they're
mostly cottons, but they'll hang and look SMASHING, which is what i
need.

best wishes for productive happy curing to all!
poppet

thank you cowbark for getting me back on the board. maybe this only works from home? NO! this means i can't be a slacker at the office. sigh.

Thank you for all the kind words! I've been checking the LA thread, and mostly posting to the Flickr Home Cure group -- which I know many of you are also using. I'll check in with the Boston group too. (I've never actually been to Boston though.) I saw the Boston Ikea trip report -- super cute picture, and cowbark, I do think that puts Boston in first place as far as the cure this time (although Laure and Abby did organize and LA swap for the Fall 08 cure, so there is still that).

Hi all! School has been a bit over the top the past week and I'd kinda disappeared from posting. BUT, (even though I'm almost done with the semester) I sucked it up and dropped a class I really didn't need and I'm hopefully on my way back to sanity.

trilobyte and cowbark, it was so good to read that I'm not the only one just getting to the kitchen! I spent last week cleaning the fridge, doing a deep clean of the oven and stove (no matter what apartment therapy says, I had great success with the baking soda and vinegar trick on baked-on messes), and starting to go through all of the dishes and pans I've accumulated and getting rid of some of them. And then I rewarded myself with a new tablecloth and some dish towels! (budget remodeling) And I've discovered that while I feel stressed out getting ready in the morning standing in the living room, moving into the kitchen gives me a feeling of instant calm.

So, while I'm not really up to date, I do like what I've got done so far. On to the landing strip! And hopefully, once I find my battery charger for my camera (my car also needs it's own cure) I can get some of my before and after pictures posted for the kitchen.

Good luck all! And thanks for being so inspiring! I felt bad about being behind until I went back and started reading the posts in here I'd missed over the past week. And if anyone wants the recipe I found for the oven cleaning, let me know.

Hey! Where'd the comments go?

OK comments are back. They had disappeared from all the cities, like aliens came or something. trilobyte, I haven't even really started my kitchen. Will catch up later, am slacking here...

Chloe I had some trouble seeing the comments recently as well - every once in a while it would say 0, then I'd reload and they'd be back. Not sure what's going on there...but we're all still here!!!

lizzishone I didn't even get around to the 3 bottom cabinets (4 if you count under the sink which houses trash, recycling, cat food, and cleaning stuff), my dish cabinet, OR my fridge...let alone the oven! I decided to just move forward with the landing strip or I'd be stuck on the kitchen forever! Please do share your oven cleaning recipe/trick, because mine isn't horrible but it could certainly use it!

poppet that's horrible! I hope it's not really a problem for you to get on here at work. Didn't your boss see the report saying that employees who take internet breaks to refresh and refocus are more productive than employees who don't use the internet for non-work purposes (at work)? I can find a link and email it to you if you need it to argue your case! ;)

As for me, I did THREE loads of laundry last night. I still need to do delicates and sheets/towels, one of which I should get to tonight. Every time I do my laundry I love how great the bedroom looks without my mounds of clothes all over, and I love how easy it is to get ready for work in the morning when all my clothes are clean and put away...and yet I always put laundry off as long as possible. I think years of clothing retail backfired on me and I just can't stand dealing with folding/hanging/putting away clothes unless I have to.

Remember the ceramic cow cookie jar that's in the Outbox and the boyfriend thinks I should keep in case we need it some day? It used to hold all my wine corks (before I stopped drinking it, stupid migraines!), and when I was going through the kitchen and moved it to the outbox, I dumped all the corks into a box knowing that there are places I can send them to have them recycled....just ran to the post office and sent that box off, and am excited to be rid of it!

I'm excited to declutter books/media this weekend - books aren't a problem for me (although they are for the boyfriend, but I learned not to force him to purge/declutter...he usually comes around once he sees my results!), but I've held onto 200 CDs that I haven't touched in years and at least a dozen VHS movies just because we have a VCR/TV combo in the bedroom so I can watch them. Not that I do...time for them to go. I'm taking a trip to Goodwill tomorrow night and will be taking them all with me...good riddance!

I'm heading to Goodwill tomorrow to empty my outbox and I can't wait!

I think that the reality is that I get one day a week to work on this. And then if things come up like last Sat (posted a pic of the 18 yr old on my flickr so you know I wasn't slacking) I'm just out of time. I'm Chloe &Ivan on flickr. I really appreciate hearing all your stories.
Glad you came over SanDiegoAT!
cowbark is your wall orange yet?
joymich I'm still not over your ceiling.
Can tell you are all North of me- I was refering to WBRU-
alt. station from Providence. (the bru crew)
One time when I couldn't get my post to go thru I wrote to Scott at AT & he got right back to me, he's the tech guy.
I was going to stay in the city tonight , but would probably be better off doing laundry & having leftovers.

Chloe, I'll take a good pic of the ceiling just for you :)
Cowbark, I love orange! We almost painted our kitchen orange this past weekend but decided to wait. Can't wait to see how yours turns out!

I had a very busy weekend! Got 3 of our walls painted and finished up our landing strip. YAY! Hopefully in the next day or two my entrance decor will be done... maybe. We want a pendant lamp to go over the door but that may have to wait.

I'm dreading the this week because everything we want to do with the living room cost money... Curtains, rugs, lighting. Going to have to find a way to be creative on this one!

went to the Salvation Army & slacked today on Craig's list looking for couches. Have found a set at furniture warehouse that I can pay for over a couple of weeks. Not "protein" but adequate & comfy. This could be a long discussion about buying better quality, but I can't pretend that I have enough money to buy more! Have some nice pillows that I maded for the furniture I gave away, will have to do. Hope everyone is psyched for the weekend!

Hi guys!

I think I may have hit a wall with my curing. I haven't done much cure-related anything since the weekend - unless my laundry counts. A friend took me to goodwill to drop off stuff and she took home the bookshelf I decided to get rid of (that I had gotten from her last time she moved anyway, funny enough). I got a bit ahead on the living room last week when I attached the coffee table, so I'm feeling okay about it. Need to pull all my old VHS tapes out of the media cabinet and put into the yard sale pile tonight, as well as declutter the coat closet I didn't do last week.

I haven't painted the kitchen wall yet - am going to try and squeeze that in this weekend, but have a good friend from Australia in town so will be trying to spend as much time with her as possible. I haven't seen her since she moved back there a year ago and am not sure when I'll see her again. :(

SassySar and I are working on putting together a yard sale for the stuff we're outboxing to raise money for the Breast Cancer 3 Day we're walking. I'm working on funding a yard to use right now, but we're also taking donations if you guys want to give us your outbox stuff instead of goodwill/salvos. ;) Let me know if you have stuff and we can make arrangements to take it off your hands! Or if you want to join us for our yardsale and keep the money, that's cool, too! I think we're aiming for late May/early June timewise. That may also depend on whose yard we end up using, too! :)

You have done a lot cowbark! Have a nice weekend with your friend. A big yard sale and pitching in for you & sassysar's fundraiser sounds fun.
It is Easter weekend! I was so intent on curing it has caught me by surprise. If I still had little kids at home that wouldn't have happened. We will be eating out because (except for the empty living room) the whole place is being turned upside down & out of control.
I know that everyone does not celebrate, but the sun has finally come out for a day & I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Cowbark - If I lived near you, I'd gladly donate my outbox things for the 3-day garage sale fundraiser! My outbox has taken up permanent residence in the 2nd bedroom... the hold up seems to be actually taking the remaining things to the Goodwill & Humane Society. And, I'm not even doing the deep clean this cure, so these are outbox items left over from previous cures that never made it out of the house (doh).

But to me it sounds like you have done a lot and made good cure progress!

Okay, I got less done last week than I'd hoped, and this week isn't shaping up much better. I have two baby showers this weekend, one of which I'm the mastermind behind so will take some prep time in addition to the shower itself. The "office" is the part of my house that needs the most cleaning and decluttering, so I'm bummed by the timing of it all! I had hoped to take Friday off from work to do lots of Curing, but work is also picking up and now I'll have to cross my fingers that things fall into place and I can still make that happen.

I did get some done over the weekend - I started hanging pieces on my gallery wall and bought the last few things I needed to complete it. The magnetic strip for Pete to hang his calendar is "out for delivery" so I can hang that tonight. Ordered two more frames and one more poster of the weekend, so once those come (probably end of month) the wall will be done! For now at least...

Pete cleaned the bathroom Friday, and I cleaned the kitchen and living room Sunday. We still need to mop the floors, but otherwise at least the first floor is nice and clean! Had some friends over for dinner last night and tried a new recipe (chicken curry - it's a keeper, with a few slight modifications) as well. I can't tell you how much I enjoy cooking more with the little bit of counter space I cleared off during kitchen week and the new, much brighter, light!

How did you all do last week? Anyone else dreading office week like I am???

saw your gallery wall cowbark, - lookin' good.
Me:bought the shelf for the bathroom stuff. Had Leow's cut to my measurements. Snag: had measured the variables for the front of the shelves, didn't worry about the backs.(19 1/2" in) wrong. Every one of my shelves is going to be a different size. sigh.
Called the guy from the bar about installing tomarrow.
Began sorting thru paperwork.
Took away 4 giant bags of stuff.
Put a deposit on the not protein but adequate furniture.
Planted the eggs like in Better Gardens, gave them to my oldest daughter, oldest son's girlfriend who I would like to keep, and the bar.
Took grandsons to see Fast & Furious, loved it. Give me muscle cars and violence over cleaning any day. The paperwork alone, not counting unloading an old computer to get it out of here is just making me suicidal...
Started chasing my cats around with a lint roller. Figure that every hair I get off them is not on some surface or my clothes. Ginger seems to like it, Ivan is horrified.
Something is wrong with my hot water heater, the landlords are on it, but has slowed down the cleanup.
That's the report, & would not have made it this far without all of you.
Hey, has anyone heard from Pink?
much love, Chloe C

Not much curing for me over the weekend or in the next feiw days -- friends bday, and paperwork/taxes on the immediate horizon. But it does mean I procrastinated on the taxes by sweeping off the balcony, and washing my hose, ready to hang it up! and then strolling through the neighborhood nursery today to look at palm trees and plants (procrastinating on the taxes).

Have hot water again. The guy from the bar did not call me back or come with the power tools. The shelves had to be cut to fit the not-square space. I did them myself with a hand saw on the coffee table. Posted a pic.
I would really like to have had the nail gun he was supposed to be bringing, will try to borrow one or get someone else to come. Otherwise I'll have to drill & screw all the molding that will be holding the shelves up -
Hard in the narrow space,& would be so easy with a nail gun.
Pink has been busy.
SanDiegoAT it is in the lower 30s here.

howdy!

ok, well, curing - hasn't been happening so much.

i did something else instead. i rescued a cat. :)

his people love him, but due to TONS of bad luck piled on top of TONS of more bad luck, they aren't able to keep him.

he's snuggly, already likes me (it's been two days!) and i am thrilled to have a cat again. i hadn't realized i'd be this happy having him.

i am NOT giving up on the Cure. but that camera has come in handy - i was able to send his family pictures, and they are so pleased that he looks happy.

wanna see?

Snuggling a new kitty sounds like a Cure for anything that ails you to me! (And counts as a home improvement, I think.)

He is adorable! I'm extremely jealous. I've been wanting a cat for a while but it has yet to be the time or the place.

Chloe -- we're supposed to have a warm and sunny weekend, high 66 to 71 by the coast where I am. :-) Don't worry, though, 66 is still jacket weather to me. Hopefully, this will mean I make some progress on my balcony. Hope the handyman/bar guy comes through for you this weekend!

Hi guys - the shelves are installed! I can't linger here today. I'll put up a picture after I put some decorative molding on the front of the shelves, not tonight - have a dog shelter meeting, but should be done by Wed.
They are fine and functional but need a finishing touch.
Hope everyone had a good weekend, will catch up later.

I have some serious catching up to do!

poppet the cat is adorable, and congrats! We've got two little monsters...er, cats who keep us endlessly entertained and happy. I really don't like being in a house without pets - even if it's just visiting it always makes me feel a little bit off to not have a fuzzball running around throughout the day.

Chloe congrats on getting the shelves up!

joymich any new progress to share with us? I'm still loving your landing strip!! I need to lure my friend's husband over with his drill to hang my hooks and then mine will (finally) be complete! I better make a batch of peanut butter bars, he can't turn those down!!

I spent the weekend before last catching up with my friend in town from Australia and last weekend at baby showers - one Saturday and one Sunday - so I'm diving into office week this week...hopefully I don't drown, it's likely. ;) I'm excited to not have plans this weekend and be able to devote some big chunks of time to decluttering files, piles, and paperwork!

hi all!

first, and most importantly, the cat and i are a match made in heaven. he's wonderful. lays in my lap. purrs up a storm. yay!!!

got to ikea on monday, though i didn't get to the as-is section. i've been checking out ikea hacker for ideas. amazingly talented people there!

they didn't have the fabric (multi-colored flowers) i'd wanted for a shower curtain, but i found a martha stewart brand curtain at tjmaxx that should work.

BUT I NEED LIGHTING HELP. suggestions for where/how i might find ways of increasing the amount of electric light in my bathroom? the switched light fixture is fluorescent (and not nearly as pretty as the link). there's an outlet that is also on the switch. hang something? but what's going to be proper for a bathroom - i'm concerned about the water, steam - the room isn't large.

help?

Hey all,
I have been on vacation for the past week so no, no progress!
Today I am trying to readjust to reality and do a clean sweep through my place and hopefully by this weekend get back into the swing of things!

sneaking a moment in here - got up this morning & cut & glued 2 pieces of the molding on the new shelves in my nightgown. Going to a play tonight with my daughter, hope to do the other 2 pieces when I get home.
Poppet, Can you replace just replace the bulbs in your bathroom light fixture for better ones? They are a little expensive, but if it can give you more light it might be worth it.
Cowbark & Sassy- have you planned your date for the yard sale? I am booked May 30, have something I would like to do May 9 (which is actually a rock & roll yard sale at AS220 downtown Providence, in case you guys wanted to come down here & finally have those cocktails...)
Anyway I have a small truck, & my RN daughter is very proud of your fundraising project.
Gotta go kids - will catch up later.

HEY DID YOU ALL SEE THE POST ASKING FOR A BOSTON/
NEW ENGLAND BLOGGER FOR AT?
OF COURSE I WISH PROVIDENCE WOULD WIN AND INFLuenc the whole world, my life is too sketchy to take that on, but just being sure that you all caught this.

Hi all! I was also out of town for a week (my brother got married last weekend in VA) so I haven't made much progress on my Cure. But I did draw my very own scale floor plan of our bedroom/closet/adjoining balcony for our one-room remedy. It took me the better part of the day on Thursday, what with all the measuring and figuring out how to represent baseboard heating and such, but it's amazing how much more invested I feel after doing all that work!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and get outside and enjoy this gorgeous weather.

Larrabee - i want to know where in VA; that's where i'm from.

today - I AM GOING TO IKEA. i have a zipcar, and a list, and i will get useful things. #1 most important - a tullsta chair with slipcover. cushy chair!!! YAY!!!

Chloe C - the bulbs are fluorescent tubes. i did swap one out, and it's MUCH brighter there. but they really need some sort of cover, because they glare. if necessary i will buy two wall mount fluorescent fixtures, and use the covers from those. and then sell the rest to recoup some of the cost. $40 for decent bathroom lighting? works for me.

gotta zoom. picking up the zipcar at 3, need to get more done around here first. take care all!

shelves are in, molding is on & painted & I made a new hook that I like. (I lovelovelove the twig branches at Urban)
We have had a little fiasco with the furniture. No one ever indicated to me that after I went to one of the shadiest areas of Pawtucket, in a glass strewn alley to pick up my furniture to save the $99 delivery fee, that I would be picking it up in boxes. The parts in boxes. A couple of guys that I would never tell where I lived, or let in, offered to come and assemble it for me. I thanked them and said no.
So my sons came over to bring the pieces upstairs & here we are. I happened to have a new shirt that I couldn't resist buying after having wine with my daughter before the play Thurs nite, & thought it was appropriate. Will post the pics of us in the furniture/cardboard nightmare.

Yay! Great that you got the shelves in, and at least you got the furniture home, even if it was a fiasco. :-)

Oh, poppet, how was the Ikea trip? Going to Ikea is an ordeal for me, so I hope it went well for you!

Poppet - my brother lives in Arlington but the wedding was in Williamsburg, where his wife is from. I grew up in Richmond. What about you? And please do tell us about your Ikea trip!

Hey Boston where are ya?
I finished the banner, put the pics on my Flickr if you want to see.
Have to clean up & get the pics of the bathroom & the living room furniture out for everyone. And have to do it FAST because I have a rush sculpting job of a boar's head for a beer tap. I get sick & tired of these kind of jobs always being a rush, but am not in a position to turn it down.
This is also why my place gets out of control, like I haven't cleaned up all the sewing/banner mess yet, haven't gotten all the cardboard cut up & out from the furniture, & now have to break out another media.
After that I want to get the TV mounted on the wall & start on my poor disgusting balcony.

I'm Chloe & Ivan on Flickr

Larrabee - you're my long lost twin! i used to own in Arlington (a condo, and when i was married a house), and i went to school in williamsburg.

boston is the smallest town in which i have ever lived, and i lived in a town where if you blinked you missed it, in rural VA, as a child. everyone knows EVERYONE here. and i like it.

ikea was great! i had a plan and a list, and i spent $300. list of aquisitions: tullsta chair with two slipcovers (one from the as-is bin), slipcover for my sofa (ektorp sleeper loveseat), dishcloths, vivan curtain (to cover the backdoor/catbox), Molger shelf (this ROCKS, and was on sale for $10), Kvart wall sconces, some things for sorting/holding other things, one yard of FAB fabric.

going with a list, and a plan, and TIME = WIN. i ended up adding two hours onto the zipcar time.

this week i'm trying to arrange things around here, and get crap on the walls. and the open house is saturday. yup, party. :)

there will still be work to do afterwards, but i will have gotten TONS done.

bathroom lighting - i got some Rational clear drawer liner from Ikea, cut that to fit, and have that in place over the fluorescents. it'll do. it's not the BEST solution, but i'm working on a better one. i got acrylic lens material from work, and have found a potential source for aluminum corner pieces. i hope to cut the acrylic to size, and use the aluminum corner pieces to hide the joints.

not before the party though. :)