apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

It's time to choose paint for my new condo and I'm FREAKING OUT.

I chose semi-gloss super white for the baseboards, crown molding, window and door frames. I chose flat super white for the ceiling. There is still time to change my mind!!

My contractor suggested plain white. I don't know if I did the right thing. I have a white leather sofa and all my furniture is either brown-black, black or white. I plan to accent it with "polar blue" window treatments and various pale blue accents.

I'm trying to decide what off-white to put on the walls to make the trimwork pop. There's a patch of china white up now that needs another coat. Alberto's Compromise is making me consider grey.

I read a conversation about China white on AT October of 2004. It's gotten me nowhere.

jennie (2) :

Go with grey! I'm thinking a warm dove grey, and then some orange and blue accents, or green and blue accents. Or yellow and green, but maybe not. The green and grey on the main page (the latest to the contest) looks so nice, I think that with white trim....

Grey is a fantastic color particularly if your new place has both east and west windows. The morning and evening sun will do wonderful things to the grey- each day will see your place with a unique palatte based off grey!!

Yes!

I am a huge fan of gray, and they are so many different "colors" of gray out there... you can choose one that has a hint of blue to it to help pull in the blue accessories you are going to choose. Grays can look very different based on the time of the day - so I highly recommend painting a small section first and seeing how it works with the lighting... something may look "gray-blueish" in the store, and you get it home and realize it is more of a purple or brown. Good luck!

Thanks, guys!

Maren, that's what happened with a gray I got at the store, it turned out totally purple.

I have southern and eastern windows in the living/dining/kitchen. Down the hall there are western facing windows but I'm about 4 feet from the neighbors so that's kind of moot.

OK, I'm going to go try like 5 grays. I reeeeeally wish there were more sample pots in gray because it costs $15 to mix each quart. Maybe I will go Martha style and do some sort of tonal gray painting project with the leftover quarts.

Thanks again, I really needed the gray support.

Hi! Janel,
The cast is off and Max is a free man again. This is completely off the subject, but alittle while ago you mentioned a site that had great midcentury ceramics etc. In fact, it had a Dansk candle holder that I remember from my childhood. That candle holder was at my oldest friend's house and was probably responsible for my interest in design. I can't remember the web address for the site. Can you help?
Suzanne

Julian, your comment made me think about the light I have (rather, the light I don't have). Stuff that looks way too light in the store is way too dark in my condo. So now it's hard to pick my office green because everything looks so minty and 80s. I have to force myself to believe that it will be darker in the room.

Anyway, I got Barren Plain (al Alberto), and I think that will be nice in my basement but too dark for upstairs. I'm leaning toward China White with Super white trim for the entire upstairs, less the 2 bedrooms and bathroom. My only fear is that it won't be contrasty enough. I know its only paint but this is a long hallway, kitchen, dining, living, and stairwell area. So I definitely won't repaint it unless I absolutely hate it. Tomorrow I will venture to my paint store yet again for an EVER SO SLIGHTLY darker shade.

I love that there are people who actually care about my paint problems.

help please!

i live in a small apartment in new york. i am considering moving to chicago. i have a fantasy that things there are less expensive and more well-kept (our apartment here is gross!).

this is not a dig on new york, please don't respond by telling me what a bad new yorker i am. i have lived here for 10 years and love it, but i am ready to start a family and think i could afford to do that more easily in a different city. (i work in non-profit, my husband is a teacher) my husband and i don't want to live in the suburbs, so we are considering chicago.

my question is this: is there are source that gives a neighborhood by neighborhood review for potential residents? it took me a few years to figure out where i wanted to live in new york and where i didn't. how does one gain that kind of knowledge from afar?

any advice?

JamieBeth-

Come on over, we'd love to have ya!

Of course the best method of finding a neighborhood is to spend a few days out here, particularly in spring... A while back there was a thread on this exact topic: http://chicago.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/good-questions/good-questions-what-are-some-affordable-cool-neighborhoods-in-chicago-009356

And Gapers block has some stuff, all open polls and full of rubbish but some good comments from Chicagoans.
http://www.gapersblock.com/fuel/archives/walking_in_the_city/
http://www.gapersblock.com/fuel/archives/home_hoods/
http://www.gapersblock.com/fuel/archives/next_hot_neighborhood/
http://www.gapersblock.com/fuel/archives/least_favorite_neighborhoods/
http://www.gapersblock.com/fuel/archives/favorite_neighborhood/

Here are some other usefull links:
http://neighborhoods.chicago.il.us/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhoods_of_Chicago
http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/localguide/neighborhoods/

And while this one is kind of depressing it's a phenomonal snapshot:
http://www.chicagocrime.org/

This one is pretty nifty too, more snapshots of the city:
http://www.zipcodestats.com/index.php?city=chicago&county=&state=ILLINOIS&search=Search

And while I have no real experience with this site it sounds like a hit!
http://www.bestchicagoneighborhoods.com/

That's alot of resources that will tell you very little. You really must experience the city!!

-J

Julian (v1.0) -- thank you!!! i already love chicago as a tourist (my husband did undergrad there and we have some friends and family in hyde park) so i know what a great city you have! these links are fantastic. thank you thank you!!!

jamiebeth,

I just moved here from nyc 6 weeks ago. My husband's career was at a crossroads, we were tired of feeling poor and are also thinking to the future and kids. Everyone I meet says either, "You moved here from New York? Why?" and "Hoo boy, just wait til winter." It sounds kind of rude at first, but it's almost apologetic.

I guess it's smarter to rent first, but we had just moved in February and were tired of moving, so we were determined to buy right away.

Yes, it is WAY cheaper; its kind of insane. Coming from NY it almost feels like Christmas. Actually, it's more like I came from some third world country and I'm living the American dream, where I can have my own place and a guest room and a family room and a patio and a fireplace! (And not be in the dreaded suburbs!) I understand your feelings about NYC. There is no place like it, but it really sucks sometimes.

I wish I could live in small space but I can't so I think Chicago is a great choice for city lovers. It is definitely a real city, unlike LA, which was our other top choice of places to live.

I like to drive so that's also a big plus for Chicago for me. We took a four hour bus tour encompassing uptown and downtown Chicago. It gave me a lay of the land, and an idea of the city's size. The next day, I rented a car with a navigational computer. I drove northeast to Evanston, then I weaved through all the eastern streets all the way downtown so that I saw all the neighborhoods, then I went west and back up north. If I got lost I just typed in a familiar cross street to get my bearings again. I got a real feel for all the areas, who lived there, etc. I knew right away that I liked Lincoln Park and Lakeview (which is where we ended up). I kept driving for a couple more days to really get the geography down, and check out the shopping options of course.

Someone here on AT did recommend checking out Andersonville which I didn't until after I had bought my condo, and I kind of wish I did. It seems to have a lot going on without being overwhelming. As inexpensive as my place in Lakeview seems to a New Yorker, it's expensive for this city, and there are way better deals to be had further north and west. But I am very happy with my choice!

Hope this helps. You've already figured it out that my Chicago AT peeps are a constant source of information. Good luck!

Here's a few tips:

Any area within a neighborhood that is within a few blocks of an L stop will inevitibally be a more thriving area. Try and scope out places near these centers.

I've lived in Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Uptown, Ravenswood and now North Center. I have found that as you go further north the areas are on a street-bt street basis; on estreet will be totally gentrified and the next block over is a war-zone.

Wherever there are scrappers there is rennovation and wherever there is rennovation there are rising property values.

Find a street without permit parking and live there forever! Or just find a place with a garage.

Chicago's housing market has experienced a MASSIVE development in the past 7-10 years and that has resulted in thousands upon thousands of condos being built all over the city and thousands of existing rentals going condo. This has resulted in a systematic raising of property values and as such caused land lords to dramatically raise rents above and beyond the normal rates often forcing tennants out. However with the recent economic slowdown Chicago is seeing a let-up in the development. That being said, all of the projects that are under way and those that have been started (years ago) are going to be completed. Many speculate that there withing the next 4-5 years there will be such an oversaturation of empty condos that many of them will turn into rentals. If this happens the old-unit renter's market will see a dramatic dorp in rent and occupancy thus making it a highly competitive market. Now that bodes well for renters like myself but for those folk who ponnied up 400k for a neighborhood condo will see a loss on their investment were they interested in selling.

So the long and short is that within the next 5 years Chicago will be a fantastic place to buy and perhaps even rent.

Now if we could only get the damn CTA to work!!

Oh some great hoods: Andersonville, Rogers Park, North Center, Ravenswood, Roscoe Village, St. Bens...

jennie,

it's really interesting to read your thoughts after chicago after moving from nyc. i have lived here in chicago for 5 years now (i moved here after college) and since then almost ALL my closest friends have moved on to new york. i am thinking about moving there too. is it worth it? is the fun to be had in new york worth the hardship of finding a job and a place to live?

thank you everyone!!!!

we hope to make the move (somewhere!) in the summer -- sometime between june and august. then i will (hopefully) need some serious AT design help because i would love to buy!

rebecca - i've lived in NYC since graduating from college (except for 13 months in the suburbs outside of DC for a job) and all i can say is, new york is wonderful, but you have to really WANT to live here. if you come for any other reason (a job, a relationship, because you think it will change your life, because you think you 'should') you will end up resenting it. but if you WANT to do it, there's nothing like it!

jamiebeth - thanks for your input. i am not yet a the WANT level yet, but might be there soon!

rebecca,

I lived in manhattan for 5 years after graduating from college. I ended up in Chicago (after a few other places) and have been here for about 12 years.

IMHO, there is definitely fun to be had in the big apple, but it is not worth living hand-to-mouth for.

A much better alternative, I think, is to just go to New York 2-3 times a year. I keep track of all of the restaurants, shops, etc., that i want to see and then when I see airfares drop to $200 or less, I go!

The (relatively) low cost of living here allows me to live large in the City in a way that I would not be able to if I still lived there full-time.

Kathyrn -
Thanks for your thoughts. Maybe it is the 5 year itch to move to a new city! But is visiting really a substitute for living there? If I move to NY I would would probably be living in Queens or Brooklyn. I know I couldn't swing Manhattan!

I went to school in White Plains and spent more time than I had in NYC. All of my friends live in Brooklyn, Queens and some in Manhattan. I have found that I really love visiting NYC as long as I know I can leave. There's little else in the world that rivals the excitement with which NYC pulses but it can be overwhelming. Were I to live in NYC I think I would spend much time longing for a quieter, slower pace.

I always say about Chicago and NYC:

In Chicago you carve into the city, in NY the city carves into you .

amen julian v1.0 -- i feel a little carved up right about now!

rebecca -- i hope i will be able to do the nyc 2-3 times a year thing once i'm gone.

it seems while i'm living here (way upper west/harlem/morningside heights) and working full-time and going to school part-time and travelling quite a bit for work, i don't have time to fully take advantage of all that's great about new york (except when friends show up and need to be tour-guided). HOWEVER, if i came every once in a while and had no other responsibilities while here, i think i could do some great sight-seeing/eating and then go home to my less expensive life somewhere else....ahh, i hope this all works out and i don't miss it too much and regret the move!!!!

it's funny how humble chicagoans are about chicago, when there is so much great stuff here (music, theatre, restaurants) whereas new york just "knows" it is the center of the world. i guess i am a sucker for the hype. every time i visit i have so much fun but at the same time i am not quite convinced.

Jamiebeth,
I moved to Chicago in October 1983 just after getting my BFA in dance. I came with a dance bag, a sewing machine and a duffel bag of clothes. Needless to say, I did not have a winter coat or boots. I stayed with family friends for awhile before getting an apartment. I do love NYC, but Chicago is great too. I do advise winter clother as it can get pretty cold. I have lived in a number of areas on the northside of the city: The Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, Lake View, Lincoln Square, and now Albany Park. There are so many great areas in the city that it mostly depends on what you are looking for and how much you want to spend. My husband and I own a bungalow in Albany Park and we love it. I totally recommend Albany Park particularly the areas surrounding the Francisco, Kedzie and Kimball Brown Line Stops.
Suzanne

a lot of people are buying in albany park now. albany park has amazing korean restaurants! i used to live there too. i had a 800 sf 3rd floor apt with hardwood floors and a sunroom and the rent was $650 including heat.

Hi rebecca,

Ah, New York. I'll try not to be too corny. I grew up in Tucson, but for some reason was so obsessed with the city that I had a subscription to the New Yorker since I was 15. I always found it to be the most romantic and amazing place in the world even though I had never been there. It never occurred to me that I could actually live there until I went to visit my boyfriend's parents. I stepped out of a cab in Park Slope and I was like, "I'm in a Woody Allen movie!"

We decided that day to move there. I didn't have to work to survive in NYC because most of the time I was a film student and had help from my parents. When I did work, it was at an entry level production job making $25-35k per year. That is really not enough to live on unless you have roommates and live in Brooklyn, and enjoy shoes from Payless. Even with my then-boyfriend, now-husband's high salary, we kept feeling like we should live a better life. I liked the idea of saving money by eating at home, but a) groceries are a pain to get because of the whole walking thing, and expensive, b) your kitchen is usually not stellar, and c) there are so many better places to eat for only a little more $. Next thing you know you've met up with friends, it's 1 am, and you've got a $100 bar tab. At least that was how it was for us. It's just a very fast paced life, and if you're not going to go out and enjoy it, why live there? We're not even "let's check out the hot new club" kind of people. Everyone really does go out a LOT. When Manhattan finally got too stupid expensive for us, we moved to East Williamsburg (Bushwick) and it just sucked. I had my cell phone stolen out of my hand in broad daylight. We had to train everywhere, and our Manhattan friends didn't want to "trek out to Brooklyn." Our friends who were driven out of the city to Queens might as well have been in Connecticut. It didn't feel like New York, and we weren't amused anymore. I stopped getting that giddy feeling when I rode over the Brooklyn Bridge.

There is something about opening up a magazine and seeing a coat or a rug and you look down at the address at the bottom of the page--and it's always in NYC--and know exactly the street corner its on, and you think, oh I was just there yesterday. All the celebrities, fashion shows, art shows, movie premieres, all the history... it's like being at the center of this energy and excitement. Other times, you're carrying heavy bags on the train and sweating in someone's arm pit ready to have a panic attack about the terror alert level.

I think the move to Chicago came at a perfect time for us, where we needed to slow down and feel like we were living the good life, and not just trying to keep up. If I were single I would definitely stay in New York. It's weird. A lot of my friends are saying that New York is over, but when I moved there in 2000, people were saying the same thing; that it was getting too corporate and wasn't gritty enough anymore. I think it's more that they're at the age where they really want to feel like they have accomplished something, and not living hand to mouth as Kathryn put it. To me it's incomparable; there is only one New York, but I plan to adopt the lifestyle of going often to visit people and things, and then fly home to my parking spot and affordable mortgage payment.

If you want to do it, do it. Everyone should take the chance to live there once!

I forgot to address the apartment part.

I would get a job first because most landlords will require it, and stay with friends while you look. Don't let it stress you out--apartment hunting will suck terribly. I have helped many people find a place and it helps to not search too early. Sometimes places aren't listed until 1-2 weeks before the move-in date. You will need a letter from your new employer, or a guarantor (Dad) to co-sign. Plan to have 4 months rent in cash to get your apartment. First, last, security, and broker fee. Or get a friend to let you be their roommate for the first year.

Apartment hunting isn't so hard anymore... particularly if it's in an off month. Granted you'll have a limited selection but the landlord will be delighted to fill an otherwise vacant place.

Use Craigslist, and try out http://chicago.listpic.com/apa/ as it lets you see the pics...

Use the Reader: http://www.chicagoreader.com

That's it. DO NOT USE one of the apartment finding services, it will be a phenomenal waste of time.

the funny thing is that most of the reasons jennie(2) eloquently articulated for leaving the city are the same reasons I left...in 1990! so, in some ways, i guess things never change.

is visiting is really a substitute for living in new york? only you can answer that for yourself. i had to smile when i read jennie(2)'s post where she talked about seeing something in a magazine and it being available in new york (sometimes only in ny). that is exactly how i used to feel. so now i may live in chicago -- but i am more likely to be able to afford to buy that thing in a magazine, where before i couldn't.

i love the fact that when i go back to ny, i still feel like a native. i'm on plenty of mailing lists and still get invited to events and whatnot. in a weird way, i think i appreciate ny more because i don't live there anymore and my visits are just packed with places to go and people to see...

Not to completely redirect this thread, but I have an off-topic question. Does anyone know where to get 1) those aluminum (?) boxes that you would plant grass in, for an indoor plant-type thing?, and 2) fake grass to go in those boxes.

Really appreciate any suggestions.

Leah-

I would first try Home Depot as they usually have something that works. If not I would call Gethsemane on North Clark (where Ashland and Clark intersect)
http://chicago.citysearch.com/profile/36794700/

They might have some leads...

As for fake grass: http://www.google.com/search?hs=MWk&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=artificial+grass&btnG=Search

Julian,
I'm so glad you responded; it's actually your wall-mounted planter that I'm trying to recreate. I was thinking of using fake grass, since it's going above some electronics and I don't want to risk water spilling out.
As far as the structure, I was going to use two of the Umbra Conceal shelves and rest a long planter across them. In my mind, the planter would be the aluminum thing(s) surrounded by a box made of wood. Just my idea; would love your thoughts/suggestions.
Thanks,
Leah

Wrong Julian...

On another note; does anyone remember when and where that neat clear plastic dish rack was posted- the one that is reminicent of Starck's ghost chairs?

jennie and kathryn- thanks for your stories! i am contemplating the move but i can see from what you and other people have said that it's really quite a big undertaking and not comparable to picking up and moving to other cities. my friends have told me some nightmare stories about apartment brokers. but then they all call me and tell me how they all hung out, went to the galleries, "too bad you aren't here!" like you were saying , i think i want to live there once.