apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

For our first anniversary, my husband and I rented a small house in Galena that was within walking distance of Main St. Really it was right at the top of the hill, from what I remember we just used a 3 flight staircase to get from our street to Main Street. We will be celebrating our 10th anniversary within the year and I would like to go back to Galena. Unfortunately I am having a really hard time finding any information on rentals within walking distance to Main Street that aren't hotels or condos, and even those are hard to find. Any suggestions? We just want a small place, 1 - 2 bedrooms - but we don't want a hotel or condo, and we want to be able to walk to dinner and shopping. I'm hoping someone has some great recommendations!! Thanks!

I am thinking about installing a paneled wall in my master bedroom, similar to the one pictured here (except with a bit lighter wood):
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/photo/041206gideon/_slide_
I'm wondering if anyone is aware of an online resource that discusses this sort of application. While I've found several sites that offer how-to's featuring tongue & groove style panels, I'm really looking for a resource with a more "post-modern" look.

Plastics in Chicago? I am looking for a supplier like the canal plastics center in new york. I am looking to get some 4x8 translucent sheets for a project. Any local ideas? I googled but found nothing.

Plastics:
Don't know if they have what you're looking for, but try—
http://www.petersenplastics.com/index.html
My husband had some lucite covers made for some custom portfolios and was happy with the results.
Good luck!

Hey Vic242

Are you looking for acrylic or something along the lines of acetate sheets?

You might check www.dickblick.com they have a variety of acetates and plastics. Hope this helps.

What are you working on?

Thanks fuzzball and redcloverstar- I am working on making a room divider for a new office. I would like something sturdy and translucent. I used plasticor from genesis for this project , but I want bigger sheets- cheaper wouldn't hurt either-

If you're looking for large sheets of plexiglass, vic242, check out ace hardware. silly i know; but when i did an installation project 2 years ago, the Ace on Clark at Wellington, even cut them to size for me.

Okay, I've never posted anything in the open thread before, and now I'm starting out with what some people will surely think is a mean one, but I just can't hold it in any longer. It's about the Chicago entries in the smallest coolest contest. I'm saying this here instead of in any of the threads for the individual entries because I don't want to direct it at any of them in particular.

Because here's the thing: of the seven entries, most of them (4/7 is most, right?) are completely unexceptional and have no business whatsoever being in the contest. I'm not basing this on whether I personally like the apartment or not; in fact, of the three I think do belong in the contest, I absolutely hate one of them, and I don't particularly dislike any of the ones I think don't belong in the contest. But what I'm saying is that love it or hate it, an entry to this contest should have some special thing about it. And these entries simply do not. Rather, they look like my apartment and the apartments of every person I know (or knew when we were all 24). They're fine: they're not ugly or bad in any way, and in fact there are a thing or two about each of them that are quite nice. And I'm sure that the people who decorated them and live in them and submitted them are nice great people, too. But the apartments are just regular.

You know how when you see before and after pictures, and the before picture is fine, and you think, yeah, that looks like a regular place. And then the after picture is something that makes you say, yeah, now I see, that's something that has ulocked a special cool potential and made the space different from regular. Well, most of these Chicago entries look like "before" pictures, and an entry in this contest should be an "after" picture.

So I guess my beef is with the AT editors. I remember reading that there is an initial cut of entries made before they get posted. It seems to me that that step is being skipped altogether in the Midwest section of the contest. If it's an issue of a low number of entries and you think the contest would be diminished somehow by having fewer entries, then I think you're making the wrong call -- in my opinion, the contest is diminished by the inclusion of inappropriate entries.

I also want to add that I think "regular" apartments totally have a place on AT. My favorite things on AT are ideas that can be used in regular apartments like mine. I just think the "coolest" contest is not the place for them.

Is it possible that many people in Chicago are just not tuned into AT yet? Isn't the site only 1 year old? I know there are a lot of cool places in this city but how many of their tenants visit AT? I myself hit the site less than 6 months ago and I'm kind of o/c about it now. But by bouncing around to the different sites it's pretty apparent that NY has been around for a long time. Something tells me it's seen "generations" of visitors and entrants.

I tell tons of people about AT, people who would really think it's cool. You know how many of them heard of AT? None.
Give them a chance to grow. Give them a break.

By the way, what is a regular apartment? Can you post a tour? I think the Chicago site could use a lot more house tours.

I understand what eliz is saying. I think the main reason for this is issue is real estate is wayyyy cheaper here. In the Midwest, most people who put their homes at the top of the priority list spend money on furnishings and more space, and therefore don't qualify for the contest. The ones who live in small places are renters and/or younger. It's very rare that someone would chose 650 sq ft when they can afford at least twice that.

There are TONS of renters in this city with really, really cool apartments-big and small. And there are a lot of younger and older creative people renting small spaces. Just because somebody could "afford" to buy more space doesn't mean they want to. For some people the amount they would have to pay in property taxes would be enought not to buy.

San Francisco's market is very similar to NY's and I don't see anywhere near the same range of entries as NY.

My point was just that people who are into design and would most likely have "cool" apartments can easily get 1000sq ft here in Chicago. Rented or purchased.

Rather, more than 650 sq ft. I just meant that it makes the Midwest pickins slimmer for this particular contest.

jenniejen, I absolutely agree. I think you've hit it right on the nose for why there are fewer Chicago entries --it's just a different real estate situation here. And I have no issue at all with us having fewer entries: my point is I think the right move is to just have fewer, not try to beef up the number with ones that don't belong. And also, I think there have been some really terrific entries since I orignally posted last week, so that kind of undercuts my original point anyway. Yay!