apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

This week has NOT gone well. Hence, the leisure to comment. I was going to catch up on all the lingering sewing projects, today, the machine screwed up.

I'll have my progress report up later, assuming, of course, there is any!

oh Alana- I hate that! My machine only decides to screw up when I really need to sew. I have not had a good week either- we have been sick here , it's been flooding in my backyard, and I have had little sleep (so no energy)

I am taking my Mr. to Ikea on Sunday (at 10 am - I know what Ikea is like on the weekends) it's his first time to ever go to an Ikea. It's going to be fun to see what he thinks about it

Never been to an Ikea? I hadn't thought that possible--:)

It'll be interesting to see what he thinks. I hope the basement was spared any flooding!

I just went to IKEA for the first time last weekend to buy my Expedit shelving unit. I went with my roommate and my mother (who had also never gone and went a little buck wild lol). We seriously were there for like four hours and left with three full shopping carts. It was quite an experience!

It is an experience. We've had one since forever, and I really don't know where we'd have been all these years without it.

Well, I decided I've had enough for today...the sewing machine is back up and running...but I'm not sure the problem is fixed.

I may tempt fate with one more project before bed.

I have reported the week's progress --such as it was.
http://prairiehometherapy.blogspot.com/2008/03/week-4-progress-report-or-curse-of.html

I've been listing my accomplishments on flickr, I'm a newbie at this and didn't realize that this is where we were supposed to do it.

Dining Room:
I've completely redone my dining room. I painted, bought new bookshelves, a new table cloth, and a new rug. (Thanks IKEA!)I've gotten rid of half of my dishes and only kept the pieces that I really use or that I find really beautiful. I got rid of all of my mismatched glasses and bought a set of tumblers and wine glasses at IKEA. I consolidated my book collection and put it all together on one wall of the dining room to create a library section of the room. By giving it another purpose, I'm using it more. I also put a cd player in there. Having a way to play music ALSO makes the room more inviting. Now all I need is a club chair and it'll be perfect.

Kitchen:
I painted a nice cheery green and got rid of all duplicates. I seriously had 5 can openers. I got rid of half my spices and canned goods because I never use them. I did a deep clean and I'm trying to head off bug season so that it won't be a problem with greener solutions than toxic bug spray. I kept most of my quirky coffee mugs because I like them. Oh and I sort of fixed my awful water pressure with a tip from metromom! Thanks again mm! ;-)

Living Room:
I'm kind of at a loss with this room. I have a couple of ideas, but nothing that really excites me yet. I don't want to force anything, so I may wait for the fall cure.

GENERAL:
Deep Cleaning
Gotten rid of lots of boxes of stuff. I don't even remember what was in them.
Given away lots of bags of clothes.
Convinced my roommate to groom his long-haired cat (This is a HUGE improvement)
He's also cleaning the litter box everyday
We made a no dishes in the sink before bed rule

*There is still so much to do. I still have a ton of clutter and I still have way too many clothes. I had an accident and am laid up for a couple of days. Hopefully it won't get me too far behind. I'm glad that we're only half way. There's so much more that I want to do.

I'm loving the cure!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/harmonyfrance/
http://harmonyfrance.wordpress.com

Thank you Harmony France for listing everything here--migoodness, girl, you are going great guns! When I redid my Dining room...complete with a new expedit....it took 20 days! Not a couple of weeks--and I sure didn't paint the kitchen on top of it!

Your place looks so fabulous. It's funny about the decluttering bug--it can be euphoric to just haul stuff out and away! It can get addicting.

But a rest is a good thing.

Today I'm running a gazillion errands...if I could just remember what they were! I have them written down here somewhere.

I was up early today and I finished painting walls and ceiling. This afternoon I'll start on the woodwork and on the window.

harmonyfrance: I love what you did to your place. I especially like to see pictures of books, since I'm very interested in knowing what other people read.

Alana: sorry about your machine. It seems that there are always set backs in every cure, for almost everybody. As old curers (agewise for me only!), we have that perseverance really pays in the end.

I'm also an Ikea fan: I have to travel quite far to get to one and I do a couple of runs per year. It used to be all the way to Houston, but they have now opened one north of Dallas, which is only 3 hours away. My daughters and I make it a females only fun day.

Meant to say "we have that...

I'm traying again : we have learned that...

Confession: I've done nothing this week in the living room or elsewhere (I hung curtains during kitchen week). Why don't I ever want to work in the room we're supposed to one the week we're supposed to?

I need new pillows and art, but I want to check IKEA before I buy anything and an IKEA pilgrimage is planned for mid-April (the nearest one is 1.5 hours away). So I'm waiting.

Other big projects, like painting the fireplace, have to wait until it's warm enough to open windows (and until the moisture issue above the fireplace is resolved.)

The question I struggle with is, if you have places to hide it, is it clutter? Everything has a place in my living room (so far), which makes me think it's under control. So I put off the decisions until there is a space issue. But there probably is some stuff I really don't use or love. Le sigh.

I think the only way I might make progress this week is to move on to another one of the other projects calling my name.

Cure accomplishments so far listed on my blog, min hus

(aka minhus on flickr)

Some weeks have more motivation than others!

If something is in your house that you don't love and don't use, then you have clutter.

I have lots of things I *plan* to use--but the Cure is the time to reevaluate. Put an "expiry date" on some of those projects --the sooner the better.

Clearing out my fabrics and curtains was really hard this week precisely because I had had grand plans to sew this and fix that: and some of it I just had to be tough and say "bye-bye."

The others I'm getting to--fortunately, as I said, the machine seems fixed, so I hemmed another curtain panel and hung a set in the basement, and I sewed the side hems of yet another curtain I've been meaning to get to since the cure last fall. They seem really stiff, so I'm going to wash them and hopefully they'll soften up enough to drape nicely.

I've also read that clutter is just a deferred decision--so if you are dithering about keeping stuff or tossing it, decide! Stay or Go?

Think of it this way (I think Maxwell says this too)--clearing stuff out not only gives your place room to breathe--it allows other stuff, probably better stuff, room to move in.

I hope that made sense. I had to handle about three crises while I was typing this!

Thank you so much guys!
Francesca....I love that too! I'm always looking at what people read on here.
LOL Alana....my roommate and I actually got really motivated and painted and put together the expedit the night we got it. We just couldn't wait! We painted the kitchen the next day. We are certainly not always this productive, but last weekend we definitely were. :)

I have hit a wall this week. Between traveling too much for work, PMS blues, and hubby (very verbally) hating the new living room drapes, I just feel like throwing in the towel.

It just seems like as soon as I have one room pulled together, another room's junk takes over my progress. I know I need to get rid of more stuff (especially clothes...it's hard to accept clothes that fit a year ago don't anymore) I'm still having problems letting go.

Think I'm going to go play outside....maybe the gorgeous weather we're having will cheer me up.

What a shame he doesn't like them, but I can understand. They are very glamourous. Would he be able to accept them in the bedroom? I feel so badly for you. Can you guys talk about what he might like? Can you look at pictures of "glam" interiors...and get a feel for what he may like? or is it just the change? Can you negotiate a trial period, like--at the ed of two weeks (or whatever the return date is) if he still hates them, you'll take them down, but he has to help you figure out replacements?

About clutter migrating--Maxwell warns about that--and my house too looks worse than it ever has. (I just shift the piles for pictures--which is why there aren't that many!)

But I got my paint for the trunk--Finally!!!
I'm so excited.

My name is SCB and I have never been to IKEA. It's true. There's an IKEA 9 hours straight west of me, and an IKEA 9 hours northwest of me (those driving times may not be completely accurate, but you get the idea). Somehow it's a little far to pop over and take a look around. When I've been in City-to-the-West or City-to-the-Northwest, there's always been so many other things to do. Oh well...

My Curing went pretty much nowhere this week (although I did work out a possible floor plan for a future Living Room One-Room Remedy). I was a little under the weather, went to the doc, and got put on blood pressure medication, so I'm babying myself this weekend while I get used to the medication (and to the idea of the medication).

About clutter. It's the stuff all over the surface of my desk that accuses me every time I sit down at the computer and says "Put me away. Don't sit there reading blogs on your computer. Do something useful and put me away!" (Guess what I do...)

Alana -- I am so glad you got your paint!!! Yay! (Can hardly wait to see how the finished trunk looks!)

SCB -- Up until a few months ago, i too had never been to ikea. My first experience, during a trip to DC, was torture b/c we had a flight to catch and only got to go for 20 minutes. Tragic, right?!? I was THRILLED when ours opened in Cincy. It opened March 12th and I've already been twice. I can't imagine driving 9 hours to go, but if you're ever in a city that has one, take a couple of hours to check it out!!!

Alana - Thanks for the encouragement -- I think he's going to resist any window treatments b/c he loves the exposed brick (so do I...but I really think it needs to be softened by some fabric). He keeps saying they look like the Little Mermaid and now calls it our "aquatic room"...

As for returning them...that's a no go...I purchased the fabric a couple of years ago (back in my "glamourous" single days, for my "glamourous" downtown loft). They're DIY, not store bought...i guess I can use the fabric for something else IF they come down....i haven't conceded yet :)

On a happier note -- what paint color did you decide on for the trunk?!?

Monika--he's got a sense of humour, though, your guy. The "aquatic" room. I say put some fish prints on the wall and run with it....

Well, if they are DIY, and you want to use the fabric--would roman blinds do? Though, those should probably be in something heavier to be "stately"...like linen.

The story of the paint colour I chose is long....essentially, I chickened out of Maxwell's specific suggestion to go for "Rembrandt Red" (which Benjamin Moore would have to mix for me as we haven't the "Fine Paints of Europe" brand here (well, we have two outlets in Canada--one 16 hours west and one three and a 1/2 days east). I'd have to buy it if they mixed it and I could NOT tell the colour when they pulled it up on their computer screen. It just looked dark. There was no way to know WHAT it looked like, though the formula had 10x magenta to the red oxide--so it was going to be a very purply brown. Maybe--who knows, really? And paint is organic as well as chemical--so who knows if the paint mixed by BM would have been anything like what Maxwell even suggested?

Too many unknowns for this timid toe dipper, so I picked a pre-mixed oil based enamel called "Carnival Red." I like it a lot. It's VERY red, though.

(sorry, that's the short answer: red)

I'm just taking a break at the moment, actually, from scraping all the horrid white paint off the handles and the silver rivets. It was very badly painted by whomever had it before me.--What was that you said, Francesca, about being older and having perseverance? ;)

SCB--did you know that if you go to the Ikea in the West they give you back the GST, or something? If you can prove you are out of province--they give you some sort of big discount, anyway. And then you could visit me! (Well, maybe not. Your allergies and my house would probably not get along) But, we could go together. (But given your recent style tray--you'd best get a catalog well in advance of any trip. Only a few things would be your style.)

OK, I guess I'd better get back at it.

Trunk Update:
Well, I'm almost ready to paint. Man, what a lot of work.
The trunk really is a piece of crap. The rivets weren't evenly spaced, it's rusting a bit in spots around the metal, and the white paint job was bad. Really, really bad.

So, I can be depressed I have a piece of junk I'm gussying up--or I can be glad I can take a piece of junk and make it look good.

Now, to wash it (never easy) and to apply vaseline--with a Q-tip--to all those nasty rivets. It's the husband's idea, but the guy in the paint store said it would work: the oil paint won't react with it or pick it up. It'll be a very cool trick if it works.

Started on the woodwork this weekend. Got a bit done, which is just as well since my next two Saturdays are going to be busy on other projects.

One is "Rebuilding together", more scraping and painting, but on somebody other's home. Sometimes that is more fun than working on your own.

Sbc- Ikea is fun, but a few times I have bought things that I did not need, that went to the out box.

Alana -- I've used the vaseline trick when doing haircolor -- worked like a charm. No bright orange neck or earlobes. Can't wait to see pics when you're done :)

After a day in the sunshine at the ballpark (GO REDS!) and a cozy evening at home, my hormones are calming down and i feel better about life in general. It helps that hubby's jokes about our drapes are beginning to subside.

After taking some evening shots of our "cured" living room, I'm realizing how desperately we need a coffee table.

Does anyone have experience with this table:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70103698

or maybe these:

http://www.gaiam.com/product/eco-home-outdoor/living-space/decor/rush ottomans espresso finish.do

I'm coffee table clueless. Help please?!?

Monika - The Cincy IKEA is exactly where I'm headed in two weeks, yeah! (I'm in Columbus). And...can we outvote your hub on the curtains? Cause they're SO fab. I love, love, love them. But since I/we don't live there and he does, yeah, I guess the outvoting him bit is out. Bummer.

I managed to accomplish some work in the living room after all. I cleaned out all my living room hidey holes and threw stuff away and in the outbox. I also decided that part of my disappointment with the cure so far is because except for hanging new living room curtains, I've been doing more cleaning, which as you know, isn't permanent. I think focusing on one or two more lasting improvements a week will help me make the bigger overall changes I've been craving.

So yesterday I finally finished re-painting and hanging the darn hand towel hook in the bathroom and am quite pleased with it. I also started patching some old holes in the bathroom that were here before me and have been bugging me weekly, if not daily. They haven't been painted yet, but just seeing them patched is an improvement. Both of these were done in less than an hour, why did it take me so long to do it?

And now I feel like progress has been made. Bring on week 5!

Good going, Francesca. Do you mean the woodwork in the bathroom? Or the whole apartment?

Candice--you just made me realise why I have been taking on small projects, as well. Cleaning out a basement is satisfying but not energising. Little weekend projects are fun and gratifying--so I totally understand that!

Monika--I'm not crazy about that first coffee table pick--too hard and white for your space, I think. Glass, too, would be too modern, though easy to clean, but heavy to move.

I also think you need something round or oval...your furniture is very boxy and it would break that up a bit.

As for finish: I'm liking a light brown for some reason, but that's just me--and that's my 2 cents.

I have some progress pics of the trunk project up.
http://prairiehometherapy.blogspot.com/2008/04/weekend-project-trunk.html

Does anyone else have an impossible living room floorplan? My room is 9' by 14'. That sounds great except for the fact that one of the long walls is taken up by a doorway, closet door, and a radiator. One of the short walls is taken up by windows that I would rather not block, so it only leaves two usable walls. Grrrr it's hard to explain. Just check it out and let me know what you think.

Here's the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harmonyfrance/

I don't mean to sound ornery guys I'm just frustrated with this room. :)

OK, harmony, I left a few comments. You really do have a challenge on your hands with it.

Hi everyone! We went to Ikea (my Mr. for the very first time) and although he didn't actually enjoy it- he was good about it and let me have my time. We bought a small kitchen rolling cart and a few small things for the house. Then we went and saw friends, ate lunch (OUTSIDE at a cafe- and since I live in Mi that's an achievement) and watched some sort of parade. We had an adult afternoon out with no kids. YEA!

Ikea is a 3 hour drive one way for me, so I don't get to go nearly as much as I'd like, but it keeps me from buying a bunch of stuff I really don't need.