apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I am very excited to get going. This is my last ditch effort to pull together our house before baby #2 (due late April). So I need to condense a couple of weeks to finish up early. We just moved to a 3br house from a 1br apartment so the issues are more about empty space, empty walls and a bit of an echo. Although there's always junk to get rid of too!

meredith1... I have the opposite issues! Good luck with the new baby... this will probably help out getting everything in its place before the baby :)

We moved to Denver last year and downsized from a 4000sqft house in Indiana to 2300 in the city. Now I have a dining table that is too big among other large pieces. We have spent the last few months trying to rearrange all this stuff. I have most of it working... just in time for my husband to be transferred AGAIN (I feel like he is in the military, only he's not). I really want to get things in order before our house goes on the market.... I want it to sell FAST.

We got one bathroom spruced up and some curtains hemmed this weekend. Up next we are going to paint our front porch (it is more of a deck), spruce up the other bathroom, and clean up the carpet in the main areas. We have some little things as well.

I still have to go get my book... on my list of things do this weekend that didn't get done!

I keep reading about all these great Ikea finds. When, oh when will ours be built?

No doubt! I have a few things on my list from Ikea, but shipping is CRAZY... only love for Ikea!

I live in an overpriced 450 square foot piece-of-junk apartment with almost no natural light (none in the living room) and the bones of the apartment are in desperate need of some TLC--nothing a coat of Super White paint won't fix, well, that and a new shower, fridge, and new floors.

Hopefully going through with the spring cure will, um, cure, the apartment. I already have a few items in the Outbox.

ndc, Ikea won't be here until 2011 at the earliest. I heard three years from now. But I'm sure a drive to the middle of Utah for some Ikea goods would be delightful.

Hi Denver!

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.

ok so im joining a bit late. My book is on its way I guess I will have a little catch up to do when it gets here.

My boyfriend and I have been in a new apartment for almost a year now and still have not managed to settle in and make it a home. I've made big headway this winter overhauling the bedroom and starting in on the kitchen (both relatively easy tasks) to try and gain some momentum for the main living area.

The biggest challenge is this space serves many functions; home office for me, occasional study area for boyfriend (certification tests), living room, and dining room. The space is also just a big box; no interesting nooks or architectural details to break up the space in any obvious way.

I'm hoping the cure will motivate me to come up with a solid plan and create a functional yet pleasing and relaxing living space with some separation between work/leisure areas.

Is anyone interested in having a Denver group on flickr? I looked at some of the other groups, but they were so large I had trouble navigating. I thought a smaller group might be more managable. Thoughts?

meredith1, that sounds like a good idea. Post a link if you set one up.

I'm a little new to flickr, but I've set up just a basic public group. Let me know if you have any problems/suggestions.

Thanks, Meredith

http://www.flickr.com/groups/denverspringcure09/pool/

medenver..so cute!..hahah..I rely on Super White B.Moore paint for all things ugh! Brightens and livens up apartments/rooms...kind of makes them look like an artist's studio look..or beachy..or just not as GRUBBY!!!..and any color in those rooms POPS..way cool...! (East Coaster here)

We are talking about doing two rooms white... I may have to go with the Super White! I am also going to join the flickr group :)

I am running out of steam. Maybe its the cooler weather... I just can't seem to keep up with what I want done. Urg.

Oh yes, thelittlestmonster, I have also bitten off more than I can chew. Just have to keep pushing. I've found that keeping the place tidy motivates me to get the projects done. Although my gigantic outbox is filling up a large chunk of the living room. Soon, it will all be gone though.

My projects are time-consuming:
- (almost done) Paint the black-framed leaning mirror white.
- Paint the living room and bathroom super white.
- Re-assemble the cubitec shelving unit I screwed up the first time.
- (maybe) Apply "stainless steel" contact paper to the hideous puke-green fridge.

If anyone has any pointers on how to go about these tasks, it would be much appreciated.

Keep on it littlestmonster, the weather recently is kind of down putting but this is the time to do it, when its sunny and nice out in a month or two you wont want to stay in and do it.

Medenver if you haven't painted before I would suggest reading up really carefully on the different types of paints and their best uses and how to properly prime and prepare surfaces. I had an almost catastrophic incident this summer trying to paint some furniture because I was stupid enough to just buy some spray paint on a whim and give it a go. not that simple apparently!



I finally got around to setting up a flickr account and posted my before shots to the denver pool. Ive been tied up with taxes but finally finished them and am eager to get some real work done. So far I have just been editing and getting rid of stuff and shopping for furniture in my spare time. Unfortunately this is a rental and I cant paint or do anything too damaging to the unit so I have a lot of planning to figure out on how to accomplish what I want with furniture and layout.

Ive already found a few promising and well priced leads on a more compact desk and some shelves and other storage so my office doesn't completely dominate the room. I am excited to see how those work out. Need to take some measurements and make a floor plan to try it out.

Hi Denver!

I thought I would drop by to see how you guys are doing and it looks like everyone is doing fantastic! Thanks so much for all your hard work and participation!

Make sure to tag your photos with the main Flickr name as well so when we go to do our posts during the week we can see them as well!

Keep it up and have a great weekend, in my own space I put on a record and hung artwork (which had been put off since it had to be done 20ft in the air and in masonry) dusted all the collectibles and started plans for our dinner party at the end of the cure!

Go get em Denver!

-Sarahrae

Can anybody recommend a house painter in Denver? We were focusing on the deep treatment and saving painting for a one-room treatment during the fall cure. But now we're reconsidering. Then again, baby's due in three weeks so this may be biting off more than we can chew! Thanks in advance for any referrals.

meredith1 - I don't have any local suggestions for you, but I can tell you there are more than few willing people on Craigslist looking for handyman work with the unemployment rate going up.

Best- Sarahrae

Well, I don't know if others have gotten off track as I have a bit, but I feel like I've at least accomplished some things.

Rearranged bedroom and living/dining furniture.
Painted giant leaning mirror.
Painted living/dining room.
Got rid of lots of stuff (entire outbox).
Replaced hideous ceiling medallion in living room.

Hope everyone else around here is getting stuff done!

That sounds like more than I have medenver! Got a little distracted this weekend with company but hoping to jump back into it this week.

I have gotten my old desk out and the new one in. Big improvement. Our room was fairly empty and did not have the furniture for all of our needs, so I have been doing a lot of shopping/research for that. Already bought an ottoman which i hope to top with a tray for a coffee table and also be able to use as extra seating in a pinch, or well... as an ottoman!

I did also tackle a small landing strip make over and am doing The Kitchen Cure on the food site of AT as well since the living room is open to the kitchen.

I did manage to fill a sizable outbox with office supplies, computer hardware/devices, and media. I am still looking for ways to ditch it. Was able to sell a few things on Craigslist and some books on amazon but I think its time to just donate/recycle whats left from the initial purge.

Any suggestions on where to donate media in the downtown area? (Books, VHS tapes, DVDs?) Books will be easy most libraries will take them, i think. The VHS tapes might prove to be a challenge! Nobody wants those anymore

Also any tech/computer recycling/disposal programs in the Denver area much appreciated! I have some old hardware such as broken drives, power supplies, video cards, printer etc to get rid of. All are non functional or so old nobody would need/want them. I have seen Office Depot does it but they look pricey, about $25 per box (and they are small boxes!). Has to be a cheaper way?

Hope everyone else is doing well!

adamwa, I always donate to the Assistance League of Denver at Colfax and Humboldt, but there are lots of donation drop-off sites around town.

As for recycling tech equipment, you can check out http://www.irecyclecolorado.com/ (which costs $0.15 per pound) or you could probably just set it in an alley and someone will take it.

Good job with the desk. That looked like a huge pain!

My friend Jim Williams owns a painting company called Papillion Painting. He is a bartender at Pece Fresco in the DTC too. He does great work and actually has an art degree from Iowa. Plese let me know if anyone needs to get intouch with him

Another thing- everyone please do not use craigslist. It is extremely dangerous, especially for women. I have had a personal experience with the authorities being involved.

Sorry Nessy, but I have to disagree with you about Craigslist. I have always had positive experiences on Craigslist in Denver/Boulder and think that you just have to exercise caution and common sense when doing transactions.

I found a great red leather mod chair on CL and a few ikea items at more than 1/2 off... I went in the day time, had my phone on me, and made sure to take a friend (whom i bought lunch for) so that nothing could go wrong. that's the thing, you can't go alone to someone else's house - that's where the problem may lay.