apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I FINALLY chucked a badly stained, heavy as all get out, cat abused loveseat this week and built a brand new one. If anyone is looking for Ikea prices, slightly better quality, is willing to build it yourself, want to be able to choose from a ton of fabrics and don't need a high end item, take a look at http://www.homereserve.com/ and what they have to offer. Read the FAQ for a laugh, actually. It's quite funny. But the instructions were super easy. Built it in an evening with a plain old manual screwdriver. The piece even has storage in it!

Sooo glad to be rid of that albatross of a loveseat. I've had it far too long. There's only so much a slipcover can do.

I need to fix my life.

Oh great shove, I need it.

This week I will fix the medicine cabinet that won't shut. It is a built in, original to the house (1923) and I had a new mirror attached to the door about 3 years ago(shocked having finally done that math!) Since then it doesn't close properly.

I removed the new hinges and put the old ones back on. I had sanded the door down to the bare wood and yet it still sticks in a few places. I'm going to take it down again this weekend and see if I can figure it out. Any suggestions appreciated.

I totally just did this!

I hated the "spermatozoa"-themed light fixtures that were included in the condo I'm renting:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/xkwizzit/oldlights.jpg


So I took a stroll through IKEA and found my solution in the As Is section:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/xkwizzit/newlights1.jpg


I installed little flush-mount lights to go over the counter, which really opens things up from kitchen to living space. The cord on the pendant lamp was about three feet too long for my pub-style dining table...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/xkwizzit/newlights2.jpg

...so I chopped a bunch of cable off and made it look super cute!

It was a small change that made me hate my really generic rental condo a whole lot less. And I can always re-install the sperm lights when I move out.

[Major bonus: those three light fixtures cost me a total of $6.50. I'm dead serious.]

Just yesterday I replaced a leaky faucet in my laundry room, and also repaired the toilet in the downstairs bathroom which mysteriously 'broke' when my teenager had 30 kids down there last week for a party when they were on spring break.

I also painted the downstairs guest room last week! I am feeling very accomplished!

i need to have to landlord snake my shower drain... it backs up... i keep forgetting or else the days i remember my place is a bit messy... =|

my landlord**

This isn't as exciting as a cool lamp fixture, but I was happy with it. We have a pink/peach plaid couch monstrosity. It works just fine, so we bought a slipcover for it. And that worked for a while, but because the cushion had a seperate cover, it kept sliding off, which made the whole cover came off.

I went to the store and bought a roll of that no slide stuff for shelving. Then I cut a length of it and removed the couch cushions. Using four safety pins, I pinned the length to the couch underside. It works now!

The only other things that are broken (one outlet, and a bathroom fixture) have to fixed by our apt's workers. They're awesome!

For my weekend: the linen closet is a mess. Nothing is broken, but a pillow fell on me last week when I opened the door. Things are overstuffed and falling off shevles. My housekeeper can't be expected to put things on the right shelf if I can't cull my collection of sheets and pillowcases to a reasonable number. I'll then clean the shelves and vaccum the floor in there. Then I WILL take what I get rid of to the charity drop before Monday. I will NOT let it sit in the trunk of my car for three months and drive it around like a lazy idiot.

I have a LIST but today I fixed three things- some lampshade that don't fit quite right, a sliding couch and I primed some bare wood in the bathroom. Woot!