EastVillageAmy says: I was reluctant to sign up for the Spring cure because I have a few other projects going on and most of the major stuff will have to wait for the summer (and my raise to kick in.) But seeing some familiar names going with a Cure lite has inspired me to do it again.
Welcome everyone and what a big group. As we get started I want to address one question about the signup - we only collected emails and addresses so that we knew where you were and could contact you and mail you a Cure Diploma at the end. It's totally private, so don't worry. While you start reading, taking the quiz and/or get working on your home, I have gone through our Flickr pool and pulled just a couple of your pics. If you want to highlight your pics, put your link in with your comments. This will allow us all to talk about one and learn from one another's project.
>> Alana in Canada's blogging her Cure and already listed her week one goals.
Welcome to our fifth Eight Step Cure!
This Week's Assignment: Get your hands on a copy of the book and read through page 69. This gives you all the ground work and gets you started with the interview and short quiz on the health of your home...
Starting this week, we'll be getting started on
Curing our homes, following the eight chapters of our book, Apartment Therapy: The Eight Step Home Cure. Our goal? To form an online group together and share in making our own homes beautiful, healthy and organized in time for Thanksgiving. For the first time, we're also holding the Cure in four cities: CH, SF, LA and NY, so you can join a group that's close to you.
>> For all info go to the The Cure Archive.
>> The Cure posts will go up twice a week, allowing for plenty of comment space. We will be pulling comments and pics to the front page post each week and everyone is urged to take pics and post them to this great Flickr pool or simply tag them with "apartmenttherapycure." See our old pics here too.
>> The Fall Cure is live in all four of our Home city sites:
• Chicago & their Flickr group
• San Francisco & their Flickr group
• Los Angeles & their Flickr Group
• New York & our Flickr group
Please choose the site nearest your home to join, but feel free to browse on all!
NOTE: We're having trouble pulling up the Book Blog right now, but should have it up by tomorrow and will post to the front of the blog to notify you
Ellen's Thirties Style Small Space
Juan's Garage Turned Modern Guest House
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Commercial Flour Sa...
10 Picnic-Ready Salads to Eat Outside
Recipe: Thai Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry
I've got my goals posted for the first week of the hybrid/basement cure.
http://prairiehometherapy.blogspot.com/
What do plan to get done this week--and when?
Slightly random question, but it came up yesterday:
What hours are reasonable to be doing things in your apartment involving hammering or moving large pieces of furniture?
During the week, I was thinking 10am until about 9-10pm, and starting at noon and ending around 9-10pm on weekends. I'm not talking continuous or all that forceful hammering, nor dropping an entire elephant.
I want to be a good neighbor.
Sciencegeek--if you have neighbours with children, I'd recommend knocking off about 8:30 or so. That's about when my husband says it's too late to mow the lawn. (When there's lawn to mow, there's light to do it by late at night.)
I think when it's dark it's too late to be making noise...
Started the cure with a bang! Filled my outbox with my dresser purge, started on curtains...and we tiled our backsplash!!
http://flickr.com/photos/jjburke/
Just check under sets for "the cure" that way you won't have to go through all the family photos!
I'll be doing the cure in Tel Aviv! Last time I did some major work to the bedroom and bit to living room. Now I need to rearrange and declutter the living room/kitchen to make room for a nice study space for two... on a tight budget.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urban_hipster/sets/72157601653188515/
I've posted my "before"-photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36m2/sets/72157604068598538/
My goals are:
- decluttering my home-office
- decluttering my living room
- decluttering my basement storage room
After this i want to:
-reorganize the storage in the basement
-create a reading area in my living room by adding / re-arranging some furniture
The major "decluttering" will be done the Easter weekend, sorting through on friday, and bringing the stuff to the recycling center on saturday.
After last year's experience, redoing my kitchen with the support of other fellow curer's , i'm really looking forward to tackle this, and i'm much more motivated doing this with feedback of the group !
I started the cure last fall but got abruptly derailed. Here are the before pics from back then. Have done some decluttering/pruning since, but the big news is that I have bought my place so now I can, in theory, do a great deal with it. I'm starting with paint (goodbye white walls), new light fixtures, and getting rid of some furniture. As a result, my cure-ing might be a bit out of order, but I'll do my best to stay in the game. This week's goals (since I already read/did questionnaire) -- finalize paint colors, schedule painter, bring old linens to recycling event this Saturday. I've already purchased new light fixtures for the kitchen, bathroom, and entryway -- they'll be installed as part of the painting process, as will new switchplate covers and three dimmers. Woo hoo!
I was worried about the "when it is dark" issue. I inevitably get home after dark and I'm sympathetic to people who don't want to get up early, so I'm avoiding the morning hours before 10am. Of course I leave for work long before that.
My family is visiting this weekend and most of my possessions are in boxes. Getting them (my possessions, not my family) out of boxes requires putting together and moving furniture. I could take a day off from work but it isn't politically good to do that right now.
I don't think the neighbors have kids.
Sciencegeek, just go talk to your neighbors and tell them that you need to move stuff around and that it's going to be an exception to your usual very quiet ways :)
About the cure: I think I'll make a vid and post it to youtube as a "what I need to do" list. More to come.
in previous cures, there was a link on the first page of AT that brought you to a list of all the cure posts to make it easier to follow along. I hope the PTB set up something like that this time around, especially as there are 4 Cures ongoing...
I'm planning to blog my process (and post photos on Flickr, of course). I'm trying to link to other AT NY Cure Patients who are blogging. Hopefully I'm not missing too many people: http://j-fer-rose.blogspot.com/
Ok, so here are my videos with the items I need to take care of this cure. It's mostly about closets this time! Pardon the French accent and the lack of vocabulary, I get nervous when I speak English. :)
Vid one : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iap2WAiVqYY
Vid two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0OLHlY8VWU&feature=related
i do not like banging and such after 9pm. i'm watching television, reading or on the computer. that is really annoying. if it goes past 10pm, i'll be a knockin' at 10:01 sharp.
personally, i do noisy stuff on the weekend. it's fair to all parties and my energy is up.
Here are my photos from the end of the last cure, nothing has really changed except for me putting the menorah away:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12721467@N02/page1/
My goals for this cure are to just recharge and nip any backsliding in the bud. I want to get around to painting the trim and radiator and organizing the "office" closet.
My washing machine finally came and now I'm in heaven, well almost heaven I still need to get extender hoses so I can put it at the far end of the kitchen. But this is such a blessing because laundry was my main clutter.
Also I've noticed in the past few months that I'm really drawn to the farm house/plantation homes, but that's not plausible at the moment or in the city so I'd like to find ways to incorporate that aesthetic in my tiny manhattan hobbit hole. Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Eve, love your video tour, such a great home!
Regarding me, I'm a her. The camellias really are pretty in the winter. And hi Alana! I look forward to Curing with you again.
This week I've been trying to figure out whether to keep or dispose of a pitted chrome light fixture. Has anyone ever used Miracle Metal Polish to spruce up their chrome?
Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. I hit a wall today (well, literally and figuratively... the broom handle made a nice little scuff mark in the living room), so I decided to do one little thing well to lift my spirits. I know it sounds silly, but I polished a silver tray (we use it for mail) with toothpaste and had so much fun! Pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kakatie/sets/72157604109523110/
Hey, wig3000.
Glad you liked the picture, Maxwell.
Cleaned out a dresser today and discussed hiring someone to haul some stuff to the dump--some of it left over from the Fall Cure and sitting frozen and buried under the snow all winter. You just can freecycle old floor tiles and a cracked toilet.
In a fit of galloping curitis I also wiped down all my kitchen cabinets and cleaned out my "platic container" drawer. I had more than 35 superfluous lids.
And--if you are blogging the cure, do leave a link in the thread and I'll do my best to keep up with you all.
Ooops, that should be "You just can NOT freecycle..."
Thanks EastVillageAmy!
I forgot to show the mess under the bathroom vanity and the litchen sink. :/ I will need to take care of it! I also need art for the wall above my couch.
I'll be honest, after signing up, I was sort of feeling less than enthusiastic. But, you can find my progress at: http://www.compassandcoffeespoons.typepad.com and http://www.flickr.com/photos/43851127@N00/
Thanks for the tour, Eve. You have a lovely place. Wonderful bones to work with. I think you're right that you want to focus on more storage solutions and a bit of art. Looking forward to the transformation.
My cure this year is mostly deep cleaning and some random projects in each of my rooms.
My goals:
Bedroom: Inject a bit more color. Investigate ceiling fan.
Workspace: A more sophisticated workspace - mostly throwing stuff out, but considering painting the brown wall the same warm white/yellow color as the rest of the room- to lighten/brighten things up in my north-facing apartment.
Living Area: Bring some lively spring color into my living room - new pillows for the sofa, possibly cover the chair... green? Can green and pops of red live harmoniously? We shall see...
Kitchen: Free up counter space, take advantage of over-cabinet storage whil fighting ugly clutter.
I first have made some crude/fast photoshop mockups of a couple of my rooms. Check out my ideas here:
http://flickr.com/photos/68987525@N00/sets/72157604004632147/
Unfortunately, the fabric I ordered to cover my living room chair with just isn't going to work- the scale of the pattern is just too small & busy. :-(
Onward & upward!
This is my first cure, and my goals are simple: fix all the mistakes the last owner left us.
This woman seriously did not clean her house in 17 yrs and we are left with broken furnaces, ripped up air ducts, clogged pipes, doors that have swelled beyond their hinges, and a strange wallpaper that follows you around
See what I mean?
http://flickr.com/photos/squeegeebeckenheim/2330731071/
I'm "curing" my junior 1-bedroom in hopes of entering it in the Smallest Coolest contest for this year. (When does that open up and how does one enter anyway?) I'm not sure if it can live up to some of the amazing designs I've seen, but just getting it primped enough so that I'm confident enough to actually to post pictures would be quite an accomplishment!
OK, my photos are finally up :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelann/sets/72157604118508837/
Just looking at the photos has me looking at my space in new ways. My major goals are cleaning and decluttering, and injecting a more defined style into my decor. I guess I'd define it as girly-beachy-bohemian-eclectic? yeah, tough to nail down. It really boils down to the fact that I just want to be surrounded by the things that make me smile.
My most specific goal is making my desk area into more of a craft workspace - I need to hide the cables and put up shelves for fabric and notions. I don't want to have to hunt through my closet every time I want to make something.
I'm a little behind progress-wise. I'm making lists and starting to purge, and I bought lovely white tulips!
Hi everyone,
My bedroom has never been what I wanted it to be, so I'm curing it! This is my first cure as well, and I'm excited and a little intimidated. My main problem is committing to one idea--I have too many. I buy fabric i never use and collect paint swatches for paint i never buy!
I'm hoping with a little guidance I can settle upon a plan for my lackluster bedroom. I want it to be inviting and stylish and not overly matchy..it needs to have personality and be someplace that I actually want to spend time--that's my main goal.
My flickr photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sidneys_cure/
I'm going to be looking for some helpful guidance to edit down my ideas and make my room a reality!
Laurelann, I love the moldings and doors in your apartment, overall great bones.
Thanks Amy - for a rental, the details are pretty special. (most of my doorknobs are the old fashioned glass kind, which I adore!) The picture frame molding in the bedroom is actually kind of a pain when it comes to furniture placement, it looks weird if anything is off center.
Something I forgot to post before - doe anyone know how to keep my bed from rolling around?? The "brakes" don't seem to work and every time I lean against the wall to read in bed my bed rolls away from the wall and my pillows fall through!
laurelann: brick or doorstop.
Laurelann you could also get those bed riser things to stop the rolling and might give you some storage space under the bed if you decide to put stuff under there.
Laurelann, there are flat rubber "cups" (2in diameter) that you can buy in hardware stores for that exact purpose... 3$
(My bed moved even sans wheels. These did the trick)
my cure is slow going. i seem to be really busy these days. and now, on saturday morning, here i am at the office. =( hoping to get out of here soon, so i can go home & clean my floors!
although i did buy some pretty flowers this week.
Jodi,
simply buying flowers for your home is great. Keep going, even if it's slow!
Best, Maxwell
>> that WAS me, Maxwell, but I was signed on as Sara Kate ;-)
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it's been very rainy and grey here all week -- great for staying indoors and working on this but not good for taking photos of the process. we are really using the cure as a final step in our move-in process, so we posted before pictures of our empty place when we moved in. we feel like we've made a lot of progress in some spots and none in others, but are aiming to even that out before the end of the eight weeks. we made a little check list for each week of the cure and did fine for week one but then made a mess of some of our tidying when we found out someone was coming to photograph my workroom in a couple weeks...so that room has now been overhauled and excess furniture has come for a visit in the hallway. Hoping to solve that problem this weekend!