apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Since we are sharing our struggles, I am stalled out in Week One .

While blaming life (two week-ends out of town, long hours, etc.), I realized yesterday that my real problem is that every decision I try to make eventually leads to some existential crisis. Example: Should I paint the bathroom a different color?--->How much should I invest if I want to move to a new city? ---> What if the poor housing market means I can't sell my place next year? ---->What am I going to do with my life?

Obviously, that is a bit oversimplified, but you get the gist. So, I've decided to re-dedicate this week and focus on those things that I know will help and then focus on the big questions later. Example, getting rid of the clutter is good no matter what I eventually decide to do.

I'll be back later with pictures. Thanks again to those of you on the ball for being such inspirations!

avocado, I think you're overthinking a bit, I agree that you can't go wrong with things like cleaning and decluttering but what I think you should do is decide right away how much you are willing to invest. New paint if you do it yourself is not a huge investment, new curtains etc. you can take with you. But I think you'll have an easier time of it if you make a few basic budgetary decisions right away and then not have to have the "where am I going with my life" crisis every time you want to fix something. And you should totally post pictures.

Avocado -- Everything leads to an existential crisis because an existential crisis is lying in wait for you, licking its chops. You're going to have it, willy-nilly, so you may as well have it in a clean house.

If your crisis has to do with possibly selling, go to the library and get a nice book on home staging. At least 80% of the typical staging advice applies equally well to living in the house/apartment, and it'll be cheerful stuff like having a clean doormat. The material is usually also extremely compatible with the Cure book, but will help you set priorities for where to spend on Curing.

Once your home is Cured and staged, you can have your existential crisis with the security that your home will support whatever decision you make.

That sounds like good advice for anyone who wants to make improvements without big investments. You know how sometimes people clean up just for the buyers and then wonder why they didn't do it earlier? I guess that's what we're avoiding.

Avacado (and anyone else "stuck" on the Cure) -

I highly recommend reading Peter Walsh's (HGTV's "Clean Sweep") book - "It's All Too Much". This is not to take anything away from Maxwell, but, rather to underscore what he has to say. Sometimes "two heads are better than one".

It sounds like you are stuck on "stuff" and "stuff" is not where you want to start.

I'm wondering if anyone has any insight on what to do when your living partner isn't so into your AT cure. While I am full force ahead, my boyfriend (who thinks his ancient futon is the best piece of furniture ever made, and thus can never leave our house-even though he NEVER sits on it) is quite on the train. I'm doing my best to compromise, since this is his house too, but its difficult. Anyone sharing my pain?

I, too, feel like there have been a lot of obstacles to my cure, besides just being out of town and busy on weekends. I started off doing a bedroom-focused cure, but have branched off into some other rooms as well.

The biggest obstacle is probably the budget. I plan to have the carpet torn out of my bedroom and replaced with strand bamboo flooring, but the one bid I received so far was about $1,000 more than I'd estimated. I'm really torn on whether I can install the flooring myself. I might just go for it, but that probably won't happen within the next month.

My other big obstacle is my own indecisiveness. Avocado, I feel your pain! Should I paint one wall in my bedroom? Panel it? What dressers should I order? What colors should I use for accessories? I keep going back and forth on my options, without making a decision.

I have accomplished a few things, though. I have a cracked celestory window in my bedroom, and I have arranged for someone to come repair it. I am having him replace the cracked sidelight by the door at the same time.

Last week we figured out we had termites in our guest bathroom. They have probably been there for years, because their "mud tube" reaches from below the foundation up to our roof. We had someone come and spray termite-killer in the wall last weekend. It's a temporary fix--remodeling and replacement of the roof will be necessary to repair the damage and prevent it from recurring--but I feel better that less bugs are eating the house right now, at least.

I will post pictures of current progress soon. Thanks everyone for posting their stories and pictures. Knowing that others are sharing the same types of obstacles gives me encouragement.

Jess2nola: Living with boys is hard. The current boy and I have a nice arrangement where we visit each other a lot and are very glad we're not on opposite sides of the country anymore and are also equally glad that we don't live together at this point, although we spend enough time in eachother's apartments. He's welcome to his opinion on my design sensabilities, and he knows that compliments will be appriciated and criticisims will be taken into account if valid and ignored if I think he's being ridiculous.

That being said, and this is probably terrible advice, if you're living with a futon lover, the only thing you can do is to steamroll over him. I would bet that if you start making changes for the better he'll see you were right all along and possibly get into the swing of things. If there's going to be an argument about the futon, its not really about the futon anyway. Make sure he's compromising with you too, otherwise its not a compromise.

I'm sorry... I watched that terrible TLC show 1 Week to Save Your Marriage last night. The guy on there was a huge jerk, so I'm a little militatnt today.

Well, there's always shaming... once I got our former bedroom, from the futon era, posted as a Good Question on ATLA (back before ATSF existed), the husband suddenly fell into line with plans to buy real furniture.

There was probably a "what's stopping us from doing this?" discussion in there somewhere, in which it was determined that he was digging in his heels because he didn't want to go through the trouble of making decisions. That's fair enough, as long as the non-decision-maker gets out of the way of the person who wants to do the work.

I'll tell ya, though -- it is way harder to maintain order when you live with the guy. I was ready to be done with the commuter marriage thing... but... the price of togetherness is an apartment that's never quite as pristine.

oh cure obstacles. yup, know about those. kinda broken finger on dominant hand turned into very broken and needed surgery finger so all the diy projects i had in mind for my bedroom cure will have to be farmed out or postponed. farmed out means rethinking the budget; postponed means...well, it's invigorating galloping towards the finish line with such a great group. luckily, i've been waiting to do the cure on the bedroom since the end of the last cure so i've got a little wiggle room -- my shopping list / spread sheet is already done and a friend mentioned in passing that she might gift me with painting my bedroom for me which would be awesome! so cross your fingers for me (can't cross em for myself LOL) and we'll see what happens...

My toilet works! I'm so excited! And can't quite believe I was prepared to pay a plumber to do that! Next up, the sink!

Things I have done, am doing, so far. Here I'm listing only the things I've done that don't usually get done (for example, I usually clean with eco-products, often sit in unused parts of my rooms, etc.):

- getting flowers regularly
- replaced stove
- had gas pipes refitted so stove fits properly
- cleared clutter and thrown out 3 bags of clothes, books, kitchen implements, etc.
- made a list of all repairs, interior design ideas
- cleaned *everything* in my kitchen
- rearranged the furniture in my entire studio apartment
- bought the expensive DESU coat rack for my hallway coats

Things I have NOT DONE: There are so many in this category. I will list ONLY the ones that I seem to have a block about. The rest of the unnamed to-do's I have some hope will get done.... But these here are my particular stumbling areas, and I am really dragging my feet on them! WHY??

- toilet leaks really badly whenever it flushes - large spout of water fills up half a bowl each time. No plans to get it fixed yet, and the problem seems to get worse each day.
- ceiling paint in bathroom is badly cracked; thick curls of paint chips are peeling off
- felt all my walls by hand
- cooked a 'real' meal. I'm using my kitchen a LOT more, it's true.... but I'm cheating by buying most things ready-made and them 'preparing' them in a 'cooked at home' sort of way.
- determined my style. Here, one of my problems is colors - I don't seem to understand the warm/cool rule, and I can't even tell what I have in my home. My favorite colors are in this color chip link of great summer photos:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/color-chips/color-chips-june-garden-collection-010032
What sort of color scheme is that, when you toss in a light sky-blue?

Sea, you could do a lot with those colors. Considering the light blue, you could pull a serene pallet with that as the big color and put in accents of the purple, fuschia, orange and yellow. Green would probably best be added as plants.

What's your style? You can go cottage, romantic, if you're middle of the road/Crate & Barrel-ish, you could translate that to a light blue couch cover with the bold colors in as pillows, rugs, throws, baskets and vases.

There is a real harmony in that scheme.

I've always owned a lot of stuff, and never had any trouble getting rid of it all in the past, mainly because when I got rid of it I moved across the country. Now that I am not moving, it is way harder to get rid of stuff. I know that I don't need all of this, that it is getting in the way of having a fabulous house, that it takes me twice as much time to clean and that takes away from my time with my 3yr old. Still, I am having troubles. I have gotten thrown away 2 station wagon loads, and have donated another 2 loads to the womens shelter in town. I feel better than I have in a long time, but it feels like a long road is ahead still. The funny thing, I used to teach planning and organizational skills for business executives, and now I have trouble keeping my own pantry organized.

So far I have been pretty on track with the cure each week. The difficult part this week is that I have to cure my books and music. It is not to hard to cure the books I have read, but the music is a different story. I have 3 boxes of tapes I hate to get rid of. I rarely play them, but the music is part of my past and the idea of just tossing them out is hard. I do not have an Ipod, but wish I could magically transfer all of my music to a digital format. I would love to hear some suggestions from anyone else who has dealt with this dilemma. Part of me says just toss the boxes and don't look back.

LynneF

I've had a really hard time doing the cooking. I was enthused about it and doing well, but my weekend got shot when I had to go into work on Sunday (what has been my flower-buying/cleaning/cooking day). I did manage to paint my living room, and now I'm staring at ALL the pictures I have to hang back up. It does make a huge difference though.

I think of the meal I didn't cook, the walls I didn't feel, and I feel like I'm doing a crap job. But then I saw Sea's lists and they reminded me that there are lots of things I HAVE done, too.

It's just easy to beat yourself up about all the things you haven't done, or expectations you haven't met, as opposed to giving yourself a pat on the back for doing plenty of things right. I even think a little reward might be in order...next time I go flower-buying, I'm getting myself a nice bottle of wine to have with that dinner!

Thanks, Lady J

I don't know what my style is - somehow both modern and country traditional. Never frilly, probably not cottage unless it's the very simplest kind. I like your idea of saving the green for plants - I've often wondered, given how much I love green, why I keep shying away from painting a wall or some such green. I think it's because you're instinct is right, and I should just let the live things like plants speak for themselves.
(Same deal with black - I don't have much at all in my place... but I would love a black pet, preferably a cat, moving around the place!)

Oh, and I should note that in that summer color chip scheme linked in my post above, one thing I *love* is the cool silver of the wire in the middle photo, and the light purple at the top. So does that make the harmony in this color bunch warm or cool? I can't tell!

- Some day I'm going to upload photos to flickr to get some more specific feedback.... But that's one of the 'To do' items that I'm having trouble getting to! Should have added it to my list above.

Speaking of which, Lady J, I think you had a flickr page -- You should post the link to it in your profile page under your website, so we can look at it again!

One thing that we did in the last Cure that seemed to be a really good motivator - before you post that Still To Do list on here, make a list of all the stuff you HAVE done. Even the little stuff. Like organizing your silverware drawer. Or whatever. There is a lot of little stuff getting done here that we would not normally be doing and it is all good! Don't forget how hard you are working!

Although, I may be excessively proud of getting that toilet hooked up. But it was way cheaper than a plumber.

lorijo,

You seem like you're in pretty good shape to me. So what if there's more clutter to clear! A couple station-wagons full seems more than good enough for now.

I've been doing serious clutter-clearing for each of the past five years. I'm not kidding: five years straight. Major, major stuff. But I started in 2002 - after getting rid of what I thought was everything in a big move. But then I still had enough to fill into a good-size moving van, stuffed it all into a 12 by 18 foot studio, and finally got the idea to do more than try to organize it into a little space. Now I'm in a slightly bigger space, and I'm still in the clutter-clearing kick. Each year it gets easier [and harder, because I like what I have left more and more!]. I don't know if this helps or makes things sound like they will take too long. But I think it *does* take a long while.... and each step along the way looks pretty great, so that's okay.

Now, when people come over they think I'm one of those neat and organized, rather non-materialistic, people -- but I'm not! Just that years and years of getting rid of stuff will make it seem like that. My best friends who've known me for decades are highly amused - some of them remember when you couldn't see the floor in my bedroom. (Okay, that was a couple decades ago... it would take much more than five years to get as far away from *that* as I am now!)

Anne (in Reno) - well done on fixing your toilet! Have you decided about shelves / art above, yet?

I'm doing ok, sorta. I am still glad about the chairs, but now I am stuck on the Awesome Room. I have 3 bits of stuff to get for it, and then can start putting some things away, but I am stuck on just ordering the the 3 bits. I spend way too much time looking at other options and it's a little bit exhausting. I need to just get the 3 bits of furniture and move on.

Jess2nola, what does your person like about the futon? If they aren't sitting on it, do they use it for something else? Or do they just like the idea of it for something? We have a futon in our living room right now that is moving into the awesome room for company, but we have talked about it. I am actually the one who likes sleeping on it, but I'm going to switch over to a daybed that is more couch like. We do have discussions about things like lamps and I am always surprised to hear that mr. kendra.e really likes something or even cares where it goes, but he does! While I would probably have a dif apt if we didn't have these talks, I sorta feel like the apartment we are growing into is a little more thoughtful because of them. That's not to say the futon doesn't have to go tho. :)

Anyhow, we are working out who likes what and what is staying and going too. Mr. Kendra.E is not too involved with the whole cure, but after I discovered where we keep the vacuum I shoved it back in there one day, and over the weekend, he explained to me how the 'landing strip' for the vacuum was going to work, which cracked me up. I seriously hate vacuuming, so I am glad to let him set up his vacuum landing strip any way he wants.

Sea, I think that it is awesome you have spent so much time getting rid of stuff. I am a total messy, and spent a lot of time getting junk together, and then spent a lot of time recently getting rid of it. Last year, especially when it looked like we were going to have to move, I dropped a bag or two off every Saturday at a thrift store and still have lots of stuff left. I was a little bit proud of myself when I showed a former roommate the pictures of this apartment, and she said I had a lot less stuff then I used to have, and she would know because I know it drove her crazy. I know I still have junky tendencies tho, and still love thrift stores and flea markets and junk sitting on the side of the road, but I am much better at walking away from things then I used to be.

Anyhow, I am still plugging along!

Sea,

Technically that wire is chrome. It's warmer than silver but still technically cool. I think you have a mix of cool (purple, fuschia, chrome) and warm (orange, yellow, green).

Jess2nola --

Who dat! (ok, maybe that was lame...but the draft is really soon!)

Anyway, I too live with a Boy who is not totally on board, although his bouts of domesticity are more frequent than I thought they'd be. He can really make me look bad sometimes.

So, he has this giant hulk of an Ikea desk that is just awful. The drawers are locked and the key lost. And it's just huge. All it does is collect clutter. He flat out refuses to get rid of it. (And the totally busted chair--literally busted--that goes with it.) He also refuses to swap out his yuck-o incomplete set of silverware for my really nice, all-matching stuff (which now lives in a box)

All of this lead me to some exestential crises of my own. I realized he wasn't holding on to this stuff because he liked it; he had memories attached to it, many of which had nothing to do with me.

Ouch.

But then I realized that moving in together has been difficult for both of us and he deserves a bit of refuge here and there. I chose to be patient with him and either not comment on his crap or build our home around his old memories.

I would call it successful. I guess what I'm trying to say in way too many words is: If you care about this person, respect his fears and therefore his futon. Eventually, if you can make him feel safe and relaxed by not pushing him to give his stuff up, he'll probably realize just how butt ugly and doo doo his futon is, and he'll join you (at least partially) in your Cure.

And as for being behind on my Cure--wow. This weekend will be my rededication, too.

Okay, I have sucked up the wonderful energy of all the rededicators and started the morning by:

1. Ordering replacement shades for the Medusa lamp in the living room, mysteriously crashed by the Feline-Americans. I just wasn't getting around to finding replacement shades locally, so it's time to pay the shipping.

2. Listed the unwanted liquor cart as a freebie on CL, since Freecycle's list owner isn't getting around to approving me.

I need to bite the bullet and get rid of the old dining table so we can assemble the new one, but that requires removing a large dollhouse project from it.

Books... I'm doing a radical career change, and I probably should do some book purging, but I'm having trouble getting my mind around not needing to be prepared to teach certain classes and write certain kinds of papers. There are also some basic management books I could have skipped buying and ought to sell off.

Zooza, I am not sure about the shelves now - the mister came in and told me we needed art over the toilet last night and I said something about shelves and his immediate response was "What do you need those for?" which is really the truth. We have enough storage so they'd basically be for display and I am thinking I need to just suck it up and get a bigger piece of art for in there instead. It is a weird little corner and I am starting to think whatever is on display there will just be more to clean.

Progress has finally been made! This weekend I did the missing parts of weeks 1, 2, and 3 - I vacuumed and mopped my floors, and cleaned all the surfaces in my kitchen and bathroom.

I've also long since put away everything and am finally fully living in my new apartment! Sunday I also procured a new loveseat to fill out the main room, and it looks great. I had the toughest time figuring out how to arrange my furniture, but last night, I finally found the best configuration!

Now I just need lighting and some wall-mount shelving - right now all I have is an overhead lights in the kitchen and hallway, the main room has no light of its own. I will post pictures soon!

In culling the shelves (again) I decided to finally finish "The Art of Growing Up" by Veronique Vienne. Got it when I was like 26 or 27. The first chapter is "The Art of Beginning" and begins thus:

"Begin anew by throwing away old things. Old shoes, old maps, old cookbooks. Outgrowing is part of growing up."

The chapter goes on to say that you show your love for something old by giving it to someone younger to discover anew. You measure your experiences by what you've left behind, because something freely given away can't ever be taken from you. The book suggests that learning to let go is the ultimate sign of maturity because it is necessary and makes room for what you've always been wanting to be.

Just seemed to fit with the Cure so well. Maybe I never finished the book because I was still in a 'planning-to-get' phase back then. In the first two pages I thought of a few things that I cleave too but can't really use anymore. An old atlas, a corduroy jacket (junior size 2), sorority letter shirts (size small).

"We come of age not by accumulating experiences-...but by trading impermanent objects for permanent recollections. It's a paradox. In order to keep everything, we must be willing to let go of it all."

last week was slow going because my husband was sick; now this week is slow going because I am sick. =( boo. one big thing we got done though, was steam cleaning our rug! hooray!

After yet another morning of pulling clothes out of the closet to try to ascertain color, I've decided I just have to get lights in my closets! The closets in my prewar building in DC are not wired; does anyone have any battery-operated suggestions?

Lady J quoted:

"Begin anew by throwing away old things. Old shoes, old maps, old cookbooks. Outgrowing is part of growing up."

Zing!

Part of my stuckness on books is that I don't fully believe that the career change is going to happen, so how can I let go of books on what I've been doing for the past couple years?

I decided the only communication issues I might want to work with further are personality typing and social stigma... and that since I've been accepted to a real MBA program, I can dump all the Portable MBA books that I was using to fake it! So I have two plastic crates of books that I'm taking to Bookman's as soon as I finish my iced tea.

This makes no dent in the book collection, since most of it belongs to the husband, but it allows me to rearrange a bit.

I, too, have done a lot of this and that but haven't been real committed to the schedule - mostly because I've been travelling (I haven't had a full weekend at home since the cure started).

That said I've made a marvelous effort at creating several outboxes. They just need to get out of the apartment now. I did buy a potted orchid. I don't have the available surfaces for buying flowers weekly - plus I wasn't expecting it to live that long. I contacted my landlord about getting rid of some of the items she left for my use. I've purchased a mop (but haven't used it yet). I like the flow in my apartment much better than I did before.

THere's a lot of behaviors I need to modify in general - doing laundry regularly and not letting it stack up since I now I have regular access to laundry for free. Washing dishes right after dinner or at least every morning. Making my bed, etc.

I also don't have the "head" of my apartment quite right. I don't have a space to work or even to put work stuff. Or to eat. I have my chair and my bed. Hopefully getting my couch will make a difference, but in the meantime it's annoying. The kitchen is still bothering me. It's causing me lots of angst. I may end up hanging shelves very soon. Need to see if my friend will do it - I think he knows how to.

Otherwise - I'm enjoying my apartment when I get it neat. But I need to work on keeping it like that.

Thanks for the help on the colors, Lady J.

The warmish cool of chrome is just right - and nicer than the sharpness of silver for me.

And thanks too for the Veronique Vienne quotes on letting things go....

Progress today:

Made room in the Outbox by taking everything in it that was recyclable to the recycling center.

Bought glass for a picture frame where it was broken.

Next:

Install glass and hang the picture.

Buy supplies to recover chair seat - fabric will come on Friday.

maybe it is stainless steel...still

Ugh. I finally hung a mirror I've been begging the husband to hang for three months now... and hated it.

So I'm back to questioning whether I hate it because it's done with me, or whether it just doesn't look good today.

Lady J,
You are the best quotester of the cure. Today, the painters finished the livingroom, dinning room and kitchen. I'm afraid of the kitchen to be honest, the yellow is too much (damn the lady at the paint store was right). I love the yellow against the dark cabinets, but not on the back wall. Hmmmm, I'm going to let it sit for a day, I still have to put back the radiator cover, which is dark. Any other folks have paint regrets? I'll post some photos. I did find a 1/2 landing strip for the front door. Takiing everything off the walls for painting was great. I'm editing a lot and I'll have to change most of the art in the kitchen will have to go, since it had a lot of yellow in it.

Now I just have to clean everything, a new meaning to deep clean.

Okay! The liquor cart is gone... the stuff in the garage that I'm too lazy to take to Goodwill is being picked up tonight as a freebie... and I have listed the ex-dining table and the problematic mirror.

That feels much better.

Oh who was looking for modern type rugs not to much money? I saw some nice ones at Loews today (8X10) was $300, but the 3X5 started at $100. The lighting guy at Loews was so great, he helped me find a tricky solution to lighting in the bedroom. He took out the fixture of the box and I practiced installing it there, boy is that life saver.

Me! Me! Thanks eSusan. I've been everywhere BUT Lowes. I've perused their website and noticed that their options are somewhat more appealing than Home Depot.

Now I just have to find a Lowes near me....

Twergi, I was just wondering, did you check out the links i sent you for the rugs on sale at room & board; 5 x 7 for $179 is really a good deal for those.

Hey Lisa,

I did, I thought I wrote you back but I see that I did not. I gave a look through, but there isn't anything anywhere that's sending me over the moon. I've never been a rug person and nothing I'm seeing is really changing that. It just seems like such a huge investment for something that (in my experience with rugs) will just get absolutly trashed and look like poop and need to be tossed in a year.

Today I'm leaning towards some kind of bamboo slat style rug so I can pretend I have hardwood floors again. On my "to do" list for this week is "Continue internal rug debates" though so who knows what might happen.

Thanks for the helpful words guys. I have moved the futon into the bedroom, which completely transformed our living room. I think this is a good compromise: the futon is still in the house (not in the trash where I would like it to be), but is no longer the centerpiece of our main living area. HUGE step Which, by the way, he (futon lover) agreed really does look much better.

Other accomplishments:
-Ordered and hung new curtains in living room
-Purchased new desk for computer, bills, etc (West Elm Simple Work Table that I have been wanting for a long time)
-Rearranged furniture in living room, now utilizing previously unused area blocked by dreaded futon
-Added new light in living area, makes room much brighter
-Purchased new mirror for living room
-Purchased new craft table (great Craigslist find) for playroom
-Organized small craft items in new containers
-Hung pin boards/magnet boards in craft area
-Added several lamps and a chair to out box (to be donated)
-Cleaned kitchen, and have kept it clean - including doing the dishes right away
-This has lead to us cooking more meals at home the last two weeks
-Purchased and arranged fresh flowers
-Repotted old and new plants in my "concrete garden"
-Organized all imporant papers into binders by year- This was tonights undertaking, I'm exhausted but I'm so glad that I got rid of unnecessary papers and that everything is so organized.

Ok, listing all of that out makes me feel really good about what I have accomplished.

Well done on the compromise, Jess2nola. I'm glad you got the futon issue sorted out. And well done on all the work you've done - that list is great!

I seem to be 'two steps forward, one step back' at the moment. I took a couple of days off work this week to plough on with my cure work. Most of that has been spent chipping vinyl tiles off the kitchen floor - my hands are bruised and battered. It's such a depressing job, I've been feeling really low. The only think keeping me at it is the mental image of what our new floor will look like.

I got one corner of the sitting room straight on Tuesday (organised books and stuff on the built-ins I made), which felt great. But then yesterday my kitchen worktops were delivered, and they are now stacked up in front of the shelves making it impossible to move again. When will this chaos be over?

So, to make myself feel better, here's my list of what I have achieved in the past four weeks:

- Reupholstered a chair
- stained curtain poles
- finished built-in cupboards and shelves
- reorganised all TV / Hifi cabling and hidden it away
- Had electrician in to fit new lights throughout the sitting room / kitchen
- New fuse box fitted (much safer now!)
- painted chimney breast and fire surround
- bought print and frame to go above fireplace (picking it up from the framers on Saturday - pics to follow then)
- Replace fridge and freezer with combi model
- Had new cooker installed
- Removed two cupboards in kitchen ready to rebuild
- Bought new worktops, bin, fold-away ironing board and sink ready to install (this weekend?)
- Removed (most of) vinyl floor tiles in kitchen
- bought pipe and plumbing supplies ready to move kitchen radiator
- Decluttered kitchen pots and pans

OK - that seems like a lot. I guess I'm just in a phase where I'm doing a lot of work, but there's not much to show for it.

zooza's just making us look bad ;)

Nope - it's just my penance for not organising / cleaning for 7 years and letting my home get into the state where I have to do all this work in order to rehabilitate myself back into polite society. ;-)

Photos up: http://www.flickr.com/photos/libbyiscool/sets/72157594536002706/

hey twergi,

have you checked overstock for a rug? the prices are reasonable and negligible or free shipping is great if you find something you like.

AAAggghhh!
ok. a bit overwhelmed.
These are the best posts yet. EXACTLY how i'm feeling. I've feel like a cure drop out.
For so many reasons I 'got behind' and distant from the postings. (housesitting, animal issues, car in shop, etc. etc. - in other words; lots of life happened all at once, as it's prone to do.)
Reading today has really helped me feel part of the cure again and less like a loser. I haven't been giving myself any credit for what I HAVE gotten done; I really am an all or nothing person.
More cure revelations.
So. Thanks for all the encouragement via encouraging the whole little group here. I know that when I get home that every little baby step will be good and productive.
I am resolving to post post post again in the coming days. The sense of participation and belonging really helps my motivation.
yea everybody!

Thanks zooza...and you are doing an amazing job, what a list of accomplishments...really those items are large enough that any one of them would make a big difference...and look how many you've done!

Hi Abby, Yes I have. I'm just struggling with my own inner rug demons. I'm going to stop actively looking for a rug and then maybe the right one will fall in my lap.

Or I will get the moroccan windows one in light blue from West Elm. Because that's where I am with the rugs today.

Stacia! I was wondering where you were! Glad you're back! Can't wait to see the Elvis plates when they get to their new homes. :)

I just took a break from the awesome room to deal with the two boxes of clothes in my closet. I am finally getting rid of a sweatshirt I bought on vacation when I turned 21, the sweater dress I wore to my 10th reunion, and a hands across america tee shirt.

Ok, looking at this from the "what I HAVE done' perspective is doing wonders for my outlook in general. I think getting frustrated is actually a good thing sometimes, it makes you step back and re evaluate your game plan. I am jumping back into the cure with both feet- and a new list. I have removed a few jobs I would have like to get done this month, but added a few others (like cleaning my newly fixed car-and keeping it clean). I am attacking the main bath today and tomorrow as long as I keep feeling better (cold and flu season is not done yet...)and will have some new pics up by the end of the week. Good luck everybody!

Three shirts = $70.25. And the bottles from the old food are all washed and gone. And a small box with about 40 magazines went out this week. The new rug arrived. I think it's keeper. Still need to sell the dresser, the old rug and the room divider.

I can't sort out my windows still. Should I do blinds with sheers? I thought I needed 1-3 more of the striped drapes. They are now on clearance so I'd have to order soon. But is that the right direction?

Vote which looks best in the context of my place:

http://www.spiegel.com/shop/product_single.aspx?style_id=14287017&index=8&gp_coll_id=5009&gp_cat_id=5010&nav_cat_id=6111&category_id=6112

or the ones I have now: http://www.target.com/gp/product/B000BQ6TWQ/ref=wl_itt_dp/602-4585681-9750227?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1A3GI9C4DOJHJ&colid=3O1HHCYKS0DR3

or: http://www.anthropologie.com/jump.jsp?itemID=16136&itemType=PRODUCT&iSubCat=428&iMainCat=380

Third curtain option: http://www.anthropologie.com/jump.jsp?itemID=16136&itemType=PRODUCT&iSubCat=428&iMainCat=380

I like the anthropologie fez curtain a lot. I also like the idea of blinds with sheers - that would lighten everything up and allow the strong colors in the room to come out. ...And I _also_ like the colors of the Spiegel boucle panel, but the texture itself seems like too much if you have a sense of softness/thickness elsewhere in the room, which I think you do if I remember correctly. The stripes, I like least - mostly because of the stripes, but also because the coral color (at least on my screen) seems somehow too muted. Seems better to go lighter (sheer) or deeper/crisper in color, like the other two above.

I like the stripes because they are complimentary to all the lovely solid colors you have throughout your apartment. The cost would be minimal compared to blinds and shades and I don't think you need to add another solid color. You could afford to go with the stripes this year, use your budget for other things and wait to see how the room looks once your spring Cure is complete.

Ok, I need therapy from retail now. In the last two weeks, I upgraded my phone (I still had my first one from last century!), bought myself a scanner (a great deal, though), and ordered three rugs.

Two are 2'x3' examples on sale from Crate & Barrel of larger ones I was thinking of buying there. However, if they don't look right as the living room rug, I will still use them as a bedside rug and welcome mat for the landing strip! The third rug is the one I've been lusting after for a year. I finally went into the showroom to see it in person and ended up buying it for 15% off. It has free delivery so if it doesn't work for the living room they say I can return it to the showroom for a full refund.

And I blame all this rug action on jessica aka twergi! :)

I also checked out the Camden sofa at Crate & Barrel, the one in the Blueprint small apartment makeover. I loved it, it is perfect to cure me of my "see sofa, sit down, lean over, take nap" problem that I have with my current love seat. However, it is still comfortable and if push came to shove I could still take a nap on it, but I wouldn't. Very nice. I am not buying it anytime soon though and nobody try to make me, ok?

Nothing doing. Time for the flu, apparently. Hope the tile guy shows up this weekend, I will hide in my office if he does but happily so. Too bad, though, I had big plans and today is my birthday. Bleah. Maybe the tile guy showing up will be my birthday present. Because not feeling crappy sure ain't.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNE!!

Buy some bon-bons and take it easy. Hope that makes you feel a bit better.

HA! Lisa. At least you're MAKING rug decisions!

I think the winner is going to be the West Elm Morocco Windows rug in light blue. My color scheme seems to be leaning baby blue and chocolate brown with shocks of orange. I'm going to suppliment the main rug with the smaller Peacock Feathers one from UO for the end of my bed to hide the stains from where the cats decided to knock over full cups of coffee on two different occasions. Its on super sale now so no harm, no foul if I hate it. It can become my porch rug.

The lovely and fabulous boyfriend-Scott came over last night and, while I attempted to get all my terrible paperwork in order for possibly the most complicated tax prep EVAR, proceeded to scrape all the paint off the screws on the cabinet hinges (I said he didn't have to, but he was on a roll) so I will be able to take them off to replace them this weekend and at some point, be able to actually CLOSE my cabinets. From looking at all the paint stalagtites, we came to the conclusion they did not so much paint my apartment as slather it.

I've maganged to clean the counter to the pass-through and clean the TV/Media cart and componants and add a power strip to that corner.

Lamps and rugs this weekend! It will be great! Possibly even curtians and pillows!?!?! Who knows!

Jess2 -

I'm right there with ya! My bf is frustrated and not into it. Last night he came home to a huge mess as I had cleared out my closet and didn't finish putting everything back in one night. He was kinda pissed. I hate having to walk on eggshells when I'm trying to 'get my apartment therapy on' hehe. Hopefully he'll be able to see the benefits when I'm done.

I got my living room finished! I had to scale down one of my projects-beefing up my mantle and staining the wood around my "fireplace"- because there MAY be a leak behind the wall. We are going to enter the wall soon-next week- and take a look around. Everyone thinks it's going to be an easy fix, but just in case, I am not putting up a new mantle until I am sure that that brick wall is staying put. That said, I put up the new summer curtains, cleaned and organized, moved the furniture around, and organized the kids toys. I also put in new pillows, and fabric "bras" on my 2 chairs. SO, new pics are posted. On the the bathroom now........

P.S. Happy Birthday Anne, and take care of yourself!

twerg,

love the chocolate / blue / orange combo. windows rug -- great choice! and not just because i've been eyeing it for quite some time (though it doesn't go with the decor.)

lady j,

i like option 1 with sheers under it, maybe even yellow ones or orange ones... (country curtains has sheers in colors..) -- lots of curtain, maybe even on a curved rod to give you that weekend in tangier feeling.

i sat down and made an accomplishment list last nite and realized that i'd done more than i thought. and then there's this weekend -- fabric for curtains, maybe even chair. new pillows. put up holdbacks in lr. bake cake for holidays. check out new bureau. move tv from bedroom. now i'm off to get some new candles...

Lady J --

I like the anthropologie curtains, too. The strips are my second pick. The first choice is nice, but I'd be afraid that something so soft would attract a lot of dust and require too much maintenance. I think the color on the anthro. curtains would be a nice addition to your room, too. A new, bright color.

Careen had a good tip, too. The stripes are the most economical, so you could put some of your budget elsewhere.

I myself have always been terrified of curtains and so have never hung them. This has to change. I need to get a camera so I can start posting pictures. I need some advice.

Happy Birthday, Anne!

Hi everybody in the US!
I was wondering if i could swap some magazines with one of you ?! I'm looking for the latest issues of Blueprint (Small space Makeover) and Dwell (Renovate!Reuse!Recycle!), both magazines are impossible to find here in Switzerland and on their websites i don't find options to subscribe out from the US.
In exchange i would be happy to send you some european (swiss, french, german) interior magazines.
Anyone would like to swap ?!
Thanks in advance !
Please contact me via this thread or or by sending me a message on my Flickr page
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18145526@N00/sets/72157594580555528/

Jany.

Jany - I've seen Blueprint in the UK over the last couple of weeks. I don't know if anywhere in our small town will stock it, but I'll have a look this weekend. If so, I'll be happy to get you a copy. And there's a French magazine I've been trying to get hold of for ages that you might be able to help me with. I'll report back later!

Zooza,
this is great, please tell me what magazine you're looking for, it will be my pleasure to send it to you!