apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i just finished the book this morning. In the appendix, Maxwell mentions giving a thank you note with the rent check. I think this is a fantastic idea. What do you say in it?

Au contraire, this past week was my rest week. The office area is going to take some work! But, I'm looking forward to it because it's extremely focussed in one area and it will be great to get it done.

Oh I so love a new week!

only if the landlord ever sent you a thank you note for being a good tenant.

I'd do this -- and have -- only if the landlord did something special for me -- i.e., expedited a repair, etc. Otherwise no.

I'm with Pixie -- the office is actually the focus of my cure. The daily stuff is under control, but I keep finding new paper crap in my closet... Plus, my new desk just arrived a few hours ago.

I got bogged down in furniture replacement. We lucked into the nightstands I wanted *and* the cart for the larger dollhouses... but something like SEVEN buyers from CL flaked on coming to buy the old stuff.

I would love to be able to walk across my apartment without stepping around unloved furniture. THAT clutter has produced more negative energy than seems possible.

It's a good thing someone brought me flowers.

I had elderly landlords, and I wrote them a nice note every month, for 4 years, while living in the apartment they owned. My rent wasn't raised EVER in that period of time, they celebrated my decision to buy my own place, and even sent me a $100 check for a housewarming gift, in addition to a lovely bamboo arrangement.

If you like your landlord, tell them. The warm fuzzy feeling makes that rent check easier to write each month!

Liz your dining rooms chairs are WONDERFUL! :)

Holly

Whoo-hoo! Fresh flowers definitely changed the energy flow. I have a buyer for the dresser coming this afternoon and another one who wants the old nightstands. AND I've figured out where to move the red-framed pictures in the kitchen area so that the kitchen can be black and pink.

Our landlord hasn't raised our rent in 3 years, in fact, he just spent around $5,000.00 to renovate our 3-season porch into a work studio/office space for my home office - doing a lot of the hand finished work himself which came out beautiful.

We send him thank you emails and chit chat with him very often. I can't tell you how much some landlords really appreciate it when you give them verbal and written signs of appreciation.

I've had some sour landlords in the past, but the key to any good relationship is always showing appreciation and communicating with others in a respectful and kind way. The old 'whatever you want others to do to you, likewise do to them' applies big time in landlord/tenant relations.

When we travel, we also make it a point to send our landlord postcards - he loves it and does the same when he and his wife are away.

Maxwell is *so* right. Kindness goes a long way.

Holly

"Liz is doing great work in Brooklyn!"

She sure is.

while we're shouting out to liz, i just wanna say that i *love* liz's style. her space is modern and clean, but still warm and welcoming - never sterile or too-spare. liz' place is what i aspire to style-wise.

i also aspire to a full set of those hat trick chairs. are they actually comfortable?

Wow, I am soooo flattered!! I am literally swooning!

Jess, please come over for dinner so you can try the chairs out, we like them a lot.

The major focus of my cure has been furniture. I started decluttering months ago, and that's finally finished. I did a major deep cleaning last week (gee, isn't washing the ceiling fun?). And I decided that it is time to buy some furniture that I really like and will last.

The first piece was delivered today: a Copenhagen media console in ebony from Room and Board. Last week, I ordered a '50s-style dinette set from www.pastense.com, something that I've wanted for decades and that will balance the straight lines and monochrome tones of my other funiture. I'm probably going to order a Portica bed frame from Room and Board tomorrow. And there's a shop in the Mission that restores vintage metal desks, so I will probably check that place out by the end of the week.

As far as the taking care of yourself stuff goes, I bought some quality bath salts, which are wonderful. Thanks for the suggestion, Maxwell! Taking a bath in the morning is really nice. And I've been doing the after-dinner walk, up through the Golden Gate Park panhandle. Something about the weather, the season, and the time of day has meant that the light coming through the trees has been absolutely gorgeous.

Wende, I think that when it comes to selling stuff on craigslist, it helps to chant or chart your planets or something. In the past, I've had a hard time selling things, but this past month I sold all of my unused stereo equipment very quickly and made enough money to pay for the new furniture I'm acquiring. I also had good luck selling stuff on eBay.

Jeffery-
"made enough money to pay for the new furniture I'm acquiring"-wow, congratulations. I've had good luck selling stuff on craigslist here in DC--even without chanting; good wording of the ad helps--but if I sold everything I own, it wouldn't fund even one of the fabulous pieces of furniture on my list.

I've never tried selling on Ebay.

I've only owned since 1998, but before that I rented, and most of my friends still rent, and I think that landlords vary GREATLY in what kind of entity they are, much less what kinds of personalities they are. One friend had a landlady that he became such good friends with that he still visits her when he comes back into the city. OK, his stay in New York was a brief one, and was funded, and he was paying her market rent at the time, in cash, I think, so I think she couldn't help but love him.

Another friend has a landlord who's a young guy taking over the family landlording business, and cares about maintaining his buildings well. Well, my friend appreciated moving into a new refurbished apartment with glasslike skimcoated walls, so naturally they get along well.

Another friend has rented from his landlords family since the landlord's parents were the landlords and the new one was just a little kid.

Some landlords have managing agents that deal with the buildings, and you never have any idea who the landlord is, sometimes being friendly with the super is the answer.

And actually some of my relatives own a little house in the South that they rent out and the potential liabilities and costs can be astronomical, so a little gratitude really can go a long way, if the landlord is a little guy.

Sorry that was such a long post.

Curtis, your posts are never too long. I enjoy reading anything you have to share.

I used to have a really cool landlady (we lived upstairs from her) and she actually cried when I told her I was leaving the apartment (the guy of the moment was staying). She would always ask me in for a "glass of beer" when I would pay the rent, so I would stop in (passing on the beer) and chat. I think she appreciated it.

CL in the Bay Area is all about astrology. The only question is whether it's the Western kind with the planets or the Chinese kind with the animals. Hypothetical conversations:

Buyer: "I want your dresser."
Seller: "What's your sign?"
Buyer: "Leo."
Seller: "No, your Chinese sign."
Buyer: "Um... Metal Ox."
Seller: "Phew! Metal Oxes are responsible and keep commitments. When would you like to pick up the dresser?"

[Seller then learns the hard way that the first six months of a Year of the Dog are hard on Metal Oxes, causing the buyer to get her car towed while she's up looking at the dresser.]

This didn't happen, but it could.

wende--
Don't get me STARTED about flaky CLers...

Last time I posted a table, the buyer "committed" (verbally) so we then rented a car on Friday to get it out of storage for the prearranged delivery on Sunday, and she "changed her mind" on Saturday night. We were out the car rental cost, and the table remains unsold. :(

I HOPE SHE'S READING THIS!!!!

I've also had CLers welsh on me. Fiends all.

P(too)--have them meet you at the storage place!

I've had good luck in DC with CL. Mainly b/c most of the stuff offered on there is crap (my opinion of course...I'm sure there are some gems lurking). I have never used Freecycle here, but had good luck with that in the past. Also, when I was living in the burbs, the Pennysaver was a huge hit. I made some good sales of things that way (papasan chair...ick!).

Christine (toidc)--
We didn't even get that far! And she was NYer without a car, I was trying to be helpful, blah blah blah.

Luckily I'm not bitter. ;)

However, I've sold OTHER people's stuff on the first try.

And my one purchase from CL was a great deal from an East Village hottie, so no complaints there! Other than he had a boyfriend (and so did I) at the time! ;)

...and the gal who finally bought the dresser was great. We hauled the dresser down to her car. We tried three different angles for getting it in. All three failed. We hauled it back upstairs. She asked anyone we passed if they knew anyone with a truck. We went through the phonebook looking for a U-Haul within walking distance so she wouldn't have to move her car. No luck.

She said she'd try to come back with a truck. And within two hours, she was back with a truck and a guy who knew how to move furniture.

I was tempted to hold onto her email in case I ever needed a random business partner, as she was clearly a sensible, responsible person, and we certainly cooperated nicely hauling dressers up and down stairs.

Man, I guess April was my lucky month, because I quickly sold all of the stereo and computer equipment I listed on craigslist. No one flaked out on me, no one tried to haggle. I was shocked! People actually showed up on time with cool green in their hands! And the people were nice! I had a funny audio conversation with a guy for an hour.

I've had crummy craigslist experiences before. I just loved the people who called at 10:30 p.m. Is that a new thing? Calling at any time day or night? When I was kid, the only time you got a call after 9 p.m. was when one of your relatives died.

P.S. A serious question: Is $1,450 too much to pay for a restored vintage all-metal desk? Four small drawers, one letter-sized file drawer, two pull-out workspaces. A few dings. It was beautiful.

Would it be worth it to give Craigslist a shot for an IKEA dresser in good shape? I'd probably be selling it for $50. I was debating Freecycle, but I just don't have time for all the emails. Or maybe I should just put it out on the curb with a big free sign.

Jeffery--
10:30 is the new 9.

I've fallen way behind on The Cure. Travelling and now work are making it tough to stay on task. I feel bad about not "keeping up" but I'm not *giving* up. Yesterday I hung some new curtains in front of the bed nook, a small triumph.

It seems the more I clean the messier everything looks. That can be a little discouraging but I try to remember I'm pulling out stuff that hasn't seen the light of day since I moved in. It's like the enemy has come out of hiding; now to wrestle it into submission....

In case anyone is interested, Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan is quoted in today's Times on the front page of the House and Home section -- The Secret Source is Out.

I must say I am not encouraged by the idea that CL sales are done by astrology, Asian or European.

Keeping pace with the Cure has been problematic for me to. Alas, real life gets in the way of home design. However, I hope and expect by the end of the eight weeks to have made enough progress to make it matter. (It may ways, that has already been accomplished.)

Not that matters, but the Calyx flowers still look good and it's been a week now.

I still don't know what a pinot noir is.

JonathanB-thanks for the update on the Calyx flowers - that's really good to know.

The prediction of a rainy weekend here in NYC bodes well for my plans at "Mission: Paper".

Anybody want to come over and ridicule me into throwing away memorabilia and old paper crap?!

Actually, being in a really bad/melancholy mood, I am afraid to touch/evaluate anything with any sentimental value (real or perceived) right now...

P2-I will be engaging in "Mission: Paper" myself this weekend. I relish the rainy weekends as a big aid in progressing through the Cure.

Maybe you do need an observer/handholder to come over and assist so it won't be so traumatic. Also, don't forget the Outbox halfway house.

Do you have a scanner? scanning might be useful too.

Wow, it's predicted to rain in DC for the next 10 days, except next Wednesday.

I would be wary of getting rid of objects with sentimental value. How many can there be, anyway?

It's the meaningless stuff that's clutter.

By the way, I think it's rude to call strangers after 7:45 pm.

And where's p(too) when I *need* to mock someone into getting rid of excess paper?

Oh. In New York. Oops.

Having run into the wall of leaving on vacation tomorrow, my Cure goals for today are: (a) surface clean and tidy; (b) clean sheets; (c) hang pictures that are leaned against things; (d) one "heart" touch for immediate gratification when we get back, like candles; (e) finish Marva & Brian's foyer.

But the kitchen and dining cubby got their touch-up paint (finally!), the bedroom is essentially redone, and various other rooms are looking better.

Henrietta:
pinot noir is pinot gris' evil twin. noir, you see, went over to the dark side of vine, where it crossed with hollywood and works under the nom de terroir film noir.

Pixie:
you're welcome

What type of paper are we talking about? Sometimes you need to wait until the sentiment leaches out of them, unless you have stacks and stacks of stuff.

I don't know about you, but I always have these pages torn out of magazines and flyers and postcards. I was encouraged to grab and keep cool things in college, but it hasn't helped me as much afterwards. I don't look at things that are "in storage" for reference or inspiration any more. I have all my digital photos online already, so now I'm scanning in my old-old vacation pictures and ticket stubs -- my new scanner has this auto-crop feature that's great for little stuff like this. I'm also planning on scanning in a lot of my morgue and keeping that on flickr. It's nice to actually find things without going through boxes in my closet.

JonathanB,

I'm glad I mentioned it!

mary,
I love this:
"Sometimes you need to wait until the sentiment leaches out of them." Perfect!

I've found it hard to throw out all the critiques of unfinished novels from all the writing workshops I've ever been in.

Maybe I should host a reading series called "Critiques of Unfinished Novels."

as much as I like the reading series idea, I might suggest scan and save on disc. that is very much the sort of thing if you throw out you'll regret. I know because I've done that.

This has little to do with the room I'm curing but tonight my assignment is to go through all my CDs, rip whatever I don't have on the computer and take them all to my local record store to cash in. I have hundreds. Wish me luck haha.

Despite my necessarily minimal commitment to the Cure things are really starting to shake. If it stopped right here I'd be pretty happy with our progress (all the while my husband rolling his eyeballs right out of his head): radically altered "flow"; voluminous stuff out the door; soon to be repaired odds and ends that have been driving us nuts for years, hope for painting the walls, etc., etc. I'm doing this again in the fall and expect our place to be transformed by Christmas.

WOOHOO! I'm a believer!

While i have not been diligently curing due to my work schedule, I plan to do so and have still been engaged in parts of it--like picking a paint color for my living room and cleaning out my hall closet. A little pre-curing, if you will.

NOt to get all Oprah here, but I thought i'd share something I found that might be helpful in letting go of things you need to clean out. Before moving last August, I was having a hard time letting go of several things. One of the main categories was books. I made a 2-sided list. 1 side was "why do I have a hard time giving these away?" and the other was "why do I think some of these things need new homes." It was very revealling for me. For example, under the first column for books, I wrote that 1.) they help me remember points in my life when I read them 2.) I like how they make me look-use them to represent both who I am and who I'd like to be. 3.) They're comforting to me--books were there often when people were not. Under the second why to get rid of column, I wrote 1.) They are heavy and take up a lot of room 2.) They can be a burden and represent holding me back 3.) many I do not read or even look at--have fallen in the background and obscure ones i do read or care about.

End result of this was that I was more successful in clearing things out...it helped me acknowledge my feelings and move through the attachment I had. Now, as for saving bits of lists like this...I'm working on it! :)

Amber -- good luck! I just did a similar thing with a bunch of my CDs. Like Christine, I had a hard time getting rid of them. I was falling back on the copyright issue, but my real issue was that a lot of the music represented who I was at the time... I kept one box of my favorites -- mostly CDs that my friends in bands had given to me -- and then sold and gave away the rest.

FREE TO A GOOD HOME -- Vintage knitting books. Pamphlet-sized books (American Thread Company, Coats & Clarks) from the early '60s with patterns for stuff like poodle sweaters.

I know we have knitters here. I learned when I was a kid, rediscovered it about 20 years ago, and I'm keeping the needles (in storage). But I know I'm not gonna make these sweaters, so my loss is your gain.

Contact me at brunobaby@nospamearthlink.net (remove "nospam" when you reply).

I think I may have found THE rug for my living room:

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=prod30720102&parentId=cat10790735&masterId=cat3520733&index=19&cmCat=cat000000cat000553cat3520732cat3520733cat10790735

To go in the furniture grouping on the left:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambernussbaum/142711359

I was planning on teal/ocean blue translucent curtains and I think this would tie them in nicely. What do you guys think?

Amber, I like the idea of curtain colors, but I hate that rug. Oh boy, here we go again, here's the rug at another site, and the colors look so different: http://tinyurl.com/jyft6

But I still wouldn't put it in your room. It doesn't go with anything you already have. Nothing.

Blues, even "trendy" shades will still look good after a trend has passed. But that weird yellow-green color won't. It doesn't go with anything you currently have. Unless you repainted the whole room in the blues and added greenish chairs instead of orange. Are they orange or red?

Colors I can see in your place (with my monitor and my eyesight...half the time I can't tell the difference between "i" and "l"),

The "Figi" colorway here:
http://rugsusa.com/remous7425.html

It has a yellow, orange, red. Add the green in healthy plants. And the blue in accessories, like a throw or throw pillow.

Here are some others that I liked after repetitively squinting and opening my eyes really wide and then squinting again:
http://tinyurl.com/qmxvn
http://tinyurl.com/nq6js
http://tinyurl.com/qk6pp
http://tinyurl.com/n9pwd

If you're adding the rug to the seating area, your room may appear to be heavy on one side, with the majority of furniture and color together.

You have a challenging set up, with the hallway off center. A wee bit of moving a couple things could help to balance it a bit. By the door, orange chair and cabinet. Swap places. Cabinet next to door (there's yer landing strip for keys, etc).

Move other orange chair over to that window area. Place small table between the two. This gives you a pair of chairs with a table next to the window. All activity is NOT focused on the TV, but now has a separate conversation area. And you can have breakfast there. Read a book. Play a board or card game. Work on a laptop. Shuffle through the mail from the landing strip. All without invading the entertainment area.

Move that last squarish chair over by the TV where the orange chair was.

By the way, not that you're going to take down all the art and speakers you JUST HUNG, but I'm wondering...if the cabinet that the TV is on, if it was moved over to be more in line with the edge of the hall, would the dog crate fit in that corner to the left?

That moves it out of the way and provides a cozy, non-drafty spot. I don't think you'd have to move the sofa. You can always head over to www.bhg.com and use the Arrange A Room to enter your room and furniture measurements and see if it would work or not. No sense in tearing everything apart only to find the TV cabinet juts out just enough to cause severe hip injuries in the middle of the night.