apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Anyone out there doing *just* the deep treatment?

Anyone else finding it difficult to resist the urge to redecorate? I mean, that's not the point of the deep treatment--the point of the deep treatment is to start living in and claiming your space--and if you've done that, then taking care of all the unglamourous aspects of living at home. Like cleaning it. ugh.

Here's my before picture of a dirty floor, here's my after picture of it clean. (It still needs replacing!)

*deep treatment* just isn't sexy.

One of the reasons I wanted to do the cure AT style is because even though we're homeowners and *ought* to be able to replace our nasty kitchen floor tiles, we're just not willing to do that financially right now. It's like living with a reluctant landlord!

A few lessons the cure has made me realised I've learned--
Collect the things you love now--a "better" time just may never come--learn to live with what you have--cause someday you may have to anyway--even though you may think you shouldn't.

Thanks for the painting selection tips, oponomax. I may be trying them out soon.

I think you are all doing a terrific job. So glad you got a lovely red bucket wtrmaus!

Well, I finally got some of my first week photos up. The apartment looks a lot better than these photos already. Looking forward to tackling my skanked out kitchen!

Also, maxwell, is there a particular tag we should use for our cure photos or anything?

okay, totally moving on my living room. got rid of two pieces of furniture, spray painted my wrought iron coffee table gold, did my floor plan (on www.bhg.com) and got my shopping list and budget done, posting my progress as i go.

although i'm doing a one room, not a deep treatment, i cleaned my kitchen & made a paella cause it was my turn to host book group. can't wait til the living room's finished and there are enough places for everyone to find a comfortable place to sit.

Okay, one of my Cure tasks will be to update the dollhouse site with much more current photos...

It's so much easier to accessorize when you can do it with 30 cents worth of beads.

i spent a lot of last weekend getting a leg up on this set of tasks, as for the second year in a row we have a little rodential fall visitor. who will NOT be nesting in my baking supplies this year, dammit!

however, the rest of the apartment is in disarray after last week's floor cleaning AKA almost fatal dust bunny ambush. so i should have plenty to do.

i already have plans to make homemade cheese-stuffed orichiete this weekend, which should definitely count as my "cook something new in your kitchen" task.

Oh, opoponax, if I wanted to embarrass myself, I'd photograph my living room today... the doors are not yet on the new cabinets... the stuff to be arranged in the new cabinets is scattered across every flat surface at the front of the apartment... the storage going bye-bye has not yet been CL'd... and no one has faced the reality that, if the complex doesn't have recycling, newspapers must go out in the garbage.

Planning dinner seems downright soothing by comparison.

Abbe (coming up from the last Cure thread), it is a totally different problem to arrange furniture in a house without "character," isn't it? That, and the shocking discovery that people in modern homes have to own furniture if they want storage. And random open spaces! I'd swear much of our vaunted increase in square footage (from 800 to 1150) is the echoing space between the kitchen and the most logical living room seating area.

(And if I stopped babbling, I might get some of this fixed today.)

how do you stuff an orrichiette? aren't they a bit too small? maybe you should try rigatoni or conchiglia...

Ah, still haven't received the book, and we're going on a wee vacation for 5 days, so we'll see where we get to in the cure. I'm apprehensive about taking note of all the things that need fixing - there is a lot of little bits of unfinished business around the house, including unpainted trim, no floor moldings because they were so awful that we just pulled them off, a small hole in the dining room ceiling where there used to be a light fixture and a new fixture that isn't installed quite to my liking, kitchen cabinets that need to be painted white since there is now an odd halloween effect going on (and they are hideous), two primed but not yet painted walls, a few boxes of vinyl tile to temporarily and cost-effectively replace the old vinyl tile, the very nearly reupholstered chair for the living room, and dog hair that knows no end.

In other news, though, the kitchen got a couple coats of orange last weekend in our ongoing effort to banish the brown that was on every wall in the house when we moved in a year ago, and is much brighter and warmer and homey. The herbs that survived the summer have come in to sit on the ledge - rosemary, thyme, sage, parsley, chives, a wee bay tree and garlic chives are going to winter with the indoor plants. It's nice having them right there in the kitchen, just snip and in the pot.

I think we are going to wind up focusing on the living room/dining room/kitchen - it's one long space and where we spend almost all of our time. If it feels good, I think we will both find it easier to acomplish other things. As it stands now, I am easily distracted by this and that, as evidenced by the list of not-quite-finished projects above.

Homemade cheese-stuffed orichiete, eh opoponax? Sure you wouldn't like to come and cook that in my kitchen?

i might be thinking of the wrong pasta term.

all i know right now is that there will be fresh homemade pasta, it will be stuffed with my own homemade cheese, and it may perchance be consumed with pesto sauce (which we'll also make if we can get our hands on enough basil). the details are a bit sketchy at this point. which is as it should be considering the blessed event is several days away.

also, orichiete is one of my all time favorite words, in any language.

the fact that it means "little ears" makes it that much better.

The italian way to spell orichiete is "orecchiette". I have a truly italian recipe of orecchiette and swiss chard, if anybody is interested.

I'm trying to for the most part compress my cure so I can have my housewarming the weekend before Halloween. I love the process, but admittedly have been skipping things here and there, so I can meet my deadline.

Does anyone have suggestions for the perfect "creamy, warm, soft beige/khaki" I can use for my walls? I found --Benjamin Moore: Mocha Crème, In Domino Magazine --

Any Advice?

I don't have a kitchen table. Should I still make dinner if Ill be eating at my coffee table?

boopeesf - Why not have a picnic on your just-cleaned floor?

Jumping in late here - just got the book from my library. I'm doing the Deep Treatment - every room in my house needs to get cured. About a month ago my stepmom sold and moved out of my childhood home, which means that I got 5,000 lbs of stuff - 25 years' worth - delivered to my house. I have no idea what to do with it all. A lot of it will probably be going to the Goodwill, but a lot of it has sentimental value to me. But my place is starting to look like a shrine to the old place, and I definitely don't want that. I can't figure out how to keep the old things that I love but have my place (a 1200 sq.foot character house) still be mine.

I don't know if I'll succeed in Curing my entire home, but anything I do has got to be better than doing nothing, right?

LauraII - I think you just made your to-fix list!!

Francesca - I just "discovered" swiss chard this summer with our CSA delivery, would love the receipe. Plus, if your name is Francesca, you must know what you're talking about, lol.

New pics are up, under Cure Week 1.2 (on my skywaykate flikr page--should I be posting them elsewhere?), took some last night after I tiddied up, and organized some--see the very nice coat closet, just in time to use the items in it now that it's gotten cold here! 80 on Saturday, 35 today...crazy!

Didn't get to the floors, but will, I promise. I did do the sitting, in the far corner of the living room.

The pictures have lots of notes on them, especially in the living room collage, where I want to do the most actual decorating, though I know it's kitchen week, that's just cleaning for me, and it's more fun to think about what I want for a rug and coffee table, and how to arrage the furniture.

So that means I need suggestions! I would like to carve out a spot/corner to keep my exercise ball, yoga mat and other like things out most of the time so I'm more inclined to use them, so I need to figure that as well. Yes, the living room is probably the best place because I get up well before DH does and would want to do this in the AM. Or at least a spot I can try and keep the floor cleaner than the rest so I can roll it out of my closet, when I finally get that organized.

I've thought about painting either an abstract mural of sorts (shapes) or even just one color on the wall that's to the right in the living room...any thoughts on that?

Anna - I called my mom last night to ask about going to visit her, and she said, and you'll clean your closet out? I have a closet still at their house with stuff from childhood and college, so I know what you mean! I'm trying to avoid really dealing with it until my current apartment is cured, though I don't have much in the way of decorating or whatnot, just memorabelia mostly, and books, that I'll just box up for the attic when we get a place with an attic.

Good luck!!

ok...I'm joining the cure this time around. I've already done major decluttering of stuff over the past few months, but now I need to cure what I have left.

going to tackle the kitchen tonight. I've just loaded some pics I took last night/this morning and looking for feedback and...support.

we'll get through this together people!

Anna -- If the 5,000 pounds of stuff includes childhood toys from the mid-1970s or earlier, you can make a decent chunk of change by selling on eBay the things you don't want. This takes research -- some "collectible" dolls have no collectors seeking them! -- as well as a commitment in time and effort to sell effectively, so don't feel bad if you just don't want to bother.

my favorite method of color picking is this:

go to your preferred hardware or paint store and get chips in and around the color area you're thinking about. be willing to go a bit out on a limb here. if you're thinking about a creamy beige, feel free to grab some browns and yellows and peaches and whites. just get anything in that basic family that catches your eye. even if it wasn't what you went in there to get.

bring all those chips home and cut the seperate shades off from each other. i have this problem where i'll fall in love with a sheet of chips because i like the way the colors progress and play off each other, not because any of them would actually look good on my wall. so i always seperate. feel free to cull anything you absolutely hate (i.e. if some espresso shades came on the other end of your beige chip sheet and you know you can't go that dark, toss that now).

bring all your chips into the room you're planning on painting. at first, just sit there in the light and look at all the different colors. a lot of them will probably look very different from how they looked in the store. this is ok. as you take in all the colors, you can start culling even more, if you notice more that you know won't work.

after you've culled everything down into a group of chips that might possibly look good and accomplish what you're going for, start comparing them to things that will not be changing in the room. such as your furniture, the floors, artwork, etc. hold each chip up to the area in question. if something really clashes, toss it. even if it looked great in the store and in the next room and over on the floor.

now you should have an array of real possibilities for the room. if you still have a lot of different chips, try taping them to the walls around the room, in different spots and different lights, near various different pieces of furniture and such. if you only have a few possibilities, you have a couple of choices here. if all the possibilities are quite similar, just cut to the chase and pick one. if you have 4 or 5 very different colors, this is where samples will really come in handy.

go back to the paint store and get samples of each color you're considering. if you've picked already, get that sample anyway as it'll be good to test out the color on the wall before you commit. paint as directed. live in this multicolored experiemental setting until you are finally able to narrow it down to one perfect color. or, if you already picked (or one becomes immediately apparent), just wait to make sure it dries nicely.

voila! you have just picked the perfect color for your space!

I'm new to the Cure, and I'm afraid I'm a little behind! I haven't got my book yet, but it's on its way from Amazon. I just moved in to my new place and it's quite bare. I'm gonna take some before pictures this week, in the mean time I've started posting some ideas on my blog. Yay! Can't wait to get going...

Welcome Tartraz!

I love the bedding and rug you've picked out!! I hope the rug I find someday is at least 1/2 as cool as that one--and score on the chairs, too! My vote would be an ice blue to go with the gray, kind of the light blue you might see on a cashmere sweater...but I'm a blue lovin' girl.

Thanks skywaykate! Blue would be really pretty, and I think paired with the gray and yellow it would be a very soothing color scheme.

All righty, I've got the rest of my week one photos up, for anyone who is interested.

I'd like to document this more in a more bloggish fashion, but we'll see if I have time to set it up after the houseguests leave.

Hah! The mister, on the way out of the door this morning, reminded me to pick up the water filters. Maybe he is subconsciously helping with the Cure...

I added some old funky pots to the outbox last night, and busted out the Le Creuset (hand-me-down, of course) to do some roast chicken - new to me, I usually do it in the oven but the oven is oficially dead to me now. I piled the chicken on some carrots and potatoes and mushrooms and parsnips and let it cook really low for a looong time. It smelled like heaven, let me tell you, but the oven will always be better for me just for crispyness.

I don't know about a housewarming, but we are due to have a movie night soon. Hopefully that's close enough for now.

Does it count as "cooking at home" if my SO comes over and cooks in my kitchen? :-D He's so much better at it!

Anne, I don't think I'm going to do a traditional housewarming either. I might have a friend or two over for dinner but nothing that could really be called a party.

Alright! I did the dishes and rearranged my dining nook. Now I'm off to unstick a doorknob!

Skywaykate: here is the recipe. Combine 1 cup of boiling water and 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes. Let sit 20 minutes, drain and chop. Reserve the liquid. Heat over medium high heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil, add 1/2 of a red pepper, diced, and cook 5 mins. Add 1 chili pepper, minced and no seeds. Add 3 garlic cloves, minced. Cook 3 mins. Add 4 cups of finely chopped swiss chard and cook 5 mins. Add tomatoes and reserved liquid: cook 5 mins. Toss with 1 lb orecchiette al dente and top with 1/2 cup of grated grana padano cheese. Parmesan will do if grana is not available.

Eep! I was certainly surprised to see myself linked in today's entry. Thanks to those of you who have left comments, they have all given me food for thought.

I went out after work and bought a cheery red bucket and a big sponge. When I got home (after dinner with friends), I attacked my kitchen floor. I've pretty much ignored it, except for the occasional swipe with the Swiffer, so this intimate look at the sheet of Congoleum was eye-opening.

1. It's textured, pretty much pointlessly as far as I can tell, which means it's hard to get clean. I made progress, but I'll definitely have to do it again to get it completely clean.

2. I am willing to get on my hands and knees to clean it, and will even move the refrigerator in order to get to the strip between it and the stove.

I cleaned my rug last night and did my other floors the other day, but that's about it so far.

I'm hoping to get home before 9 tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get started on the kitchen then. Maybe I'll remember to buy flowers, too.

I was also surprised to see my blog linked here, thanks for everyone who stopped by. . I actually haven't posted much. . been doing some of the cure out of order before I got the book. Now that I have the book and read through chapter 2 I am more nervous than ever! Should I paint my rental apartment floor? (the floors are plywood and now painted awful hunter green - it is ok if i paint) should I paint all the walls white? (the walls now are painted a dingy off-white)

so many questions and I feel so much pressure! glad to have the threads here to read for support. . ! I have a huge outbox pile so that is a relief!

I am totally guilty of redecorating, but it's on purpose. :-D I'm doing something more akin to a series of one-room remedies because I currently have the time, energy, and funds. I've been decluttering since I moved in June and crossed the finish line just before the online Cure started. So I'm following the deep treatment assignments and calendar to develop cleaning habits and tie off a few clutter loose ends, but I'm planning on spending the majority of Curing time each week on completely fixing up that week's assigned room. Like this week, I rearranged the dining nook, hung a new pendant light, and am working on picking out dining chairs, kitchen curtains, and a few little kitchen/dining-related sundries while I do the deep clean. Can you tell that my only responsibility is a full-time job that doesn't require overtime right now? :-p

I've made a few little rules for myself, like "Thou Shalt Not Acquire Any New Furniture Except Two Dining Chairs And Two Bedside Tables Because Thou Really Needst Those" and "Thou Shalt Not Buy Any Strictly Decorative Objects Until All Decoration Thou Already Owns Hast Been Put On Display Or Culled" to keep myself from going overboard. It's really fun to say the rules out loud in a booming voice, by the way.

It's not pretty, but I posted the first of my "before" pics for constructive criticism. Yes, I know my apartment looks like that of a poor post undergrad or graduate student. I wonder why??? :)

The main issue with the apartment as a whole is storage. I've already had the BF purge about as much as he can (he continues to sell certain items and donate others after reading them). So lots of media storage is in order.

any product that will get my grout clean? I don't care how toxic, it's gross.

Thanks francesca, sounds delicious!

Just finished (sort of) week one of deep treatment last night when hubby vacuumed the apartment. We didn't mop, though. I think we will probably get to that soon enough.

Week two should be much more of a breeze than I expected, since hubby got into one of his "modes" while I was at yoga class on Sunday, and took charge of organizing our kitchen counter. We were just accepting the fact that using the toaster meant moving a stack of boxed knives out of the way! He finally got fed up enough to DO SOMETHING, and now I can't stop marveling at how much counter space we have. We even used our food processor the other day, for something as pedestrian as grating cheese for lasagna. Before, it would have been impossible to extricate it from its corner, and we would have done it by hand.

I can't wait to look for a new recipe to try. We love cooking but it has been a while since we tried something completely new.

We are just doing the "deep treatment," since individual rooms will get transformed anyways once our baby arrives. Also, we have to get windows in both bedrooms replaced, so we don't want to paint or do too much else until that happens.

Alana quoth: "Anyone else finding it difficult to resist the urge to redecorate?"

GUILTY!

Both times, AND with Marva & Brian's mini-house.

My excuse is that I'd already decluttered the Flylady way; it was guidance on making a home NICE that I came to AT for.

That 'n' the move forced a certain amount of redecorating that we'd budgeted for. Maxwell is so right about budgeting a couple months' rent for move-in improvements, at least if you're moving into a different type of housing stock. (How do people manage this if their rent is at the top of what they qualify for?)

OMG, I just read carefully and realized I'm supposed to have an idea for the One Room Remedy this week, aka, the Patio of the Bleak and Barren.

Home Depot apparently sold the last of the patio set that would have worked... to someone else... whom I nearly mugged in the parking lot. But that would have been wrong.

My BEFORE pix are finally up. It's odd how the bad parts look even worse, but the decent parts look better. *shrug* Comments are definitely welcome! But please remember...BEFORE pix. =)

yeah, i'll chime in on wanting to redecorate, too!

actually, it's not so much that i want to re-conceptualize things but that i want to shop. for things that are fun and decorative, not things like brita filters and a new broom.

one of my goals is to have spaces and objects that are both attractive and functional, rather than having some stuff that is utilitarian and unattractive and then overlay that with decorative items which have no particular function. but i keep buying pretty clutter rather than a new curtain for the entry to my bedroom, landing strip supplies, picture frames, or any of the many, many things i actually need.

oh, and wende asked, "How do people manage this if their rent is at the top of what they qualify for?"

they don't. every time i've moved, i've just had to make do, for a while. especially in the category of decor. if there's some household implement i require for survival in the new place, i'll usually find a way to finagle something. but cash for updating my look or decorating cutely is seldom in the cards at first.

this can be a good thing -- it gives you a while to figure out where you're going in a space. you have plenty of time to learn whether you really NEED whatever article. you learn to adapt what you already have to your new situation. but it's frustrating, too, if you want to put together something functional and homey and perfect in a short span of time.

Hey! Anna in Saskatchewan! A "neighbour"! Cool!

I've had to hit the "pause" button on my Cure for a few days this week, as my (elderly) mother had a fall, and I'm helping out over at their place (she's got bumps and bruises, it could have been a lot worse, but I decided to put the rest of my kitchen cleaning on hold until the weekend so I can help when needed).

Anyway, Tuesday morning I cleaned my counters, really well, and thought "they don't look so bad after all!" Maybe if I think of them as fake butcher block, instead of just poorly done fake wood, it will help me psychologically to accept one of the things I cannot change... I never noticed before, but when the counters are well cleaned, I can actually see reflections of the small appliances (kettle and such) in the counter. I used Method handsoap, because it was there on the counter, and not only did I get a pleasant light grapefruit scent while I was working, but it worked really well!

Fortunately, in my Cure on my own, I radically decluttered the kitchen, so all I have to do is clean. And chuck out the junk under the sink (that will happen on Monday, garbage day).

I even remembered to buy a replacement filter for the Brita (now I just gotta put the thing in).

I've scaled down my party plans, but may have a few friends in to see the "after Cure" apartment, early in December.

Yeah, I was thinking this is the first place where we've known from the git-go that repurposing wasn't going to work well. But you can imagine from other stuff I post that there was a big calculation of the economics of where we live, what we move, where we're likely to move, etc. One reason we went IKEA on the new wall of deep living room cabinets was because it moves in three pieces, so it has a better chance of working well somewhere else.

Most of our "cute" stuff is pillows, platters, or vases, though... all functional.

the thought of cleaning the fridge is really scaring me. it's disgusting.

also, i'm sort of anti-filter. which isn't to say i don't think other people should use them or that they're bad or anything, i just don't have room for that in my life. new york tap water is some of the safest in the country. in every test that's ever been done, it's been proven safe to drink. my pipes are clean and the water tastes and smells fine. that's the end of the story, as far as i'm concerned. it would be different if i lived anywhere else in the country, but the bottom line is that one of the reasons i like living in NYC is that you can ACTUALLY drink the water. so there! i'm not buying a filter! you can't make me! (ok, you could make me by proving me wrong about the water's safety, but nyah!)

We're not filtering water here. The refrigerator obligingly dispenses cold water and ice, and I figure, if we're offered middle-American suburban comforts, we may as well wallow in them shamelessly. (I also checked to make sure our water is treated river water, not from one of the TCE-contaminated wells! But filtering doesn't help for TCE; at that point, you have to buy bottled water.)

I'd be more productive if I were doing something other than this right now... *sigh*

Our water's safe, it just tastes better if filtered.

Wende -- productivity is highly overrated!! :) (Speaking of which, I guess I should get back to work...)

Ugh, productivity, AT.com has been so bad for me at work that way! I need to hunker down and not check again until I have to hand over a bunch of my work at 3:30.

About not decorating when you first move: I am finally just now able to begin to afford things--money and time-wise--that will help me decorate. Within a month (3 years ago), we moved to a new state, I started a new job in a new field, planned my wedding while living in three cities, got married, and my husband started law school. Yes, all within a month (we have 4.5 months total for planning the wedding). So it took me about over a year to recover from that, along with working 3 jobs to make ends meet.

I'm tired just thinking back about all of that! Oh wait, that's just my venti latte not working it's magic...

Now with DH working fulltime while finishing his last semester of law school (also fulltime), and then end of tuition bills that loans don't cover in sight, and I working 1 job that pays more than all 3 combined, we have more cash than ever before, so I'm finally getting around to decorating a bit, and the Cure is just great timing to do things I've been dreaming of doing for the last 3 years!

Our first christmas/birthdays after we were married, we got the dinning table set from our parents and his mom & step-dad.

Last christmas/birthday my parents gifted us tires, because we needed them for our car.

This year I'm hoping for a rug for the living room and a digital camera!! Gotta love parents.

OK, now I've got to go be productive. Will check in later. My kitchen will be attacked on Saturday, watch out kitchen!!

Skywaykate, anyone who can handle the logistics of your wedding/move/job issues is a gal after my own heart in the Pragmatic Planning department.

All right. I am GOING to the library for research materials to stop being behind on projects, and I will recite CathyMN's mantra to avoid stopping at any... very many... all of the vintage furniture stores on the way.

I got the book, read through it a bit, cleaned my floors and had a little talk with my husband. Wow... that was an eye opening conversation! Apparantly while I've been consumed with frustration at clutter and mess, he's actually bothered that our living/dining/great room looks too plain and bland for his taste. No wonder he's schooled himself to look past the mounting piles of old mail... he's not happy with the heart of the room. Whereas I have never gotten around to decorating (and am loathe to spend the money) because I feel there's no point if it's swarmed by clutter.

Anyway, we talked a little bit and we're going to divide stuff up. We're both in agreement on what our great room needs, and he's more comfortable actually shelling out the cash... so he's going to tackle a One Room Workout, while I have at a Deep Treatment for the whole apartment.

As for week two, well... I'm still finishing up doing the floors from week one. Thankfully the apartment is in good repair so that's not a problem (we have good landlords!). I'm currently psyching myself up for a kitchen Deep Treatment and my hubby is working on a budget and shopping list. I'm totally feeling motivated and inspired... or maybe that's just the elated feeling of knowing that our carpeted stairs are finally clear of dust cougars. :-)

Alana, about feeling the urge to redecorate during the Deep Treatment - yes!! yes!! As I'm cleaning I'm thinking "Oooh, these cabinets would look much better in a dark espresso colour...I'm sick of the blue on the walls...I want a new trash can"...etc. And I'm also thinking that my friends will show up at my housewarming party and think "what? is this it?"

Last night I made my repair list, and fixed not one but three things on it - put a screw in my falling-off electrical socket plate, put longer screws in the toothbrush holder so it wasn't hanging off the wall, and tightened the light switch plate in the bathroom! Such tiny jobs, but they'd been like that for months.

I also began to tackle the kitchen - got my canned/boxed food cupboard done. I can't believe how much I threw out - rancid oil, grains with bugs in them...*blush* those thing went straight to the trash.

It's surprising me that a lot of the stuff in my outbox is containers. I always though containers kept things organized, but I think they've just been enabling my pack-rat habits!

Ok, here we are - I've uploaded before and after photos of my food cupboard. I'm rather proud!

hey opoponax -- diptyque is now making opoponax candles:

although i'm doing the one room treatment, i've still got one eye on what's going on over on the deep treatment side. i was reminded to change my water filters and really think about what was/wasn't working in my kitchen. i needed more pantry space so i moved my oils, vinegars to my spice closet. now i have an entire shelf for a pantry so i can have more stuff on hand & i won't have to run to the store all the time. what to do with the spices? i went through all of them, chucked the old ones & put the rest in glass top metal jars from ikea. they're magnetized so they stick to my fridge. easy to get to AND they look cool too. i'll post pictures tomorrow.

Thanks for the rules, Cathy! Priceless.

For those drawing their rooms, an option could be Google SkechtUp, really easy and fun, you can do a 3D model plus incorporate a lot of predone models stored in the 3D warehouse:

http://www.sketchup.com/?utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-ww-google&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=sketchup

we used for our living room and thought was great.

olar

CathyinMN - do you have one of the old, lower, smaller and shallower than normal kitchen sinks that are popular in apartments like ours? Ours hasn't rusted, but the enamel is worn off and it looks like, well, crap.

Keep me posted on any conversation you have with a landlord about it, because I may want to do the same!

Way to get ahead on the appliances, too. =)

here's an idea: why not make a list of needed purchases at the beginning of the cure (or now, i guess). the things that deep in the back of your mind, you know you need/really want for your place. for instance mine would be:

EITHER a desk OR a tv stand
new pillows for my bed
frames, framing supplies, and professional framing
small bookshelf shorter than 36"
bedroom rug
anything that will HONESTLY help create a working landing strip

ok, so the things on the list are the only purchases you're allowed to make when the redecorating urge hits. and you have it on paper. just like getting your repairs down on paper helps you figure out how to tackle them all, getting your needed/wanted purchases on paper helps you focus on buying those things and not other junk.

I am theoretically *just* doing the deep treatment, anyone who has seen my photos can tell why, but I am also finding myself wanting to do some redecorating, just a few touches here and there...pretty much everywhere I look.

I'm going to try to stick to the basics, but I make no guarantees.

Tonight I will be washing dishes, and possibly sorting through the "pantry" shelf in the kitchen.

We did kitchen on the long weekend because that's easy-peasey when you've just moved in (and never again, thereafter). Having had a migraine all day yesterday, I decided that if having to move accessories again later was the worst problem in my life, I was doing okay... and just put things where they seemed to fit for now.

Buying flowers is turning into a Project. The grocery stores have broken out in rusty-colored mums, which don't work for me at all.

I have to chime in on the water filter thing.

My resentment and irritation at the suggestion that everyone should buy a water filter have been burbling away since I read the chapter this weekend. I have tried to distil my inchoate feelings into a semi-rational argument.


1. The water in your taps is safe to drink. There are extensive regulations, testing and treatment facilities to ensure this. if your water is not safe, then it is the responsibility of all members of the community to raise whatever fuss is necessary to make it safe.

Contaminated water is a fundamental wound to the bones of your home and your broader community. It needs to be fixed, not papered over.

Would you use a chamber pot if your landlord refused to fix the toilet? No, you'd go to court to force him to fix it. Potable drinking water is just as basic.

2. The fundamental point of The Cure, for me, is to connect with your home.

But your home is not just the space enclosed by your walls, it is also your neighborhood and community.

Installing a water filter on the suspicion that the water might not be safe - without bothering to find out if that's true - cuts your off from the rest of the community.

In a tiny, subtle, unintentional way it sends the message "I've got mine, the rest of you can lump it"

For US residents, you can get the latest test results for your communities water from the EPA (link in my name).


Of course, if you don't like the way your water tastes, feel free to get a filter. I'm just uncomfortable with getting one on principle.

Ok, I'm just starting and I'm already a week behind! I have no idea if I'll really have time to do most of the things we're supposed to do. I know I'm not supposed to do it unless I'm really committed, but I'm hoping that this will at least help me get something done!

I've also never used any online groups/forums/etc. before so I'm a little nervous.

Hey this is great motivation! I just popped out a shelf in my kitchen so we could have a liquor cabinet (shelves were all too short before) and now there is no more fridge-top storage. Also did a fridge clean-out and cleaned the face off too. Everything is sneakily looking better, bit by bit.

Less happily, they gave me the wrong size water filters and I have to go back. Boo. But nobody drinks tap water in Reno, I think they all think it tastes bad or something, I don't know why. But everyone gets bottled or filters around here. Go figure.

I'm trying my hardest not to redecorate, so far I've kept it to the curtain fabric and a couple of (larger) prints for over the quilt in my office (it's not going on the wall).

Still picking up clutter a little at a time. I've decided to spread this out over the whole Cure. I'll try to get as much of the kitchen clean as I can this week. No problem for me not to redecorate because I'm behind. Where did you read about the outbox? Did I miss it?

Hi everyone! I am running a bit behind here, but I am doing the AT cure for the first time. I have been reading the book that I borrowed from the library, but I did order a copy and it is on it's way. I could really use some organization, as you can see from my before pics. My fiance and I rent a 1920's Craftsman that we share with four cats. I do 99.9% of the housework, when it gets done.

I have already donated a box and a bag of stuff to the thrift store, made a list of stuff that should be repaired, posted before pics, and throughly vaccumed all of my floors. I already use a water filter and earth-friendly cleaning products. Tomorrow I am going to start cleaning the kitchen. I am struggling to keep up with the schedule in the book; hopefully I will get most of it done in 8 weeks.

I am probably going to have to redecorate a little, as some of my repairs involve fabric and paint. I would like to clean up my scuffed kitchen cabinets without getting too into renovation and heavy sanding (I have already refinished the hardwood floors in two of the rooms in this house and I am afraid I will end up having flashbacks!). If anyone has any suggestions for this, I would appreciate it. Comments and suggestions are greatly welcomed!

Marilyn--the outbox is mentioned under "breath" on p. 77 --right after the water filters!

For those joining late--the floors come round again. Do the other things though--the budget, the list of repairs--then jump into the tasks of Chapter two.

About the style tray--is this anything more than pictures? I love those "sample" rooms they do sometimes in the mags...this fabric and that paint chip, this hardware and that lamp, etc. But surely for the deep treatment we needn't get too specific? And I definitely do NOT want to go into a fabric store and start looking at fabric samples and so on...or I WILL get off-track and re-decorate.

It would be fantastic if those of you who understand this could post your style tray to flickr and link here. Someone did that already, but I forget who it was.

What I've been doing is going through the mags and mostly finding examples of colours I love and then analyzing how they're put together in the picture.

I'm also using the mags to learn how to balance light and darks, mix metals, etc....which is all good...but NOT getting me anywhere near a style tray.

Frankly, I'm just not "finding" my style in anything I can cut up!

Alana,
Don't stress too much about the style tray - it's nothing more than a collection of ideas put in one place. Designers put them together to help explain a project to a client and to keep on track. It is a work in progess - you will add new ideas, take others out - but the tray will help you determine if the idea works with the whole.

A tray can include photos of spaces you like - even partial images are fine, solutions to problems such as what your landing stip will look like or how to arrange the shelving in your kitchen (even if the color/materials are wrong), your favorite pillow, photos of furniture and accessories you own and want to keep as well as those you are thinking of buying, a piece of art (photo, sculpture, painting) that you love, seashells from your last vacation - anything that you like and find inspirational.

Magazines reflect what is in style right now - some of my favorite spaces were published thirty years ago and I only have images because I collected them. Your style is not necessarily going to reflect what editors want to print today. However, inspiration comes from everywhere. Remember in the book Maxwell talks about Martha Stewart's paint line that was inspired by the color of chicken eggs. Anything can be inspiration - not just images from magazines.

Do include those things that you owe and love and plan to keep as they need to work in your space. For example I will be including my favorite rug - so I am including that.

Don't add materials, fabrics that you don't know you are going to use until you are ready to make that call. At that point, you can bring the clippings to the tray and by comparing it with your original thought you the process may help you make a decision with greater confidence and success.

I would start with everything you like - then lay it all out. On one side layout what you have, love and plan to keep - and from there start paring down the images. As you work on the space, you will continue to edit the tray based on decisions you make.

The style tray is only worth what its usefullness to you in making decisions. It will be personal to you and no one else will have anything like it.

I have been working on mine over the past week. This weekend, I will scan and load them onto flickr (with floor plans) for you - it's not in a final form but I will add notes so you can understand my thoughts. Perhaps it will be helpful.

I'm feeling good about this week. I got my kitchen mopped, hot spots cleared, and the focus for this weekend is the closet. I think there's some linens/comforters up in the tippy top that are bulky, taking up a lot of room, and never going to get used by me. Moving them out of the house and using the storage space for something else would be a big plus!

I finished my "before" pix, with notes. Feel free to tell me how ugly and soulless my abode is. I can take it. Just give me suggestions as to how you'd change it (floor plan, furnishings, anything) and be as snarky as you want.

Alana, I've got an electronic style tray on flickr. Link is in my name. Quite a few of the images are from Apartment Therapy. :)

I cleaned out most of my kitchen last night. The only thing left is the fridge. Yeah, I say that like it won't be a huge job. Still, the kitchen is working better than it has in a long time. The kitchen outbox fills up my dining table.

alex--thank you for you wonderful reply! I appreciate it very much. It helps. You're right about the mags reflecting current taste and trends. I guess I'm going to have to get more imaginative as to my inspiration.

Shanabanana--do you love white? Is that an underlying theme for you? Have you noticed how much of it is in those photos you posted? Interesting. And thanks for uploading them.

My kitchen is taking a long time to clean, and I'm doubtful that I'm going to be able to get to it all this week, but I will keep plugging away at it. I finished the upper cabinets and one countertop this morning.

I'm starting to get nervous about the Outbox. It's filling up really fast, and I don't know what I'm going to do with all the stuff when it comes time to decide! I'm trying not to think about it until this weekend.

Amy in Richmond -- What do you want the place to look like, eventually? Right now, the photos suggest you could go any number of directions, depending on what you keep, what you paint or re-cover, and what you replace. I'm seeing a lot of earthtones, but are you an earthtone person or is the bright blanket on the sofa more representative of who you really are?

Anna, you'll be amazed how quickly stuff in the Out Box will disappear once you start making a concentrated effort to clear it, particularly if you're planning on just giving away a lot of things.

I ended up cleaning all of the kitchen appliances at the end of Week 1, so I was a little ahead of the game this week. The kitchen sink needs to be re-enameled or flat out replaced, though. The enamel has worn away on a large strip, leaving the metal exposed and rusted. :-p Any suggestions for how to bring up a major repair like this to a landlord? The worst he can say is "no", right?

I organized the pantry last night (how on earth did I acquire so many lightbulbs??), measured for kitchen curtains, and confirmed my love for the new dining setup. Now if only I could find two dining chairs that are stylish, comfy for both my short self and the 6'1" SO, and won't break the bank. Argh.

wende,

I like the neutrals, but i don't love the blanket on the couch at all. It's a 3rd hand piece and its main reason is to make sure the cat doesn't barf on our new couch. He hasn't, so it can go.

My color schemes are basically going to be neutral no matter what b/c I can't paint. But in the bedroom it's robin's egg blue and chocolate brown, and in the living room, probably ebony and ruby red (i am inspired by the translucent ruby glass my mom inherited from our elder family members).


I'm definitely not a "fuchsia pink and acid green" type of girl. The BF actually likes that bright, saturated type of decor more than I do! This apartment is hopefully going to end up more Dorothy Draper than Karim Rashid.

Kate - Yes! The shallowness bugs me a little bit, but it does keep me from letting too many dishes pile up.

Hey there everyone, I've just put up a Cure post on my livejournal page, where I've decided to document my progress.

More photos to come over the weekend, when I can get some before and after shots together. I have houseguests right now, so I haven't had a chance to look and comment on other people's pics yet. Next week!

Feel free to have a look.

Alana - I've always hated white. I had big feet growing up, so white shoes made them look bigger, I always got white clothes dirty, and I rented for so long that white rooms make me depressed. But recently, I've found that I really do love white. I painted my previously natural woodwork white, and most of the stuff I've bought lately has been white. I'm even planning to make a white Barcelona chair-esque headboard.

So yeah, I guess I do love it now. :)

marm,

Great job! Decluttering is by far the hardest and least fun part of the cure. But it's also the most rewarding.

I also completely understand how you felt about living in "someone else's" apartment. Apart from my desk and a bookcase, I came into this apartment (and this relationship) with NO furniture. On the one hand, it's kind of hard to ask for equal turf. For example, I'm asking the BF to trade out his filing cabinets and small bookcases for real media storage and larger bookcases(and I'm buying). But making a home for the both of you is an important part of having a healthy relationship. So keep it up!

Aha! Amy, I was trying to decide if I was projecting too many of my own issues when I was tempted to suggest trading out the little bits of storage that visually clamor, in favor of a couple of bigger pieces that make their statement and shut up... I'm so glad to hear that's the direction you're going. Having been down the dozens-of-little-bits road, I promise, the change will make a HUGE difference.

Are you continuing down the IKEA path? I'm besotted with them lately because they solve so many problems so economically, and many of the lines make a nice, neutral storage backdrop that doesn't compete with the furniture or accessories that you want to showcase.

Cathy - I wish it stopped them from piling up in my apartment, but unfortunately, it will take more than a small sink for that to happen (but DH has known since the day we met that I HATE to do dishes!).

Marm - Great work! Will be curious to see the B&A pics, but enjoy your guests in the meantime.

Woo! Sounds like everyone is doing great! I had a breakthrough today - I reformulated my To Do/Fix list and took off everything that requires shopping for new stuff. SO that way I can focus on cleaning and reorganizing and that stuff and not so much on spending $$.

Also, I don't know if it helps but when I redid that bathroom we got the tub redone, I don't know if it's the same as re-enameling a sink but it might be worth a shot to call some of the tub refinishing places and see if they'll quote you a price. The tub was about $350 but I'd think a sink would be much less if htey can just use the same stuff.

Wende,

Yes, absolutely. I really like the LACK/EXPEDIT line of bookshelves and storage units. Maybe I'm a square, but I LIKE SQUARES. Two LACK bookshelves and a big (4x4) EXPEDIT unit should solve a lot of issues up in here. The BF's been good enough to pare down his book, record, and CD collections, so I'm happy doing my part to store it in a more attractive way.

When I look at my photos, I noticed that I have one or two rooms that I'm pretty happy with, that just need a bit of work, and other rooms that are total disasters. I''m having trouble figuring out whether to do the whole house deep treatment or the one-room thing. Anyone else in the same situation? (I know, I was supposed to figure this out last week!)

clara,

I think your house is really nice...I'd just do the bedroom for now (and I totally don't think it's ick at all). And maybe the dining room?

I have open shelves (on brackets) in my kitchen--and no stove hood.

eeech. The dust is greasy: the grease is dusty. And it's all over my decorative jars. (And yes, there is food in them!)

We have to find out if a stove hood can be vented into the chimney flue. If not, then we'll have to fiddle with cabinets and wiring.

Or I could put up closed cabinets: but the kitchen still has its original 50's builders cabinets...and I don't want anything different.

Keep you fingers crossed we can find some--and that I don't "settle" for something different just to "make do."

Oh and Calcifer:

#1 do the self diagnostic on p.48.

If your score is bad...do the deep treatment. Also remember that, as Maxwell states on p. 30 "whatever yor situation, the bones of your home should be addressed first." So, if your "bones" are bad, you are likely facing some repair work: and that's the deep treatment.

If, however, your score is high OR fixing up and concentrating on one area "will solve at least one of the three main problems you identified during the self diagnosis" (p. 62) then do the one room remedy.

#2 Another thing that factored into the decision for me was our budget. A lot of the repairs we need to do are expensive (see above) but we need to face these and create a timeline for them--and rest assured it will be longer than 8 weeks! But still. Without a lot of money right now....Maxwell's breakdown on p. 67 made it very clear that we're in the "minor repair work" category: and so the deep treatment was called for. If you have more cash and can do a one room remedy, I'd say go for it!

I hope this is coherent: I've been interrupted several times! Please forgive the typos. Now it's time to go and wash those dang walls behind the nasty shelves!

Well, I've finally posted my "Before" pictures. I think maxwell had our living room in mind when he defined "bowling alley syndrome." So that's the first priority. Second priority is to get some color on the bedroom walls. Oh, and I still need to clean the kitchen cabinets.

sigh.

Next time I take time to dispense advice I'll take a look at the photos first!

Calcifer--your place is awesome!

Maybe what I typed out will help someone else.

still wrestling with my inner repair demons this week. basically, not only am i balking at confronting the major repairs i know are entirely out of the question, i'm now pussying out on anything more than the easiest and most basic of tasks i know i can fix in a few hours on a saturday afternoon.

for instance, probably the biggest set of repairs on the list is re-spackling the dings in the plaster on various walls, and fixing the peeling paint that shows up in a few places. these tasks, i realize, would ultimately require me to repaint, at minimum, every surface that i repair. if not the whole damn apartment (except the two rooms i've just painted in the last few months). i am not completely repainting my entire apartment as a part of this cure. i'm just not. kinda like i'm just not getting a water filter, just not rearranging the living room out of movie theater mode, etc. etc.

in my favor, however, i will say that the vast majority of tasks on the repair list are things that CAN be fixed in a few hours on a saturday afternoon. so it's not like i'm tossing the whole list out the window. i'm just sayin', is all.

i'm also wondering how much cure stuff i'm going to get to this weekend, as my back is really bothering me and i'm in a state of work-related exhaustion/depression/stress which needs remedying via hours hunkered down on the couch not beating myself up about what kind of shape the apartment is in. and wine. lots of wine.

and in other cure news, my apartment's favorite snack seems to be tape measures. this is the 3rd one that's completely disappeared in the last couple months. i've searched every nook and cranny and junk drawer and pile of crap (including the drawer where it actually lives just in case i really did put it back in its home), and no tape measure. i JUST pulled this thing out a couple nights ago to measure something in the living room, and it's gone. and i don't seem to have tossed it into any of my usual spots. wtf?

opo, I hope you find your tape measure - what were you trying to measure, anyway?

I feel like I've been productive today. I decluttered my kitchen counter by storing some spices I don't use in the cabinet, therefore making my vitamins and daily allergy pills front and center. I also repurposed a second magnetic spice rack that I got for my b'day (I bought one a few months ago, but apparently nobody got the message) by putting paper clips, binder clips, pushpins, etc in the jars and then storing the spice rack flat in my shallow desk drawer. It works!

oh, and my outbox overfloweth. I pared down my linen collection and stored some summer linens that i'm keeping in those plastic bags. I had two comforters that I haven't used in a year, and since I just bought yet another, those are going to the thrift store. I'll try to post pics sometime late this weekend!

opo--if you need to take a rest and relax--then do that! I know what back pain is like: at best it makes you cranky, at worst, immobile.

And if you aren't going to make the repairs, then don't. Just don't beat yourself up about it!

Been there, done that. And the best thing to do is just make a decision for today--or this morning--that you will do only and exactly what you want and nothing else.

But give your mind a rest too--and then, who knows, after completely refreshing yourself, then you just might have the energy/inclination to do something. But whatever you decide, be content with your decision.

In cure news for me today, I got all the open shelves and junk over the stove washed and put back and wrenched my right shoulder as well. I was going to clean the oven this morning but that might just be too painful. So it's either the fridge or some cabinets.

And good for you amy. I wonder if your blankets could go to a local shelter? The cold weather's coming.

Clara - I think your place looks great, I'd stick with a one-room remedy in the bedroom if I were you, that seems like the place you're least happy with. I love your living room! It seems to me that everywhere else just needs a bit of decluttering.

I did a linen closet clean-out and we've got quite an outbox going on now! Old sheets and blankets and comforters that I think have been subconsciously saved for guests when I would not give them to any self-respecting guest that came to stay here for fear that they'd never come back!

Anyways, that's the one thing we're set with after the wedding is bedding and towels so there's no big loss there. I've got plenty of drop-cloths now for finishing up the entryway!

oh, i'm not beating myself up too much. i think i just need someone to announce these things to. which is sort of what this thread is helping me with -- i can come in here and blurt out my 'i don't wanna's and my 'hell no's (and my 'hey, lookee's, too!), and somehow that really helps me get it sorted. i should leave you guys alone and start a blog, i think.

so rather than veg on the couch, i've been craigslisting, stoop saling, and vintage shopping in the neighborhood this morning (ok, the craigslisting took place on the couch). and i've totally scored, i have to say. i bought a storage piece for which there are so many options i can't even list them all here, a very nice (huge!) picture frame for $2, and a framed scientific diagram ($3) which has a few different display options or may be gutted to make way for other things that need framing.

and the framing shop up the street is having a $20 off sale today, so i need to get over there with some things i've been holding onto. also i have an appointment later to look at a credenza i saw on craigslist (it was listed in the 'craigslist scavenger' a couple days ago, so if you're curious you can see photos by digging around a bit).

so much for the outbox... though i did get rid of another shopping bag of clothes and odds and ends and a small stack of books this morning. i realized when i was looking around for things to add to the bag that, really, there's not a whole lot i need to edit these days. i think i've broken through to a point where more storage will help rather than hinder. i think later today i will spend some time in my bedroom trying to get the piles of books, art, etc. under control and seeing what i can outbox temporarily. because there's nothing else i'm absolutely ready to get rid of at this point.

oh, yeah, and i was looking for the tape measure to measure some parts of the living room to see if there is, in fact, room for a 6.5 foot credenza in here.

No, no, don't get a blog--I mean you don't HAVE too--helps me feel not quite so lonely to *listen* to you rant!

And wow, opo have you been productive!

I was out returning dvd's today to BB and discovered that my favourite second hand furniture store isn't there. Poof. Where did it go?

I was going to go in this week and take a look around.....


Well, took me something like four hours but I got 1/2 of my upper cabinets emptied and washed out. I know, that sounds like I have a lot of cabinet space--honest, I don't! It was trying to find containers for three bags of walnuts, two of icing sugar and of pecans, and three complete sets of food colouring bottles. You can't combine them, either.

That's something they never tell you when you have kids: you will have an overabundant supply of food colouring! So, I'm letting you know. ;)

Weeded out two plates, four mugs, a bag of cornmeal, a picture frame, and discovered I have three matching sets of creamers and sugars. Huh???

oh, i so have not been productive at all. i'm really just barely eaking out each week's requirements, and leaning a lot on the fact that i've been lucky and am relatively on top of the things we've been assigned so far. i've been editing a lot lately, have reorganized the kitchen several times over the past few months, things generally work, etc.

and i still haven't fixed my thing or finished up the parts of the kitchen that need it. and the rest of the house is still in disarray from cleaning the floors last week. and the bathroom and laundry are out of control because i've been so busy curing i haven't attended to them.

but in a week, i'll have custom framed art!