From TrueBlue:
While I didn't make it through The Cure the first year, and I didn't devote myself to it this year, I have to say that I AM getting a lot done. I see the improvements in other people's homes, and get inspired to try a little bit harder to go through things. Get rid of things. Clean things. Sort, recycle, donate, etc.
Happy Birthday, Jany! As for the rest of us, onward and upward. If you are feeling behind, this is your week to feel a bit of a reprieve. Ahead is the home stretch and behind are the biggest trouble spots. This week pulls back to focus on your bathroom - a place of function and luxury. If you are fascinated with toothpaste, this may give you a chuckle. In the book there is also a sermon on lighting, potentially the most important single aspect of interior design in the home.
This Week's Assignment: In the deep treatment the overall theme is peacefulness. As you clean out your bathroom(s), I want you to get to a point where you are able to put some calming luxury back into them. If you don't have them already, there are some purchases to be made here that can change your bathroom experience.
In the One Room Remedy take a good look at the lighting in your home. I find that most homes are underlit and that most that seem drab or uninspired could be turned around simply by addressing the lighting alone. Get adventurous! Lighting can be very affordable and different kinds of lights will really make your home leap to life. Oh, and there's some painting to do this week for some. Enjoy our small tutorial on how to paint a room. It's basic, but we find that it always helps to remember it when we're painting a room.
Lynne F is "Still working hard to keep the apartment cleaned and organized, sometimes it seems a never ending job, but it is so worth it." Taxes are done!
___________________This Spring NY Cure's Posts
>> Week Five - Weekend
>> Week Five - Home Office
>> Week Four - Weekend
>> Week Four - Living Room
>> Week Three - Weekend
>> Week Three - Entryway
>> Week Two - Weekend
>> Week 2 - The Kitchen
>> Week One - Weekend
>> Week 1 & Getting Going
>> The Class is Filling Up! - 3.6.08
>> Getting Oriented & Week Zero - 3.4.08
>> Join Us Next Week! - 2.29.08
_________________All The Info
Basic Info:
The Cure posts will go up twice a week, allowing for plenty of comment space. We will be pulling comments and pics to the front page post each week and everyone is urged to take pics and post them to this great Flickr pool or simply tag them with "apartmenttherapycure." See our old pics here too.
For all NY posts go to the The Cure Archive.
Where We Are:
>> Chicago Cure & their Flickr group
>> San Francisco Cure & their Flickr group
>> Los Angeles Cure & their Flickr Group
>> New York Cure & our Flickr group
Please choose the site nearest your home to join, but feel free to browse on all!
Note:
We lost our old Book Blog page in the redesign, so we're relying on our straightforward archive here. Here are some other pages that the Book Blog highlighted:
Good Links:
>> About The Book
>> Rave Reviews from the release
>> About The Author and Contact
Excerpts:
>> Excerpt I
>> Excerpt II
>> Excerpt III
>> Excerpt IV
Just arrived home last night from a weeklong business trip to China followed by a personal stop in LA, and the state of the apartment was staring me in the face. A week of unread newspapers and mail was piled up due to my ridiculously busy husband's work schedule, and though the window washers came to wash the exterior of the windows, they marked up the interior walls and failed to put things back on the windowsills!
Lots to do this weekend: decide on paint colors for front hallway and master bath, do a medicine cabinet overhaul, completely reorganize and file all of our paperwork, and start to get the office in shape. Luckily we have a few free weekends ahead of us to accomplish all of this.
view abb_brooklyn's profile
With regard to lighting and bathrooms, are there any modern, fun, unexpected, inventive and/or serene night lights that folks might recommend for our bath?
view wig3000's profile
I'm so terribly behind, but I'm loving reading about bathroom week. I got some slate tiles from another fellow ATer, boy were they heavy! But lovely! My dad sent me a new shower head so pooch bathing will be easier. So I've picked out paint and the bathroom is getting a re-do. My camera has been fussy lately so no idea when I can get photos up.
Congrats to everyone on all the progress, I'm super envious!
view EastVillageAmy's profile
Alright! Thanks for posting photos of my place- twice! That Sonic Youth poster is my favorite thing about my black & white bathroom.
My usually hard-to-please grandmother visited my apartment last night and didn't turn up her nose at all! She even commented on how cute it was. It felt good to pass muster - and I owe it all to the Cure. :-)
view HollyinDC's profile
It's a good think my bathroom is already in top shape, because I'm going on vacation to Cuba! :)
view Eve in Hochelaga's profile
I guess I've been derailed after a 10 day work trip plus the need to recooperate (change of season brought changes of energy level here too!) so I am modifying my timeline to tackle the following in the next month:
-deep spring cleaning of the entire apt
-editing all my books
-decluttering paperwork to the max
-adding storage in the kitchen and bathroom
-changing bathroom colors
thanks for the inspiration everyone and too bad I won't be graduating with you...!
some new pics are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/82584715@N00/
view Louisa's profile
I am officially a Cure dropout now. (So save my certificate for the Fall when I will be an A student.) It is time to admit that I set my goal too high and a renovation is a completely different thing than a cure. I have also realized that the fact that a kitchen is 4' x 5' does NOT make it easier or faster to renovate. Originally, I was going to have the loud work done by a contractor while I was at work (read during the hours my co-op allows that kind of noise). Due to budget constraints and my conviction that I can do this myself, I realize I will have to take a week off from work and get everything done as quickly as possible while living in the space. The cure has helped me get past the decisions which had delayed the process before. I have an appointment with my bosses to discuss when my "vacation" week can happen. I feel much better prepared for this project and have discovered that cooking can actually be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. It has been to my advantage in the final design of my kitchen to actually try cooking in it first anyway. So thanks to everyone for your help and I will continue posting as the remodel takes shape.
view evillstudio's profile
how did i miss this thread? whatever i'm busy. weekend guests arrive tomorrow night. took the day off. bought screws, etc for brackets and shelf today. but i don't have a drill and was advised that the plaster wall may contain a layer of cement that will be a problem. tomorrow: beg the super to drill for me. how long can that take.
frodo got the ring to mt. doom. i'll get through this (and there are two weeks to go, technically).
view Lady J's profile
Our bathroom is now in lovely shape. When I replaced my toothbrush, I used the old one to clean our bath grout. The shower curtain was laundered with our bath towels. As per my mom's advice, I added 1/2c. of dishwashing liquid to a full tub of water, flipped the switch, and cleaned out our tub's jacuzzi-style jets. It's the tiniest of bathrooms so cleaning time wasn't too drawn out. I shall post a few photos soon.
view wig3000's profile
I'm still in it, though it's going slowly. Not having money to fix things or buy things that will really help me out kind of sucks. But a friend is coming over this weekend and I hope she will help me put up pictures.
view Melissa A.'s profile
I missed this thread too for some reason.
Trying really hard not to be a drop-out after zero performance last week in the office... Boyfriend's sister is spending the weekend with us so while that won't allow me a ton of time to do stuff I do enjoy people coming to visit. I find that having visitors often enough also makes us keep the apt much cleaner! We've been doing really good keeping up our landing strip and cooking at home. I'm making chicken parm tonight and I can't wait.
I'm making a list of bathroom stuff to do tonight/sunday. The bathroom itself is TINY and pretty functional. I do need to reorganize my linen closet for sure and go through the two boxes of extra toiletries I have.
view suziegoombs's profile
also! suggestions for air fresheners of any sort that are cat proof (meaning, none of those ones with the sticks sticking out) and don't require an outlet AND that are not horribly ugly are welcome!
view suziegoombs's profile
I have scheduled my water heater replacement--the centerpiece of this Cure--for next week. I'm not going to replace the toilet at this time because the estimate for replacing the water heater is higher than I expected. That's fine, because I was overwhelmed by the choices (of just Toto varieties!)
I'm still moving stuff out of the outbox. And also, working on my magazine horde. Maybe I'll just get rid of all the ones I haven't gone through yet (to see if there's anything I want to save). There's always more magazines, right? But, I'm so attached to them.
I've already done the hell corner of the bedroom closet (thus the outbox) and cleared out under the bed--there's nothing under there! Except one box and internet stuff. Now, I need to switch seasonal clothes, straighten it up, and then clean out the half of the closet where the water heater is going to be replaced.
I don't think I'll be painting the closet as I had contemplated. I'd rather save that energy for something else.
view Pixie's profile
I. Will. Not. Drop. Out!
I am, however, quite behind on things. Living room/office are sort of the same thing and the amount of decluttering that needed to happen was astounding. I'm still working on it. I did fix up the scary bookcase, reorganized some craft supplies, and made an Ikea run which scored a very cute little bistro table that fits perfectly in my little dining/conversation area. It's still too white, so I am going to make a sort of hobbleskirt table cloth for it - sheer fabric cinched in with some ribbon or contrast fabric so it doesn't just look like a tablecloth plopped on top. I added a FLOR are rug in that corner (might need to buy a couple more squares, actually) to bring in more color. I also picked up a larger balloon shade so it won't look so lost up there.
Bookcase:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelann/2424079498/
New table:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelann/2423300527/
view laurelann's profile