apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Unfortunately, due to my contractor's schedule I won't be done with my bathroom in time (He couldn't start until May 5th). But I won't be too much later, so I feel like I'm still in the game. The good news is that almost all of my work is done. I've picked out just about everything, in fact the vast majority of the supplies are already in my home. Luckily, the bathtub is being stored in my boyfriend's garage, because otherwise it would be in my living room. I'm still blogging, too: http://j-fer-rose.blogspot.com/

I love the visual of the bathtub in the garage instead of the living room! Hope it returns to the bathroom soon!

As I am unofficially curing, I am sort of on my own schedule. What I am finding is that I come back to projects that I have already done and find ways to do them better. Today I re-organized our files - even though I had purged them a couple of weeks ago, and the system is now top-notch. All of the files are consolidated in to only two boxes now (before there were the two file boxes plus a couple of accordian files and loose folders), which is rather symbolic, I think, for us as newlyweds. (By the way, the file system that I loosely used was from David Bach's "Smart Couples Finish Rich." I have read of many other file organization systems, but I wasn't convinced to alter mine until I came across his.) In addition, the new file system motivated me to do other personal finance work today!

I hope everyone's cures are coming along well; the weather outside certainly is a happy distraction, though!

This weekend we are having friends over for dinner and they are going to take away a bunch of our furniture. My fiance and I combined households and we have a lot of duplicates sitting in the garage so we offered up a bunch of stuff free to some friends on the condition that they come up and get it. It's exciting for us because it includes a couch, chair, kitchen table and four chairs, two end tables and a coffee table. Getting this stuff out of the garage will enable us to finally reach some of the boxes that we need to unpack and sort.

This week we also rehauled all our kitchen storage. I'm going to post pictures on Sunday (the 20th) and I have to say it looks a lot better especially because our apartment is so small so we have a lot of stuff out in the open.

Good work, everyone! Your bathroom plans look great, J-fer Rose. Were you able to go with the Eco Gres Recycled Porcelain tile for your floor or did you have to choose something else?

Our bath remodel project is coming along, but it won't be done this month either. When finished, it will be our guest and/or rental unit bath. I spent time cleaning our one functioning full bath this week. Photos are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98704941@N00/2425715515

Hi all - I'm just cleaning out my linen closet today and am finding a LOT of unused toiletries. For some reason we have a lot of scented lotions (and even entire packs of bar soap) I know I'm not ever going to use. Instead of just throwing it out I thought "theres got to some place I can donate this to" and found this resource:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/mvc/html/donate/want_donate.shtml

Obviously it only applies to those living in nyc but I thought I'd pass it along!

I worked like hell to get ready for my party last night. I'm continuing the Cure to the finish though. Unfortunately, I hung mirrors at the last minute and one of the hangers was misaligned. So one mirror was up next to a pair of hooks.

Oy.

Made some decisions and got some outbox stuff ready to donate. Also, rearranged some storage so that I can empty out my hallway/outbox area. I moved some things into temporary storage in the hall closet, since I haven't finished sorting through it and need to clear things out because I'm going out of town next weekend and someone will be staying here, so no crapola. The low hanging fruit of clutter is long gone (previous Cures and moves) and what I'm dealing with now is the really hard stuff - old letters, journals, really old professional work, seriously sentimental stuff, but not sure I want to keep.

I was out of town for nearly two weeks but I'm getting back on track. Yesterday I did an overhaul of the entire bathroom, top to bottom, rearranged all the medicine cabinets and undersink cabinets and got rid of nearly two garbage bags full of old products that I'll never use. It feels great to open my medicine cabinet and have nothing fall on me!

Also filed two years' worth of mail (how did we ever get along before this?) and recycled about 30 lbs worth of old magazines and catalogs. Things are coming along!

Next weekend: paint the foyer. The following weekend: paint the bathroom. Colors are all picked out, I just have to do it!

Should get some pictures up tonight if I get a chance.

We had a busy week, so the cure only included maintaining the house this week. We had planned to more this weekend, after a camping trip this Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, we had a 5 hour power outage due to torrential rain and lightning strikes. By the time power returned, it was time to get the kids ready for bed! ugh!

My dear husband did hang my art work, and we plan to hang the rest tomorrow. It will look a little high, but we had to account for a future headboard.

To the left the art work it seems a little bare. Let me know what guys think. Should I add a couple of smaller frames?

Any thoughts on floor covering? We are leaning toward Flor, Next in Line, in either almond or sage gray. Any thoughts?

The finishline is fast approaching! Good luck to all!


http://www.flor.com/service/flor/shop_by_model.html?mv_arg=Next%20in%20Line_03


http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjburke/2429544121/in/set-72157604069588155/

correction...that is "let me know what you guys think"...not just guys!

Another thought...I am picking up my lamp from the repair shop tomorrow. It will be going on the dresser, as soon as our unpurchased LCD tv is installed! It is a vintage driftwood, one of the pair that was in my foyer. I felt I had too much on my landing strip. edit.edit.

Hello again!

I did some modest bathroom updates and a major overhaul of my linen closet. I am SO pleased with it and it further supports the idea that I will never be able to move from this apartment. I mean, where else in new york are you going to find a double-door linen closet?? So, the closet is all tidy now and I can actually find things again. It was also helpful to go through the extra toiletry baskets and go "oh yeah, I forgot I had this in here... I should really use this again."
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suziegoombs/2430410390/

I cleaned the bathroom and painted a towel bar. Sounds crazy but that dirty, badly-painted towel bar has been bothering me since we moved in. Now its a cute little shaving station for the boyfriend (thanks to an $8 target shower mirror)!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suziegoombs/2429597191/

Our bathroom isn't very large and it houses two litterboxes. Some day I will come up with a better solution for that. In the meantime its always nice to have some flowers in there.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suziegoombs/2430410306/

and of course the obligatory flowers of the week shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suziegoombs/2429596397/
These babies were only $5 and they are lasting forever! I love how bright they are. Puts a smile on my face whenever I see 'em.

Lady J - we want to see pictures! After you recoup from the party of course... How did the backsplash end up working?

J-fer - even though it will be done after the cure, PLEASE post photos of the finished bathroom! I know I can't wait to see how everything looks together.

Jen64 - I looove the look of Flor's "Next in line" but have never seen it in person. I have some Fedora in my office area and its great. Definitely spend the $5 and get samples before choosing though... I found that some lines looked really nice in the catalog but then were too berber carpet-esque for my taste.

i am feeling a bit stressed this week. I am frustrated that i am not keeping to the schedule, but fortunately, i was so excited in the begining of the that i starting working on the bathroom in week 2. i also, had to have surgery on my hand so that is delaying progress. i have realized that painting my entire apartment is probably not going to happen during this cure, so i am readjusting my plan to get everything in order. it will make painting easier when there is less stuff. this is a little disappointing, but im trying to stay positive about all of the things that i have improved.

bathroom revamp including paint, towels, storage solutions, removing one ugly plastic storage unit, and new rug.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2231/2376623401_94549cef63_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3288/2376623341_62e3703fb6_o.jpg

I need some strength, I went away for the weekend and did not get anything done on my Bathroom. I will have work on it tonight, scrubbing the bathtub and floor. The good part is that I have pretty much pared down the products I use, so my cabinets are pretty well organized.

The best thing I did accomplish last week was to wash my living room windows, it makes such a big difference.

We're slowly making progress. We sold a bunch of stuff at my parents yard sale on Saturday. I wish we had the time to purge a little more, but there is a bit more space in the basement now. Also we ordered a new couch for our living room, which should arrive in two weeks. The only thing left (besides going through a mountain of papers) is picking a fabric and making cushions (and maybe matching curtains?)for our kitchen chairs. Any suggestions?

http://www.vintage-green.blogspot.com/

I will certainly post photos of my completed bathroom, even if it is done late. Thanks for asking!

As far as which floor tile I went with, I couldn't go with the Eco-Gres. I did place an order, but found out the manufacturer was out of stock and it would be 16 weeks. I ordered some tile from Daltile that will have a similar look without as much eco-cred. I'll go post the simulation to my blog and Flickr right now.

suziegoombs, the linen closet looks great. It will be so much easier to use. And a clean, functional, well-organized living space = a home.

There's not much here yet, but some of my pictures are up on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandabutler/sets/72157604665462584/

Nothing to update concerning last week ( too busy at work and having a friend over for the weekend ), but this is not a drama for me.
Yesterday though, a friend took my EXPEDIT and i was able to make some changes in my bedroom. I hope i can continue this weekend or next week. I'll also post some pics until then.

Sigh. I had a crazy week -- I had a dinner party last Sunday and it literally took me all week to finish the dishes. The weekend was a whirlwind of social events, so not much progress, and I'm off to London tonight. I might need an extension!!

Why do I get all fan-girly when Maxwell says something nice about my space?

abb-brooklyn, your medicine cabinets are a thing of beauty! And your bedroom is so pretty - love the comforter and the curtains.

I made a couple of changes to the living room corner shown above - a larger balloon shade, which makes a big difference, and I have some more art stuff to hang. I'm having trouble because I prefer odd numbers of things but I have two of these prints:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelann/2331874666

and nothing to balance them out - the two by themselves just looks too symmetrical to me. Does that make sense? I might frame some photos of my niece for that area to continue the "cute little girl" theme.

Bathroom is in good shape - I had painted and organized the cabinet before I started the Cure. I have some framed photos for the wall and the door, and yesterday I picked up a fantastic round mirror at Target for above the towel rack. Photos once everything is up!

suziegoombs- i posted some after photos. forgot to get batteries for my camera, so no party photos. we had dinner at a restaurant and dessert here. my houseguests are family so they totally understood my place being a wreck and stayed out of my way/helped prep on Saturday. it was fun even though i had to leave them to their own devices.

in the course of scrapping toward party presentable I:

- changed all the bulbs (not the swirly kind, sorry)
- took down all the fixtures and washed them
- hauled out a seemingly endless supply of plastic shopping bags, shipping boxes and packaging
- scoured my bathroom tile top to bottom (about 7')
- mopped the bathroom walls from the ceiling down
- brought the bathroom floor tiles back to white
- papered the medicine cabinet
- iron-hemmed a fabric panel to hang over the closets
- re-hung all of the curtains
- dismantled cabinet drawers to clean out the residue of an 18 year-old can of soda (17th birthday gift from a friend - it leaked out)
- swept, dusted and stowed things away within an inch of my life

My guests thought it was a fruitless effort, but at 5pm they said they were proud of the results. Then I sent them to the liquor store for wine.

Oh, and we peeled the tape off the finished backsplash. My relatives thought it just needs a bit of touch-up paint. With the lights on, it isn't noticeable due to the shadow of the upper cabinets. I'm thinking about repainting it and the adjacent wall a color like pea green or teal.

We planted our vegetable garden last weekend just in time for the rain! http://flickr.com/photos/lilkidthings/2430677549/

Also, I am almost done with the guest room! Just a few painting touch ups to go and the bed is put together! Also need to change out a lighting fixture and hang some art. Hooray for leaving the door open!

emilyjoyce i LOVE those anthro towels :-)

AND here is a pic of the bed!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilkidthings/2437593260/

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