apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Time for an air conditioner entry? Dug up this old one from April 30th 2004: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/how-to/how-to-buy-an-air-conditioner-000263

Wish there was a universal chassis for air conditioners. I'm having a hell of a time avoiding Fedders to replace the existing Fedders A/B chassis air condtioners.

Struggles detailed here:
http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?p=991848#post991848

Happy birthday Molly!!!

Who participated in that task chair derby? I was looking forward to hearing about that. There hasn't been anything about it, or did I miss it?

Ok, perhaps I am being cranky.... but I have noticed an increase in AT's not being able to answer questions and putting out an "anyone?" to posts. For example -- today's query about prefabricated granite countertops.

I would think that Maxwell and team would at least do some research on the question posed (it didn't appear that they did) before passing the buck to the users of AT. Am I incorrect, but I think of Maxwell et al as interior designers... someone that should have an answer to that question.

Lately I've found that the readers/users of AT have a great deal more knowledge, or perhaps are more willing to share their knowledge, than our hosts. Does anyone else have this feeling?

Hey, me, Maxwell has an actual paying job, and this site is not it.

I think with multiple sites, an ungodly number of incoming emails from ATers and product hawkers, and an actual paying interior consultation business, not to mention book promo and his TV shoots, his plate is pretty full.

Cut him some slack."Host" is a fulltime job, without doing all the research, too.

And, um, who's this "team" you speak of? I think AT NY is only Maxwell and Jill, if not mistaken...

I've always understood the "good question" to be a chance for the ATers to come up with solutions to the problem. Even though Maxwell is a designer/organizer I think he put the onus on us to post answers. He may have one solution and posts that when he has time but I've always felt like it was really up to us. That's just my opinion.

In the spirit of "Weekend Strolls" and summer gardens.. thought this might be of interest -- Hoboken's Secret Garden Tour -- Sunday, June 4...

http://www.hobokensecretgardens.com/

Ok, maybe I am missing something.... Maxwell's bio here (and when googled, in the press, his publisher, etc.) says he is "part life coach, part interior designer".... what is the full-time job, then, if not as an interior designer? And isn't this website, in part, an advertisement for his interior design services?

My bafflement is due to fewer and fewer interior design questions being answered by an interior designer.

Having read the book, I'm gonna say that it's not 2 separate jobs, it's one job that fuses the 2 things. Pretty sure it says that his training was as an interior designer, but his parents were both mental health professionals, which seems to inform the whole thing about how one lives and inhabits their space, not just how pretty their place is.

He or someone else may have a better way to say that, but that's my take.

"Part life coach, part interior designer" is ONE full time job. And there are plenty of interior designers here so these questions are being answered by int. designers, just maybe not the one you want (Maxwell).

Dear Me,

My approach to interior design has always been based in helping people work through their problems, hence the catchy line that Daily Candy laid on me years ago. You cannot separate people from their living spaces. With all due respect to designers who work exclusively on paper, I find it more successful to work with people AND paper.

But the truth is running this site and working with clients IS two jobs. And while I pull it off most of the time, I won't be able to keep up with it forever. Perhaps you'd like to help out?

Y'know, I like the way the Good Question format works. ATers have a wide range of knowledge, and so you end up with a more well-rounded perspective on possible answers than if Maxwell just said "here's your solution," end of story.

Now if I were *hiring* Maxwell as a designer, that'd be a different story. But I'm not. I'm just happily taking advantage of this site and the incredible wealth of design info that it provides.

well. It seems I have touched a nerve.

Thank you for your kind offer of employment; however as I am currently gainfully employed, and am neither an interior designer nor a writer, I don’t think I’d be a good fit.

I believe my query was a reasonable one. Other sites I frequent -- brownstoner.com comes to mind -- are run by people with full-time jobs wholly unrelated to the website. Mr.Brownstoner is, I believe, in finance, while his site, which like this one is regularly updated throughout the day, is about Brooklyn brownstones and real estate.

I thought it would be different, too. I thought Maxwell would have his hands in everything that went on. Especially the Cure stuff. I thought Maxwell would be pitching in on everyone's house with oodles of ideas and I was very disappointed that he didn't.

This site is more like other sites, where it's the people that make the site. Not the person who puts up the info or made the site initially.

The "Good Question" thing is like a Daily Crossword. It would be stupid and boring to have the Daily Crossword already filled in by the person who created it. Would anyone bother to look at it? Nope. There's nothing to do with it. It's already finished.

I look forward to the "Good Question" because it IS like a puzzle and gives me something to learn about and to try to figure out.

There are two things that annoyed me about the Good Question. One is I never got the fake dollar and the "You Rock" email when I found something. Gosh darn, you said you'd send an email and that would be my prize, if I found that item. How's that for petty? ;)

The other is that sometimes the people don't seem to come back or know their question was posted. I went through the entire chairs section at eBay, finding a sofa/chair set that looked like the right legs, which then led me to the website that had the chairs someone was looking for. I don't think they saw that. I had dreams of chairs.

I came up with what I thought was a cool idea for a hallway, and I don't think that person saw it either. What is the point of a Good Question if the person who asked it never knows it was posted or never bothers to reply?

I like LOTS of choices. LOTS of ideas and suggestions. That's what the people who post here provide. It's not just one person who made the site who has ideas. EVERYONE has ideas. It doesn't matter if they are interior designers or have degrees, they have IDEAS.

Plus, finding an answer to a Good Question...there might be more than one answer. Sure, there's the original expensive version, but there might well be a similar version at Target. Some folks will only buy the original, some folks will go to Target today. I can't afford the original version, so, I'd be thrilled to know that Target had one.

There's always a silver lining. :)

hey, maxwell, I'm a big fan of the site and the way you run it. I have a slight prejudice in favour of its feel when it was small, but I'm still really pleased to see how much success you've had.

I also like it that people will still send in their quirky apartments, although I've been pretty disappointed by some of the mean-spirited comments that have resulted. Come to think of it, the very designed apartments have elicited mean-spirited comments, too.

I notice a lot of those people have disappeared now. No big loss.

I remember just before you were choosing your slogan last year that you had mentioned somewhere or other that "community is what apartment therapy is all about." In my own little head, that's still your slogan.

speaking of which, nice to see some posts from you, p2 - every once in a while I worry that you've disappeared, and your posts were one of these things that kept drawing me to the site initially.

And, to bring up another long-time member - jamie pup, did you ever post anything on your dirt-cheap kitchen rehab?

Hi everyone--

I know there's been discussion about cable management before, but I'm coming at it differently:

We've got a new little puppy coming soon and I'm worried that the cables from our stero setup are going to be just too enticing. Does anyone have thoughts on dealing with this? Is the coil thingy that Maxwell suggested my best bet? I vaguely remember that there some tool that the cable actually coils up and lives inside of, but I can't find it in the archive, so I wonder if I made it up!

Thanks for thoughts.

Hannah, your best bet is to buy a gallon of Bitter Apple spray and have sharp eyes. We have jokingly dubbed our bundle of fur "The Ultimate Chomping Chompion". With the amount of money I have invested in cables and stacks of electronics the chomped cable was a huge fear of mine.

Before your little fuzz-butt arrives I'd liberally spray everything down with bitter apple. Once he gets there any investigation of cables should elicit a strong "No!" from you. Get his attention away from the cables and on something else (like a toy). This has worked well for us, and we've reached the 1.5 year mark with almost no chomping damage on anything other than dog toys.

Oh, and if anyone wants to see the Ultimate Chomper they can find him here:

http://dogster.com/pet_page.php?i=101609

Me - I'm surprised that you think you've hit a nerve. What I read (and my posts fall into this) was answers to your question. I didn't read anything else into it. I'm sorry if you think people laid into you for asking. It certainly wasn't MY intention and I don't think it was intention of others.

Just for the record, though, you said the Mr. Brownstoner updates his site thoughout the day. Maxwell does the same. Have you not noticed that?

I feel Maxwell is doing a great job and I prefer reading lots of different ideas in response to questions over having one answer from Maxwell. Most of the people who participate at this site are artistically inclined and, so, there's a wealth of knowledge here and it's a daily artistic fix. I am very satisfied with AT just as is and very thankful for it!

What Louise said.

regarding cables - this doesn't really answer your original question, hannah, because i've never had a puppy and wouldn't know the first thing about keeping it away from my stereo cables.

but i've noticed on this site (and in my experience working for MoMA design a couple years ago), that there are a lot of complicated and somewhat spendy gadgets for organizing cables. when those little zip cords you can buy in bulk packages at the hardware store work just fine.

i don't see why the expensive gadgets sold at MoMA, Conran Shop, etc. are necessarily any better. just about every techie I know uses zipcords in lieu of anything fancy. when i lived in an artist loft full of DJs, film geeks, and installation artists, none of them had these cord gadgets, but all of them had baggies full of zip cords.

this isn't to be dismissive of those of you who've bought the gadgets and found them helpful - i'm just totally uninformed about their benefits. would appreciate any feedback or testimonials.

Count me in as a zip cord user. I especially like the bulk rolls of velcro zips. They are about $.05 each and reusable. Very handy.

Hi! I was wondering if anyone has had any experiences, good or bad, with slipcovers. do they always turn out looking awful and tacky? where is a good place to get them? are there any stylish ones (patterns or fabrics) out there?

thanks!!!!

My cat also is a chewer, and I've found that using those corrugated plastic tube cord covers (they're approximately 1" in diamater, with a slit along the entire length of the tube so you can feed cords in and out as needed) works well--mostly because she can't open her mouth wide enough to get her teeth around the cover.

Anne - the phrase "to hit a nerve" doesn't mean that you think people are having a go at you - it means that it got people fired up or evoked a lot of responses because it was something that lots of people felt strongly about

Ruth, I've had three items slipcovered, all in a white linen. I used Calico Corners for they offer a tight, medium, or loose fit and do excellent work. You can barely tell the difference, in a tight fit, which looks like an upholstered piece. I went for the tight and medium and prefer the tight if I were to do it over again. I had the fabric pre-washed so that I could toss them in the laundry and that has worked out very well. The fabric wears like Iron and after many washings, they look as good as new. Depending on your piece, somtimes you will need a wooden dowel or similar device to fit down into the crevice behind the seat cushions -- this keeps the cover centered. Mine has a zipper as well as velcro to keep it all in place. I've also done reupholstery and when comparing the two, I think I prefer slipcoveres. They offer protection for fine upholstery and also allow for seasonal changes. Hope this helps.

thanks louise! is calico corners expensive? i'm hoping to slipcover my couch for less than $200 if possible... thanks!