apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Remember the bedside lights for the BoConcept walnut platform bed? they look stupid, sticking up like wierd erections from the low bed. Therefore, i am now of the view that what we need are gooseneck-type lights that attach behind the headboard and can swivel over one's shoulder when reading in bed.

I can't find these for the life of me, and i have spent hours looking. Anyone?

Good morning all-
We just started renting a gorgeous old victorian with everything being original and in good condition except for the gross beat-up white linoleum flooring in the kitchen. These floors aren't the waxed 70's kind- they're just 12x12 tiles with so much ground in dirt that they won't come clean with anything we've tried. Bleach, baking soda, scrubbing by hand with a stiff-bristled brush, etc etc. We can't replace them, so any suggestions on how we might get them clean?
Thanks.

Ally
stronger cleaning products -- Mex, in a red foil box at the hardware store. Wear gloves and use your scrub brush.
This is a take up the paint strength cleaner, and is not for everyday use.

To wende in phoenix (not sf anymore), pixie, alana in canada, gekko, skywaykate, lulubird6 over on at chicago, and anyone else who's interested in the Cure -- I'm muddling ahead with book in hand while I wait for the REAL Cure.. re-did my questionnaire, and some of my answers have changed, I'm certainly better at articulating my sense of style, and my apartment still comes out needing help. I'm having a couple of parties in November as early celebrations of my 50th birthday (yeeks!) so I need to get moving on what needs to be done, but will still join with y'all in the online Cure whenever it happens. Anybody with me in muddling on?

hey Jonathan, here's an idea for you.

why don't you figure out which ridiculously expensive built-in bedside lamps you won't totally hate BEFORE you buy them?

i mean, shit, i get all antsy and guilt-ridden over the waste of buying a $10 vinyl shower curtain and realizing i don't like it...

or better yet, since you seem to hate every decision you make wrt this complete gut reno of your entire home, why not just hire an interior designer already and spare yourself (and us) the agony of all this endless self-hatred and waste?

So many white paint colours to choose from! Any comments on "Bavarian Cream" by Benjamin Moore as the main wall colour in a living room with north light in a rainy climate? I really want to maximize the light and create a warm feeling. The floor is oak, and there is quite a bit of wood in in similar colours, with a warm brown leather sofa and "sand" leather armchairs. The priority is complementing a bookcase wall and three original paintings. Planned accent colours are citrus yellow, emerald, and tomato red (pulled from paintings). The adjacent kitchen has grey tile flooring.

Never mind, just posted my Bavarian Cream question here:

http://sanfrancisco.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/100306/top-ten/top-10-white-paints-013019

smallcitybeth in Canada - and all the other AT Cure hopefuls, count me in!
I'm in Toronto and by the time I got my book in the spring, the first cure had already started. I know my entire apartment could use a cure, but there are four of us and two dogs and there is no way that I could get everyone on board (plus I can't purge stuff that's not mine!)
I feel like maybe I should just do my bedroom, it would be relatively easy to the the BF on board, or I could just do everything and he might not even notice.
so - SMB - I'll muddle on with you and the others.

smallcitybeth -- I'm muddling ahead, as the timing is ideal for me. I did the repair worksheet since right after move-in, that's the issue that really calls for writing things down. Our landlord will love us: half of it is giving the place a more obsessive-compulsive cleaning, and the other half is cleaning/restoration on our own stuff.

I have just moved the dining table for the sixth time, trying to find an arrangement that doesn't look totally makeshift.

Count me in! My husband and I have cleaned half the apartment so far and done a partial purge of the storage room. OUr house score is an 8 - which we only managed by giving ourselves half-points on a couple of questions - so we have a lot of work to do.

The Cure: I'm going to jump in with some of the stuff I didn't finish last time and when the official Cure starts (which I'll bet will be quite soon), then I'll go through week by week with everyone. I'm doing the general Cure, not the one-room fixup. It works for me as a general overhaul, repair, and cleanup, and last time, I washed the kitchen and hall floors, which I haven't done since! Fortunately, the tile is sort of variously earth toned, so it never looks dirty.

I am also doing The Cure - one room (combined office and dining room). We cleaned the whole apartment over the weekend so I am ready. I just got some magazines for inspiration during lunch. I think setting a budget is most challenging!

Jonathan -

Well, wall lights would have been my suggestion for your problem in the first place. Have you considered the Tolomeo? It comes as a wall mount. http://www.dwr.com/productdetail.cfm?id=2369

When I was checking for it, I found that there is now a micro table lamp Tolomeo in all sorts of fun anodized aluminum colours. The table lamp should be the right scale for your night tables, and would be fun (the green would look particularly good).

http://www.gabrielross.com/artemide-tolomeo-micro-table-lamp-p-624.html?mustselect=product_info

Hi all

I'm so excited about the cure as well. I was actually just trying to come up with a budget myself. I need to redo the questions, as I'm sure my answers have slightly changed since I read the book.

One very quick newby question. I'd like to start with a deep cleaning, and would like to clean ( I mean really clean) my kitchen and bathroom tiles. I need something acidy that will clean up the grout, the mold around the bathtub and all the things I don't want to think of in between my countertop tiles in the kitchen. Anybody have any ideas for a strong solution that I can apply myself?

Thanks and looking forward to starting the fall cure!

Asli

Asli, has bleach already failed? SoftScrub with bleach has proven surprisingly effective on grout and mold, once it's rubbed in and allowed to sit, as has the Chlorox bleach pen.

I'm also a fan of Soft Scrub with Bleach, but also Clorox Clean-Up. There's also always Tilex.

For cleaning tiles I find that a scrub-brush works much better than a sponge - it actually gets the grout clean. As far as cleaners, I'd start with a round of bon ami (make a thick paste for max scouring power) and progress to simple green to dissolve any baked on grease. As for mold in the silcone caulk around the bath tub - your guess is as good as mine. I've tried laying rags soaked in bleach on it and leaving it overnight; but the improvement was minimal at best.

If a cocktail party DOES happen on the event of Thread 300, I hope the door prize is 300-thread-count sheets!!

re: Jonathan's lighting quandry (Chapter 79?)

True to form, he calls us all idiots yesterday, then asks for (free) advice today.

Godwilling, those Bo Concept lamps are the only "wierd (sic) erections from the low bed" your destined-for-sainthodd wife will EVER have to endure in that room.

That was a perfect 10 for elegant vituperation, p(too).

Hi, everyone. A little while back there was a post about Peel Away paint stripper. A link in the post about where to get it just takes me to a Google search page, presumably where I can find online vendors. Anyone know where in Manhattan (pref. UWS) one can go to buy this stuff? I've tried to Google my way to an answer, but am not having luck. Thanks.

I started doing the Cure on my own a few months ago, but ended up in the ditch after a couple weeks. My apartment currently looks like a rummage sale, and it makes me want to barf. I'll see what I can do about joining the herd for the Fall Cure.

I'm still buying flowers every week, though. At least it's something, dammit...

whoops, "sainthood"

Marm, our apt was looking like a recycling center. Your post motivated me to go to the management office and determine that no, there is no recycling in this complex. I then trashed the husband's entire collection of cans, bottles, and cardboard, some of which Phoenix doesn't accept anyway.

Once the garage is organized, he can set up a bin and take it to a drop-off center if he wants. We're practically the only middle-class Phoenicians who take the bus and don't set the AC on insta-freeze, so my feelings of guilt are limited.

marm, your post made me laugh and spit on my keyboard. Please join the herd for the next Cure - I've found it a great motivator.

Oh, you don't know the half of it, Pixie. In addition to the mountain of clutter and filth clogging the hallway and spare room and living room, the apartment is scheduled to be patched up and repainted next week, when my boyfriend's parents will be visiting from out of state. And they're staying with us. And we're in the middle of swapping the bedroom with the guest room, so one of the rooms is currently piled high with furniture and junk. And it's the room that the folks are going to be sleeping in just days from now.

AND we've been battling a mouse problem in the building. Good times.

Ok. So, let's all start the "cure" on our own, then.

A few confessions--
Our family has been on a Television fast, for, oh, two years now, and in addition to having kids we do not participate in popular culture much at all--thus when I answer "Emma Thompson" on the survey quiz, it's only because those are the videos we watch when we get them out of the library!

But moving on.....budget is the killer. dh always says "we have none" and you know what that means--I go on a paint buying spree, feel guilty, don't paint, and voila change my mind about the colour when I finally open the can a year later!

Enough.

I opened a scrapbook I compiled many years ago and love the aesthetic expressed within it--so why isn't it in my home???

I guess we'll do the deep treatment this time around.....dh can hardly quibble about replacing washers in the taps, for starters, lol!

Oh and about caulking: the thing of it is that even if you do get what you can see off--the mold can extend, like a root, all the way through the depth of your caulk. Cheery thought, eh? The only thing that can be done in that case is rip it all out and re-do it and (dare I say it?) stay on top of it.
(ahem)

I'm really looking forward to doing a Cure. Probably a one-room cure and treat the entire (open) kitchen/entry/living room as one room.

I'm sure Maxwell or someone will post about this today but AT, Maxwell, Jonathan and I all got featured in an article in the Christian Science Monitor.. it went live today!

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1004/p13s02-lihc.html

Perfect timing for picking up the Cure where I abruptly left off. We made some pretty major changes (for us) around here, but in about the fourth week I stalled. Unfortunately, a large portion of our bedroom had become our outbox-that-never-went-out, and has remained in that dumping ground state ever since. So my pre-cure plan is to attack the bedroom now so genuine progress can be made on the rest of the apartment once the cure officially begins.

Really looking forward to jumping back in!

i FINALLY bought the book last night, which means

i'm in

for the october cure.

Excellent CSM article! Nice to see a non-design source do more than a superficial once-over.

Amber, thanks for sharing that article. It's excellent. And did you notice, folks, it says a Cure will be starting soon! An official, online one.

To smallcitybethcanada: I got the AT book over the summer and I've read, did the quizzes and stopped to the actual part where you start the Cure.

Then I decided to wait until October to start with everyone else. Waiting patiently for the new session. I'm just worried that I won't have the time w/work and school.

Amber (and Maxwell)--
Congrats on that story (and your place)! A really nice representation.

and I think it's the gentler Jonathan - JonathanB - not the grumpy Jonathan, that's featured in the article.

Yes, GREATLY relieved to realize that!!!