apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

advice on more inexpensive area rugs - like the ones from rug company that maxwell often shoes?

If you mean "The Rug Company" those are not necessarily more inexpensive.

I think that Crate and Barrel has very nice area rugs for great prices. I've also had success finding inexpensive rugs at Ikea.

Does anyone have any experience with using freight movers? I bid on an mcm couch on ebay and the quote that I got to have it shipped/delivered to New York from its location in Illinois was almost $600! Is this about right? Any ideas on someway to do it more cheaply?

Thanks!

I am looking for modular shelving made out of wood. Preferably I would like to be able to see it before I buy it. I have seen something close at Pier 1 and at the Dorr Store which is kinda pricey. So I would even be willing to stain unfinished wood if I can find it. Anyone have any ideas where I could find this in NYC?

Melissaw, how about FLOR tiles-- those seem cheaper than most area rugs. Also whats your price range? There is this guy from Queens on Craigslist that sells nice Persian rugs you might check out if you are interested.

Should I get rid of the old paint? I want to paint a 2-bedroom apartment but I'm concerned about the years and years of paint over old paint that have accumulated on the walls. Because I'm going to own this apartment, I want the walls to look the best they can and I am willing to spend extra to have this be the case. Anyone have advice on this? As I'm new to all this, I don't even know where one would begin to try and remove old paint and whether it's worth the hassle in the end. What do you all think?

InBklyn, removing layers of old paint is a very taxing job (as you might suspect) But I definetely agree with you that since you will own the place, you have to make the walls the best shape possible. We hired someone in our house and the skim coating and all the work that got done is amazing. If you are a real DIY then you definetely need to be educated about the process. Get one of the books from This Old House show. I get their magazine and they have sooo many tricks and step by step guidance in getting something done. I would also e-mail them to see if they give you guidance on that. If your floors are already finished and in good shape, before you do ANYTHING else protect them, cover them with thick brown paper and plastic. This will save you $$$ and a lot of headache afterwards.

k-darling -- There are lots of LTL ("less than load") shipping companies -- i.e., people that will ship by less than full trucks. Also, lots of websites price these (uship.com is one), but this issue is to be sure your seller will accomodate them. The other choice is to call a major chain moving company -- they also will provide a similar service where they add your piece into a truck coming this way, but the delivery time will depend upon when some other happy sole is moving from that Illinois area to NYC (you would be surprised how many -- may not take more than a week).

Thanks, Anusha73. While I would love to be very DIY, I think I will leave this to the professionals. This is a first home purchase and skim coating sounds a tad complicated. If you wouldn't mind sharing who did your walls, I will make a note and contact them when we're ready to move forward. We've yet to close.

k-darling -- depending on how big the couch is you might be able to get them to ship it via greyhound, which is really cheap (my friend has done this before). you can check this website (www.shipgreyhound.com/) to see if it would work for you.

InBklyn, I had a family friend who is a painter for a living, who did this for me, and he is in Astoria. Not sure if he would go to Brooklyn, as I think he is pretty busy locally. But he does superb job and is very reasonably priced. When u are ready, post something here and I will get you in touch with him.

Has anyone had any experience removing old "popcorn" ceilings? It has been painted (unfortunately) probably multiple times.

(Alas, no, contracting out is not in the budget. Strictly DIY.)

If anyone can link to more info--or tell me a bit about what's involved, I'd appreciate it.

Alana, you might want to check on when the ceiling was installed - it could contain asbestos and asbestos removal is definitely not DIY.

FYI, AT got a quick mention in the Home section of the Washington Post today, in an little article about design blogs...

The metal antlers have returned to West Elm!

Hooo-rah!

Alana, Good point on the asbestos above. You need to try to figure out when the popcorn was added. Asbestos was banned in NYC in the mid-1970s.

Also, the vintage of the popcorn will dictate the ease of removal. If it has been painted over, you need to use chemical peelers. If it has not, removal is easy. Get one of those industrial sparyers from hardware/big box store (thing that looks like a large fire extinguisher with a pump). Cover entire floor - very messy. Fill sprayer with warm water and wet the ceiling with a heavy mist setting. Work in relatively small areas (3'x3'). Use a 12" drywall knife to scrape off the popcorn. If not painted, comes off easy. If you have to go the chemical route, very messy, smelly and not too easy.

The alternative is to put 1/4" drywall over the ceiling and forget the popcorn was ever there.

New Question for AT: I have been a long time lurker of this website and could really use all of the readers advice. My boss is going to visit New York for the first time ever...She also just so happens to have recently purchased a McMansion here in SoCal that is totally devoid of furniture and style, unless you count the drapes the old owners left behind. I would love to give her a few super cool places she could visit. Maybe she could pick up a few pieces while she is there.

patrick 2.0, can you link me to those metal antlers? i wanna see!

K_D

Plycon, http://www.plyconvanlines.com/. My guess is that the charge will be $400 to $500, varies by region and weight, but they're reliable and can actually get things from A to B.

We use 'em professionally for Eboniste product and so far they're good.

Cheers,

Scott

Asbestos, asbestos asbestos.

We're delaying re-doing the kitchen floor because of the nasty possibility there's asbestos tile down a few layers. Grr. (The test runs about $100 per sample).

Obviously, I need to know more about it. Thanks for the heads up.

k-darling,
Regarding the suggestion to contact moving companies, I recently made a temporary move, and only brought a small portion of my things. I called several major moving companies and each had a poundage minimum (e.g., with American Van Lines I would have had to pay the rate to ship 2000 pounds even if I was shipping less than that). I think that the lowest poundage minimum quote I got was 1000 pounds from Bekins. I ended up using ShipSmart (Box Brothers also has a freight shipping service). My move was about 1750 miles, and ShipSmart's quote was $795 for 500 pounds, and $1075 for 700 pounds. That included picking up, and boxing up my things. Delivery occured within the promised time frame, and nothing was lost or broken.

Regarding freighters, I once shipped a large piece with Craters and Freighters. Part of it (it was modular) was completely ruined, and of course, I had to get two estimates for repair. By the time I carted this gigantic piece around, that particular franchise had gone out of business, and I never got any money back. I don't think I would ever ship anything freight again. It cost about $700.

KDA--

They are not shown on the West Elm website.