apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURTIS!!!

Posting is down at AT:Tech.

It's Curtis's birthday? Happy birthday, Curtis!

Happy birthday, Curtis!

I need retail therapy!

Last year, during the small cool contest, I started editing down my already edited apartment and am getting ready to get rid of my good-quality but "not my style" shabby chic sofa.

Maybe I'll be ready for next year's small cool contest.

Wow! Thanks, guido, palousian and wende! Yup, I'm 45 yizzold, and it's already a pretty decent birthday, I gotta say. Thank you so much.

Happy birthday Curtis! There's a gallon of Silver Fox paint available in the AT Classifieds...perhaps you'd be interested? ;)

Happy Birthday Curtis--your longtime fan
Anyone interested in writing an article for a home design supplement in a Jewish newspaper? The money will be negligable but if you own a business, provide a service or just want your name out there, please contact me at sollygraol.com, subject: Home Supplement.

Upholstered furniture is 25% off at Anthropologie.com till April 30th.

random question: since the weather's so nice, i like to throw open all the windows. but i have cats. rather dumb cats. and i'm on the sixth floor. anyone have ideas on cat-proofing the open window? i mean, there's a screen there now, but sometimes they like to scratch'n'stretch on it...while i envision a terrible demise. i am considering asking our Super for baby gates (like most nyc apartments have) but they are pretty fugly. idears?

kdkaboom -- The baby gates *are* fugly, and they wouldn't stop a cat anyway. Whatever you put in place, make sure you can't wiggle it loose or jimmy it out. I lost a beloved cat to a loose window screen. He smashed himself to pieces on a concrete stairwell 5 flights down.

If our screen had been secured to the frame of the window, instead of just propped against it, he most likely wouldn't have been able to pry it off. He was a handsome, swaggering fellow, a kind of feline James Dean, and would likely still be with me if I'da been smarter about that damn screen.

Happy Birthday Curtis!

Love your style.

getting ready to get rid of my good-quality but "not my style" shabby chic sofa

Me too! Have a traditional sofa but my style is mid-century modern. However, I'm not hurrying to replace it - most authentic MCM sofas are much too long and I haven't seen anything new that I really like.

robin, see that's the scary stuff i visualize! it's so sad! thankfully, my screens are sturdy, but i won't leave the windows open when i'm not here - meaning, it gets stuffy in the apartment.

i wonder about an extra barrier - maybe something translucent (fabric?) that i can attach vertically in front of (and closely up against...) the window. lets the air thru (like the screen does) but offers a second layer of catproofing open windows.

hmm.

kdkaboom - never thought of the fabric thing. It could work but it would have to be stapled in like upholstry (sp), and you would lose the view. I would guess the the fabric would have to have a good weight so that the cat(s) could not claw through it. It would take as little as a bird on the sill outside or a particular scent that would have a curious kitty trying to get to the other side. What is wrong with those portable screens? One could just as easily nail them in place, if they own the property or have their building super 'install' them.

kdkaboom,

What about opening the windows from the top? You still get the air but the cats are in no danger.

Just a thought - can you make a hard wood frame and put screening in it - then attach it with some clips to the window frame all around? Am I explaining this clearly? I'm better with paper & pencil.

thanks for the thoughts, folks!

after further consideration, i don't think fabric would work...might have to be clear plexi or something. ohh...i dunno what to do! i think another window screen in there would be better for air flow and view, for sure. i think that's at the top of my list now.

upstate: you are making sense! no worries :)

and eliza, lemme tell ya a story about opening windows from the top!

all our windows are pretty much busted, so we used to open em from the top. the screens wouldn't 'stick' up there, so they were open open, wide open. i'm on the 6th floor. i have a very restless and (i think) clinically friggin' depressed cat. so i'm sittin' there with a friend - all of a sudden she screams, i go adrenaline crazy, and save my stupid cat from commiting suicide. he jumped up HIGH on the top window, teetering on the narrow, and the window fell even more open because of his weight...and i grabbed that sucker so fast as he really was 90% out the window and gonna die. we haven't opened the windows up top since then.

argh.

kdkaboom,

Come to think of it, I think my cat did that too (though I was living on the ground floor at the time).

I wish I had a solution for you! My cat is much less adventurous and the screen is enough to keep her in (though she will climb through the child safety gate if I forget the screen).

Perhaps there's some way of attaching the screen to your window frame though, perhaps with little hooks? I think I've seen that in New England summer homes...

oh, i just saw what Upstate said. Yes, like that!

kdkaboom,

Can you get some sort of clip that you could attach to the inside frame and slide those expandable window screens or a sheet of plexi down into? That way, they'd be pretty secure, although I guess if your cat was really determined, he could make it through a screen.

kdkaboom,

I think they make window screening in metal in addition to the usual vinyl/plastic. I don't think it looks much different, and I don't think a cat could tear through the metal, so perhaps this would solve the problem?