apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Can anyone recommend a place that sells and installs sliding glass doors in the NYC area?

Thanks,

Susan

Help - our house has fleas and we are cleaning/getting rid of stuff. I have a jute rug in my bedroom - is there a way to safely and thoroughly clean it? Or should I just put it out on the street. It's from West Elm, and is fairly dirty, and you can't use Rug Doctor with jute, apparently. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

i think several people have previously recommended diatomaceous earth to get rid of fleas and other critters. google that?

Thanks ange-lune... yes, I've gotten all too familiar with the anti-flea recommendations, but thanks for mentioning the DE ;-)

My question is more specifically, how to actually clean my jute rug - the flea thing is somewhat more peripheral and I probably shouldn't have even mentioned it.

(1) I assume that you mean the patio door types. Home Depot sells and installs them. This is not a complicated job so I would not be reluctant to use HD's sometimes less than brilliant craftsmen.

(2) I cleaned my sisal rug a few weeks ago with basic dish soap, a stiff brush, and a hose.

I just looked at Pier 1's website and it looks like they don't sell any more furniture. I've heard they're in big financial trouble and by looking at the website you can tell that they're cleaning house.

Hmm, lightenup... do you think it would work without the hose? I live in a NYC apt, not sure a hose just outside my door would be either feasible or the cleanest! It does sound promising though...

I'm actually thinking of putting it back into "the river" (the street) for the next person, and painting my floor a sort of darkish evening blue.

betsbillabong-

You could try liberally sprinkling the rug with Borax, working it in with a soft bristle brush, and then vacuuming. I know that many "critters" are averse to Borax and also it's a good cleaning agent. Can't hurt to try.

Some friends of mine just returned from visiting their family in Waterloo, Iowa. There is a restaurant there which is quite unusual for the area, or any area I guess.

The owner has spray painted a rendition of the Sistine Chapel on its ceiling.

Curtis, I thought of your Attention to Detail house tour and thought you might like to see it. http://www.pacorosic.com/

Anne -- Pier 1's Web site is less than utterly clear (despite all the big lettering on red banners)... it looks to me as if they're about to abandon online selling entirely at the end of August. Their hated rival Cost Plus World Market never did much with online sales, so maybe it's not a revenue stream for that sector.

Pier 1 has certainly stopped putting furniture on the Web site, but their catalog (the one with the annoying page-turn app) still shows furniture. My impression is that they're abandoning Loft 21 in favor of a return to their hippie roots -- some of the featured "Pier 1 classics" are products I haven't seen in a store in years.

This is looking to me like the ante-penultimate move before going belly up, but I haven't read their latest financials. Yet. It's usually too depressing.

art,
Thanks for that link!!! Man did I enjoy browsing that website.

Thanx from me too Art, that's so cool!

betsbillabong -- I actually did just that. Got up on a Sunday (helps to live in the east village where everyone else just got home) and headed to the sidewalk with some dish soap and a brush. Used the building's hose to clean the rug. Then put in in the bathtub to dry. The ends will have a habit of rolling a bit when you first return it to the floor, but a few days and some books solved that.

art -

I just now saw it and went to have a look. I've used spray paint before, and thought I had really endangered myself when I painted the bathroom in my old apartment to look like subway tile, but spray-painting-and-painters-taping:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artycurtis/sets/531399/

...but that Sistine Chapel guy REALLY went wild with the spray paint!

I hope you wore a respirator Curtis!

How cool is that, you personalized the bathroom for the buyer!

Nice Job!

No respirator, but I really rarely do spray paint. When I did that, I would kind of do like one or two coats in the morning before work, come home and do another few more, etc., wait a half-hour, do more.

I don't smoke, so I figured that rare amount wouldn't kill me.