apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Any of you invited to ABC Home to meet The Earl Spencer?

Got the invite. Not certain it's worth the free drinks, though.

Not a design issue, but a decluttering one...

As the saga of offloading my Uncle's home's content continues, does anyone have any advice about old vinyl records? I hear stories both from the booming second-hand market camp, and the "no one buys vinyl anymore" naysayers.

Anyone here care to weigh in, or, more importantly, know of anyone (preferably New Jersey) who will come and buy three boxes of vinyl albums?

you could make bowls out of them and sell them. just get a terracotta pot and put the album on top, then stick it in the oven until it's pliable - then bend them at will!!!

*on top as in the pot is flipped over - opening as the base*

How do you know when it's come to call in a professional? We're attempting to paint our bathroom. We started by trying to remove the wallpaper border somebody painted over many years ago. Weeks later, we're still on that step--there are multiple layers of paint in addition to the wallpaper, and the removal process has revealed and/or created a number of cracks, gashes, holes, etc. in the plaster walls (not to mention that we realized last night that the paint probably contains lead, so there's a whole lead-dust issue to worry about too). I still want to try to patch it up ourselves, but my husband thinks it's such a disaster we should hire a plasterer to do it. I don't know if I'm being brave or stubborn/cheap. What think you, wise ATers?

Yes. Then I can have two hundred people over for Tostitos.

Can anyone recommend a place to get either a small white Roman blind or a bamboo shade that can be cut to size? I have a window that needs a 40 inch wide shade and I don't want to go too expensive with it just because it's a weird size.

Ann -- If you want cheap, go to Home Depo or Lowes -- they will cut to size.

Jenny - we used to have professionally hung wallpaper in our kitchen and when it came time to try to take it down it didn't budge. After basically distroying most of the drywall in an attempt to get it off, we finally called a professional to plaster the wall. I think your situation is probably the same.

or you could sell them, ptoo. people buy those things. i went to the thrift store and bought the records with the prettiest stickers and sold them for 5-10 dollars (depending on how pretty the stickers were and how big, etc) at a garage sale and they were all bought up.

depending on where you are in new jersey you might want to swing by the princeton record exchange or giving them a call. they are a big dealer in vinyl.

anyone have the unicycle glass table from cb2?

http://www.cb2.com/family.aspx?c=114&f=2382&viewall=1

dost thou liketh it?

i have a silestone bar level countertop with natural wood brackets underneath. i'm repainting the wall under it, should i paint the brackets as well or leave them the natural wood? painting a blueish white.

Patrick, I had the very same issue a few months back. I found my best response came from typing up a list of the records and e-mailing or faxing it to vintage record places (there are several large ones in NJ). The places called me back & offered $ for the more collectible ones -- however, I was left with three crates of records that no one wanted -- I couldn't even *give* them away to the record places, so I sent them off to the Goodwill along with old clothes, etc. (and ironically, when I donated them, I pictured some hip, crafty youngsters stumbling upon them at the Goodwill and fashioning some cool room dividers, or something).

The list seemed like a big undertaking to compile, but once I sat down on the floor with my laptop, it went rather quickly. Good luck.

Jenny, after being assured by many well-meaning friends that I could take down wallpaper in my new apartment by myself (something I'd never done before, and on a serious time crunch), I hired someone else to do it. Best decision I ever made.

Jenny in DC, normally taking down wallpaper is not complicated. It usually takes time and elbow grease. I think the problem is that your wallpaper is painted over. I would think you need something to soften the paint like a paint thinner. At this point, I think you should go to your local hardware store and tell them the situation and see if they can recommend a product to get off the wallpaper border which has been painted over.

After the paper is down...The next step would be to sand down the walls and then spackle, sand again and then paint. As to the lead dust, it shouldnt be a huge issue if you take proper precautions and dont have pregnant women or young children in the house. At the minimum, you should be wearing a mask and goggles. Also, hang a plastic sheet to prevent dust getting to other parts of the house. Keep one set of clothes to get dusty while you are doing the work and wash it separately from other clothes. Finally, make sure to clean off exposed skin so you arent tracking the dust to the rest of the house.

Its doable but will take some work. Also you may check This Old House and see if they have any tutorials on the subject.

p(2): ebay is probably your best bet.

Also: there's a vinal record shop on 12 between broadway ad university -- it has to get its stock from someone, why not you? -- I'll check the name later and post.

P(2): Google "vinyl records nyc" and you'll get a list of several shops here in the city that might be interested. I'm sure there are shops in your uncle's area in NJ as well. That will at least give you a place to start and get a sense of the interest depending on condition and artist.

P2-

Regarding your vinyl records -- it depends on the genre. I sold my entire vinyl collection through ebay. I found that the only way to make anything was to sell them off in lots by artist or by genre. That way they appeal to collectors/dealers. I did fairly well with the stuff from the 1960's. The rest was metza-metz. Don't even try to sell them off one at a time........not worth the effort.

P(2)

if you're still out there somewhere (and not somewhere else having a good time)

Second Hand Rose Music, 48 East 12th Street, 212.675.3537, shrosemusic.com

hope that helps.

Question: Is it weird not to have a coffee table in your living room? My living area is quite small, so I was thinking of scrapping the traditional coffee table in front of couch and instead buying a set of nesting tables that would sit next to a chair, like a side table, but which could be used as a coffee table if necessary.

Is no coffee table a decorating faux pas?

...or you could just sell them to me

janbrady, rules are made to be broken! i want to ixnay the coffee table thing and just have ottomans. do what you gotta do!

janbrady

or ditch the couch, replace it with a couple of comfortable chairs and arrange the tables to suits

Thanks kdkaboom! I love ottomans too, and am seeing lots of them in lieu of coffee tables these days...

JonathanB, unfortunately, I'm unwilling to do without a sofa. I love sofas. I even wrote an essay in junior high that was basically an ode to sofas. No joke.

Janbrady You don't have to have a coffee table that is the traditional depth. Benches work and Ikea has a shoe organizer with cubby holes that looks exactly like their coffee table with cubby holes, only not as deep. Also, a high sofa table behind a couch can hold drinks, etc, and they usually aren't very deep. Finally, you don't have to have a coffee table at all. It's your house and vibe.

now I for one would love to read an ode to sofa....

janbrady, ante up! i once wrote a (very bad) poem on the drunken fratboy custom of couch burning in the town of boulder, colorado.

in my own way, it too was an ode (an anti-ode) to the sofa.

see, my apartment is filled with chairs! lounge chairs, bar chairs, dining chairs, broken chairs, CHAIRS! long, beautiful CHAIRS! not a sofa in sight!

though i really do want to recline, dammit.

Oh man, if I ever dig it up at my parents' house (wonder if it survived the move we made while I was in high school), I'll print some choice excerpts. Mostly it was about sofas being the perfect spot for reading and napping, and how I even preferred sleeping there to sleeping in my bed (still true; it's like I don't wanna be away from where the action is, even if I don't know it's going on). Oh yeah. And the TV is there.

Need to see that poem, now.

Thanks, Laura! I do want to do what I love. I just have that fear of being "wrong."

p(other)--
Try Princeton Record Exchange, which buys collections. It's in Princeton, natch. prex(dot) com