one nice thing about galvanizing under-the-skin topics is that it brings out some lurkers . . .

The Outsider Art Fair opens to the public at the Puck Building in NYC for the next three days. There's always something fresh to look at, and a chance to get close to curious Dargers or stark silhouettes by Bill Traylor
(click my name for a link to his info)

And there's lots of work in the under $1000 category, if you're looking . . .

Can anyone help me find a really nice bulletin board? I'm not really interested in a DIY project, just want to buy an attractive medium sized one. Any suggestions would be great...

Speaking of The Outsider Art Fair, check out the dealer
Norman Brosterman.

And his website: www.brosterman.com

He always has very interesting stuff.

Um, speaking of floors. Well ok we weren't but as I was reading family handyman on the john this morning, eyeing the doormat that I had dragged over to aid in a shoes off/shoes on inspired experiment, I thought of a previous good question on wood flooring when I came across an article about installing engineered wood floors.

If you are planning to install wood flooring then, as ptoo pointed out in that thread, engineered wood floors look like they have a lot of advantages with few disadvantages.

Pros:
1.Already pre-finished so no messy sanding and finising work
2.At least 1/8th inch of real hardwood veneer that can be sanded and re-finished if needed about twice in its estimated 50 year lifespan
3.Layered, cross grain construction makes these strips more resistant to warping and flexing than solid wood strips
4.They are nailed to the subfloor in the same way as you nail solid hardwood strips so you don't get that floaty, insubstantial feeling you get from the laminated floating floors

Cons:
1. The joins are not as flush as a sanded and finished hardwood floor so the look is not quite as solid
2. Can't think of any more

If anyone else has pros and cons, please write.

BTW, the article is a pretty good guide to doing it yourself and anyone who is used to handling power tools (you need a floor nailer) should be able to do this themselves due to the no finishing work required.

Family Handyman (I know sexist title) is one of the better publications for DIY because it is less hardcore than Fine Homebuilding but has more useful and substantial projects than the other DIY mags produced by the kitchen and bath publishers (you know the ones I mean - I can't remember names and publishers) and has ostensibly easier projects than the woodworking and build your own furniture mags.

The current February issue has the engineered wood flooring article.

Hey what happened to the I've Got Artwork post with the guy who everyone was saying should be taken out of the running? I can't find it anymore.

Sorry, 'See my artwork'.

You can still find it by searching with google.
I used this to search:
condescending site:apartmenttherapy.com

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/011906/see-my-artwork/see-my-artwork-contest-5-mikes-gallery-apt-005949

joey, he withdrew.

Lots of us have fun with Flickr, both posting and browsing... and I just discovered a fun Flickr game called Fastr.

http://www.randomchaos.com/games/fastr/
http://slane.bradley.edu/games/fastr/

A group of random photos appears, one by one, and you have to guess the tag they have in common.

The 'fastr' you post your accurate guess, the more points you earn.

Found it, thanks. I like going back and re-reading things. Sometimes it gives another perspective that I hadn't considered before.

Happy Friday Everyone :)

Jamie Pup -

Thanks for mentioning the article. I'll go pick up the issue, if I can track it down. (I'm doing the DIY engineered wood job. I've managed to convince everyone that this is feasible except maybe for me. And I am going to float it, since I'm on concrete here, and installing a subfloor will throw this whole project way overbudget. Hope it doesn't end up feeling too insubstantial.)

For a while there was a women's home repair show in Canada with the motto, "How hard can it be?"

btw, for anyone considering these things -

I am at and slightly below grade here, and therefore engineered wood or laminate is the only choice. You can't put solid wood below grade.

has anyone purchased anything from Curran? We're thinking of buying a dining room table and chairs from them and just wanted to see if anyone had first hand knowledge of their quality.
thanks!

clutterfree - try these:

http://www.ballarddesigns.com/bd/search_result.jsp?Description=bulletin+boards&btnFind.x=0&btnFind.y=0

You're welcome blue.

I think the part of the problem with laminated flooring is due to the construction of the strips/planks themselves. They have a different construction that does not involve any layers of hardwood so that could contribute substantially to the insubstantial feel.

columbiakat

I only know about their upholstered furniture. Are the chairs you're thinking of getting upholstered? Curran gets all their upholstered furniture from TCS or J. Redmond which is very good furniture. I have an acct. with them so for anyone here who wants to order from them, you can do it thru me and I can get a great price for you.

Ann - thanks for the suggestion. I have another question...can anyone recommend a good upholstery cleaner? Our sofa has not been cleaned since our son was born (19 mos. ago, he hung out on the couch a lot as a baby so you know what that means) and we just finished housesitting for my MIL's dog plus we have 2 cats...you get the picture. I don't want to do it myself. Has anyone had good luck with Sears or other service?

I checked out: brosterman.com

There's some really interesting Outsider art, antiques & vintage architectural drawings.

Really cool stuff. Thanks.

thanks anne for the info-
we're thinking about getting the sandy dining chair and yes, the seat is upholstered.

the prices seemed ok given that they are having a sale right now...but I don't really have a frame of reference on acceptable prices. we need 4 side chairs and 2 armchairs...

thanks for the info and help!

Here's the exact link:

http://www.brosterman.com/

clutterfreemiss

Last year, I used a company called rug renovators to clean my rugs - i think they said they will also come to your home and clean uphostery. Only thing is I tried to google the name and could not find them anywhere. i know they had a website, but apparently their marketing department could do a better job making it searchable. sorry.

I was able to find the phone number by searching my Microsoft outlook calendar: 1 800-252-7738 718-361-7900. The guy who handled my account was Rob - he was very good.

They did a very good job on the rugs and I would use them if I had upholstery to clean.

I just checked my TCS book and they don't have the Sandy chair. I didn't think they would since it's not really an upholstered piece. Sorry I couldn't help you out this time. I love the chairs and with the discount you're getting a good price with Curran.

I talked to aquarabbit a couple of times yesterday and she's thinking of going to the Outsider Art Fair this weekend. Maybe someone here would want to meet up with her. We're going to try to get together for a drink (maybe this evening). Who wants to join us??

blue,

my friend just sent me a link to a woman's diy repair show in canada. Can it be the same one? Perhaps, good ole progressive canada has SEVERAL women's repair shows! ;)

anyway, she's rather funny and there's lots of info and amusement online since all of her shows seem to be archived in article form.

check it out: www.homeenvy.com

a title, I would say, residing in the environs of apartmenttherapy

Decorating question:

I got a bunch of these mirror tiles from West Elm some time ago with the intention of putting them on the long wall above my dining table - just in a rectangular shape like a large mirror:

http://ww1.westelm.com/cat/pip.cfm?template=8grid&pkey=cwllmir&gids=w034&cid=wllmir&area=shp

Now I'm bored with that idea and would like to try something more creative. Does anyone have any ideas of more interesting ways to arrange the tiles? Anyone know of any decorating websites that might help inspire me?

Ok I HAVE to share a Sears upholstery cleaning story. About 6 years ago when I was in college, a friend of mine had his annual 'my parents are on their September trip' party. Well one of the guests had too much to drink (surprise surprise) and when she awoke the next morning, there was a considerable, um, damp spot where she had been sleeping. She ran out of the house before anyone else got up. Now the dog, poor Lucky, was blamed for said damp spot. It was later determined that it was the guest who did it.

Naturally my friend freaked out at this & didn't know what to do. We called Sears & they said they could come down in 4 hours to clean/disinfect the sofa. After they had left, we were saddened to see that his parents would still know that something happened to the sofa. It GLOWED with cleanliness. Apparently this sofa hadn't been cleaned a while because the cleaning revealed a pattern in the fabric that he had forgotten was there. Called Sears AGAIN to come clean the matching chair which no longer matched, hoping that the match would distract from the fact that the sofa was cleaned.

When his parents came home, the first thing his mom said was "What a nice surprise! You got the furniture cleaned!" She gave him a big kiss, and then one to me, and said "I KNOW this had to be Joey's idea, my son isn't that thoughtful on his own."

Moral of the story, thumbs up to Sears, and Erica was never invited back.

Olga -

The show I was referring to was called "A Repair to Remember," with Mag Ruffman. It was quirky and low-budget. She would soliloquize on the effects of wearing a tool belt and having lots of distracting dangly bits. And then she'd show you how to do plumbing. Apparently, plumbing involves lots of salty snacks.

I haven't seen Home Envy (cable-deprived at the moment), but I see that Mag Ruffman is on it, too. Hmmm... Perhaps it's time to call the cable company.

NT

first, how many do you have?

ok simple, how about alternate patterns, maybe multiple rows with alternating position so like this (where X is a mirror, O is space)

X O X O X O
O X O X O X

Or just get creative, start taping up sheets of paper to see what it looks like.

Or how about applying colored film to some of the mirrors to do a color block effect.

Or how about (well if you can paint) mouting them tight together then painting a "frame" around them. It will looked like one large tiled mirror.

just go crazy, it's not like defusing a nuclear bomb. i mean if you put it up and hate it, just take it down! the mistakes are part of the process!

Joey-
That's like the plot of a sitcom episode only much, much funnier since it really happened!

Joey, that story makes me happy. I've booked Sears for a week from Monday.

Joey, I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read your Sears story! ;-D

blue,

actually I haven't seen the show, I'm in nyc, but I enjoy the website. Meg Ruffman's articles are there too. At first, I was contemptuous, how many jokes about "stud finder" can one person endure? But then I relented when I saw that indeed she had some comic chops, her tongue firmly planted in her check and not afraid to get technical. plus you can't beat a title like homeenvy. she's got a very interesting diy high heel rack.

ps, i don't have the kind of premium cable that gets ANY of the design shows and when i visit any of my friends that do, fugettaboutit, i'm like a deer caught in the headlights. I will watch it continuously, mouth foaming, scribbling down notes uncontrollably. It's rather emabarrassing.

totally unrelated topic - but whenever I try to get to designsponge's site I am being directed her last post from 1/24/06. I know that she has updated b/c went from the post here about PositiveFanatics to designsponge's site and saw her most recent posts. Is this happening to anybody else or is my computer being weird?

Martha-thanks for filling us in on the fact that Mike withdrew, had no idea but did wonder what ever happened. I'm not shedding any tears...!

Olga:

LOL! I'm the same -- don't have premium cable at my place in the city, so no HGTV, but I have been known to fall into a trance at friend's places!

Ainate,

Try hitting Refresh or F5 in your browser. It's likely you or your ISP is caching the old page.

frank,

i used to get together with friends and watch the x-files (ok, a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long time ago, ok)and then there was a bit of a communal obsession about 6 feet under. Perhaps it's time to search out those digital tv subscribers and make a designtv party night!

Can someone help me find a recent"ish" post. A few weeks ago there was a post that included a picture of a room in which someone had hand painted a pop arty tree on the wall. I loved it, but lost the link and I want to share the image with my wife as we are about to begin painting our new home.
Thanks for the help.

Was it this one?

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/011206/see-my-artwork/see-my-artwork-contest-1-pamelas-red-room-005839

Who was looking for small amounts of tile better then what you could find at HD? Was it guido?

Anyway, I notice Heath Ceramics has information listed about their overstock (and discounted) tile in the "events" section.

http://www.heathceramics.com/events/

They do some of those swank tiles I've seen in Ann Sacks ads, I think.

Maybe not feasible for shipping to NY, but worth a look. Makes me want to road trip to No CA.

regards,
trillium

Joey,

That was the only one I could find when I went looking again, but thats not the one I was looking for. Thanks for the effort though. The one I was looking for hand a caption noting that the tree was hand painted by the writer. It was a rounded sort of simple design that really looked great.

If anyone else has ideas I would appreciate it.

Best,
ED

Joey,

Thanks. I feel silly now. Thank god it is friday.

Joey you are probably thinking about Jill77's kitchen.

trillium, I'll go with you and be your tour guide. I used to live in that little town and it's beautiful. I need an excuse to go back.

thanks minh
I think I have about 30 tiles.

good ideas

I did think about the alternating pattern and about somehow coloring some of the mirrors, but not sure how to do that

I also thought of putting a band of tiles along the wall and painting the bottom a different color from the top.

or several bands across the wall with space in between - maybe different color between each band

also thought about doing three evenly sized squares of tiles or one larger and two smaller on either side.

still trying to decide.

those Heath tiles . . . yes, thanks trillium
you are the second person to point me towards their gorgeousness and impressive small lot sales list

and it's the third indication this week that a trip west is in order
alas

http://www.ikeafans.com/images/jill77diningafter.jpg

Thanks YCH, you're the best!

Can anyone share the TCS website address? Goggle turns up thousands of possibilities. Thanks!