apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Not exactly a design question, but at least a furniture question...

I am moving into a MUCH smaller apartment and most of my stuff will go into storage. With Bay Area climate how important do you think a climate controlled storage unit is? I'm not worried about dishes, etc, but I do have some antique pieces of furniture.

Any thoughts?

I had my things in storage for 5 yrs. in a normal (read:not climate controlled) facility and everything was fine when I collected it. It's called Novato Self Storage in case you need to know a place. It's a trek from SF but it worked for me. IMO, I dont' think it's necessary to pay the extra bucks for climate control.

I just had to post this - I just met Alte Tingle who owns The Gardener on 4th St. in Berkeley! I love that woman for her store and her design sensibility. I probably embarrassed myself but when I saw her at ICFF I went right up to her and gushed. She couldn't have been kinder or more humbled by the compliments. She and Alice Waters are the women I admire most on the west coast so I was thrilled to talk to her.

Oops - I meant "Alta" Tingle.

Any recommendations for (or warnings against) storage facilities in SF? As part of our downsizing, we're going to putting some stuff into storage (desk, bookshelves, books, etc.)

A warm welcome toall 3 new folks :)

Hi there!

I have one of those pine "two-toned" tables (painted on the bottom, finished wood on top) that I am thinking of re-finishing. I have been thinking about staining it a darker colour...BUT a friend told me it's really difficult to get stain to come out evenly on pine. Does anyone know if this is true? Anyone had experience re-finishing pine furniture?

Thanks!
Dorianne
British Columbia, Canada

I just refinished a pine table. I stripped it, sanded it down, then painted on a few coats of Minwax Polyshade in natural cherry. It looks fine -- I suspect that sanding the beejesus out of the table, plus using a 2" brush thinly-coated in finish to paint the table in overlapping strokes, helped.

It was tremendously soothing work, in a sort "wax on, wax off, Daniel-San" sort of way.

Usually I would STRONGLY recommend that you DO NOT use Polyshades because it is very difficult to get an even stain without showing brush strokes - it is meant to be a time saver, but I have found that spending the time and doing it properly will give you a much better result ... BUT ... in this instance, I may think that it may be a good thing to use. Pine is an extremely porous wood and really soaks up the stain where the grain is not raised. If you want a kind of country look with a very pronounced irregular grain - use a dark stain and finish with polyurethane. If what you are going for is a more continuous shade, I would recommend several coats of Polyshades - properly dried and lightly sanded between each coat. Since the stain is suspended in the polyurethane, it doesn't really soak into the soft parts of the wood and differentiate the darks from the lights. You will still be able to see the grain, but not nearly as much as you would with normal stain. Hope this helps.

Barrett

One more thing that I forgot to mention ... there are also things called "pre-stain wood conditioners" that are made for soft woods such as pine. Really all they are is half poly, half thinner - it soaks more into the soft spots to give you a more even stain. I would recommend you use this if you go the staining route.

Woohoo, more new folks, with helpful info no less :)

Does anyone have experience hiring day laborers for simple interior house painting?

I've got several rooms to paint, and every morning I drive down Oak Street and wonder about the painters who hang around outside the Kelley Moore store on Divisidero and Oak.

What's the overall quality? What's the going rate? And what kinds of questions should I ask?

Thanks!

as soon as i hear from my roommate's new roomie (my replacement) about what she wants to buy from me, i'll put up furniture on the ATSF classifieds, but in the meantime, does anyone want my magazines for free (domino, etc)? or a 2002, great condition, honda civic? just wondering. email me: alison at curbed dot com

Thanks Lisa and Barrett...

I have heard a couple of horror stories about that Polyshades stuff. I think if anyone could mess it up, it would be me!

I'm not into country, but I think I am more worried about the stain looking patchy on pine, rather than it staining different parts of the woodgrain itself differently. (I think that's what I'm understanding you to say would happen, Barrett?)

Thanks again!

Jenn -

I haven't used day laborers for painting, but have for helping me move before. I paid them $15.00/hour and included their "travel time" from the pick up spot to my house when calculating the hours. They were very hard workers and a lot more professional than some of the folks here at my day job...

Yes, Dorianne - it will be patchy if you just use the stain on the sanded pine, unless you use a conditioner. I hope this helps you - let us know how it turns out!!

Barrett

Recent rennovations on houses in our neighborhood have used day laborers. Lots of conversation in Spanish, Spanish music playing, they work so hard and actually seem to enjoy it. Always a greeting from them as I pass. Haven't used any on any of my own projects but the work done seems to be good. And yet some people want to criminalize them. I'm glad you pay well, Amy, and appreciated the work that was done for you.

On storage and climate -- by the standards of everywhere else, the Bay Area is inherently climate controlled. It's always about 65 degrees and damp.

It's *extremes* of temperature and humidity that cause damage over time, and we just don't have them. Even down the Valley, where winters get to a damp 30 degrees and summers to a dry 100, my parents have always used non-climate-controlled warehouses with no problems. Real extremes are like the other side of the country, where it gets below zero in the winter and up to 100 in the summer.

Thanks for the storage thoughts. My mother in Florida had me convinced I would be sorry. I ended up getting a place in Richmond this past weekend and started moving stuff in. This is the only part of our move that has me VERY stressed.

I have an 1850's sofa that I bought on layaway during college - everyone else was spending their summers backpacking across Europe, but I just wanted that sofa...I have a very emotional attachment to it.