Bathtub faucets: Not so complicated!

March 5, 2008

Trolling my favorite blogs today and came upon a Curbed reader with a home-related question. My inclination is to dive in after all the snarky commenters and set the record straight. But I think I would look a big old geek, so I'll quietly post my nerdy answer here (after consulting with my guru of home repair, colleague Mark Powers).

Start by taking a trip to the hardware store. For about $10, you can get everything you probably need for this fix. And it doesn't involve making any holes in the wall. Here's what to do:

My eyes are bigger than my apartment

February 23, 2008

Here is yet another project I won't get around to this weekend. Or next weekend. Or possibly the weekend after that, either. Why bother, when I haven't done anything with it for almost two months now?

I want to take these gorgeous interior shutters that I picked up at Demolition Depot in Harlem and turn them into bifold doors for my cabinets. That's actually a cool salvage project that has been on my mind for more than two years now, but it took me this long to even move on it.

It seems I am an ideas person more than a woman of action. And I have the closets to prove it. 

Lunar eclipse above a city garden

February 21, 2008

I have barely opened my back door since it got (brrrrrrrrrrrr) so freaking freezing cold this winter, but tonight I swung it wide so I could appreciate the fact that my garden faces east. All the better to see the rising full moon as it went into a full eclipse for the last time until 2010.

There's something magical to me about the private rear faces of urban houses, with pinpoints of light in their dark gardens and the warm glow of reading lamps and TV screens seeping out the windows. I have one of the most amazing views in the Village, as my garden sits smack in the middle of the short end of a long block. I stare straight down the line between back-to-back rowhouse yards, and in the winter, when the trees are bare, I can see clear to the other end of the block.

Tonight I turned out all the lights inside my apartment so I could take in the buildings as I watched the shadow of the earth slowly crossed the moon. I may not be able to stargaze in this bright-lights-big-city, but there was still much atwinkle for me to see.

The shrink-wrap defense

January 30, 2008

Back on the MLK holiday, it was so cold in my apartment that I donned two pairs of yoga pants, a long-sleeved t-shirt, two cashmere sweaters, wool socks, shearling slippers, and a hat. And I still needed to sit on the couch under a blanket. Granted, it was hovering around 20 degrees outside, but I could clearly hear that tea-kettle hiss of steam coming from all three of my radiators. You couldn't possibly pump any more heat into the room.

The problem is that I live in an old building. With a giant wall of divided-light casement windows. Single pane, metal frame, and one of the windows is a little warped so it doesn't close tightly. I also can't remove my air conditioner, because someone cut away the window to make room for it.

So it's drafty. By last weekend, I'd had enough, and finally took some action.

Rearrange my furniture, please

November 29, 2007

I have too much furniture. After I fixed up those two side chairs, I ended up with more seating than my living room can hold.

I think I want to get rid of the big red chair. It does make for a good reading corner, but I don't really sit there and read very much. Besides, my mom said she'd take it. The little semi-circular chair under the window and the gold chair in the corner are both good, but they need recovering. Those I want to keep. And I like the compact comfort of the two side chairs I just recovered.

So how can I make all this furniture work in my apartment? (I can't move the couch, by the way, because that's the only place it fits.) I would invite my friend Amy over, after she was such a big help with the garden furniture. But maybe somebody reading this has some suggestions? Should I keep the red chair? Should I ditch the side chairs? Any way to rearrange all this without getting rid of anything?

But now I have to fix it

November 27, 2007

My landlord likes me. (I think.) Mostly because I don't really call him for every little repair, and I add nice details to his property at my own expense. So earlier this year when I could hear water dripping above my shower, I suggested to him that the guy upstairs probaby needed to caulk his shower. Then I said if he fixed that I would deal with the sagging ceiling.

Ugh.

And I didn't even need them!

November 25, 2007

Recently I did a photo shoot for an upcoming book on vintage decorating, taking some thrift store chairs and showing how to update them for a contemporary room. In order to do the project, I ended up having to buy a set of 6 dining chairs, even though I only needed two of them for the shoot. Salvation Army wouldn't break up the set, but I really liked their lines.

So I had to figure out what to do with the rest. And you know me: I can't resist free furniture—or a project, for that matter.

Wait, what month is this?

November 20, 2007

I took this picture last week. Okay, so it's been a little colder here in New York this week, but seriously―does this look like November to you?

One of the reasons I've dropped off the radar for two months is that I haven't done much around the house. Partly that's because I've kind of been waiting for the seasons to change. I even took this Thanksgiving week off and was hoping to clean out the garden in my free time. No such luck. But you'll notice a few changes to the scenery, if you look closely.

I couldn't have said it better myself

September 24, 2007

I just had to link to this great story in the New York Times yesterday, about what it's like to be a local among the tourists in the West Village. The best part was when it describes how residents like to impart the neighborhood lore to visitors (whether they want to hear it or not):

A friend visiting and walking with me on, say, Bedford Street, will hear, “That’s the oldest house in the Village that’s still standing, from 1799” (No. 77), and “That’s the narrowest house in the city — nine and a half feet wide; Edna St. Vincent Millay lived there (No. 75 ½).” On Grove Street, it’s “They say John Wilkes Booth plotted Lincoln’s assassination here” (No. 45). On Bank Street, it’s “Here’s where Lauren Bacall lived when she was crowned Miss Greenwich Village 1942” (No. 75).

Small-town chauvinism? Fact, or myth and exaggeration? In the Village, we mix it all together and call it history. If you want to be here, be prepared to take on the unpaid job of learning it, repeating it, and along with the buildings, preserving it. Living in the Village isn’t all Magnolia cupcakes.

Guilty!! I have done this exact thing myself—though when on Grove Street I'm less likely to point out the location of Booth's plotting (news to me!) than the building used as the exterior in "Friends." Still, having been a Villager for almost 2 decades now (gulp!), I think it really hits the nail on the head.

Oh how I love this crazy neighborhood of mine!

Handy daughter to the rescue

September 9, 2007

My parents are in their late 70s. They live in a five bedroom house on four and a half acres. On most summer days, my mother can be found complaining about the heat, but still bent over one of her several gardens―usually at high noon. Mad dogs and Englishmen, I told her yesterday.

I was at their place because two people in their late 70s really can't make all those little fixes around the house that pop up over the months, and hiring someone to do it is expensive and inconvenient. Enter the handy daughter. I've inherited my father's father's gene for fix-it aptitude, as my dad tells it. So I packed up my tool bag, hopped in my car, and drove out to the suburbs to exercise my filial duties.

Gotta get me one of those decrepit houses

August 30, 2007

Today's New York Times House & Home section has a story that just made me swoon. Apparently, some states have programs that allow "resident curators" to live in state-owned houses (basically ones that have been abandoned or are part of park land) if they agree to fix them up at their own cost.

Look, I already do this with my rental apartment, paying for repairs when I don't actually own the place. Why not try for the chance to do it on a historic house?

I'm just sayin'.

Photo: Darren Higgins for The New York Times

A winning design

August 23, 2007

This came in recently from a reader, who did me the wonderful service of mocking up a new bookcase design after I asked for suggestions last week. I think it's great; the double height dividers are cleaner looking. It would also help with the balance if I put some of the dividers at approximately the same width as the smaller bookcase on the left (to incorporate an idea from both Jay and WmD). And I would probably add dividers on the left to further balance it out.

But generally, this is cool. I encourage you all to e-mail me whenever you'd like to help me design my apartment!!

So, what do you guys think?

It's the small things in life...

August 21, 2007

The problem with being a girl who gets bogged down in projects is that sometimes the little things get overlooked.

Take for example, my shower. For months I've been taking showers with lukewarm water, but I didn't blame the landlord because I knew it had nothing to do with the water heater. This was my own doing.

The great tomato caper

August 16, 2007

I'm sure I've already made it clear how proud I am of my first tomato crop. There's something really satisfying about watching a tiny little green ball start to form out of a small yellow flower, then grow and grow and turn rosy then deep red. Compare that to, say, carrots, which last time I tried to cultivate them (when I was 7), I kept pulling out of the ground too early because I was so impatient for them to be done already!

That's why, two weekends ago when I left for the beach, I was really excited to see about half a dozen round, fat contenders starting to blush with red. Perfect, I thought—these will be ripe just in time for me to make a great heirloom tomato bruschetta for some guest on Wednesday.

So imagine my surprise when I returned home on Sunday to find nary a tomato left on any of the plants.

Putting a little balance back in my life

August 15, 2007

Lately I've spent a lot of time alone in my apartment staring at a blank wall. No, it's not a sign of encroaching dementia (though some might beg to differ). It's actually my way of working up to my next big project.

It's been nearly two years since I built the fireplace-flanking cabinets and single bookcase in my living room. At the time I thought one bookcase would do—and at $300 for the materials it was all I could afford—but it was filled before I unpacked the last box. I've always thought it looked too crowded, and a bit unbalanced. So now I'm ready to give it a friend on the opposite side of the mantel, covering a wall that's been sadly unadorned for too long.

Problem is, I need a little help with the design.