all moved in...

yesterday was our first morning in our new space. I woke up and had to take a picture for the blog. Its funny how the blog has changed the way I look at doing things at different times of the day. I want to make sure I don't miss any opportunity to take a picture or write down a note to remember something for the blog. Anyway here is the picture of the view from our first morning in the new apartment.

We woke up early and started moving things up from one apartment to the other at around 7am. My landlord showed up at 8:30 with the locksmith and plumber. We needed a little help with our sink situation and he was on top of making sure we were in good shape first thing in the morning. I have to say he has been so helpful and positive through this whole transition. He has really helped to make it easy for us.

Anyway, we moved a lot by 10:30 and then my friend showed up to move into our old apartment so we were moving stuff out as she was moving in. It took the whole day to clear it all out and by 6:30 we were ready for chinese food and hot baths. I can't believe it all got done...

I am posting pictures of what the apartment looks like with all of our boxes of stuff...but mainly my stuff in it. I wish we could have finished all the painting before this stage but it is what it is. From here on out it will be fine tuning the apartment by finishing up paint and putting all of our goodies in their new homes.

Now I am off to buy some basics for the apartment. I want to keep the pace I have had so that we can have a super cute apartment really soon. I will be posting pictures later tonight of any progress we make. Thanks for looking and thanks for all of the support we have been getting from all of our new guests. It really helps.

it didn't quite get done but we have 4 hours tomorrow

We are exhausted...

We were up at 6 and worked all day. We had hoped to finish everything and move all of our stuff into the new apartment by the end of the day.....if I weren't so tired I would probably laugh out loud. We had someone come in to move all of the heavy stuff up the stairs but now we have all the little stuff to move and clean. All I could muster for this evenings post is a before and after of the living room. I know you have probably seen the living room more often than any other room but this one has evidence of the floor scrubbing and light waxing that we did today. What a work out. Its like renovation boot camp.

More tomorrow after we move everything up....

night, night...

this is the before shot....notice the margarine colored walls and chutneyish ceiling





this is the after photo...I forgot to mention that we had a great steel blue grey color picked out for the walls on either side of the windows but we ran out of time. we have decided to live with the plain skim coat of plaster for a while and see if we like it instead.

today it has to get done

We have a huge day today so this will be brief. I wanted to post a few photos of yesterday's activity and show you a picture of the surprise that awaited us under the sink.




the bedroom ceiling and border are done. I am not quite happy with the living room wall but it has been waxed so it will have to work. Richard loves it and says I will end up loving it too...he is usually right so I'm not too worried.




here are before and almost after of the closet ceiling. i had to patch it so this morning it gets sanded, primed and painted.


here is a sneak peak at the kitchen. Richard is taking our little door and turning it into a small chalk board. I will post more photos of the kitchen tonight.



Here is our little kitchen....situation. We are hoping to knock this out asap this morning by repairing the plumbing, patching the wall and painting. If we can finish this and the rest of the apartment today it will be a miracle.



Tonight we should have some really nice after shots of the whole apartment.

September 24th

I woke up this morning and realized that I need to start figuring out where all of my collections are going in the new space. I started documenting all my treats so I have a record of them as they travel from one apartment to another. I am including a few photos from that little morning project.

Richard painted the ceiling in the bedroom this morning which was just fantastic! I worked on plastering the 'showcase' wall and finished all of the painting in the kitchen. I am amazed at how quickly the day goes by and how much there is still left to do. I will include photos in tomorrows post of the finished kitchen and hopefully the finished living room.

I am on my way back up to scrub the inside of the kitchen cabinets. I have been reluctant to open them and really look inside. I finally worked up the nerve and guess what...they were gross. Go figure. I thought about taking a photo for the before shot but honestly it was just too unsavory.

September 23, 2007 part 2

i am so pooped. i worked on the kitchen today and tonight and all i can say is it wasn't pretty. it will be pretty but getting there isn't easy. on a lighter note i leave you with a photo of the first two paintings to be brought up to the new apartment. i hadn't realized, until Richard pointed it out that they belong together. who knew? I am so looking forward to the decorating part of this process. only 3 days until we have to move our furniture and stuff in. yikes!

more tomorrow...

September 23, 2007

I was having my enormous cappuccino this morning as I was looking through this fantastic book of Cuban interiors, called Havana Style. (shown here) This book has been really inspiring me to push on through the process of finishing my living room wall. I am posting a few photos from the book that keep coming back as a reference. I hope you like them.

The plan today is to work on finishing the living room wall as well as painting the kitchen. This is what the living room looks like now...getting close.

Yesterday was a very long day...too long. I was feeling really crappy so I took something for 'extreme' colds and that pushed me through. I am just about finished with the kitchenette and am posting photos of before and after. I finished at 9:30 last night and promptly had a melt down. I was attempting to make matzo ball soup when all traces of the cold meds wore off and my body was just through. A big shout out to Richard for knowing I was in too deep just by the sound of my voice. He came home from the studio and brought spicy Thai soup for me. Anyway long story short I am going to TRY to take it easy today. We shall see.

The best part of the new kitchenette is the super subtle blue that we ended up with. I hope you can see the subtleties in the photos I am posting. It may come out looking white but trust me it is the best, most subtle blue. Remember that you can click on each individual photo to see a larger version.

I wish that I could figure out how to lay this all out so that the before and after always ended up side by side but...you get the idea.

The punch list looks like this:

1. scrubbed walls with Simple Green
2. plaster cracks and general ish on showcase wall with light weight joint compound, pre mixed. Applied right out of the bucket and also applied one layer with blue pigment added to plaster for a nice background.
   
3. primed ceiling to trim with Kilz Premium Primer
4. painted ceiling with Kelly Moore Bright White Ceiling paint
5. painted trim with Kelly Moore Soft Sesame trim, eggshell finish
   
6. painted walls with Kelly Moore Fennel color #3865, eggshell finish
7. scrubbed floors with heavy duty brush and Murphy's Oil soap (this was totally disgusting) (really disgusting)
8. caulked all gaps with acrylic caulk

I still need to wax the plaster wall, strip cabinet hardware, clean cabinet glass and paint one last door frame but all in all its done.

The flowers were a housewarming gift from my neighbor. (so sweet)

I will post again tonight. Thanks for looking.

September 21st

Well...I am exhausted and I think I am on the verge of getting sick. Correction...I have been on the verge of getting sick and now I feel like it is overtaking me. I have been painting all day and as the sun set I found two places where the former tenants decided to use scotch tape in the place of caulk. I almost started to cry. Who does that? Just in case you don't believe me I am posting pictures of the two examples I found. I will make sure to post the after pictures once there are after pictures to take.








I promise to upload a juicy post tomorrow. Meanwhile I am including a list of things that have been keeping me going.



My morning walks that look like this


The following cd's:
Rushmore soundtrack
The Cool Death of Island raiders by the OHSEES
various songs by Peter Bjorn and John
Palace Music
a really great 60's soul compilation cd a friend of mine made for me in Brooklyn
various Iron & Wine cd's


and of course...Grey Gardens

September 19th

Yesterday was a big day. We were able to prime the living room and bedroom, finished painting the hallway and started to tackle the gross kitchen situation. I am uploading photos of the progress and will fill in later with more photos and detailed punch list completions and product specifics including paint colors. I am very confident that this is the sweet week to complete.


Trust me when I tell you this color is actually amazing. It may not translate in photos but it kicks ass. we still have the top border to do but should be finished by weeks end. I have decided to love this color. It totally works


This first photo is the bedroom all ready for paint the second is the living room with no more margarine yellow to interfere with my concentration. That color was killing me.

September 18th

Its early and I have a lot to do today. We have friends coming in from LA who we are having dinner with tonight so I need to get as much done as I can just as early as possible. Yesterday I painted the hallway color and most of the trim until it was dark out. I took a picture of it but will take a better picture today. The color ended up being a little fernish. I am a little nervous about it because it also could look a little split pea soupish. Richard says it looks "very Martha" so I am trying to stay optimistic. I was hoping for World of Interiors or Elle Decor but I don't think he knows those so getting the Martha nod totally works for me. I should know by the end of the day if I like it. Right now I am about 54%. Here is a photo I took on my morning walk. I hope my hallway ends up feeling like this.

Here is another list of things crossed of the day at a glance punch list which include everything from the past 4 days.

1. Scrubbed the bathroom cabinet shelves with Simple Green. (this was startling and super gross)
2. applied new contact paper to cabinet shelves with vintage Martha Stewart contact paper that I have been hording for at least 4 years. (this was unbelievably satisfying)
   

3. patched and sanded bathroom window frame, door and cabinet. (more like a Bondo application than spackle)
4. primed and painted hallway ceiling, walls and almost all of the trim
5. painted dinning room ceiling
6. removed dinning room door from its hinges
7. removed bathroom cabinet and bathroom vanity light as they were both making me crazy
8. added a light layer of plaster to bedroom wall that was stained and peeling from the radiator
9. finished sanding ceiling border cracks in the living room and primed for paint

I will post again later in the afternoon with pictures of the hallway and whatever else I am able to finish today.

September 17th

It has been a few days since a posting but I have been so busy dealing with all of the ish in the new space. I went to Ikea on Friday with Brody and Cole to pick up shelving for the closet and lighting for the hallway. Ikea has a new shelf called the Jarpen you can buy whichever brackets you want and you can cut the shelf to fit so it will end up working better than my old favorite the Lack. The Lack is hollow so cutting is out of the questions. Brody and I were eating meatballs and making lists while Cole was playing with Avery...here is a cute photo of them.

Although it feels like nothing is happening in the new apartment I just reviewed before photos and things are actually looking a lot less hopeless I am going up now to work on finishing the hallway and dinning room so I am just going to post a little before and after series until later today when I can go over it all in more detail.

Here is a lovely ceiling hole from beginning to primer. Final coat of paint goes on today.




Richard scrubbing walls. A look at the hallway with first coat of patch and then me sanding the patch



these two are the patched and then the sanded and primed stages of the hallway


Here is a before and almost after photo of the front door.

September 13th

I have been at it since early this morning and it is around 7pm. I am pooped but will still put in a few more hours. I am finally seeing some real big changes so I am thrilled and inspired to keep going.

The electrician came by and fixed all the wackadoo wiring throughout the apartment so I actually have light in the hallway. In addition I no longer have a kitchen light that goes on and off when it feels like it and a light switch in the living room instead of a naked switch plate with no switch. He was also kind enough to install my chandelier which looks amazing.

I finished painting the ceiling and the with the cute little honey of a chandelier the apartment is looking less like a hobo house and more like mine. A little story about the chandelier. When I first moved back to California from NYC I decided that I needed one big showcase chandelier for the living room. My budget was small but I wanted something unique and vintage as the theme for my apartment was faded Cuban glamour. My friend Brody and I were on our way back from having tea and we walked past a curb sale. There was this gorgeous chandelier sitting in this dirty cardboard box. It had a couple of broken arms and a few leaves that had fallen off and needed to be reattached. It was in bad shape so I got it for $20. I still can't believe it. I called around to find a place that would work on it and after finding out that a lot of lighting places employ rude ass people I found the man to fix her for me. I could really go on and on about how emaculate his studio was and how wonderfully he treated my baby but I will just find his contact info, and post it so you can find out yourself. Anyway the whole experience was fabulous and he did a perfect job so I needed to share that. He really felt a lot of love for my showcase item.

Here a few pictures of everything so far.

Day at a glance completed punch list looks like this:

1. painted living room ceiling with Kelly Moore Bright White ceiling paint
2. added another layer of plaster to living room wall to even out the cracks...two more layers to go
3. added another shallow layer of plaster to the dinning room wall...tomorrow should be the last layer
4. cleaned glass doors on kitchen cabinet (stripping those was truly a bitch)
5. patched more woodwork and sanded
6. skim coated the bedroom wall where the wallpaper from days of yore was peeling and then removed.
7. added mountain landscape paper to inside of cabinet of curiosities in the dinning room.
8. washed another layer of ish from the kitchen ceiling (totally gross)
9. radiator removed
10. chandelier installed
11. electrical issues resolved in kitchen, living room and hallway

done and done

September 12th

Yesterday was a pretty big day. I had a little help with painting the ceiling and my landlord came by to take a look at the radiator I want taken out. He has arranged to have some people come over to take it out today around 3 so I am really looking forward to that. I have been waiting to do much to the bedroom as the radiator is sitting where I want the bed to go. I will include before and after pictures of that later.

I worked on scrubbing the walls in the kitchen as well as priming the walls and stripping hardware. The kitchen was really disgusting. The tenant before me did not clean the walls before she painted them a curry color so in addition to cleaning newish grease I was cleaning old grease that was unearthed after the curry came off. All I can say is if you don't clean it first then paint won't stick to the wall right. Gross.

Yesterday's punch list check offs were:

1. prime ceiling in living room
2. sand patched areas in kitchen
3. patch areas in living room
4. scrub walls in kitchen
   
5. prime half the kitchen
6. strip hardware off of old ice box
7. strip paint off of tile back splash near the sink
8. put another layer of plaster onto kitchen wall to level it out
   

Here are a few photos of what has been happening and some guests that have come by to help out.

September 11th

Things are looking a little bit less tragic in the new space but there is still a lot to do. Here is an after photo of the closet I posted the other day. I still need to install shelves and what have you but this is the first look at what was done. Materials list and items scratched off the punch list include:

1. washed walls with Simple Green
2. used wood patch and wall patch on all areas that needed repair
3. sanded patch areas with 220 grit Wall Sand drywall screens
4. primed walls with premium primer from Kilz
5. caulked above baseboards with acrylic latex caulk
6. painted ceiling with Kelly Moore Bright White ceiling (flat)
7. painted trim with Kelly Moore Soft Sesame (eggshell)
8. painted walls with Behr Contemplation (flat)
9. scrubbed floor with Murphy's oil soap
   

I will post again with other photos of the progress including some shots of guest plaster helpers that came by to visit the other day.

September 6th, 2007

I am covered in paint, plaster, Murphy's Oil Soap and Simple Green. As I round out my third day of a new apartment over haul waiting for my Chinese food delivery I am starting my first blog. I decided it might help me to be able to look back at the start of this project as I progress so that I can actually see drastic change happen. Right now I feel like crying or hiring someone to do it for me but I will press on. Here are a few 'before' pictures of a closet that should be finished in the morning.