living in style

im about 90% complete. still have to buy a tv.

MY APARTMENT!!!

so ladies and gentlemen, it's a new chapter in my life. i have finally seized the opportunity to move out of my parents' house and get my very own apartment in nyc. it was a long, depressing struggle to search for a place, much less to convince my parents. finding an apartment in manhattan is a rat race. it's searching obsessively, all day long, on craigslist; calling owners, brokers, whoever and leaving messages; going to talk to brokers about the listing for apartment x you saw, and end up being shown apartment y, because x was never available in the first place (bastards); and it's an exercise of patience, which i have none of. i had originally started with a low budget of $1300/mo to see what was available. nothing. but in all fairness, i am extremely picky about where i'd live and what the apt looks like. so then i upped it to $1500. do you know what i saw for $1550 in the east village? i saw a 1BR- i walked in saw a tiny stove and a tiny fridge, turned around to see the tiny sink, and then, oh, what else? a BATHTUB, in the KITCHEN! i looked at the guy showing the apartment and the first thing that came to my mind was, "where do ppl shit?" lo and behold, in a communal toilet. i think i spent 45 seconds max in that place. broker after broker, i was told to raise my rent to at least $1800 to find anything decent- totally crushing my original budget. long story short, i began shopping with an open mind and looked at the not-much-more-glamorous apartments, until i finally found my apartment. and it's so true, you know right away that it's yours when you see it-- just like when you first meet a love: your heart skips, and you feel comfortable enough to claim it as yours. and that was how i found my killer 1BR for a reasonable rent!

being the diva i am, i had a vision about where i'd take this place, and since i moved in on friday, i've been bringing that vision to fruition. i gave myself a budget of $3000 to furnish an entire apartment (remember, ive never had my own furniture before, so i literally have to buy EVERYTHING (with the exception of art, photos, candle-things, etc)! ikea has yet again, been my loyal source of vision fruition-ing. i've said it before and i'll say it again. on a budget, and for the quality of the products, compared to other stores, it is hard to beat ikea's prices.

ok, enough talking, here are the pics!

Day 11: Done D-Done Done!

My plan for the day was to paint over all the holes I spackled and finish up. Had to zip over to the storage place to pick up the paint first. It took me maybe 15 minutes to go over all the holes and now the wall looks shiny and new. I vaccumed, dusted, made the bed, and smiled. I also managed to have enough time to have all the digital pictures printed to put in a photo album for him. Included in that was an 8x10 of this fantastic picture he took in Istanbul, at the Blue Mosque. It's the woodwork on a door, just stunning. I framed that for him and put it up on the wall unit.

It's kind-of sad to be finished.

Day 10: Chalk it up!

I couldn't wait to try out the chalkboard paint to see how it comes out. I've read and seen on TV that the secret to transforming any regular latex paint into chalkboard paint is by adding tile grout. That means you can have it in any color you want, not necessarily just black or green. (Check out the Martha Stewart link b/c I know she had it on her site). Regardless, I went with a ready-made black chalkboard paint for the door. You're supposed to apply it with a foam brush or roller, and one very important tip is to apply generous coats. That's what I kept repeating to myself over and over, apply generous coats, apply generous coats! Because it's true, the first coat is so streaky, it's scary. We were concerned that a black door in an already poorly lit corridor would make it feel like a black hole, but contrarily, I think it's going to add to it. Once we get colored chalk and make it fun and useful, won't be a problem at all! So this really is a GREAT way to make an otherwise useless space, usefull. Now he can write To Do lists and checklists on the door, and skim through them on the way out. Perfect.

While I was in between coats, waiting for them to dry, I came up with the idea of creating a key rack. He had this really interesting postcard that I framed, and underneath, screwed hooks into the wall. It came out nicely, and it's a much better alternative to your traditional wood-carved key rack that you would normally find in the shape of, you guessed it, a key!

Day 8 & 9: Hangman

The projection screen is up!! So I decided to go ahead with surface mounting the plywood on the ceiling. I figured I'm in no condition to be opening up the ceiling and attaching plywood or 2x4 to the joists, blah blah blah... we sketched an analyzed every possible option between our team and the carpenters. But the truth is that the screen isn't THAT big or that heavy that I need to tie it into the ceiling. I felt pretty confident that the least intensive option, surface mounting the plywood, would suffice. I had 2-4"x6" pieces of plywood that I attached to the ceiling with 4 toggle bolts each.
I actually bought bolts that were a bit too short and had to run out to the nearest hardware store, and like the handygirl that I am, got lost looking around at all the fun. Guess what I found???? Chalkboard paint! Benjamin Moore makes chalkboard paint in quarts, so it's exactly the amount I need, and at a great price, $12.99-- vs. $39.99 that I saw over at Yoya (granted, this one is not also magnetic, which is the expensive part of the paint). The toggle bolt, is a more secure anchor for sheetrock. It's a bolt with a butterfly clip on the end, that when inserted through the sheetrock, expands, and clips on. 2 blocks of plywood and 8 toggle bolts later, the projector screen is up!

I had a bit of bad luck with the large poster. This poster is 56"x34"-- any custom made frame would be $200+, so I decided instead to head down to Canal Plastics (Canal and Church St.) where they can cut plexiglass for you in any size. I got the plexi for only $66 and stopped by Pearl, just down the block, to get some clips and foam posterboard with which to attach and hang the poster. Bad news, I dropped it and the corner of the plexiglass snapped right off. I am so crushed. Ugh, I don't know if I should go back and buy another piece, or if I should wait for R's opinion.

It's a bit frustrating that things aren't going as well as I would like them to. I feel like this project peaked on Day 6, and since, has been challenging and frustrating. The satisfaction of the end result is still keeping me keepin' on, but God, this isn't as fun as it used to be! But, good thing is that the worst is over and from here on out, it will be really fun, gratifying, and I'm so close to the end I can visualize it. Note: just because I am almost done does NOT mean we are almost done.

Shoutout

Naturally, I've been googling "do-it-yourself" "studio renovation" etc, just to see what's out there, what other tips I may find, you know...

This just cracked me up and I had to give a shout out to Stuff White People Like.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/01/29/37-renovations/


enjoy!

Day 7: Obsession

Our white board at work is covered with all of our projector-hanging ideas sketched out. I have my entire team helping me out with this. Each of us have a unique approach, and I still have no idea which one to go with.

Do I surface mount plywood and screw into that? If so, do I use a 6"x6" square of plywood, attach to the sheetrock with 4 toggle bolts each, and then attach the screen at each of the hooks; or do I go with a 4"x98" long trip (the length of the screen) screw into the sheetrock at 12" intervals, and attach the screen to that strip????

Do I cut open the sheetrock, install the blocking within the sheetrock ceiling, tape, spackle, sand, paint, and hang the screen?

Should I recess the screen into the ceiling, get creative and make it very very complicated?

I don't want to take the easy way out, but I truly don't want to cut open the sheetrock ceiling.

I have a bucket of spackle and a roll of tape on stand-by.