3rd Floor Etiquette

When you live in a high rise, it's easy to get lazy. My gym is on the floor below me. (I hardly visit it.) My laundry room is on the floor above me. (I visit it even less.) There's a roof deck I show guests. ("Oh yeah, I'm up here...never.") And a mezzanine that I use, though infrequently.

But my biggest faux pas is without a doubt the elevator. My building has six elevators serving 35 floors. One is the service elevator and I avoid it. One of the elevators has been out since January 2009. I am beginning to doubt it's ever coming back. Of the remaining four, two serve floors 1-21 and two serve the rest. I understand the frustration of waiting -- and waiting, and waiting -- for the elevator. But the dirty looks I get? Not as much.

Hello my (nick)name is roxy. I live on the third floor. And yes, I take the elevator.

It's there for a reason -- to help me get my lazy ass from the lobby to the 3rd floor. Sometimes the use is justified. I've got groceries. I'm hauling one of my many packages up. I'm in dangerously high heels and it's a miracle I survived the subway station stairs so I'm not risking death or ankle destruction in my own damn building.

Mostly though I'm just not thinking. Habit dictates that I enter the building and head for the elevator. At my work, the stairwell doors are locked so I couldn't take the stairs if I wanted to. And I think that's carried over to my home building, where my fried brain says home is where the elevator takes me. Perhaps I'll just blame the internet.

I had some friends over last weekend and they were lamenting their own elevator situation -- two of them to serve 40 floors. Yikes. Their immediate scapegoats for the long waits? Residents of floors 2-4. I found myself nodding and contributing. Damn those low-floor dwellers! Who do they think they are taking up valuable elevator space, what with their 2 floor trips and smug grins and fuck yous as they exit.

Oh wait.

Even in my own building I find my scorn directed at those damn brokers, who ride the elevator one floor from the lobby to the mezzanine to visit our leasing office. I will shoot daggers at them from my eyes. And then two floors later I will happily disembark at 3, happy to be home with my legs no worse for wear. What the remaining riders think of me was never a concern.

Recently though I've been visiting friends in high places. Specifically floors 23, 35 and 44. And I now know the annoyance that is stopping at floors 2, 3, 4, and really anything below 10. It sucks. The building commute inches up with each single-digit floor hit. And it's not really fair. So please accept my apologies, cloud-dwellers. I will try to take the stairs more often.

Except of course in heels.

Then and then and now

Pershing Square (outside Grand Central) in the 1940s

What is it about photos that stirs the soul? Many thanks to Gothamist for helping me discover these Flickr photo collections of NYC from various eras. I love looking at old photos of New York City. It's amazing to see how far the city has come. Some of the photos from the 1800s look almost fake in their simplicity -- there were trees! And barns! In the city proper! To look at photos of what is now a burgeoning urban zoo from way back when is both a tribute and a eulogy.

Take for instance Trinity Church, located on Broadway downtown where Wall St. begins. Many famous figures are buried there, including Alexander Hamilton. So the place has been around for awhile.

Here it is in the late 1800s:

Unbelievable. This shot was taken from east of the church on Wall St, facing west. Townhouses of no more than 7 stories! Above-ground power lines! A general lack of din! Not many people. A far cry from the crowds and noise of today.

Here it is in the 1940s:

This shot is from the same angle as the one above, but further west on Wall St. That's Federal Hall on the right and the Stock Exchange on the left. Love the truck in the shot -- an instant frame of reference. Look at the people's clothing...look at how open the area is. No fences or cops like today. A bygone era but approaching today. The church itself looks so different. I can't say if it's the sun, the film or the technique. It look likes a movie set.

And today:

Tall buildings everywhere. People everywhere. And yet still so damn beautiful. I wonder if George Washington ever walked or rode up Wall St. -- he must have, right? And now there is a statue of him here. I realize that New York City is much younger than, say, Athens, Rome or even London or Paris. And yet there is already so much history here. When I walk around down here in FiDi I can't help but think about the millions that have tread before me. What were they like? Where did they go? Were they happy? What was the city around them like?

I am normally extremely camera-shy and by proxy I'm not usually into people photos. But the human element in the Flickr NYC collections are mesmerizing. Their eyes alone say so much. Such proud people. I like looking at photos from the 40s/50s/60s to see what my parents' lives were like growing up here. And from the 10s/20s/30s to see what my grandparents' lives were like (two of my grandparents grew up here, two immigrated just before WWII). Though I can't explain why some of the photos make me cry. The photos of the 70s and 80s don't touch me as much. It might just be too close to now, a real or fake memory rather than an era I never knew.

I wonder what our time will look like to future generations. Many of the current city movements are about a movement back to nature -- no cars in Times Square, Summer Streets, etc. -- yet many new skyscrapers are under construction reaching higher into the sky than ever. As our historical records become digital I hope we don't lose the qualities a photo can bring. One simple click makes an amazing time capsule. That's a pretty powerful tool.

Dear Roxy, tell me about living in NYC

I've been getting a lot of questions from friends, friends of friends and the like about moving down here lately. So I thought I'd compile the recent ones into a post. This time around, questions about how much you need to make, where to get the most space for your money and what a car fanatic should do.

Q -- What's it like living in NYC?
No joke, it's awesome. There is no other city in the world like it. You hear a different accent and language with each person you pass. The food, the shopping and the culture are unmatched. New York may not be as old as the cities in Europe and the East but it's unique in that the immigrants who've landed in America have taken neighborhoods and made them their own. No where else can you feel like you've gotten a taste of China, Italy, Ireland or Russia all in the same day.

That being said it's challenging to live here. A lot of people come to NYC and find out they aren't tough enough to survive here. If you don't know anyone here you will spend the majority of your first year alone. It takes a long time to make friends here. There are people everywhere and even your apartment won't feel like a true escape. If you need quiet or alone time you will not be happy in Manhattan. Everything is very expensive here -- food, rent, utilities, clothes, going out and the like. Your college dorm room will look like a mansion compared to your first NYC apartment. There's a me-first attitude that pervades and it is very grating. You have to learn to rise above and find people with a similar like-water-off-a-duck's-back attitude. Once you make friends it's great. Having someone to live through all those only-in-NY-moments with you makes it all worth it.

The people here are great once you learn the nuances of New Yorkers. But coming from the South or Midwest is often difficult. You will find the people here rude. Life moves ridiculously fast here. Just prepare yourself. You can do it! If you can make it through the first year semi-happy, sane and still stuck on NYC you will be fine. If you're unhappy, I really recommend that you leave. If a you're not happy here after a year you will most likely never be happy here and it's not worth dealing with all the bullshit. Move on. Try Philly or Chicago; cities with a similar pace but a different zeitgeist.

Q -- Should I move to NYC now, or should I wait?
Depends. I advocate moving here now for just about anyone. I say wait if you're under 18, just got married or just had a kid. Moving here is such a huge change and you don't want to be facing more than one life change at a time.

Q -- Are rents coming down?
Not yet. There seem to be two schools of thought on the matter. The first school says that of course rents are going to come down because the people that lose their jobs are going to move out of NYC. The vacancy rate will rise and more apartments will be available leading to lower rents. The second school of thought is that some of the people who bought apartments will be forced to sell. Then they'll rent instead. That would actually make the rental market even more competitive than it is.

My personal guess is that in 6 months the rental market will have to start correcting. Regardless of the number of people renting, sales prices are starting to drop and if they drop below rental rates people will just start buying anyway. Also, many of the financial peeps have severance pay that is just starting to run out. They will start making moves now as their cushion is depleted. So however it happens rental rates should come down. Just a guess though.

Q -- Where can I get the most space for my money?
In one of the boroughs for sure. Many parts of Brooklyn are just as expensive as Manhattan these days. And Brooklyn is only convenient to Manhattan below 23rd St. So I'd suggest skipping it for Queens. If you work on the East side Queens is pretty convenient. Long Island City is expensive but Astoria, Woodlawn, Forest Hills and Jackson Heights all have decent-sized apartments for 20-40% less than a Manhattan apartment. Take note that subway trains are kind of iffy on the weekends into Manhattan from Queens. Do your research before you commit to a borough. There's also Long Island or Connecticut though I can't recommend either with a straight face. If you're moving to New York, move to New York!

If you work on the west side, I would consider New Jersey (much as it pains me to say so). The PATH trains are pretty reliable. There's also a ferry. Jersey City and Hoboken are pretty cool little cities and have amazing skyline views. Then again, it's still Jersey.

The Bronx has some nice neighborhoods. Riverdale and Pelham Bay are a couple off the top of my head. If you have a family this is one borough you should look at closely. Make sure to factor in commuting time though. For jobs in midtown or south, count on at least a 45-minute commute.

In Manhattan you may get lucky in the Financial District. But not too lucky -- think 500 sq foot studios; same size for 1 BRs and on from there. Spacious is a relative term in Manhattan.

Q -- What's the minimum annual salary I need to make to live in Manhattan?
In my opinion you need to make at least $50,000/year if you plan on living by yourself. With roommates I think you could slide by at $40,000/year. I know people who do it for less but it's not like they have a ton of spending money.

For one thing, most landlords require that you make at least 40x the rent in annual salary. So if you make $50,000/year you would qualify for monthly rent of up to $1250. I know of ZERO apartments in Manhattan for that price. Really the least I would expect to pay for a studio is $1550. Even if you have a guarantor paying anything more than 60% of your monthly income towards rent is asking for trouble, especially in today's economy. Do you really want to have no disposable income to buy things like clothes, movie tickets, books, drinks or dinner? That doesn't sound like a good way to live.

Think of it this way: making $100,000/year in NYC is like making $50,000/year anywhere else in the country. It's decent but you're by no means rich. There are people who make such ridiculously high salaries here that it's hard for the rest of us to keep up. And the city caters to the rich and not the rest. Them's the facts of life, bitches.

Q -- How much does it cost to move into the city?
If you're coming from the tri-state area expect to spend about $1200-$1700 on the move for a studio apartment worth of crap. If you're coming from east of the Mississippi put it around the $2000-$4000 range just for the movers and the truck. Further west you should budget anywhere from $2500 to $6000 for a studio apartment's worth.

Make sure you research your moving company very carefully. If you're coming from NY/CT/NJ/Mass I highly recommend Gentle Giant Movers. They did my move and two of my friends' moves and they are amazing. Incredibly dependable and honest, though a bit more expensive. Then again I'd rather pay an extra $250 to know that the movers will show up on time and take good care of my stuff. Anyway, out of state moves should be calculated based on weight rather than hourly cost. You should get a fixed bid contract -- you sign and agree to a price before the move. Remember to tip your movers!

Then there are the expenses once you get here. Some of your furniture is going to be too long, wide or just plain big for an NYC apartment. You will need to buy some new stuff adapted for vertical living.

If you plan on using a broker (sigh) to find an apartment expect to spend between $8,500 and $15,000 just to get into an apartment up to $2000/mo. That will cover: your first month's rent, your security deposit of one month, a broker's fee and a credit check or application fee. The broker's fee can range from one month's rent to 20% of the annual rent. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate.

Q -- Should I live in a doorman building? and Why are doorman buildings so much more expensive?
Growing up, my Aunt lived in a doorman building. It was awesome -- his name was Oscar and he always gave me a piece of Hershey's chocolate when I came to visit. When I started looking for an apartment I thought a doorman was a deal breaker. They help you with groceries, they receive packages for you, they take care of your dry cleaning.

But the truth is a doorman shouldn't be a dealbreaker. True, doormen usually come in elevator buildings so if you want an elevator a doorman might be a byproduct. And it does suck trying to get a package sent to you via the UPS/FedEx/DHL trifecta. So you adjust. You get packages sent to your work. You learn to carry your own groceries or get them delivered. You take care of your own damn dry cleaning.

Doorman buildings are more expensive because the tenants combine to pay the doorman's salary. And you have to tip on top of that. In the end, the costs outweigh the benefits for most youngins.

Q -- I need to have a car. Where should I live?
Really? Really really? Because there's awesome services like Zipcar for when you absolutely have to drive. I heart Zipcar (95% of the time). You really don't need to own a car in Manhattan. And this is coming from a drive-aholic!! In Connecticut and Colorado I would drive just to drive. Gas was a lot cheaper then.

The public transportation in NYC is really good. Sure I bitch about it but it's way better by bus or subway then it would be by car. I can't tell you how many traffic jams I've sat in trying to get from the George Washington Bridge or one of the tunnels to my apartment. Hell, I somtimes take taxis home to the UES from Flatiron and it usually takes about 45 minutes vs. an 18-minute subway ride.

It's hard to park in Manhattan. Just about everything on the street is parallel parking. Parking garages are valet only and it costs about $20 per half hour. So good luck with that. They have weird rules like Alternate Side. Your car is 60% more likely to get broken into than around the rest of the county. Good luck with that too! Oh, and your insurance? Maybe better not to even talk about how high your rates will be.

If you absolutely cannot live without a car, try the Bronx. My car-owning friends say it's the best borough for cars.

Reflexive Response: Jewelry Storage

So organized...love it.

What is the picture above? Some new residential tower plan for Tokyo, perhaps? An art installation of some kind? Nope. It's my new jewelry storage.

I struggle with closet space and book storage in every apartment but lately I've been in an accessory dilemma. I own a decent amount of jewelry but seem to wear the same 8 or 10 pieces all the time. It's because I am too impatient to sort through my jewelry boxes and containers. Once I moved to the city I combined everything except my nicest pieces into a bead sorting container to conserve space. But it hasn't been an effective storage solution because each bin has four or five items so necklaces get tangled, studs get buried and my necklaces strung on string are just a mess.

Kudos to Apartment Therapy for their brilliant suggestion: use pill containers. Their stackability means you can store them in a small space and they're see-through so I can see what's inside. As the post suggested I bought mine at Container Store. The store had three sizes of round stackable containers; I bought the medium and large sizes.

The solution has been great on several levels. No more loose jewelry sitting around my apartment -- I feel motivated to put it away each night knowing each piece has a home. I was able to store like colors and tones together for easy locating and in some cases I even stacked them by size (anal, I know). Being able to see what I have easily has also kept me from buying the same piece twice, something I was totally guilty of in the past. And the stacks look kind of cool in my cabinet with the frosted doors closed -- like the model of a futuristic skyscraper development (or a lot of checkers pieces as friend S suggested).

Note: Reflexive Response is a series highlighting a cool post I saw on another blog/website.

Take me out, the higher the better

Yeah, the Zebra's my wingman.

(photo from the New York Times)

Outdoor space is at a premium in NYC, and so are great views. How to get them both in one shot? A rooftop bar or restaurant of course.

A little voice has been chanting "outdoors, outdoors, outdoors" to me since the summer started. Being cooped at work has been torture during the lovely weather so I've spent as many nights as possible enjoying the warmth, ignoring the humidity and taking in breathless views.

I never get sick of staring at skyscrapers and being high up gives me the illusion (or, ahem, delusion) of being a superhero looking over the city from above. We may not have mountains or scenic amber waves of grain here but we do have glorious seas of steel and light.

Part of the view from 230 Fifth.

In picking a rooftop bar, I look for a view things: 1 - a view of either the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building (both is awesome); 2 - seating; 3 - palm trees. No joke. I feel like every single NYC rooftop bar has palm trees these days. Big fat F's go to any private clubs or hotel rooftop bars that require you to be a guest. I find those policies to be quite gauche.

Since it's summer I'm not alone in my desire to be outside. The bars are almost always packed and sometimes there's even a line to get in. I hate lines. At least none of these places have gone cover yet. The only thing worse than lines is the privilege of having to pay to drink somewhere.

The western view from Tonic East.

When I first moved here I hung out at Tonic East a lot. They have many, many TVs and were a great place to go on NFL Sundays. But what I loved most of all is that the rooftop bar had killer views of both the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. The place was always full but never crowded. I could move easily around the place. Last time I went though it was packed to the brim and I hate that. The service is not great but they have an amazing tater tots appetizer with three kinds of dip.

The summer deck at Bar 13.

My work used to be located in Union Square and I spent many Thursday happy hours at Bar 13, which has a nice summer deck. The staff there is super nice and they have a nice selection of unique mixed drinks. The crowd was always young and hip (maybe a little too hip for me). It's hard to get in there on Fridays. It is not cheap to drink there. Bring a date or be the sugar mamma.

Bars aren't always my scene though, so sometimes I go for lunch outside instead. The city is full of restaurants with 2nd floor outside dining or sidewalk cafe dining. Way too many to name. But I have to give props to a couple of my faves. First, by my work. Wichcraft (another in the long line of Craft names from Tom Colicchio, this time with Sisha Ortuzar and Jeffrey Zurofsky) just opened up a second-floor outdoor eating area. You get a back-alley view of other people's fire escapes but it's suprisingly nice being in the back, away from the traffic and most of the noise. The patio is of course tastefully yet minimally decorated. Then there's Pescatore, an Italian seafood place in midtown. Its rooftop balcony is small but airy. It's surrounded by other restaurants with the same layout but the food stands head and shoulders above anything else out there. BFF M introduced me to this place and I love it.

Sometimes I want the illusion of being outside without actually having to, you know, be outside. On those nights I round up some friends and head to The Park. Their garden is awesome -- Japenese maples and a couple of tin deer. The middle part is open to the sky but the sides give the feeling of being outside without actually being open air.

My friends are moving out of Manhattan

So long, Manhattan?

And so the exodus begins? In the past two weeks, three of my friends have told me they're moving out of Manhattan to one of the boroughs. Their reasons vary from wanting a quieter neighborhood to missing trees but let's be honest: they can't afford Manhattan anymore.

Con-Ed just raised their rates. Most of my friends in rent stabilized units just got their renewal agreements. Food has doubled in price and halved in packaging size. Our salaries are not growing fast enough to keep up.

Living in NYC is about monetary sacrifice when you're young (unless you're young and privileged). I don't mind that 60% of my income goes towards rent because I get to live in the greatest city in the world. That's the trade-off I chose. Recently though it's become tight. This story is nothing new -- it's the same song and dance that's been written for decades. Most recently the real estate boom drove out the artists and the bohemians. The average income of a NYC resident is well above $100,000/year and in my zipcode it's closer to $450,000/year. It's tough to compete with that when you're a recent college grad or even a 20-something making a decent salary.

With the economy in a downturn I can see how living in Manhattan becomes frivolous. We live in a whole other world...we don't cook our own meals; we pay others to chauffeur us around town; we spend our weekends elsewhere; we hire people to deliver the things we buy to us. We're taxed on our luxuries, from the cost of driving food in to the city to the cost of sending our trash out. If you haven't lived here your whole life at some point you say enough.

But if there is one thing I learned as a commuter it's that the mental cost sometimes outweighs the monetary cost. Sure, your rent may be $200/mo cheaper but now you've got a 30-minute subway ride each way to work instead of a 15-minute one. The train is always crowded and you probably stand most of the time. Want to get a meal late at night? Sorry, except for the corner store your neighborhood closes at midnight. Good luck catching a cab after hours. And then coming into Manhattan becomes a pain because it doesn't seem as close as it once was. You don't tell your friends this though. It's tough enough for them having to leave Manhattan.

One result is that the boroughs become more expensive too. When I was in high school and college Brooklyn was super cheap. Now many apartments rent for the same rate as Manhattan units. I can only imagine Queens will become the same way. It's interesting because I feel like we are right on the cusp of a rental rate drop. But it can't come soon enough for some of my friends.

Me vs. my upstairs neighbor

For the last several months I have not gotten a full night's sleep. No, it's not insomnia or me being a social butterfly. It's because of my neighbor upstairs, or more specifically her animals.

It started way back in December when she first moved in and has been getting progressively worse. She has two cats and a dog in an apartment the same size as mine and they are very active at night. Add in a late-nite vacuuming habit and the sound of chairs scraping over hardwood and you have a recipe for one cranky Roxy. I have spoken to her at least once a month. Each time I get a sob story (I'm working three jobs! I can't afford food for them!) and promises to try harder. I think I've been pretty fair -- I asked her to please get a rug or crate the animals at night. Not to get rid of the animals, not to move, just please keep them quiet between 10 PM and 9 AM.

I can't watch a movie when the animals are running around. I can't concentrate on my writing. I can't really enjoy my apartment. But my neighbor doesn't really seem to care. I've gotten suggestions ranging from sane (call the cops) to insane (buzz her door every overnight when it starts). I tried calling 311. They referred me to the housing department who said -- get this -- we can't do anything unless the dog is barking. My head hurts trying to figure that one out. I called the cops who refused to come. They said I had to talk to my landlord first. If my landlord refused to do anything then I could call them back. Ok, fine. Red tape and I are quickly becoming great friends in Manhattan.

So finally I knew I had to escalate this to non-Super. Whether I liked it or not neither I nor my guests talking to the neighbor had done anything and it was time to escalate. As usual it took me about two weeks before I could actually get in touch with non-Super, who promised to talk to upstairs neighbor. That was in April. I gave it a month as the noise continued to pound away at my sanity.

Come May 1st I started calling non-Super every day at various times between 9 AM and 5 PM. I finally got in touch with non-Super about a week later. Again, promises to talk to the neighbor. Again, no action.

A few days ago after a particularly hard day at work I came home at 8 PM and collapsed on my couch. My head was pounding and I just needed to unwind. But 5 minutes later upstairs neighbor came home and the noise started immediately. Completely fed up, I called non-Super after hours and refused to hang up until some action would be taken. Non-Super came over immediately. Thank the lord.

Ten minutes later, a knock at my door as a crying upstairs neighbor and non-Super told me they'd talked through some ideas so that I could actually sleep. That night, for the first time in months, I slept through the entire night. No noise. And since, it's been a lot better at night. Sometimes I still hear noise but it usually stops within an acceptable amount of time. The days are unfortunately not much better but at this point I'm not ready to escalate again.

The biggest question in my mind is how are there no laws about this? And who thought it would be smart to build paper-thin floors?

Ikea strikes again

The newest addition to my wall.

Ring, ring. That's the sound of New York City slowly waking out of its winter slumber. I can tell because all of a sudden my friends want to hang out -- and I want to hang out with them. The warmer weather puts everyone in good spirits.

Then again, laziness occasionally prevails. On Sunday afternoon I was chilling out, watching some NASCAR and slowly recovering from two late nights. I had ignored my phone most of the morning, not on purpose but because I was asleep. By the time I checked my phone I had three messages -- which never happens. Of the three, the last message was the most interesting. It was S calling with an invitation to the Brooklyn Flea Market.

I returned his call and he chastised me for being too late. I was pretty bummed because I do want to hit the Flea but it will have to be another weekend. He was on his way back and offered to drop by and say hello.

And that's where I got him! (Insert evil laugh here.) After offering him some water, I looked longingly at my poor Ikea Premiär poster propped up in the corner. It was supposed to be on my wall by now. What is that, S asked. I explained the situation to him. He shuddered when I said Ikea. I'm still recovering from last time I helped you with Ikea, he said.

But he's a nice guy so he agreed to help me out. The first part was pretty easy -- we assembled an aluminum frame. Then we had to stretch the canvas by wrapping it around the frame and pressing plastic dowels into place to hold...not as easy. Again, Ikea had only one picture to show how easy the step should be but in practice not so much. There was a piece included to push the plastic pieces in, but it hurt our hands after awhile.

"Get me...an ovenmitt!" S demanded. I did, and what a brilliant idea it was. The process was much smoother after that. With the canvas stretched, S observed that it kind of smelled. And it did. Like freshly printed canvas. It was making us a bit high off the fumes.

After some air we were ready to hang the canvas. We attached the hangers to my wall, but they weren't really in there tightly. No studs. So the first couple of times we tried to hang the canvas, we failed. But on the third try we got it. I backed away from the wall with a smile.

It looks pretty good, S said. I had to agree. The canvas is ridiculously huge and it really takes advantage of the high ceilings. I wonder if it's a little too much NYC inside my apartment but I'm hoping to get away with it.

Plus, I'm not gonna lie, every time I look at the Flatiron Building I think 'Daily Bugle.' My canvas might soon have a little Spider-Man addendum to it.

Small Cool update: I made the site!!!

What a lovely surprise this evening: just before leaving work I checked the Apartment Therapy site to see the latest entries in the Small is Cool 2008 contest. I was quite surprised to find that my little apartment had made it up! My entry confirmation said that AT would contact me before the post went live, but I'm certainly not complaining. In fact, I'm quite humbled by the response it's gotten.

You can see my entry, Roxy's Room to Grow on Apartment Therapy's site. In order to vote you must first register. To register, scroll down to the bottom of the comments, and click on the "Register to Comment" link in the login box. Even if my apartment is not to your taste, there are many amazing entries.

Besides my own, I am also in love with Jessie's Town Street Studio, which includes lovely dark tones and a keen eye for style. Turquoise pretty much rocks my world.

Apartment Tour :: Roxy's Room to Grow

After T and I got back from Target I convinced him to help me clean for pictures. What a sweet guy he is (yes, I'm totally buttering him up for more). We dusted and vacuumed and prepped for my contest entry photo session. Hopefully P is coming down so we can hang out next weekend...and also so he can help me put up a huge NYC print I got from Ikea. I fell in love with it because I can see my work building in the photo. Silly, I know. I want to take before pictures just in case the canvas doesn't work out.

Ikea's awesome Premiär Flatiron print,
soon to be living on my wall.

One thing I have noticed is that it's hard to keep things that have outlived their usefulness. For example, my old bedding set is now sitting in a couple of bags under my pub table. I'm not ready to part with it yet but I don't really have room to store it here. I suppose I could take it to Julio but even that seems wasteful. The set might end up getting donated. I also have a dog bed, most recently home to doggy visitor Mooshi but now propped up against the far side of my bed as well as two pathetically under-used laptop bags.

"I have clutter!" I moaned. "The ONE thing I've tried so desperately to avoid." T smirked and assured me I was fine. He'd seen way worse, including the way I used to live in Connecticut. I suppose it is true that the more space you have the easier it is to fill it up.

After my drama attack was over T and I shared faux romantic lunch. He excused himself ("don't wanna be in the way of your photography session") and I started snapping. It was very hard to get good angles because my apartment is long and sort of narrow. After about an hour I was pleased enough.

I think I take decent enough photos, but I want to know how the heck professional photographers get such soft lighting on their pictures. All the interior design books have an almost glowy quality to them. I feel like I should be more of a Photoshop photo filter expert than I am. Alas, even after fiddling with my exposure and white balance my pictures still retain the hardness of, well, a photo. Hopefully my photos will be softened a bit if they make up to the Apartment Therapy site.

Even so, contest or no contest, I've come quite a long way since I moved in. I'm quite proud -- I spent almost a month on my sofabed and I've gone through 3 TV stands but otherwise it's been good. It's not my first solo living space but it's probably the most adult one. Up until now my little railroad at 3 Cottage St in Norwalk was my favorite place but I think this place has replaced it as coolest pad.

I can only submit 5 photos for the contest but I made a slideshow of my favorite shots:


I need to take some additional kitchen photos and maybe a couple more bathroom shots but that more or less is the whole tour. It's not big, but it's modern and it's mine. Besides quiet neighbors, you can't really ask for much more.

The Accent Wall

The accent wall, pre-paint.

You can't say I'm anything if not determined. Stubborn, some would call it. As soon as non-Super gave me permission to paint, I hijacked my lunch break and headed down the Benjamin Moore store on Spring Street and picked up a sample of stem green.

After work I raced home and tried a sample spot. Though the green came out a little bit darker on my wall than in the chip sample, I still loved it. Stem green it is! With spring coming I need a little bit of the outdoors in. The next day I was back at the Benjamin Moore store for a gallon in semi-gloss. A gallon was way more than I thought I needed. Better to be safe than sorry.

Next, I called in a solid you owe me. P had painted several rooms in my Norwalk house and seemed to know what he was doing. Good enough for me! Plus I love hanging out with him. It's a true East Coast relationship -- we spend half the time loving and half the time arguing with each other.

I met P at Grand Central on Saturday and then we 6'ed it back up to my apartment. He had sent me prep instructions earlier in the week. I'd gotten a dropcloth and painting tape, along with 2-extending arm rollers. He came prepared as well. More tape, a special non-tip tray, and rags. After the obligatory teasing about the size of my apartment, we started taping. We agreed that he would do all the cutting (using a paintbrush on the edges of the wall) and I would do the rolling.

P tapes. It was tight quarters.

We had to do some furniture shifting. In a 300-sq. foot apartment there's not a lot room to maneuver but we managed to make enough space to paint. Getting the ladder in was another story.

My ceilings are probably about 12' high, so it wasn't like a stepladder would do. Luckily, my building super keeps a stepladder on my backyard. P got it in the door OK but then looked at the space between the wall and my bed and realized there was no way he could open the ladder up. Instead, he risked injury by leaning the ladder against the wall and carefully scaling it. Ever the doting assistant, I held up the paint tray so he wouldn't have to mess with his balance while cutting. Somehow, it worked.

We decided we didn't need to prime because the walls were painted eggshell right before I moved in. P worked on cutting around the radiator while I rolled. By the end of the first coat I had a nickname -- reckless roller. It may have been well deserved. Since I was just doing an accent wall I had to be careful near the other walls. I'd also picked the one wall with a window and the kitchen entry. A couple of times my roller may have accidentally gotten into the white trim. It got to be pretty funny. I'd say oops and P would look at me accusingly before grabbing the Windex and rag to clean up. He told me I was being rambunctious. I was just having fun.

All told, the taping and the first coat took about an hour. I was pleasantly surprised that the smell wasn't too bad. I guess I'm used to latex paint, which stinks to high heaven. We headed out to lunch despite the pouring rain. I'm sure we must have been quite the sight -- we'd attacked each other with brushes a few times.

We waited another hour before doing the second coat. The first coat had dried like the sample box -- a bit darker than the color chip. P told me not to worry and he was right. The second coat was much brighter. The paint coverage was excellent. Two coats was all we needed.

I headed back to Norwalk with P so the wall could dry in peace. When I returned on Sunday I was thrilled with the outcome.

The accent wall, post-paint.

The image in the Pottery Barn catalog made the color look lighter, but it's got a very pleasant tone to it. I keep my apartment lights slightly dimmed which makes the color look like fresh spring grass. But with direct light on it it takes on a much lighter look. It's multi-tonal.

I was excited that the color reflects
off my bathroom mirror.

My main concern was that painting one wall would make my apartment look smaller. I'm happy to say I really don't notice a difference. Also, the green makes me happy. I couldn't be more pleased with the end result.

The final result.

I've nicknamed this end of my apartment Pottery Barn corner. The art piece, my bedding and now the wall color are from there. It's a nice focal point when guests arrive and it makes me feel like an adult. It's another part of settling in.

The right to (furniture) assembly

What a weekend! I thought the Daytona 500 was going to be the main event but I was way off. On Saturday both my new dresser and my new TV came. It was like my birthday all over again.

After eyeing it for awhile, I had decided to invest in Crate & Barrel's Cole Six Drawer Dresser. I liked it because it has a nice mix of modern and traditional. From the website product photo I thought the dresser was black but upon looking at the room views I realized it was actually a dark brown. No matter...my Billy shelves from Ikea are black-brown...aka brown. The dresser is ready to assemble, which is another way of saying requires customer assembly. Despite my recent adventures in door hinges I was looking forward to putting it together.

My delivery time was between 7:30 AM and 10:45 AM. The delivery guys showed up around 8:30 with two hefty boxes. I signed for the boxes and jumped up and down for mini-joy. Hooray new furniture!

The boxes holding the dresser.

Note the big orange sticker on both boxes -- it says "Customer Assembly Required." Like by this point we wouldn't know! I opened the small box first. It contained the drawer fronts, the drawer backs and the drawer bottoms. The big box had everything else, including the instructions. I was quite impressed by the instructions. They had a manifest of each box and were very well written. It was quite easy to follow.

The first step required attaching the side and middle panels to the back (the sides were even helpfully labeled R and L). I was very happy that the drawer rollers were already attached to the panels. There were three same-size large panels in the big box and of course the back was on the bottom. Though the instructions recommended two-person assembly, I was on my own this weekend in part because I'm fighting a cold and don't want to get anyone sick.

About 30 minutes in, my phone rang. It was Crate & Barrel checking to see if my delivery went OK. I thought that was very nice of them. At that point I was ready to attach the top. The directions said "with another person helping lift the back and side panel assembly onto the top" to which I said 'I don't need no stinking second person!!" Somehow I was able to get the top into place without killing myself.

From there assembly was a piece of cake. Putting the drawers together required a bit of finesse but nothing I couldn't handle. It took about 2 1/2 hours altogether to assemble it. The drawers all slid into the dresser evenly (my main worry). The feet attach by three medium screws which is a bit weaker than I'd like but everything else was good quality.

The Cole dresser in the center
and the Billy shelves with the Nyckelby doors
on either side.

As I was hoping, the dresser looks great pulling double-duty as my TV stand. I'm kind of glad the Billy shelves didn't come in black now because the black-brown works well with the dresser. I still have work to do before this area of my apartment is done but we're getting there. My apartment is starting to feel like home.

Me vs. Ikea's Nickelbly doors

There are a couple of stores that I can't believe don't have locations in Manhattan proper. How is there no Target here? Ikea, where are you? Both have locations in Brooklyn (Ikea's is still under construction) but to get to either without a car is at least an hour trip. I can get to New Jersey faster than I can get to Brooklyn. Just sayin'.

So when it was time for an Ikea trip, I rented a Zipcar and was off to Paramus. This time I was looking for bookshelves - preferably something tall and thin to take advantage of my vertical lifestyle. Like Stew Leonard's, Ikea is set up not in aisles but in a maze pattern to encourage you to view everything (and to buy more). I don't mind though because their room setups always amaze me.

I made my way to the shelving area. I had come in expecting to buy the Besta shelving unit, but upon seeing it in person I didn't really like it. So instead I chose Billy shelves. One of the Billy displays had a Nickelby door on it, and I was immediately in love.

A little while later I was down in the self-serve furniture area getting my shelves and the doors. I loaded two shelves onto my pallet and headed over to the doors. They had two in stock, but one was broken. This meant another Ikea trip was in my very near future. The plastic protection was starting to peel off the other door but I took it anyway...and would come to regret that decision.

I got home and put the first shelf together -- pretty easy. I get a laugh out of Ikea's picture-only directions. Then I went to attach the door and realized it was missing hinges...groan.

A few days later I hit the Ikea in Elizabeth (where the staff is nicer but you get lost and maybe end up in Newark airport by accident on the way) and bought a second door, complete with hinges and instructions. I also went to customer service to get a set of hinges for my first door. They were nice enough to give me a set for free but when I got home I realized they weren't the right hinges. Ha!

Defeated, I finally called Ikea's customer service line where they opened a case for me and said they would try to get a set mailed to me. Awesome.

In the meantime, I could put one of the doors on. I followed the instructions -- attach the one hinge side to the door x 3. Check. Attach the other hinge side to the shelf x 3. Check. With the help of another adult, slide the door side into the shelf side until it clicks x 3. Friend S came over to help in exchange for some Haru's. He held the door while I tried to attach the hinge. No dice. The front slid in fine but the back part never clicked. I tried all 3 hinges but none went in. S asked to try so I held the door up while he gave it a go. Same problem. And I have to say, it really hurt my hands after a while.

We took a sushi break and upon return S wanted to try a new tactic. So we put the shelf on the ground and lined the door up on the floor. Finally, one of the hinges clicked. Eventually we got all three to click. But the high comedy was not over. We got the shelf into position and tried opening the door to make sure it worked. The door worked fine but every time we opened it the unit would start to tip forward! The door was proportionally heavier than the shelf (!!!) so opening it meant major tippage. Ikea provided a wall bridge for the top of the shelving but I plan to move these around so I didn't want to make tons of holes in the wall. Instead, my temporary solution is to have a block of wood under the radius of each door to keep it propped up. Snicker.

The end result.

Flash forward a couple of weeks -- I got a manilla padded envelope from Elizabeth, New Jersey the other day. Inside was my other set of hinges! I was pretty excited. I called friend S, who reluctantly agreed to come back and help me with the second door. Not wanting to spend hours with the hinges again, we tried our successful tactic - laying the shelf on its side with the door next to it. After an hour, our hands sore again, the damn things still hadn't clicked. We played around with the screw adjustments but it didn't work. It was incredibly annoying because we could see the catch slide into the proper position but every time we let go it would pop right back out. The instruction booklet makes it look so easy (one picture! slide and click!) but in real life clicking the hinges was harder than putting the shelf together.

Frustrated, I turned to the Internet. I went to the Ikea Fans forum and searched for helped. I found solace in the fact that other people were having the same issue but no one seemed to have a definitive answer. I tried searching for other types of door hinges on the forum and found an answer: use a damn hammer. I love it! Good old fashioned ingenuity. (Disclaimer: the forum actually said to use a mallet but I don't own one. And other respondents had used a hammer so I felt OK to try it. Obviously, hammers and glass don't mix very well so if you try this use caution.)

With the shelf and door still on the ground, we slid the first hinge into place. With S carefully pushing the button I tapped the hinge with a hammer a few times. S let go and we tested it -- finally the hinge had locked into place! After some finesse (more hammering) we got the other two to lock into place. The second unit shelving unit had the same tipping action as the first one, so another block of wood sits under the door's opening radius. I might have to perma-place these things.

Ikea adds storage in my kitchen

After about six months into living in the city I am finally starting to settle into my apartment. Aided by a nice bonus at work, I have started trading in my suburban (short and wide) furniture for city pieces (tall or deep).

My kitchen has been perplexing though. I have a good amount of cabinet space but it doesn't seem to be enough. One cabinet holds my pots and cooking stuff. The main cabinet over my sink holds my dishes and glasses, while the cleaning supplies and utensils live under my sink. My last cabinet holds my dry goods and my pans. I have almost no counter space, so my toaster and a paper towel holder are the only things around my sink.

It is a galley kitchen and everything is stacked on one side. So you'd think my free wall would be the perfect place to add more cabinets. Alas, the door way is not placed mid-galley, it is much closer to the right free wall. In fact, there's only 7" between the door and the wall. But lately I've really needed the additional storage. Inspired by Apartment Therapy's January Jumpstart Project, I decided to get off my arse and do something to fix my storage issues.

The "free wall." There is only 7 inches
of clearance from the wall to my door
to the backyard, or into the kitchen.

It was impossible to find cabinets that shallow, so my next option was shelves. I found 11" deep shelves but those stuck out into the entry and the doorway to my backyard. No good. I was starting to think I'd never find anything for the wall.

Ikea to the rescue! I have browsed through that catalog about a million times by now. Every time I discover something new. My initial thought was to get the Lack shelves. They were the right length but too deep, so they were out.

So I flipped to the kitchen section. Before I'd only looked through for cabinets but now I was looking for shelving solutions. Ikea did me one better. They make several styles of rails that you attach to the wall and hang accessories from. Initially I liked the Grundtal series because it's stainless steel like my appliances but when I got to the store I liked the Kroken series better. I bought two rails, plus two spice racks, one multi-purpose shelf, three pot holders and a bunch of hooks. All of that cost about $75.

Then I went to the office section and bought two white Järpen shelves. They make them in two depths - 11" and 7.5". Instead of the recommended wall supports I bought four Håll brackets because they matched the Kroken accessories. Also, the brackets can be installed to fit either the 11" deep shelves, or by flipping them the 7.5" deep shelves. Genius! Together, the shelves and the brackets were about $30.

At the risk of sounding dumb, I have no idea if New York City apartment building walls have studs or not. My guess was no because every construction site I've seen (and there are plenty) has a concrete or steel frame for each apartment. So the last part of my do-it-yourself prep was a trip to Home Depot. I grabbed a stud finder to find out the truth, a level, and both concrete wall screws and anchor screws so that no matter what my results I would be prepared.

Back on the UES, I used the stud finder and confirmed that my kitchen wall was concrete. After a couple of hours of work marking, measuring, leveling and installing, here was my end result:

The fruits of my labor.

I am so frickin' proud of myself! I called T and bragged to another friend over the weekend. The two shelves match the white wall. They hold my pans and some dry foods, freeing valuable cabinet space. The little counter space I have has been freed because the paper towel holder and my toaster live on the shelves as well. I even went to Container Store and splurged on some of those stackable kitchen jars.

On the far rail I have two hooks which hold my frying pans and two more hooks hold my pot holders and cooking gloves. There are also two empty planter pots that will soon hold spices. The near rail has my spice rack and the front shelf is temporarily holding extra spices and my Pam.

The best part? The depth of everything was no more than 7.5", so nothing encroaches into my doorways. I can still flow through the galley unimpeded. I ended up with some leftover products to return to Ikea, so in the end this project will have cost me about $100, including setup materials. I also have to paint the concrete screws black. But I'm pleased at how easy and cheap this project was and how wonderful the end result looks.

Is that you Santa? No, it's just my upstairs neighbor

Click clack, click clack. From above comes the sound of hooves, or in this case shoes and paws. The apartment above me that had been empty for a couple of months has been rented. Like my apartment, I believe the management company renovated it and put in hardwood floors. I think that they forgot the soundproof layer between the subfloor and the wood though because I can hear every little fucking noise coming from up there.

It's driving me nuts! Every time the dog comes back from a walk it runs around. 10 minutes of click click click making my eyes tic. Every time the desk chair is pulled back ...screeeeeeeeecccchhhh (I guess the tenant doesn't care about scratching those nice new floors). The best is when I get the combination of Santa Baby traipsing around upstairs and my next door neighbor screaming to her friends on the phone. A cacophonic chorus of unpleasantness. But the worst, THE WORST, is that my new neighbor likes to vacuum at 2 in the goddamn morning, every morning. What could she possibly be vacuuming?? I break the thing out maybe once a month for my rug. It could be worse I suppose. The sounds have been innocent so far.

Initially I thought I was nuts and making too big of a deal about it. It's not like I live in a monastery -- I can make noise at times too. I put on my MP3 player to sing, dance and jump around like a madwoman for pete's sake. But when two of my boys who are also Manhattannites came over and commented on how loud it was, I knew I had a legitimate complaint.

My boys had good suggestions - try talking to the neighbor and mentioning that the former tenants had rugs and it worked out well. Ask her if she's considered felt pads for her furniture. And politely mention that as a dog lover I respect a dog's need to chew a rawhide and fetch, but the constant clip clopping of paws and plopping of said rawhide proves quite annoying to your neighbor down below.

Coincidentally, I ran into my new neighbor at the building's entrance. And she is quite nice. I didn't realize it was her until the very end of our conversation so I was unable to mention the issue. It's not like I blame her personally -- she probably doesn't even know it's an issue. And my management company? They're less than sympathetic.

Designing conundrum

Man, it is hard making 250 sq. feet work. My captain's bed has worked out very well, but admittedly it's been the only stroke of (borrowed) genius I've had. I really want to take advantage of my high ceilings with some shelves. But you're supposed to screw those babies into studs, right? Do NYC apartments even have studs? I'm scared I'll buy the shelves, put them up and then watch as they come crashing down.

I don't really have any floor space left for furniture unless I get rid of my current pieces. I suppose that's an option, but not really one I want to explore too deeply. I like my furniture. I just want some pieces that are taller while I live in my current apartment. Work had stalled me from worrying about my lack of storage. But this week the Home issue of Time Out New York is out and of course I grabbed a copy. It contained a good amount of sound advice.

The designer suggestions for a small living space amused me though. Or maybe they bemused me? Sure, put up shelving in my alcove...what alcove? Use an iPod as your only piece of audio visual equipment? You have to be kidding. Float your furniture? Good luck maneuvering around it. I'm not sure these designers understood the concept of 'small' in New York City. The stackable chairs suggestion and double a desk as your dining room table were good thoughts.

As one of the Ikea converted, I'm currently in love with one of the workspaces they present in the catalog:

This whole area is 50 sq. feet.
Too bad that's still about 1/4 of my apartment's
total size.

Of particular interest is the Expedit bookcase on the left with the drawer and door inserts. Very cool! I like the black and white contrast, the height of the unit and...ohmigod, I completely sound like the yuppy The Narrator despises so. But I have to admit, for city living on a budget Ikea is very hard to beat.

That's not to say there are no other pieces that have caught my eye. I love this light from Design Within Reach (table lamp too) and it would make a great accent piece for behind or next to my TV unit. I'm also loving this lantern by notNeutral -- it would be perfect for my backyard. Furniture-wise, I think the Windham bookcases from Crate & Barrel are gorgeous (the desk isn't too bad either), and Pottery Barn's Graham Desk (a steal at only $1,000 plus delivery!) or Cynthia Wardrobe (cool mirror on the outside) or Chiffonier would look gorgeous.

Pier 1 was my main furniture shopping destination in Connecticut, but I have no idea what happened to their website. They went from having their full catalog online with an e-commerce component to some products online in a website that is so 1998. It went backwards in time from a pretty cool site to a pretty cheesy one. Their in-store selection has also changed for the worse, IMHO.

This weekend I'm planning to hit some of the thrift stores here on the UES. I've heard you can find some sweet pieces around here, and I don't doubt it.

Progress

It's been three weeks and I'm not fully unpacked yet. But I've made excellent progress.

move-in day (Aug. 18)

****

Around Sept. 1

****


Yesterday

****

Yes I have a bed! That I can sleep on! And a TV! With cable just installed! I also maybe have a mouse. Sigh...I'm going out drinking.

Out of gas

I'm so D-U-N done, as in I'm so done unpacking. Unfortunately, I'm only done unpacking in my head because in reality there are still boxes all over the place. And where there's not boxes there is clothing that I'm feeling too lazy to hang up. And where there's not clothing there are folded up boxes waiting to go into storage. And where there's not folded up boxes there is me, looking around hopelessly.

It's not that I have too much crap (or if I do I'm still in denial); it's that I have don't have furniture to put the crap on. And I may not be able to afford said furniture for awhile. For example, I sold my desk and office bookshelf from Connecticut because they were too big for my apartment. To replace them, I really want this awesome Incognito Compact Office from Crate & Barrel but I have to pay off my move first. I also really like the Balcony Wardrobe but I'd have to remove a piece of my current furniture to fit it in. Then there are the three additional Lack shelves I want from IKEA. This shit adds up.

Yesterday when I came home from work I wanted to escape it all - so I finally went outside and enjoyed my backyard for an hour or so. It was so nice to just sit outside, listen to the breeze and relax. I swear, the air is better back there from the tree aspiration. When I came in I felt refreshed enough to actually unpack some more crap. I can't wait to have the place finally set up.

The stars align

What a successful weekend! I got three major items on the to-do list accomplished.

On Friday I ran out to Bed Bath & Beyond (my unofficial second home these days) during lunch and bought a nice bamboo shade for my window. When I got home from work I decided to try installing it before leaving for Connecticut. The directions were vague at best - take out shade, install metal brackets, attach shade. Okay, super. Except I realized I needed my drill to install the brackets so it had to wait until I got back from Connecticut.

On Saturday I sold my SUV to a dealer. I'm only breaking even on the deal (they're paying off the rest of my loan) but I'm not complaining. I'll drop it off next weekend. On the way back to CT house (or weekend house as my NYC friends are calling it) I stopped at the IKEA in New Haven to buy two Lack shelves to put under my bed.

Backstory: since I knew I would be short on storage space at the apartment, my plan was to turn my bed into a captain's bed, which basically means putting drawers or shelves underneath. My original object of desire was Pottery Barn's Stratton bed with drawers until I came to my senses about the cost. Then a couple of months ago I was watching "Mission Organization" on HGTV and watched the designer put closet organizer shelves under a bed to make a de facto captain's bed. Brilliant. Except I wanted to use drawers so I could store clothes down there. I wanted to recreate that and found reasonably priced drawer units at Target. But the shipping was going to kill me. So I moved down to the city without the shelves. I saw very similar units at Bed Bath & Beyond but they were $130 each, more than double the Target shelves. I'd pretty much given up hope until I found this blog post. Amazing!

A coworker and I discussed the logistics at work - would I need to build the platform? Only if the Lack shelves wouldn't support the weight of my boxspring, mattress, me and occasional guest sleepers. IKEA is a store I try to avoid as a rule. Like Stew Leonard's the store is set up so you have to walk down every freakin aisle before you can check out. Sometimes I just want to get in, find out what bin the furniture is in, get it, and get out. Had I been smarter I just would have gone to the self-serve furniture area, done a search and been on my way.

As it was I hard such a hard time remembering Aisle 5, Bin 26 that by the time I made it to the warehouse I had to look it up anyway. Then I had to go get a palette cart. I made it through checkout and didn't even bother with the loading area. I pushed the cart out to my SUV, loaded the shelves up and headed home.

Back at weekend house, I was telling my roommate about how I really wanted furniture similar to what we had on our front porch for my NYC backyard. In a kind gesture he said I could just take the furniture. It belonged to a roommate who had long since moved out and our deck had plenty of extra stuff to move there. Score!

The party on Saturday night was great - lots of Beer Pong, asshole and drinking. Also, lots of people crashing at our house. With my mattress down in the city, I was forced to sleep on the extra boxspring I'd left behind. Uncomfortable at best.

Sunday was nuts - I loaded the porch furniture into my car, and drove down to my city apartment. I was lucky enough to find parking right on my street, not too far from my building. Then I unloaded the furniture, plus my shelves and some other stuff I'd left behind. Then I loaded some crap from my apartment into my SUV, drove back to Connecticut and then finally took the train back into the city.

I was exhausted and all I wanted was a night in my bed. But that meant setting up my bed, which meant setting up my shelves, which meant clearing a space for my bed, which meant finishing hanging my bamboo shade and moving a bunch of boxes. After 15 minutes of high comedy, I managed to hang my shade. It was heavy and I was afraid the brackets would get pulled right out of the wall at first. But everything held and the shade works great.

I moved the boxes to the other side of my living room and started assembling the shelves. The directions were amusing - no words, just pictures. I had both shelving units assembled in a jiffy. There was one screw missing (my bad luck with pre-fabbed furniture continues I guess) but it didn't affect the integrity of the unit. I sat on each to check and they most definitely held my weight. A friend and I set them up on the floor, dropped my boxspring and mattress down on top and - ta-da! - I had my bed back! I was incredibly excited. Plus, the shelves left plenty of room for storage. So while I couldn't store my clothes there without buying baskets, I could store all my books and anything else missing a home.

The shelves also came with brackets to wall-mount them, which gave me a great idea. I want to buy three more and make a full entertainment center. Two shelves on the side and one along the top. It will be awesome, and it will be a nice stopgap until I can afford something nicer. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Sunday night I slept in my bed. I can't tell you how great that was. Now if only I had more time to catch up on my sleep. Still no gas, still no trash key. I don't quite feel at home yet.