The Shelter Life

This chair looks gooooood!

2009-04-29T17:47:43-04:00

So, it's taken up most of my free time for the past week, but I finally finished reupholstering this chair for the Housing Works benefit next week (except for the back panel, which is awaiting delivery of some tack strips). Quite an improvement, don't you think? I wanted to keep the triple bump back cushion, but in reality it would have been easier to have started over again with a new profile -- maybe some buttons instead.

Still, my upholstering skills are sharpening.

Here's a reminder of what the chair looked like before. It's quite an interesting piece, and it's going to look great in our room.

We're still working on gathering some stuff, and I just found out yesterday that a chandelier we thought we would get is actually going to be donated after all. I can't wait to start putting it all together!

This weekend will be devoted to the next project. Here's a look at some of the materials -- what could we possibly be working on?

More to come!

Really? Now I'm a designer?

2009-04-28T12:34:24-04:00

The problem with being a girl who likes projects is that I take on too many projects. But my latest all-encompassing obsession at least has a good cause attached to it.

Because I did a small photo shoot for an soon to be released book about designing with thrift-store furniture, I was asked to participate in Housing Works's Design on a Dime benefit May 7 through 9. Housing Works is a non-profit group in New York that provides services for low-income and homeless people living with HIV and AIDS. They operate a chain of thrift stores to make the money, and anyone who lives in New York knows the shops are excellent place to score great furniture and designer clothes for cheap.

Anyway, Stan Williams, who wrote the book, asked me to create one of the designer vignettes - small rooms outfitted with donated furniture that then gets sold to benefit Housing Works.

I immediately asked my friend and colleague Amy Hughes to partner with me on this, as I'm pretty handy and somewhat creative, but not nearly as full of design ideas as she is.

We immediately knew that as the This Old House team, we'd need to have a vignette with a reuse, repurpose, recycle theme - salvaged items, recovered furniture, reimagined pieces. We're not getting a lot of big-name stores to give us furniture; we're creating our own stuff out of the pieces we've gotten from friends and family. But that does mean a lot of hands-on work from us all.

Above is a chair my friend Allison gave up. Good lines, but it needs new upholstery. This chair has occupied my life for the past week. Stay tuned to see how it's coming along - and what else we're building leading up to the big benefit on May 7th!

And if you want to read more about the event, follow the blog that DOD just launched. Should be interesting!

Where the cold winds blow

2009-02-05T16:58:22-05:00

I am sooooo over winter, I have to tell you. You may already have figured out that I'm really more of a sundress-wearing, hot-day-on-the-beach kind of girl. Which is why it makes it so difficult for me to enjoy my somewhat cozy apartment when the temperature drops send icy drafts through my big casement window.

Last week I got fed up and just started stuffing every breezy crevice with insulation. I don't really care that it looks so ghetto, it's definitely made a difference. And since I sit in front of this window to work, it had become imperative that I stop turning myself into a popsicle every night.

I put thin white air conditioner insulation (a few bucks at the hardware store) in the corners of the window glass where a previous tenant's caulking fix had actually made the glass stick out, in the places where the metal windows don't quite close tightly because they're bent after 70 years, even in the grille of the air conditioner. That in particular seemed to be a source of much of the cold air, because I can't take the unit out of the window; the sash itself has been cut away to make room for it. (A cover is another possibility, but I don't know if it would even work that well.)

There is one thing I like about winter, though. I think the snow is pretty, especially when it falls fast and thick and blankets everything in white. Here's a peek at one of the streets on my way home the other night―trees and stoops laden with snow, yellowy lanterns casting a warm glow. New York can be truly magical sometimes, can't it?

Plant markers are so much more reliable than my memory

2009-01-22T10:00:00-05:00

I don't know if you would call this a toleration that I've dealt with, but last week I finally put up these beautiful copper plant markers so I'd know what the heck was coming out of the ground come spring.

Every year, I start to see little growths popping up in my plant beds, but I can never remember if they're something I put there deliberately or if they're weeds I should dispense with immediately. These markers are meant to remind me of what's coming up, and what I need to do to encourage growth in the coming months. I've had them for almost two years now, but could never find a moment to just sit down and write them out.

You etch the words on the flat, soft copper with a pointy object, and it embosses your writing directly into the metal. I'm hoping that with weathering and patination, the writing will begin to emerge more clearly. But in any case, I think they're beautiful to look at, a great bit of shiny decoration in an otherwise dreary winter garden.

Chapter Two, in which I rip the plumbing gods a new drain

2009-01-21T13:14:30-05:00

My plumbing stars have not been aligned lately. Aside from the sink drain disaster I had to contend with over the weekend, I also had a toilet that kept running because the flap was getting stuck in the up position. (Not sure how to fix that; anyone have any ideas?) But worse was the bathroom sink that was completely clogged.

I knew the clog was in the wall, not in the trap. I had already taken off the trap and cleaned it, plus every time I ran the faucet I could hear the pipes filling up like a glass of water. Once it got to the point of filling the sink, it would take up to 10 minutes to drain again. This was a bad one.

Over the weekend I bit the bullet and invested in a drain auger, a fancy word for a pipe snake. Last night, in my zeal to conquer the curse of the plumbing gods, I opened up the drain where it goes into the wall and went at it.

It wasn't long before I hit the clog and started turning the handle on the auger. I pulled the snake back out and almost gagged at the disgustingness that was attached to the other end: A big clump of slimy gross hair and other random matter. (I think there was actually a piece of glass and a small cap to a makeup tube in there.)

Not to be fooled, I went back in for another round. This time, I hit paydirt. I pulled out one of the nastiest balls of slime I had ever encountered. But I took it like a trooper. My thinking is this: If you're going to have long hair, you'd better be prepared to deal with nauseating clumps of it every once in a while. Otherwise invest in a razor.

Please, click the above photo to enjoy a closer look at my still life of bathroom-drain-clog paraphernalia. You'll be happy to know the drain works beautifully now. Once again, I have fought the plumbing gods and emerged victorious!

Chapter One, in which I fight the angry plumbing gods

2009-01-21T12:23:48-05:00

This weekend I discovered my newest superpower: I can melt metal with my mere touch!

I discovered this wonderful talent on Sunday afternoon, as I was cooking for a dinner party. I reached under the sink, where I keep the plastic wrap, gently brushing the drain pipes as I did. Suddenly, a torrent of water started pouring out of the drain elbow. Wait, what is that? Is that a HUGE HOLE in the pipe? But I barely touched it!

Yes, I managed to provide the proverbial last straw: My gentle hand-graze collapsed what was likely a long-rusting portion of the drain. And of course it all happened when I had guests coming and the sink would be in constant use!

So I quickly taped up the pipe as best I could and the next day headed off to the hardware store.

Returning with my nice long brass waste elbow, I hooked it up, and noticed that it was an inch short. Lesson number one: Never guess at the hardware store. Sure, I had measured, but I should have taken the pipe off and brought it with me.

Then, in trying to make the new pipe work temporarily, I somehow managed to punch a hole in the next elbow, which, apparently, was rusted worse than the first. Seems I was just making my way down the line, creating plumbing disasters as I went. Of course, it was Monday evening―a holiday―after the hardware stores were closed. Which brings me to lesson number two: Never start a plumbing project (or an electrical one, for that matter) after the stores have closed.

Last night I picked up another pipe and set to work. Now I have a lovely new drain, and I even corrected the pitch of the pipes so they actually head downhill. But what a comedy of errors. I may have been cursed, but I emerged victorious!!

The completed DIY project that pleases me daily

2009-01-15T09:59:00-05:00

Many many months ago (okay, okay, it was almost a year ago), I lamented that I had so many projects and no time to do them. The biggest one was putting some salvaged shutters on my custom cabinets as bi-fold doors.

Well, I'm here to tell you that there's nothing more wonderful than the feeling that something left undone for too long is finally finished. I must confess, however, that I did not kick my own ass into action.

If it weren't for my colleague, Amy Hughes, and her need to come up with topics for her great Salvage Style column, I might never have gotten this done. But Amy came to me one day and said "How'd you like to finally put those doors on your cabinets?" Well, hell yeah, honey!!

Next thing I know, there's a photo shoot at my apartment, along with a video camera, and there I am in the magazine and on the website, getting my work done alongside Amy. It was so satisfying to set a deadline and be forced into doing this project that I think I might have to make fake deadlines for everything I want to do around the place.

I think my favorite part was when I showed Amy the simple brushed nickel pulls I'd found in my collection of cabinet hardware (yes, I have a collection of cabinet hardware, usually from the office giveaway table or girlfriends cleaning out their closets), and we both realized the plain hardware would never do. So I opened the box of pulls and found these rubbed bronze flowery thingys. They were the perfect accessory to break up the mass of white between the cabinets and the fireplace.

All I can say is, for everyone who so supportively commented on my last post about these doors: Do one project on your list, and you will smile every day at your accomplishment. I love my cabinets. I can't believe I waited two and a half years to finish them

Next up: the bookcases for the other side of the fireplace! Anyone want to force me into it?

Home repair tolerations, day 2: kitchen drawer

2009-01-14T10:00:00-05:00

I'm in a deal-with-it-now kind of mood. Don't know where this energy came from, except all I can say is two weeks surfing in Costa Rica does amazing things for your psyche! But I'm trying to handle tolerations as they come up―cross them off the list before they become roadblocks to progress in my life.

Last week I noticed my pots and pans in one particular cabinet had a lot of saw dust in them. Hmmm, I thought. Do I have little munchy insects eating my kitchen away? Oh dear, I don't want to know.

Then the other night I realized that there was an awful lot of room in the kitchen drawer. Upon investigation I discovered that the entire back of the drawer was swinging freely and the bottom was about to plummet onto my lovely set of Wilton cake baking pans.

This can no longer be ignored, I thought. Time for a fix!

Mine are cheezy pressboard cabinets from who knows when, but I didn't have the means for a whole replacement. So I pulled out the drawer, got out the finish nails and wood glue and set to work.

It was hard nailing the corners back together, because there had clearly been similar repairs before and the fragile pressboard was chipping away. But I got in some glue and tapped in a few nails, making sure not to glue the bottom into the groove so it had room to move. Fifteen minutes later, and the drawer lives to see another day.

What's next to be fixed in my place? I'm sure I'll find out soon enough―and so will you. In the meantime, what tolerations are you crossing off your list?

The littlest fixes bring the biggest satisfaction

2009-01-13T11:30:47-05:00

A friend of mine, who is a life coach, once explained to me about something she calls tolerations—those things in your world, little or big, that annoy you or get in your way, but you never do anything about them. The big ones are obvious, like the friend who keeps borrowing money and never paying you back, or the boss that always asks you to do something at the last minute. But the small ones can become almost invisible, little gnats buzzing around your face that you keep swatting away.

My apartment is filled with tolerations. I bet most homes are―the loose door handle, the squeaking floor board, the dripping faucet. I haven't done much major work on my place for quite a while―my day job has kept me quite busy. But that doesn't mean the things that need work don't still come up.

One of my longest standing tolerations is the bi-fold door on my front-hall coat closet.

From the day I moved into the apartment nearly four years ago, this damn door has never been in its track. The peg that's supposed to ride in the track is broken. It has a hinged side, but the leading side swings freely, which means it swings out to hit the light fixture, it swings into the closet too far, and no one can ever line it up to close it properly. I hate it.

Sunday I finally got fed up and went looking for the replacement hardware. Nat, my local hardware store owner and fellow blogger, pointed me straight to the giant wall of door hardware (I love the giant wall of door hardware) and I found just what I needed.

Cut to me trying to get the door down so I can put the pin in. It's a very big door made from two giant slabs of plywood. The pin is a rolling guide wheel on a spring, and while I can get it in the hole I can't pound it in all the way unless I take the door down. Getting at the bi-fold pivots is impossible with my chock-full closets, so I spend an hour trying to get the center hinges off (with 3 of 6 screws stripped). See, this is why I let the tolerations go for so long.

Finally: door off, tap the new pin in place, screw door back on and snap the pin into the track. And it works!! It was actually a really simple fix. One toleration down, dozens to go. I will keep you posted on my progress.

White walls: Get thee behind me Satan!

2008-05-20T17:27:05-04:00

A very good friend of mine moved into the apartment above mine a couple of weeks ago. More on that later, but in the meantime she's having fun decorating. Right now she has paint chips taped to her walls. I'm so jealous.

When I moved in three years ago, I painted the bedroom and bathroom, then eventually the kitchen. I've never painted the living room or the front hall, because I just didn't have the time or the money. Plus the landlord had left it freshly painted in Linen White.

I am so over it.

I've been really hemming and hawing over what direction to go with the living room. But in the meantime, I'm convinced I want to paint this front hallway in a deep rich color, like plum. That way, when you come out from the dark confines into the big, bright living room, it will feel open and inviting.

Plus the paint is peeling over the bathroom door on the left, and the walls are totally scuffed. So really. It's time.

Bathtub faucets: Not so complicated!

2008-03-05T16:55:12-05:00

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:

Get yourself a special plumbing tool called a deep socket (looks like a hexagonal tube with a little hole on either end), as well as various sized rubber washers, a brass valve seat, and finally a valve seat wrench. Maybe ask the hardware store clerk to show you all these things and be prepared to describe the type of faucet you have (old-fashioned cross handles, bulbous Delta faucet handles, etc).

Before you start, shove a rag in the tub drain so you don't lose anything. Then find out where the water turns off (it might not be in your apartment) and make sure it's totally off. If you had to get the super to do this, this would be a good time to invite him back to your apartment for a little plumbing lesson.

First you pop the "H" or "C" plastic cover off of the faucet. Then you unscrew the screw that's just inside there and pull off the whole faucet handle. (If it's all crusty, some vinegar will get rid of the minerals, or maybe a spritz with some WD-40 will loosen it up.)

Now you're looking at the bare end of the valve stem. You may need to take of a plate that's covering the hole in the wall, maybe held on with a tiny screw on the side. (That plate is called the escutcheon.)

Now slide that hexagonal tube deep socket over the stem (probably a little inside the wall), and use the stick that comes with it to turn it and unscrew the stem. When you get the stem off look at the other end. There's a washer there. It's probably all messed up―worse so from all that extra tightening you've been doing (not good). Take out the little screw that holds it on and replace the washer.

Also take a flashlight and check out the thing the stem goes into. It will look like this picture. If the brass thing inside looks all bent and crappy, use the seat wrench (a stick with a little square nub at the end) to unscrew that (like this next picture), and replace it with your new brass valve seat. Now put the whole thing back together the way you took it apart.

That should work for most New York apartment tubs. If worse comes to worse, take your parts back to the hardware store and they'll be able to give you a replacement.

And send the receipt to the super.

My eyes are bigger than my apartment

2008-02-23T08:01:58-05:00

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.

I have bolts of fabric meant to reupholster chairs. I have 10 pounds of pillow stuffing for all the throw pillows I will make. I have cans of paint for the chairs I will refinish, and then another five giant decks of paint strips sitting on my mantel waiting for me to pick a color for the living room. There are wood scraps, glass and sheet metal remnants, and one entirely new, never used router.

I have plans, intentions, hopes and dreams, and yet no time to execute them and no motivation to clear the calendar. I envy people who consistently work on their homes until they're done, and then sit back and enjoy them. I DON'T EVEN OWN THIS PLACE and I'm stessed about making it the way I want it!

Tell me I'm not the only one who goes through this angst every single weekend.

Lunar eclipse above a city garden

2008-02-21T00:08:12-05:00

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

2008-01-30T13:52:26-05:00

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.

Heading over to see my pals at the hardware store, I picked up some caulk and a Frost King window insulation kit. Basically this is just plastic sheeting and double-sided sticky tape. You tape the plastic over the windows, then run a blow dryer over it to shrink it taut.

I'd done this before when I lived in the backhouse, where none of the back rooms had heat. But it was a little more difficult covering a 5-by-10-foot area. I had to do it in two pieces. It looks a little funny over the air conditioner, but basically, as long as I keep the sheer curtains closed, you can't tell it's there. And it's definitely warmer now.

Next I'm going to do my office windows. It's freakin' cold in here!!

Rearrange my furniture, please

2007-11-29T08:00:00-05:00

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?