vernonlee's Profile

Second @crystalj that @talby should re-write this post. Another thing the author doesn't say: are these taken with a full-frame DSLR (eg Canon 5DMkII or Nikon D700) or crop factor (most everything else)? Related, are the lenses designed for full-frame cameras or crop-factor cameras?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_factor

This isn't some picky academic quibble. It's a very big factor in why there is as much or little slice of the world depicted in the photos above.

It's fine to do a short post that doesn't cover everything, but you have to let people know what you're leaving out! (Either tell people you'll be covering X in a future post, or provide links to others' material.) Otherwise, the entire thing is more misleading and confusing than helpful.

I've been thinking about just this issue lately!

I live in an older apartment with lots of charm, but every so often I notice when I walk through the door that it smells like a mouse died within the walls. It'll smell like this for a week or so, then drift away for many weeks, then return. I have no idea why I have sourced the smell to dead mouse: it's really just a made-up idea to explain the source.

At some point I'll stop in the doorway and just won't be able to take it. Then I'll go into a frenzy of laundering, vacuuming, dusting, using Trader Joe's household cleaner on everything, simmer aromatics in water on the stove: the works. Doesn't really work though!

I grew up eating lasagna made with cottage cheese mixed with a bit of parmesan, an egg, and dried parsley for the cheesy white layer. Not only does it cut down the richness, but it holds together better (hey, the egg) than ricotta, so the layers don't slide about. Everyone I've made it for has raved about it. Think it came from one of the 70s Better Homes & Gardens red-checker-tablecloths cookbooks.

These extreme couponers might want to adopt a "good enough" philosophy. Do something a bit more efficiently/save a bit of money, and move on.

@Chenell - exactly. People are making statements about values without acknowledging they are. So we small-space dwellers get "helpful" (read: passive-aggressive) suggestions and questions that are actually expressions of discomfort with our not aligning with suburban values.

I find it amusing to have these conversations, because so many of my choices go against the grain of suburban/strivers' expectations. No, instead of getting married, having kids, moving up the career ladder, driving a nice car, buying a nice suburban house -- I have a Vespa, write & paint instead of having a real job, and play folk music on my banjo. So having a small apartment fits whatever image of irritating urban hipster my cumulative lifestyle choices conjures up. Judge away! :)

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Paul, I think I love you.

Seconding @vicsiris: I recognized this style immediately from the last house tour.
@ebrown clearly remembers it as well.

While some of the basic elements are the same, it's very interesting that he can move (albeit to similar type of space - in the same building) and yet maintain the same overall look and feel.

That tells me he is in control of his choices: that the layouts, lighting, arrangement, and overall mood are so strikingly similar says he knows what his objective is and can re-create it at will.

I never thought of my space this way before: forget comparison from previous to current space. My apartment doesn't look like the same person decorated all the rooms! (When I did, all at the same time.) Ha!

So I salute Bryan's discipline of vision.

Some of these hosts' my-way-or-the-highway comments amaze me!

I don't eat meat. I would be red-faced with shame if I felt like my attitude as a guest in someone's home, or at a restaurant, was causing anyone any difficulty. I surely don't want to be a PITA guest at someone's home, and will go out of my way to minimize any attention to the choices I make at their buffet/dish passing, praise the food, and cheerfully join in in conversation (there's nothing more boring than talking about diet - let alone someone's idea of food politics!).

But! When I encounter the attitude of "well you just DECIDED you don't want to eat X so I can be cavalier about how you say you'd like to eat" I can't help but think:

I want to eat what I want to eat!

Not what *you* think I should eat.

I don't have an opinion of what you should be eating. Why do you have one about mine?

It doesn't matter the reason I have. So I choose not to lift meat up to my mouth, chew and swallow it. Simple!

But hey - you think my preferences as a guest shouldn't be indulged. Next thing people will want to decide whom they have sex with too! People are just too damn picky these days! Bad for the moral fiber of the nation! What about our precious bodily fluids!

I thought the least interesting part of each photo was the furniture. The styling - the French Gallimard book bindings that give a subtle Euro flair, decorative objects, and architecture of the room - suggest scenes out of Tender is the Night. But the furniture in any other space would look quite pedestrian. Which is fine! But the settings here sort of re-cast the overall image of the furniture.