Mike Doyle's Profile

Boy, has this very subject been prominent for me and my boyfriend, lately. The culprits: my boyfriend's roommate and the roommate's boyfriend. Me, my BF, and his roommate are all late 30s to 40 in age. But my boyfriend's roommate's boyfriend (are you following this?)--or should I say boytoy--is in his early 20s and still lives at home.

Men reading this have no idea where this is heading, but I bet a lot of women--and especially moms out there--are clueing in...

The boytoy has never lived on his own and is still expecting mommy to clean up after him. So when he sleeps over at the apartment my boyfriend and his roommate share, he, er, is not exactly judicious about his aim. Or embarassed about leaving various marks/drips/hairs (yuck!) all over the toilet seat and, not unfrequently, bathroom floor.

The worst part is my boyfriend and I are the only ones who clean the toilet. The roommate and the boytoy couldn't care less. Kids, when you find yourself having to clean the toilet every weekend after your boyfriend's roommate's boyfriend just so you can sit down, you know there's a problem.

The only moral I can foresee is someday the two of them will live on their own. And I hope any guests that arrive in their humble abode bring their own disposable travel toilets with.

Where's Sherlock? Good question. Do Chicagoans get the reference? I'm originally from back east, and Sherlock was a squirrel character on a live-action east-coast kids show called The Magic Garden in the 1970s http://www.caroleandpaula.com/themagicgarden.html .

Hippie chicks Carol and Paula would sing songs, tell jokes, and hang out with hand puppets. It seems to have only been a New York City local show (channel 11, as I recall). Three words, even back then: huge cult following.

I think the Urban Outfitters Charlie Brown Christmas Tree that Trumystique linked to is a lot hotter (and sanely priced) than that bottle-brush bore.

I think the best small spaces are the ones that are like chameleons: living rooms by day; and bedrooms by night.

I would lose both the loveseat and the bed and get a high-end futon. Futons aren't all the unfinished soft-pine frames and paper-thin mattresses you find at Ikea. For the cost of a modest couch (I did it for about $700), you can find a groovy, stylish, hard-wood frame, a top-of-the-line mattress, and a modern futon cover.

Do that and, presto!, you have a hip living room with a grown-up piece of furniture as the centerpiece when you need a living room, and a very comfy bed at night when the world is safely tucked away outside your door.

A square or collapsible dining table would also probably fit your small space a bit better better. And if there's any way on earth you can get the fridge out of the living area (even if it means getting a smaller fridge for the kitchen), I'd do that, too.

I dont know how big that closet is, either. But I'd bet if you installed a closet organizing system in there, you could lose that large, space-eating dresser, too.

I love the small desk, it's big enough to use and small enough to fit. But in a world of laptops, do you really need that big, chunky computer tower hogging up space on the floor? Trade up to a mobile computer and a wireless network, and feel how much bigger your space feels--especially when you can take your laptop into the kitchen to follow a recipe you've saved on there, or into bed to watch a DVD.

Most of all, your ceilings are wondrously high (they sure beat my 8-foot 1-inch ceilings!) Three words: shelving, shelving, shelving. Concrete walls just mean you need a percussion drill (just like in my apartment--although those 3M adhesive hooks work miracles!), and the lead paint means nothing as long as you don't eat it. You aren't talking about asbestos. These aren't roadblocks fastening hardware to your walls (and I'm sure you can find someone on craigslist to help you out if you don't have the tools).