580sqftofbliss's Profile

@pz

I've often noticed in pictures of the homes of really artistic and creative people--writers, painters, musicians, whatever, they generally have lots and lots of books.

Yes, because these books are working items in their homes. You'll find lawyers, too, tend to have a lot of that printed mess.

However, if you or I have gone a different path with our life, every book/textbook we spent too much of our fall semester budget on, every series we "collected" in high school, every popular science book we enjoyed because it made us feel smart (8 years ago) and every penny-dreadful fat summer trade paperback that we got because we liked the same author's one good book (little did we know it was the influence of an unnamed editor), every well-meaning Christmas gift that references our ethnic group, religion, or favorite passion (golf books, collections of Irish/Jewish humor, Harry Potter knitting/recipe books) does not, in fact, have a function in our homes. They take up space that could be better used for other things.

I have friends who buy and display DVDs of every movie they ever kind of enjoyed. Do they watch these acrylic trophies? Let the accumulated dust on the spines be the judge of that.

If you reread a book so often you end up having to replace it every 7 years (or less), then, yeah, that is definitely a functional part of your home and I would never challenge that. My wife has most of the Agatha Christie mysteries and rereads them frequently. We just replaced about 30% of the titles because these books had been loved to death. Last year, I got rid of most of my Star Trek paperbacks. Hadn't been cracked in YEARS.

Another example--I have kept some of my foreign language reference books. Many of them have info you would be hard-pressed to find online (while navigating special character sets). My beloved Collins PONS German-English dictionary from college? Sold. LeoDict does the job better and faster without taking up space in my house. I loved that dictionary, but it wasn't being used and was gathering sneeze-inducing dust. I also ditched my well-worn Japanese-English dictionary (which had been 'loved to death') because WWWJDict is actually superior. Although I had often pulled that tattered volume just for convenience, I had to admit that the online reference had many more and more accurate entries. The days of needing loads of printed-paper references are passing away.

Cavemen ancestors? Really?

Maybe this is an attempt to be cutesy, but I am really getting sick of pseudo-evo-psych just-so stories in the self-help world. Pro-tip: human evolution did not stop at some arbitrary point in time. It is ongoing. Google "adult lactose tolerance worldwide distribution" for some interesting charts.

Truly fabulous. Thank you.

Great aesthetic. Love it.

What a truly amazing house tour! The well-proportioned and well-thought-out interiors reflect the owner's lifestyles and personalities (rather than a design catalog, which occurs too frequently on AT). The his/her bathrooms were a cool touch. I can only imagine how those cats use the hallway ledge. If I had a quibble it was that some rooms are lacking adequate light. (Maxwell warns about this in the Apartment Therapy book... and truly, it is so easy to end up with that problem.) Sadly, some of the back rooms have little in the way of windows which, combined with dark walls, give the impression of a finished basement. Perhaps a splurge on proper windows is in their future?

Love love love this house.

I'm clicking through, but only DESPITE those too-fussy 45-degree perched pillows. (They are cute pillows, btw.) The wooden bath looks intriguing.

I love the boldness of reshaping the room with wall and curtain colors. I think the nautical theme is appropriate for a beach house. Love the neutral furniture too. It is low on light but I truly hate that lamp shade to the right... always hated those big tippy dust catching 60's lampshades. Something modern (even exposed, frosted bulbs) imo would have worked better.

Win!

Dutch ovens are awesome, but don't use scouring powder on them and ruin the coating because you'll be sorry.

Mason jars are a hipster fad = flavor of the month. 'Nuff said.

Ha ha, just noticed that "we" assert that Ball jars "don't often break". Hahahahaha.

And btw, why are you buying shitty tools at Home Depot? Surely you can "curate" some "made in USA" (those Usonians sure are handy) $2000 multi-purpose "bolt fastener" perfect for assembling your latest IKEA hacks. (It's not declasse if it's a hack.)

Seriously, though, get a solid Phillips head. I would not trust my walls or furniture (or fingers) to a crappy Home Depot "all in one" set. Ugh.

From the era when the "jet set"'s lodgings were truly fabulous. The rich are richer now, but they have less taste.

The FL Wright influence is on display here as well. WTH happened, America? The fauxtalian interiors of the Great Housing Bubble make me want to shoot myself.