giftable's Profile

My husband and I ordered a bookshelf last year from a store in Brooklyn (we were Midtown Manhattan at the time). They gave us an 8 hour delivery window, so he took the day to work at home. I believe the window was 9-5, and they came around 11pm. With a floor model bookshelf! When we refused to sign for it, there was nobody to call because the store was closed. The next day, the store manager promised to send a new one out, so M spent another 8 hour day at home-- and nobody ever came. On the third day we tried to call for a refund (this is when we learned never to pay in advance for anything large, ever) and the store manager stopped answering his phone. A week later, we just ended up disputing the charge with our credit card company. Probably one of the biggest wastes of time we've ever experienced.

As others have said, pretty much any bread recipe can be made without machinery of any kind. My favorite is this crusty french boule recipe (http://vanillaandlace.blogspot.com/2010/03/chewy-crusty-french-boule.html)... scroll to the bottom (before the comments) for the hand-kneading instructions. Yum!

Love that lamp in #6! I am a huge fan of Emily. Hopefully her show will get posted online so us non-TV-owners can watch too...

grace638- the bathroom is Benjamin Moore Calypso Blue... it was featured recently in Lonny Mag.

hope this helps!

I will absolutely be hoarding. I can't stand CFLs for all the reasons already listed and there is no way I'm switching. CFL lighting gives me a migraine which I only discovered after a bulb burned out in my kitchen and I discovered it was a CFL. I replaced it with an incandescent and poof-- no more headaches.

This phase-out is completely ridiculous and the only upside is that they've given us enough time to buy out a lifetimes supply ahead of time.

I've lived in an apartment in NYC with exposed brick for two years now and have never seen a centipede, spider, or other creepy crawly creature. We do have mice and roaches, but that has more to do with the NYC part than the brick part.

When we moved in, the brick was crumbly and ugly (we exposed it ourselves-- it had been covered up for 50+ years!), so we stained some mortar red to plug up the bigger holes, and then urethaned over the whole thing to keep them from crumbling. They're pretty, shiny, and I'm going to be really sad to lose them when we move into our new place in a few months! :(

Currently, my husband and I live (alone) in 450 sqft. It feels too small, but we've been living here functionally for 2 years. I just wish I had some amenities that we can't fit (normal sized dishwasher/stove/oven, laundry machine, space for a desk or a dining table)

We have lived in studios as small as 200 sqft, and were relatively comfortable-- but had very little personal stuff (it was a furnished sublet).

We also lived in a 2BR apt as large as 1200 or so sqft and it was way too big. Half the time I didn't even know where he was. We ended up with a lot of unused rooms and eventually moved into a 500 sqft 1.5br in a better location.

The size of an average American house is obviously obscene. When out of towners see our apartment, they can't believe we live here-- but when New Yorkers see it, they compliment the brick walls and are amazed we actually have a bedroom separate from the living room. Just depends on your culture, I guess...

Haven't had a landline since I moved out of my parents' house 5 years ago. I was happy we had one during 9/11 and the NY blackout (only phones that were hardwired to the wall worked, of course). But it's really not worth the money to my husband and I. Every once in awhile someone wants our landline # (or wants to fax us something-- even more outdated!) but overall I wouldn't even consider getting a landline. Then again, we don't have cable TV either.

i love cutting purple potatoes with a mandoline and making homemade terra blues chips (just bake in the oven with salt, paprika, oregano, and some olive oil). or sometimes i'll cut them into matchsticks and make baked french fries instead (very small fries of course).

I think I've lived in all these apartments (15 in 5 years-- from New Orleans to Toronto and everywhere in between), and now my list of "deal breakers" makes it nearly impossible to move:

1. Must have dishwasher and access to some type of laundry (current apt doesn't have this, ugh!)

2. Parquet floors or carpet when not brand new (a few times we've gotten lucky and had spiffy new carpet, otherwise it's icky)

3. Kitchen must be separate, but not confined by 4 walls that make it feel like a jail cell. If I'm cooking dinner, I want to be able to communicate with whoever else is home

4. Must be within walking distance (I'm a good walker, so let's say 1 mile) of groceries, public transit, convenience store, coffee shop, restaurants, etc. The thought of living in a place where I have to get in a car just to get a newspaper or some milk is horrifically depressing to me.

5. Depending on location, must have proper heat/cooling device. Our current apt has no AC, and even though the windows technically open and we could have one, the exhaust from the major street below fills our apartment with smog and makes both of us sick

6. If multiple floors, must have a bathroom on each floor.

7. NO BATHFITTERS. I know this is a weird one, but I have been in so many apartments where the bathtub was just so gross, the landlord slapped up a piece of plastic and caulked it in place. This will ALWAYS result in crazy mold problems and is so unbelievably disgusting. Not to mention it looks awful.

8. NO NEW BUILDS. There are too many faceless, bland, boring places with no personality and crappy finishes and workmanship. Given the choice between an old house with no insulation and a new build townhouse, I'll pick the old one any day. This is kind of what keeps us in our current apartment, even with no washing machine or AC, the building is over 100 years old and having that character trumps everything else. Every time we have someone over that lives in a McMansion or new apartment building, they admire our marble stairs and exposed brick. In the end, I think it makes all the deal-breakers worth it!