MelissaM's Profile

For those using baby wipes and other wipes to clean in their bathroom, note that wastewater authorities say to NOT flush those. Apparently, they can really screw up either your own plumbing or municipal systems. I received a list of such Do Nots from an SF Bay Area municipality recently. I don't have that list handy, but here's a list I found from Tacoma:

http://www.cityoftacoma.org/Page.aspx?hid=1471

"Avoid drain pain - don't flush these things

"Just because the package says "flushable" doesn't mean it's true. many items marketed as disposable and/or flushable do not degrade like toilet paper, and they wind up clogging pipes, tangling pumps and causing messy sewer backups into streets, businesses and homes.

"Our sewers are designed to dispose of very specific things. Using your toilet for disposal of many modern products will often result in blockages. The drains that connect your home to the main sewer are only big enough to carry water, toilet paper and human waste - often no wider than 4 inches.

"What not to flush:

Diapers (cloth, disposable, "flushable")
Facial tissues
Baby wipes, disinfectant wipes, moist wipes, etc.
Toilet bowl scrub pads
Swiffers
paper towels
Dental floss
Hair
Sanitary napkins, tampons, condoms, or any non-organic material
Vitamins, medicines or other pharmaceuticals
Wash cloths, towels, rags (any cloth item)
Clothing
Sheet plastic, or plastic of any kind

"So what CAN I do?

"Avoid purchasing "flushable" items. Clean with a sponge or a rag that you can reuse.

"What should be flushed? Just toilet paper and human waste."

Gasp! I love this idea!

I don't actually need it for my T-shirts, which I hang up (my uniform being a black T-shirt and whatever else), but for everythng else that I *do* indeed dig through (underwear, scarves, socks, etc.), this is a terrific idea.

Nice video. Good personality.

Now if I only had a cure for the set-in mystery stains on some of my T-shirts! One more "stain remover" failure, and I'll have to resort to turning them into rags or pillow stuffing.

I agree with the idea of pre-slicing fresh bread and putting the slices in the freezer. Works fine for me.

I need to get into making bread pudding! Every time I get down toward the end of a days-old loaf, I think about it... but haven't done it yet.

Over the winter holidays, I made turkey and sausage gumbo (recipe from Cooking Up a Storm, favorite recipes gathered up post-Katrina) and made a point of putting a drier bread slice or chunks in the bottom of the serving bowls, where they could soften up by soaking up some of the yummy gumbo. It added a nice additional layer of chewiness to the dish (especially if I didn't add more rice to the dish) and was a good way to use up the bread.

Love the choice of countertop and flooring and subway tile and the contrast between the darks and lights.

The only thing I don't like is the uneven heights of the cabinets, so I'm with the majority on that. I don't understand that at all and have never seen a kitchen with varying cabinet heights before, that I recall.

Either have them all going up to the ceiling (and I say this as someone who stands 5 feet tall, but I'm resigned to having stepladders in my life) OR have them all be lower, but all at the SAME height, and possibly put some baskets on top of them for storage, or maybe some pretty art pottery, ceramics, bowls, etc., something that looks like a cohesive collection and not clutter.

Looks wonderful, and I have geraniums! But rosewater, hmm, I'll have to check on where to get that

The After shot looks just plain nuts to me, especially since the shutters could be adjusted to let in light and give privacy -- so why get rid of them in favor of this look? I don't get it.

Wonderful combination of colors, patterns, interesting objects, etc.!

Stylish and playful both, and it sounds from the House Call info and Ruthie's comment, above, that they made some savvy choices about sales, gifts, discounts, etc, so they could acquire some of the big-ticket items that make such an impact, while still staying within a budget. Congrats on a job well done, and a lovely home ! :)

And ditto to others saying this: I'd love to see a full house tour down the road.

In his update/preface to this post, Maxwell writes: "...We don't want to turn people off, but we do want to stretch the boundaries of how we cover the life of our home."

Here's a thought: Instead of going so far afield with a "relationship" column (let alone one about porn), how about stretching the boundaries of AT's home coverage to include more about one's relationship with the neighborhood and community? For many of us, our home is our refuge and even our work of art (or we want it to be), which is why we love Apartment Therapy, for how it inspires us in that area -- but what about some therapy for the square feet that lie immediately outside our front door? -- for our neighbors and our relationships with them, our city streets, our suburbs, our condo complexes, our apartment buildings, etc.? - specifically, how to build and nurture relationships with them and how to build a sense of COMMUNITY in the real world, to increase everyone's sense of feeling truly at home in the world? I would love to see more on that, whether on AT or elsewhere, and I think it's more of a fit with the overall AT site and mission, at least as I originally understood them.

I like the arched doorways, the textiles and the cute little outdoor breakfast nook. Charming.

The bars on the windows don't bother me in this case, maybe because they seem partly decorative and the greenery softens their look. There are some barred windows in the world that scream "crime zone" or "prison look," but at the other end of the spectrum, I'm sporadically tempted to contract with someone to do some really pretty Moroccan-style or organic vine design metalwork that could go over 2 of my ground-floor windows, so I could let the cool air into my bedroom late at night without letting an intruder in or my 2 cats out. Then I remember my condo is severely underwater (financially speaking) and I drop that vision back down to the bottom of my condo wish list! ;)

I vote for 4 steps:

--Faux built-in around A/C unit for when it' s not being used, as others have suggested above.

--In front of 2nd window, put bookcase of same "height" and similar material (or finish color) as AC unit/built-in in front of the 2nd window.

--Buy the kind of roller fabric blinds that allow you to roll them up or down in a way that allows you to have various sections of the windows exposed (not just from the bottom of the shade down); I have to admit this suggestion would be more helpful if I could recall the manufacturer name! ;) ... If these are too pricey, get inexpensive one-direction stick-blinds from Cost Plus or similar place.

--For continuity, you could do the additional option that others have suggested of having one long curtain rod above both windows, either with some fun prints or some nice billowy sheer white curtains, which would typically be left open (since you'd have the blinds for privacy) but would frame the windows nicely and add some softness to balance out the hard edges of the A/C and the bookcase.