bhanson1299's Profile

Also, for Empire, I think I spent every afternoon there after School when I was in High School, sigh, it was a little more coffee-ey then and less restaurant-ey, and of course you could smoke inside. I was just thinking about 4 days ago about those awful little cookies they give you with coffee, which I think might actually be made of playdoh, and how no matter how many times you bite one and regret it you will still taste it again tomorrow, because it's there, so it's inevitable.

Any time I go back, my first stop is Rajin Cajun. I'm sorry there isn't a picture of the big crawfish out front, because that is a certain Texas aesthetic which screams Bayou City to me, and always makes me nostalgic. http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/assets_c/2010/02/happy%20hour%20scene%20feb%205-thumb-400x300.jpg

Hmmmm... French Press coffee. It's fine once in a while, but lacking a paper filter actually allows more volatile compounds into your coffee that would have otherwise been filtered out. Some people don't have to worry at all while they are young, but if you are male, drink several cups of coffee a day, or have a familial or personal history of hypercholesterolemia you probably want to go get yourself something filtered. The single cup (I've always thought of them as camping coffee makers) drip cone thing is perfect.

Whee!! Rogers Park!! What a great neighborhood for vintage buildings and reasonable shopping and the best diversity in Chicago. I was hoping to glimpse out of your window to see if I recognized your street.

My favorite is the boy in blue in your window. May I ask who did that?

This was fun, I read everything, and I think that the key is that there is a difference between design for designs sake and home decorating. It's like the difference between runway fashion and what's in my closet. Runway fashion and interior design can easily over do a theme, and quickly- but that doesn't mean that a chevron rug doesn't still tie the room together in Boise, Idaho for Jane Smith even if it's not fresh. If you were a decorator your goal might be 'edgy' or 'innovation' but for my home I just want comfortable, personal, enjoyable, livable, and well organized. I can appreciate design for an art which is always changing much like fashion, but even though I see the value of Lady Gaga wearing a virtual churrascario of meat as a form of art which is innovative I have yet to go get a Costco membership and plug in a fridge in my closet. I will stick to my bermudas even if you could have bought them at the Gap 7 years ago, and I will happily display my ikat chair for the next 5+ years.

Pet peeves are certainly personal as well. I HATE it when people bite their forks, it makes my skin crawl, but I don't chide people for it and I don't snub my nose at my friends who do it. It's more a feeling of "how do you not notice that you are doing that, and if you are aware how have you not stopped by now!"

That all said, I can only really think of one thing that I have seen in design that i do not understand why people even started- it's the upholstery or draperies which have hand written script on them. Just nonsense words, often not in english, written all over something. I guess that people like it in some decor, but really it does nothing for me. Ivy and words on the wall and picture rails are really unappealing to me as well, but that's why they aren't in my house.

@aname Ha! apparently!

@borealis what is the lonely pear print?

I have a blue/grey velvet sofa and a white cat. It's not all that bad really. I can send pictures if you want proof.

I like what you did with the fridge in the closet space there.

I ran into these narrow fridges randomly at two different asian markets. In the Chicago area I know I have seen them at the Korean market Joong Boo and the Japanese market Mitsuwa (Skokie?), which leads me to believe it's a thing at asian markets. I think the ones I saw were LG, but I wasn't really paying too much attention to the brand or price.

My bathroom had the same, I replaced them with tin ceiling tiles from American Tin Ceiling http://www.americantinceilings.com/ They ranged from affordable and plain to fancy schmancy and pricey. The shipping was pretty slow, but installation was simple-- just some tin snips and thick gloves and a ladder. I forgot to request the drop ceiling clips that hold them down, so maybe I will eventually have those sent out, but even with out them there are very few places that pop up. The one annoyance is that the tiles I picked were 'stainless steel' finish, and the rustoleum paint I picked up to paint the grid with is not quite the same color. They do have some spray paints that match some of the colors, it would have been nice if they had one that went with the one I chose.

I would say the over all effect is nice, I hate drop ceilings, and love tin ceilings-- the added bonus is that the reflection adds volume to the room. I have had them up now for about 6 months and they haven't rusted.

What are you using for light on your counter?
Someone gave me one of these a while ago, and its in the box because I don't have enough light inside to grow herbs.

I dated someone who had years of trouble with the same issue. The situation culminated in an actual fight and at least one of the parties being arrested. It's unfortunate that it came to this, but if your home is uncomfortable it really affects your over all quality of life in my opinion.

Following the altercation we found the following two products and installed them.

http://www.soundprooffoam.com/quiet-barrier.html
http://www.quietrock.com/quietrock-drywall/quietrock-525.html

I think to some extent they were redundant, but the idea was that we might as well go for overkill while everything was ripped out anyway.

The process went like this- we pulled out the drywall in the ceiling, this was easy but messy of course. I think anyone with even no DIY experience could easily handle this, just be careful with your crown molding and electrical fixtures. Then it turns out there was absolutely no insulation between the floors, so we added some R-21, or whatever that stuff is called that rolls out between the rafters. Again that was easy peasy. Next we unrolled the quiet barrier and stapled it to the rafters, actually adding two layers. Finally we replaced the sheet rock with the quiet rock, this is not the easiest job so we hired someone to do it, and it only took about a day including the taping.

The result is decent. It's not silence, but its not a bowling alley anymore, and the sound of the squeaky floor boards and voices is completely gone. The sounds that still come through are pretty faint, all in all it's livable.

I am currently living in a condo that I bought last April, and the unit above me has been vacant since. Occasionally the owner does come in and move things, or walk around, and I can see that I will likely have a similar problem when someone does move back into that unit. I would do the same job in this unit that we did in the other for the noise reduction obviously, but also for the insulation, to get rid of the popcorn ceiling, to move some of the light fixtures, and also because I am eyeballing the ceiling cassette mini-split air conditioner made by LG!

Lastly, the best thing about this project is that I really only need to do it in my bedroom and possibly my living room (sorry house guests) and I don't need to do them at the same time, so its really not a huge undertaking. I would say if nothing else, give it a shot in one room if your mother owns her unit, if you don't like the results then you can consider packing up and you won't have spent too terribly much time or money.