shimelle's Profile

Gimlet, those are really lovely floors indeed! I like your list-writing counter and wished we had a little nook like that. :)

I'm in London and this is our second cure -- we made quite a bit of progress last spring and a year on we'd like to step things up a bit. :) We rent a three bedroom post-war flat which we love but it has its own challenges of course! I work in the art and craft industry from a home studio in what would otherwise be the third bedroom or a formal dining room, so no matter how much we would like to not have stuff...we have stuff.

We have some pictures online here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shimelle/sets/72157604120849032/
but I need to get adding some new ones to document this cure. :)

We had guests Sunday morning to watch the start of the London marathon, and the good news is that the place looked presentable, even if the guest room is currently stacked in cardboard. Alas, our local recycling bin is too small and we are having to take our time with that part of the unpacking!

We have a very silly bathroom set up (one room for the WC then second room right next to it for the sink, bath, shower and cupboards) so we went ahead and made a headstart with the WC so it would be presentable for Sunday morning. That and assorted other notes are here.

And: thank you for showing my picture and sorry to tease! Didn't mean it! :)

RichardinLA brings up a point I had wondered if it was just my neighbourhood or universal, so clearly it happens in more places than here. Half of our flat has original midcentury parquet that is still in good condition. The other half has dreadful mid80s carpeting that needs to go. We have steam cleaned it several times (to the point that we bought a steam cleaner rather than having to keep renting one!) and it is still full of allergens -- my other half took three weeks to stop sneezing if he was in one of the carpeted rooms, and it breaks my hands and feet out in a rash. We got a quote for installing new wood floors in place of the carpet and if we knew we would be here two more years, it would be worth it...but the trend in our neighbourhood is for landlords to agree to the tenant paying for the improvements only to magically decide not to renew the lease, then put it on the market for way more money as soon as our contract ends. And because we deal with a property agency rather than directly talking to the landlord, I'm sure they would encourage this as they get a percentage of the rent. The frustration!

The carpet has one edge loose in the master bedroom and I was tempted to just roll it up, put down a different floor then put the carpet back when we left...but in twelve years of renting, this is the first place that has taken up the fine print of the contract with 'visiting the property to ensure proper care'. They come quarterly without fail. Shame, since it is a nice flat that could be a fabulous flat if it didn't make half our guests sneeze!

This was our big project of the week. I have until the end of the week to finish that room as it's being photographed. All the big stuff is done now, just have to get it all organised.

We also had a great week for purging stuff. We moved in here with three big bookshelves from Ikea as our last place had no storage built in. Our new flat has a few different built in bookshelves plus big hall closets, so we've been working our way out of the house of Ikea (we can't help it -- our last place was literally across the street from Ikea. Our flat and every other flat in our building resembled a hack job of their catalogue). Anyway, we listed one of the three shelves on Freecycle and found a new home for that as well as a stack of magazines as tall as me. The second bookshelf is to the half-empty stage, so now I'm looking for a sideboard that would offer enough space to hold a few things on there that are definitely not going near the outbox but don't need an entire wall shelf.

The other big decision for this week is a result of my landing strip accident. (I messed up a perfectly acceptable landing strip by hanging a picture in a piece of dry plaster...after the picture was up for a few minutes it cracked and marked the wall, quel saga.) So right now it is primed and we could a) repaint it the same colour as all the other walls b) repaint it a different colour or c) cover it in something likethis. It's only a small wall, I might be persuaded for paper. Still thinking. :)

We accomplished a lot today, so it seemed a good time to update here. This week we cleaned and (we never buy food and it leads to terrible habits, even though we both love to cook), freed up some extra kitchen counter space by evaluating how much we were actually using everything that was there and planned our meals for the week, including some old favourites and some new things too for a good mix.
We were pretty up to date with repairs (we have a great super) so we made a point of finishing one unfinished project (instead of fixing something broken). Two months ago I started stripping and repainting our dining table and chairs, but didn't finish. Today I sanded and primed the table so we can finish that job tomorrow...and take a picture!
And after a pre-cure prune of my work supplies, I decided to opt away from the huge drafting table I have had for years to an adapted kitchen island that will make my workspace take up less real estate in the room while offering way more storage and a worktop that is easier to clean. I brought home all the pieces tonight and we have a four day weekend to put it together. And sheesh! After I read all that, now I'm suddenly exhausted. :) Think I'll go browse the Flickr pool for a bit of relaxation. ;-)

it's been very rainy and grey here all week -- great for staying indoors and working on this but not good for taking photos of the process. we are really using the cure as a final step in our move-in process, so we posted before pictures of our empty place when we moved in. we feel like we've made a lot of progress in some spots and none in others, but are aiming to even that out before the end of the eight weeks. we made a little check list for each week of the cure and did fine for week one but then made a mess of some of our tidying when we found out someone was coming to photograph my workroom in a couple weeks...so that room has now been overhauled and excess furniture has come for a visit in the hallway. Hoping to solve that problem this weekend!