c in westchester's Profile

I was going to say the same thing - I love Mass MoCa. Very interesting exhibits, especially in the enormous room.

I have the Lenox from Room and Board and I absolutely love it - nicely tailored but also quite comfy. They don't have the fabric available that was standard when I bought it, which is too bad.

I don't know if I could even buy a sofa that I hadn't sat on first - I must be super picky... I went to R&B two times - the first round to sit on every single sofa in the store, the second round to select one from the four or five top contenders. I think I remember trying out the westwood (although it was over a year ago) and didn't like it because it was too firm and I found the high sides a bit constricting. But it is a beautiful looking sofa.

If you look at the website you'll see that most of the chairs have much higher weight ratings (400 - 800lbs) and the toilet goes up to 1200lbs. So yes, this site is dealing with people who are seriously obese.

Simply buying 'sturdy furniture' isn't an option - most furniture is not made to handle someone who weighs more than 300 lbs. I developed a bariatric surgery program for my former hospital, and believe me, you don't just buy regular furniture and hope that it holds.

I spent 7 weeks in Rome last winter (lucky me, an uncle based in Rome who needed a cat sitter over the holidays!). He had a washer, no dryer, so all laundry was dried on a rack in the back balcony. I love the smell of laundry off the line...

There are companies in NYC that will pick up, service and store your AC for the winter (and reinstall in the summer). I can't remember what the cost was, but most of the AC repair places do that. Definitely worth it when living in a 250sft 5th floor walk up...

I was just going to post overstock.com as well. I bought an absolutely stunning wool rug from them - free delivery, it was a great bargain. (and arrived within two to three days of me ordering it)

The challenge with overstock is figuring out the exact colors - so you need to read reviews and sometimes take a tiny bit of a flyer. But I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

Maybe it's just me, but I think the bottom picture looks like someone from the horror movie "Saw" is about to appear... I'm all for beautiful texture, but that scene just screams CREEPY to me!

You know, I agree with medenver. Germs are really ok unless you are immune-compromised. In fact, it's better for people with normal immune systems if you get regular exposure to household germs. I don't scour, never use anti-microbial anything, wash my clothes in cold water, and I'm a generally healthy person. I haven't come down with any major digestive disorder as a result of not bleaching my vegetables or chicken before cooking... The odd cold I do get can usually be traced back to my five-year old nephew... (now kids - they are the cesspool of disease!)

And as for public toilets of any kind - just wash your hands with soap and turn off the faucet with a towel.

I used fabric shower curtains from Bed Bath and Beyond in both rooms of my last two apartments. They were really colorful and reversible, which was kind of cool when the sun struck them the right way - you could see both patterns in the light. It was a great way to add color to a rented apartment with white white walls...

And in one of my previous studios, I used a see-through plastic textured blue shower curtain to create a sense of separation between the kitchen area and the rest of the apartment. The kitchen was in the back, with no windows, so I opted for see through to keep it light. I attached a curtain rod to the ceiling and hung it behind my small couch.

I'm surprised that they sold this to a hospital - the laptop looks so precarious on the shelf, like it's aching to be knocked off - especially by some cranky sick kid. Plus there's no place to lock the computer down (equipment has a habit of walking away in hospitals).

That said, it certainly fits in in an institutional way...