vbp's Profile

The first apartment I owned had a great location, tremendous views, lots of space, and a tub and toilet open to the master bedroom. It was on the market for over two years -- and I was able to buy it for a song -- because of this fact. The first thing I did was put that wall back up!

Usona Home sells them. In fact, at least recently in the Philadelphia store, they had a floor model on sale in their window. Hope that helps.

Here is a link. http://www.usonahome.com/

A shout out to Tel Aviv -- one of my favorite cities in the world! Love the cool floors.

A movie with Neil Patrick Harris has been filming on my street in Philadelphia for the past week. Everyone from the crew has been fairly quiet and respectful -- and pretty cool about letting little kids take a look at the equipment. I can imagine it would be a hassle if one were looking for parking since their trucks are taking up about 4 blocks of prime street parking, but thats fortunately not a problem for us.

A couple of years ago, several outside shots from the movie In Her Shoes was filmed where we used to live, and that was vastly more disruptive.

My child is a toddler and while he is never alone in a communal space (for safety as well as respect reasons), he does make noise. That is the part nature of being a child. I think the key is for the parent is to a least try to be respectful of all reasonable requests -- and for the non-parent to try to understand that kids are not little adults. When we lived in an apartment, we tried to minimize the time our son spent playing in the halls to the point that most neighbors asked to see more of him. But a complaint that an infant is crying late at night? Believe me, I am trying my best to get him to stop and I don't appreciate the note about it.

Now that we live in a townhouse, although still in a city, there is more private space to run and play without disturbing others. If anything, our neighbors' teenager is the noisy one (although I won't let my husband complain). The one issue we had was with the neighbor who lives next to a communal gate. Apparently, he thought we take too long coming in and out of the gate because we have more stuff (stroller etc.). I told him we would try to speed up, but honestly, if you don't like the noise of being next to a communal gate, then you should not have picked the house next door to it.

As to the person with the neighbor who puts the play house in a common area, if it is put there when nobody else is there and moved back to their apartment when they are done, I'm not sure I see the problem.

For many years I lived on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. I loved every minute of it -- a beautiful park surrounded by restaurants and great shopping, and only a 3 block walk to work. Once I became a parent though, I began to dislike the noice and hubbub. Now we live in the Society Hill section of Philadelphia -- still city life which we love, but on a quiet street, with lots more space, a small back yard, parking!, a big park nearby and a small children's park less than a block away, and maybe the 18 block walk to work will help me loss the baby weight!!

Congratulations on your home! Philadelphia has such a wonderful mix of styles over time... from Germantown to Rittenhouse Square, Elfreth Alley (oldest continually residential street in the US) to Society Hill and South Philly. Keep the Philadelphia houses coming!!!

It was a very snowy day and the last item up for auction was a Nakashima headboard. Most of the auction house cleared out as the snow piled up outside. I purchased my headboard for less than half of the estimate. Every time I get into bed, I smile!

Does anyone know the source of that diningroom table? Thanks!

I invested in a Chesterfield about 10 years ago -- another brand but equally expensive. I find it very comfortable. My husband thinks it is one of the most uncomfortable sofas in existence. In my opinion, the big pro for the Chesterfield is the look. Having had it for so long, I can also speak to the cons -- dust accumulates in the buttonholes, and it is very expensive to reupholster.