banzailibrarian's Profile

Microfiber cleaning cloths have replaced sponges, rags, and dishcloths for me. I like them because they don't get smelly as quickly. Always air-dry them after washing, though, and if you can do it outdoors in the sun, even better.

Pots with a mirror finish on the outside: Even if you usually leave everything to air-dry, wipe the outsides dry with a microfiber or linen cloth as soon as you finish washing them. Much easier than scrubbing at water stains later.

Salad! Here in deepest Oklahoma, the baby Foreman grill is my best friend. It hardly heats up the kitchen at all, and cooks very quickly. My basic summer salad is one meat (pork chop, shrimp, chicken cutlet, salmon) cooked on the grill and sliced over a bed of romaine or cabbage, one cheese (gorgonzola, parmesan, feta, bleu) crumbled on top, one fruit (canned peaches, strawberries, blueberries, kiwi), maybe some tomato or avocado, and a complementary dressing (ginger and rosemary, Italian, champagne vinegar and shallot, tzatziki) which might have also been used to marinade the meat if my brain wasn't too fried.

I tend to agree -- good idea, but a zingier paint color and fresh hardware would have really made it pop. But yes, the original piece definitely had potential -- well spotted!

I agree about the trapezoid thing -- just getting rid of that would open up SO may possibilities. It shortens the height of the room and draws too much attention to that stepped ceiling. If nothing else -- if you can't take it off the wall -- either paint it red, or paint the whole bumped-out area surrounding the fireplace white, leaving the bookcase interiors red. That would be the cheapest and quickest improvement you could make while you live with the rest of the space for a while.

Oh, man, I'm having a hard enough time deciding on one color and now I have to revise my mind-set and think about two!!

How about 1 pound for person for boneless turkey, 2 pounds for whole turkey? That's how I normally judge. I still don't know if I'm having 2 or 4 for Thanksgiving, so I have 2-3 lb boneless breasts.

Target carries a reversible whole-cloth quilt. The quilting is in rows of ovals. I have it in bright green reversing to darker green. It's matte, not shiny like the picture above, and lightweight, so more suitable for summer.

It's a great kitchen combo, though I don't see any in the photos. I had a kitchen with black and white tile floors, white cabinets, and mustard yellow walls. Looked great!

Definitely something you want to think carefully about. I had a nice apartment with great trees outside the windows and a roomy floor plan -- but other buildings in the same complex had terrible problems, and kids from the even worse complex down the street used our pool all the time and made horrific noise. But by compromising for two years, I saved enough for a down payment on a house. It all depends on if you have a long-term goal in mind and how long you can stand compromising. That said, don't ever go so cheap you feel too unsafe, and add your own safety measures once you move in!

I don't have a room just for a library, but three walls in my living room/dining room are floor-to-almost-ceiling bookshelves, plus one wall in my study/workroom. I used to have unfinished Ikea Ivar pine shelving, but during this move I stained the uprights rosewood and the shelves golden oak. Looks fantastic! In the study I painted them black. You'd think a librarian might get tired of being surrounded by walls of books all day, but no. There's nothing cozier.