erinivie's Profile

I was obsessed with my friend's spiral staircase. I still have a fondness for this aesthetic because of how much I loved it as a kid.

In retrospect, the rest of their house was quite unfortunate. No natural light (no light at all, really), black wrought iron and red shag carpet. Everywhere.

My father has been a recovering alcoholic for the past 10 years and is very preachy about it. I find myself putting away the wine rack when he comes to visit, and though he's likely well aware that I drink, but I don't drink in his presence and I take this one simple step in my home when he comes over. I'm not ashamed, I just like having anything that may bring up the subject of alcohol "out of sight, out of mind."

I learned the mold thing the hard way. ALWAYS perform the necessary checks mentioned (vents, under carpets) etc. Ours was in a crawl space that we didn't even begin to occupy until about a week into unpacking, when we needed storage. It was crawling with black mold, and the professional we called in to the test the area deemed the space inhabitable after finding unsafe levels of mold in the air. We had to vacate the space immediately and have all of our belongings (that had only been in there for a week) professionally HEPA-vacuumed. We spent the next month couch surfing while looking for a new place and the next six months in court with the landlords trying to get our first/last month's rent/deposit back.

Though they had Febrezed the hell out of it upon viewing, the musky smell upon moving in should have tipped us off earlier. Trust your instincts. Do your research.

Patti Smith narrating her book "Just Kids" is simply lovely.

Just dealt with the same thing in San Francisco and narrowly escaped homelessness. We were the first to view the apartment we just moved in to, and they claim that helped, but I know what really sealed the deal was the fact that we offered them more money than the asking rent...they gave us our application back with our rental packet and had that written in big bold letters on the top. It was only $50 extra a month, but it got us the place. On principle, I hate to start a bidding war, but that is apparently what it takes in the market right now...

Does anyone have suggestions for mirrored closet doors? The apartment we are moving into next week has them in the bedroom, and while they make the room look worlds bigger, they have a tacky brass frame around the edges, and I'd like to up the taste level a little bit ...any suggestions on how to make mirrored closet doors look more upscale?