Northern Homebody's Profile

Vincent B. is right -- it's the tone. OF COURSE Harlemite is free to like or dislike anything in this apartment. But the casual assumption that a subsidized apartment and good design are antithetical strikes me as narrow-minded.

Is This Love, by Bob Marley.

A magazine subscription. My son got a subscription to National Geographic Kids for his sixth birthday and I'm convinced it played a big role in turning him into the avid reader he is today.

Wouldn't Viau et Freres be translated as "Viau and Brothers"? "Viau and Sons" would be Viau et Fils."

Christmas tree farms are a small but important part of the economy where I live. We usually walk over to the lot sponsored by a local service club and carry the tree home. At the end of Christmas, we either drag the tree a couple of blocks to the neighbourhood middle school, which is one of nine or ten drop-off points in the city, or we make a donation to a local Scout troop in return for having them pick the tree up from the curb. Either way, the tree is chipped and used for mulch on the flower beds the city maintains.

Tinystudio, I had the same kind of disconnect with the survey results. I live in a 50-year-old house, the smallest square footage listed, on a smallish lot -- and I got the same interpretation as you. I'm sorry I wasted my time doing the survey.

Go, Sarah!!! She is awesome, whichever side of the camera she's on.

I'm going to add my tips on washing pillows. I put mine in the freezer for a few hours, then wash them (in the washer) with hot water. Then I put them in the dryer with three tennis balls that are kept just for this purpose. (That means I don't use them to practise my serve!) The tennis balls make a horrendous noise but they plump up pillows, duvets and snowsuits as they dry.

The house I grew up in had a separate dining room as well as an eat-in kitchen. One wall of the dining room was lined with built-in bookshelves and, at right-angles to that, under the window, was an old-fashioned (and, in retrospect, pretty ratty-looking) daybed, which was a great place to curl up and read. We did eat most evening meals in the dining room. Then, after supper, my siblings and I did our homework at that table. All in all, I think we got a lot of use out of the dining room.

April, I live in a small city on the other side of the continent from you, so I can't help. But I will send my thoughts and prayers your way. This post and the responses to it made me cry. Sometimes, we buy into the stereotype that in big cities, people don't care about their neighbours. This proves how wrong we are. Good luck to all the renovators.