mcgee's Profile

Annoying downstairs neighbor who's decided any sound she is able to discern in the building is (1) a legitimate noise complaint and (2) eminates from my unit. She calls me about random running water noises, pet and kid noises, etc., certain they come from me, even though they're frequently obviously from elsewhere or I'm not even home. If I ever sell my unit I'm gifting the new resident with Dance, Dance Revolution or a pack of high strung miniature poodles or something.

elizm - when I moved here and had just a couple weeks to find a place before starting work, I used both Craiglist and one of the commercial (apartments.com maybe?) sites to find units and looked pretty much all over town, getting a feel for where I wanted (and could afford) to live. One neat thing to keep in mind about DC, the city (the MD and VA suburbs have different rules) is that, I think the rule of thumb is that all buildings over a certain number of units built between 1945 and 1975 have rent control.

Actually, metal is pretty functional if you want to use it as a mini-potting table and such in between dinners al fresco and so forth. There is much to be said for something that's easy to sponge off. I've got the little Ikea one, too, and like the flowers stamped in it because it means there's never any standing water on it. I'd go with the suggestions above of, if it bothers you, paint it. I think, though, if you paired two crisp white chairs with it, it would look nice and be a nice contrast with the wood deck.

I put bright white corian in my kitchen and, with grey and white glass tile backsplash and the original '60s metal cabinets, I'm really happy with the result. I put in a smooth cooktop also in white and got the integrated corian sink with a routed drain board and really like the uniform sweep of the counters. (I might reconsider the sink, had I to do it all over again...it's the only spot where there's some staining that seems hard to get out. Everything else cleans up with a sponge and kitchen cleaner.) I went with white appliances largely because the fridge and d/w were new when I bought the place and I can't bring myself to get rid of stuff that works fine just because of color. I've found, though, that I rather like the look of counters and appliances being a uniform color in contrast the dark red of the cabinets and grey floor and backsplash. And, yeah, I think you could do this for a reasonable budget if you can do some of the work yourself. I'd reconsider doing the separate cooktop and wall oven thing, though - they're obnoxiously more expensive to buy separately than as one slide in range.

If you've got some kind of northern-ish dog that blows their coat twice a year, it's just a whole different problem than even long-furred dogs like goldens and such. I think there's not a lot you can do but constantly vacuum. I'm now on something like my third vacuum, a virtue of which is that I've got a multiplicity of attachments from all its predecessors and really found that mixing and matching makes a big difference for different surfaces.

I'm most interested in MarriedToAZimbabwean's observation about buying a leather couch. I think I'm going to end up there sooner or later, too. My parents' got a Natuzzi couch lo these many decades ago because the dog we had as a kid shed constantly and they found it stood up really well to the wear and tear of kids plus a dog that liked to dig at it before she went to sleep. Are there good rules of thumb for figuring out what kind of leather will be most durable?

The strident protests about getting a dog from a breeder rather than adopting are perfectly obnoxious. If you get a dog from a good breeder, you know the puppy had good socialization, get to meet both parents, garantees of freedom from common genetic defects and get to train them from a young age. That said, as owner of the nicest dog in the world, adopted as a two year old, with respect to the issue of knowing the personality and behavioral patterns of shelter dogs, the humane society's "meet your match" personality tests for dogs and adopters really do work pretty well to help people get matched up with a pooch that works for their lifestyle, so there are more options out there than there used to be. See for example: http://www.warl.org/animals/mym.php

A container garden may be the way to go, given how much work it'd be to get the soil ready to grow anything. Plus it's easy to vary heights, which in a small space is nice. I have a north facing balcony that looks over a pond, so gets some indirect light all day, but only about an hour of direct sun, just before it sets. Daisies, various evergreen trees, regular geraniums all die a rapid and sad death. But, Ivy, hosta, coleus will grow nicely. (And the ivy is nice for staying green through the winter). For flowers, begonias, impatiens, pansies, fuchsia, columbine and ivy geranium all do well. Impatiens are also pretty aggressive, so I've planted some with ivy and coleus and they look nice and don't get choked. I have another hanging container with a fuchsia, some white impatients and a coleous that's just now making little purple flowers. Are you allowed to drill stuff into the wall? I've always admired some of the wall mounted planters, but they're completely verboten in my building.

I think Americans do use flags as decorative elements more often than some other countries, but aren't unique in this and imbuing it with some assumptions about the naivte, militaristic world view, or jingoistic patriotism isn't really accurate. On Memorial Day it's not really all that different of a statement than wearing a poppy pin on Remembrance Day, but people will often have a flag pole or mount and fly one through the rest of the year - I think it's just seen as a cheery, unpretentious and undivisive symbol or color combo and as also kind of similar to folk art, which also uses it a good bit. The US isn't really unique in this - the Danes use flags as decorations all the time, even stringing them on the Christmas tree (I confess, I own a couple skeins of Danish flags from when my family lived there - they're cute as can be). I asked a friend once what was up with that and he said, "oh, they're just cheery, fluttery, vikingesque bits of our landscape". And I think that's really just it - Americans flying the flag on Memorial Day are (and admirably so, in my opinion) doing so in memory of the real and large scale sacrifices made by fellow citizens on behalf of the nation and the prominent American role in developing the idea of nation as a consciously and willingly constructed polity. But a lot of the time it's also just part of an attractive, accessible visual arts tradition, rather than Americans as the new Prussians.

I suspect that brick veneer is, much like wallpaper, something that there's no really good way to cover or treat and that it'll have to be removed, if you can't stand the look. And, alas, like old wallpaper removal, the job is probably a substantial pain in the ass - but not very technically difficult and not expensive. Having removed something like twenty feet of very fetching cork wallpaper from a hall this winter, I found the inevitable drywall repair wasn't hard at all. I'd take the upper cabinets down, if you have to (though I'd be tempted to give it a try with them up) and go at the brick with a couple inch wide chisel and pry them off as if you were removing tile. Clean the remaining mortar with whatever acidic goo the Home Despot sells for such matters, slather on the joint compound, sand and paint (or tile, or whatever).

I think the cabinets look pretty good and I'd stick them right back up, painted if that's your thing. Although the dark cabinets with white counters look seems to be getting rather chic right now. I know someone who had cabinets of a similar, er, vintage in a sort of walnut color, and put in white acrylic counters and new hardware and the kitchen looks terrific.

And I had that same delightful yellow and brown vinyl floor in my kitchen and it was a happy, happy day when it disappeared. I put in laminate floors (which was expedient, but I've been surprised at how I like them, relative to tile - they're more comfortable to stand and I don't break as much stuff, when I drop it) and laid them right over the vinyl and it took about a day.