Emika's Profile

I've been pretty lucky with roommates, but my fiance has a good story... one involving a court case, even:

In college he was living together with 3 other guys. They had divided up the various housework, and Frank was in charge of paying all the bills and rent. So a couple times a month, he would approach the other guys with his calculator and say, "I need this much for the rent" or "that much for the gas bill".

Well, after 8 or 9 months, Frank moved away rather suddenly, and it turned out that he had been paying the absolute minimum on all the utilities (just enough to keep them turned on, basically) and pocketing the rest. Best part? The rent contract, all the bills for the utilities... none of it was in his name, so he couldn't be held legally accountable for any of it.

The last time we had surprise guests, I took the big pile of recyclables from the entryway, shoved it in the shower and pulled the curtain. I've also hidden dirty dishes in the oven. Not long-term solutions, obviously, but in a pinch... :)

Keep your interior doors closed! Consider that if you spend 90% of your time in two rooms, then there is really no need to heat other rooms.

Wow, I'm surprised how many people are insistent about locking their doors- America must be a much more dangerous place than Europe! I only lock mine at night, or of course if I'm out. But I do live in a "nice" block of flats, and my army of nosy old-lady neighbors see and here everything that goes on anyway...

In our former flat, we HAD to lock the door because the latch was so weak that it would blow open if not locked. Plus, it was across the street from a prison :) Not that the inmates could bother us (being themselves locked up and all) but their wives and girlfriends who would gather on our front stoop to yell up to their partners were a little sketchy.

@ChrisGal: probably about the same time there are more real flats shown and not idealistic showrooms :)

I never have and don't currently live in an earthquake-prone area, but those cupboards make me shudder. The room appears to be long enough to pull the bed out a yard or two and put floor-to-ceiling cupboards behind it. Presto: triple storage space and much more peaceful sleep!

Ha, the first thing I thought when I saw that picture was, "she must be a model 'cause no one would actually sleep on that thin pile of rags!" Look at it, it looks like a 2" piece of light foam - you would roll over at night and be able to feel each individual floor crack! I like a lower bed (mine is about shin-high) but this is too short for me.

PhillyLass - your line about Proust made my day :)

Seriously, people should stop acting ashamed of their TV. That would be the first step to admitting that the TV is, for many people, a piece of furniture equally as important as a sofa or a table - and if this could happen, designers might start looking at TVs as something worth improving, to be more beautiful than just the standard black/gray lumps available now.

I would want this if I could have a picture of MY neighborhood. But some random suburb? Nah.

Great idea (I'm a sucker for convertible furniture), but needs some more work. The sofa part looks really uncomfortable.