chinook2006's Profile

The original-to-the-1930s black and white pinwheel tile is one of the vintage touches that sold me on my current apartment. Lovelovelove black and white tile! I had some plumbing issues in my bathroom last month, and one of my main worries wasn't how long it was going to take to fix, but whether or not they were going to have to tear up the floor (and thus my wonderful original tile) to do so! Luckily, they only had to drill one tiny hole behind the toilet, so my precious tile is safe. :-)

My mattress is totally due for replacement--it's a bottom-of-the-line Ikea thing that I bought 6 years ago when I was just out of college and moving into my first apartment. The thing is horrifically uncomfortable, but now that I have a real job I can actually afford a real mattress! Hoping to make that happen in the next few months.

My pillows are a couple of months old--the ones before them, though, were from college, so going on 10 years old when I finally replaced them. Ugh!

I've been in my current apartment for two years, but the shine had definitely started to wear off of the apartment and the neighborhood for me in the past few months (my kitchen window totally falling apart in a wind storm definitely didn't help). I'd been looking casually, but when my weekend job cut hours and my budget went from "at bit tight" to "I'm totally screwed if I get sick or anything out of the ordinary happens", I knew it was time to get serious. It took me about a month, but I found a nice apartment that's $300/month LESS than the current place and still has tons of character. I move into the new place April 1.

Had it not been for the new budget constraints, I probably would have plugged along in the current apartment for another year or so...

I kind of adore the 'after' (but maybe that's because it's pretty much the same colors as my kitchen--white cabinets, black/dark gray counter, silver back splash) It's a great blank slate for the new owner to dress up however they want.

And in all honesty, I think the 'before' is hideous! Way too many different wood tones going on. Eww.

Very nice! I love the pops of color and eclectic style! (And I always love to see what other people in DC are up to in their apartments! :-))

I definitely agree with what pretty much everyone else is saying:
-live in the apartment for a month or two before you start changing things--that will give you a chance to figure out what you can live with, and what is going to drive you nuts if you don't change.
-how long are you planning on being in the apartment? All of my previous apartments had been one-year-and-then-moving-on deals, so I did little to nothing to them. My current apartment, though, is one I plan on staying put in until I buy a place (which is a loooong way off), so I'm putting much more work into it--painting walls and kitchen cabinets, replacing lighting fixtures, putting up back splashes and shelves, and now I'm considering replacing a horrid hollow-core door (the only one not original to the 1910s in the unit!)

I'm a huge proponent of making an apartment your own, especially if you plan on staying for a few years! :-)

I found my first apartment mostly through sheer dumb luck. I was moving from Massachusetts to DC to start grad school, and had taken a couple of weekend trips down to look at places I'd found on Craig's List, but wasn't having much luck. I'd pretty much settled on a place that would have just been for the summer, instead of a full year, when I got a call from an apartment building I'd looked at, but which hadn't had any vacancies. They suddenly had a studio available, and did I want it? I could afford the unit, and it was within block of campus, so I took it, sight unseen.

It turns out later, the reason why apartments had suddenly opened up in that building? There had been an electrical fire, and then the city had discovered that the wiring in the building was ancient and not up to code, so they'd condemned the building until it was totally rewired. So all of the building's residents had been kicked out of their apartments for almost 3 weeks, and the company was letting people out of their leases if they wanted. This was kind of freaky to find out after I'd moved in (but at least I knew that the building had just been rewired!)

The apartment itself was crummy, but livable. I was definitely ready to get out by the time my lease was up, though, because the proximity to campus meant that the building was full of undergrads who regularly screamed at each other in the hallways at 3 in the morning and left trash all over the floor of the trash room. Ugh.

Moral of the story--actually look at an apartment before you agree to rent it! :-)

@thannypants: Thank you! I keep my flatware in some white mugs that I got from Ikea ages ago (forks in one, spoons in another, knives in a third) on a shelf in my cabinets. I had to move a shelf to make the height fit, but it works well. And as far as larger knives, I actually just lay those flat in the cabinet (I actually only have two large knives--one nice multi-purpose one, and one junky one, so they don't take up too much space) :-)

I have a pantry in my kitchen that doesn't have a door (I have a semi-sheer curtain hung in the doorway, but it doesn't hide the pantry contents totally) so I use some square white baskets from Ikea to corral things like pot lids, measuring cups, and utensils that I don't use as often.

Also, yeah Old School Hardware travel mug! Mount Pleasant represent! :-)

LOVE! I love the way you worked with the quirks of an older space, while making it comfortable and combining a wide variety of styles!
Easily my favorite Small Cool so far!