sc77's Profile

Try neutral, tailored cafe curtains (cheap at JC Penney or Kmart), and attach them to ring clips for easy storage access.

I love everything in this tote!

I lived in a similar setup in a rent-stabilized 1br for 3 years, and it enabled me to save a downpayment for a co-op even when I was making next to nothing. Good for you for living within your means (I assume). It can work, and work reasonably well, as long as you pick your roommate carefully and talk ahead of time about rules for overnight guests. Seriously, the roommate makes all the difference in this kind of situation.

I wouldn't invest too much in the living room just yet because not only will the roommate likely have his/her own stuff, but s/he'll put wear and tear on anything you do buy. Plus, you don't want the roommate to feel like it's *your* apartment and s/he's just crashing.

Paint the living-room walls in a neutral shade (tan or gray) to make the space seem less temporary, and add a hospital-track curtain to separate the room into sleeping/living areas. If the new roommate wants to pitch in $500 apiece for a pressurized wall, you can always do that after the fact.

I lived in our reno (kitchen, plus apartment-wide electrical and flooring) throughout. My husband did most of the work himself, so we were able to control the timing of the work, the mess, the products/chemicals used, and the dust.

Since our apartment is only 350 square feet, it was hard to live in the space. But it took us less time than if we had used a contractor (2 months total), and we were able to arrange the workload so that we could use our kitchen for the maximum amount of time -- I think we were eating off paper plates for 3 weeks, largely due to an unexpected co-op plumbing issue.

We got rid of as much stuff as possible before the renovation, especially furniture. Then after work was completed, we had all our linens, curtains, and clothing cleaned to remove dust.

Contact the manufacturer. I just bought a replacement mattress for my Ethan Allen sofabed in June. I don't know if it'd fit, but the process was pretty painless -- I gave the local Ethan Allen showroom my model number and bed size, and a few days later my mattress was delivered.

I don't know about your apartment, but mine is incredibly hot in the winter, even with all the radiators turned off. So we decided to remove all our radiators in preparation for our little guy. It takes a couple of minutes using a pipe wrench, and if you want you can cover the valve with a cap that's sold at Home Depot for around $2. Our super is storing the radiators in our building's basement (along with those of many of our neighbors).

Ariel -- good point -- we had found a new bassinet mattress for the heirloom but had not realized that the solid wood sides are not considered SIDS-safe. We vetoed it just based on the large footprint/short lifespan.