Maite's Profile

In the furnace room of the house we bought last September there is this cool 50′s storage unit. In the rest of the basement there are several boxes of kitchenware and small appliances yet to be unpacked. Since kitchen remodeling is in the plans in the near future I need to clean the storage unit and the furnace room (I think the furnace room was built around the unit and getting it out would involve taking it apart completely!) so that I can use it for storage. While unpacking I will be choosing what to keep and what to place in the outbox. You can see the Before photos here.

http://villalaluna.me/2013/01/09/january-home-cure-day-5/

From looking over the comments there seems to be some confusion between design choices and preferences and unhygienic / packrat tendencies.

We live in France and have recently sold our apartment in Paris to buy a house on the Channel shore and we will be renting a pied-à-terre in Paris so we have looked at a LOT of houses to buy and apartments to rent. This being said, what I abhor and will not tolerate in a rental property are the same things that I can change in the house we bought.

1. Wallpaper, especially vinyl, textured, or flocked wallpaper. France is the home of ugly wallpaper and I have more than had my share of removing it.

2. Wall to wall carpeting and since my mom slipped on a throw rug and broke her hip, I've decided not to take chances on those either.

I can live with white walls and white and beige linoleum flooring in the rental apartment, (both are clean and cared for) and I will replace the bare bulb currently in the kitchen with a proper light fixture.

On the other hand, we are paying to have a professional remove the years of accumulated wallpaper on the walls of the house we have bought and I will personally remove the linoleum tacked onto the steps of the staircase...but I will keep the black and white checkerboard marble floor in the living room and decorate accordingly.

I like Côté Paris.

My choices:

1/ The wonderful Art Deco interiors of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies.

2/ The inn of Holiday Inn and White Christmas.

3/ Just about anything my Cedric Gibbons...

On Monday since I had a new bed frame delivered I took advantage of the opportunity to rearrange the furniture and THOROUGHLY clean EVERYWHERE in the bedroom. Monday night I slept better than I have in months and Tuesday morning I woke up refreshed and rested... I will never sleep in a dirty bedroom again!

Thanks to everyone for all of the great suggestions!

I will definitely post an update on what we eventually go with.

In the meantime, if anyone is curious as to what the exterior of the building and the rest of the apartment look like here are some photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mtpenna/VillaParisienne02?feat=directlink

A bientôt!