From Apartment Therapy...
The future of outdoor living here in NYC belongs in part to The High Line. The elevated railway has been in disuse for decades and is now being given new life by the initiatives of Friends of the Highline.This looks like a fascinating project. I'd like to visit New York to see it once it has been completed (or once some portions are open to the public).
My sister is staying with me for a month until she gets occupancy of her new apartment. It's been nice having her around because I've been able to borrow from her wardrobe. Unlike one of my other sisters, despite my being the most sturdy and rubenesque of all the Loro girls, she doesn't complain that my curvaceous figure will stretch out her clothes. Considering the amount of lycra and other materials with such elastic properties I am not that worried either. A good launder and her shirts will snap back to fit her serpentine figure. Shoes on the other hand are another matter. My feet are what my mother would describe as those belonging to Cinderella's stepsisters... and of all the girls my feet are the longest. I borrowed a pair of flats from my sister, but wisely decided to carry them to work and allow my finger-like toes the ability to breathe rather than assume a bunion inducing curled up position inside the shoes. If only my office had a more flexible footwear policy then I might wear my flip flops freely and not have to endure the struggle of carting office appropriate footwear to and from work. Some shoes are made for walking you see, and others are made for sitting. Boring stuff I know... pointless musings... but what else do you expect from me?
It was looking to be a productive night. We cooked our first meal in the condo/apartment/house/loft (haven't decided what to call it yet), a simple meal of spaghettini and bolognese sauce (my own special concoction) and some kind of caesar salad that my sister had picked up from the grocery store the other day.Still without a fully plumbed kitchen sink or stone countertops we made do with the fine pine plywood countertops that Aryn "installed" on Tuesday and the bathroom sink. The first dinner was a real step forward for us... at least in the sense of making us feel like we're living in the loft rather than just sleeping there. We've been making minor progress towards unpacking all of our boxes, mostly due to Aryn's stellar organizational skills. Although I am still extremely wary about his choice to put the tupperware and rubbermaid containers in the drawer below the stove... somebody please weigh in on this and give an impartial third party opinion on whether or not this is a good idea. Despite the ability to microwave plastic I do not think it's the wisest idea for it to be stored beneath a hot stove. Slowly but surely more and more of the floor is being revealed and boxes are disappearing (to the hall) from the giant pile in what will become our living room.
However, after dinner the feeling of progress diminished as we encountered a slight mishap in our pursuit of bedroom privacy. Over the weekend we had installed a tension wire to hang some curtains that would allow us to close off our bedroom area from the rest of the space. We didn't have enough curtains to go across the 15ft. divide initially, so we just hung the two panels that we did have. On Tuesday I dug out the two curtain panels we had from the old apartment and added them to the line so that we could close off the entire bedroom. The wire sagged a wee bit under the weight of the curtains but the line remained intact for the next day. Yesterday Aryn picked up the additional curtain panels we required and we set about switching out the old set with the new (I'd just like to add that had I known we were getting the other curtain panels so quickly I probably wouldn't have bothered hanging the old ones). Everything seemed to be going fine until Aryn stepped down from the ladder and heard some suspicious cracking noises that seemed to be originating from the fitting on the wall. At that point there wasn't much we could do. So we all stood back and watched as the weight of the curtains tore the fitting from the wall leaving a small but rather unpleasant looking hole on our wall. I was not impressed, but we were surprised that the curtains had stayed up for as long as they had anyhow. Aryn spent the rest of the night putting around fixing the problem (thanks to a much appreciated tip from our personal construction expert) with some toggle bolts and leftover MDF. The resulting installation seems much more sound and the curtains and wire are intact.
However, after dinner the feeling of progress diminished as we encountered a slight mishap in our pursuit of bedroom privacy. Over the weekend we had installed a tension wire to hang some curtains that would allow us to close off our bedroom area from the rest of the space. We didn't have enough curtains to go across the 15ft. divide initially, so we just hung the two panels that we did have. On Tuesday I dug out the two curtain panels we had from the old apartment and added them to the line so that we could close off the entire bedroom. The wire sagged a wee bit under the weight of the curtains but the line remained intact for the next day. Yesterday Aryn picked up the additional curtain panels we required and we set about switching out the old set with the new (I'd just like to add that had I known we were getting the other curtain panels so quickly I probably wouldn't have bothered hanging the old ones). Everything seemed to be going fine until Aryn stepped down from the ladder and heard some suspicious cracking noises that seemed to be originating from the fitting on the wall. At that point there wasn't much we could do. So we all stood back and watched as the weight of the curtains tore the fitting from the wall leaving a small but rather unpleasant looking hole on our wall. I was not impressed, but we were surprised that the curtains had stayed up for as long as they had anyhow. Aryn spent the rest of the night putting around fixing the problem (thanks to a much appreciated tip from our personal construction expert) with some toggle bolts and leftover MDF. The resulting installation seems much more sound and the curtains and wire are intact.
