Rug Search

We've been holding out on getting a rug—partially due to the cost and partially due to lack of interest on our part. However, given all the holiday sales, we started our search this weekend. I had seen a graphic woven rug at Calypso Home, so we set out today to see what else is out there. The debate ended up being, do we want a flat woven, graphic rug? A large scale graphic could be fun! But over-powering! On the other hand, we could get a textured rug. Really, who doesn't like walking on a nice, plush rug? In the end, we found a great looped rug at Room and Board (and of course, it's not on sale).

New Shops, Old Shops

Recently several nearby stores that we've come to love here in SoHo have closed. The most upsetting of which, has been the disappearance of Valley Shepherd Creamery. A local New Jersey farm, they had a tiny storefront on Sullivan street where we bought fresh cheese as well as olive oil imported from Greece. Although we still have Murray's Cheese, we are sad to see such a small producer leave the neighborhood.

However, just down Bleeker Street from Murray's, a new tea shop has moved in. David's Tea isn't exactly local (it's a Canadian chain), but we're happy to have something other than Starbucks and Nespresso for our caffeine fix. We even bought a glass teapot there for the flowering tea that B + R brought us back from China.

Also new to the neighborhood, and much anticipated, is the arrival of REI SoHo. Finally.

Studio Ghibli

The IFC (Independent Film Center) which is 4 blocks away from our apartment is showing 4 weeks of films by Studio Ghibli. If you dont immediately recogonize Studio Ghibli's work their most popular work includes Spirited Away and Ponyo. Tonight Lara and I watched My Neighbor Totoro which is about a family that moves to a new house in the country side and the two young sisters become friends with a big fluffy tree spirit. Lara wants the little white spirit as a pet, surprise, surprise. Can't wait to see the other fun animated movies in the next couple weeks.

Texas Slow Cookin'

Just before Thanksgiving we finally did what we've been talking about—we bought a slow cooker. We were in Sur La Table to get some extra pie dishes (since we were bring FOUR pies to the Thanksgiving feast), and saw the Cuisinart slow cooker there. Inspired, but not sure if that was the best bet, we did some quick research and bought the Breville 7qt slow cooker from Williams Sonoma. This particular slow cooker was well rated, and the insert can be put directly on the stovetop to brown any ingredients—thereby saving an extra pan to do so. Also, since I'm such a sucker for recipe books, we bought a slower cooker recipe book to go with the slow cooker. Of course.

After going through the recipe book and marking all the ones that appealed to us, we finally tried out the first recipe—Texas Chili. We also made Mark Bittman's cornbread muffins to go with them. Now we have chili for lunch to look forward to—or maybe sloppy joes for dinner one night...

The Happiness Project

In reading my latest book (The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin--no relation to Steve), I'm once again reminded of what poor bloggers we are. I had started out with a strong showing but am now one of the many people with a blog that borders on being defunct. Or at least one that is so sporadically updated that it suffers from a lack of readership.

So today I'm making my first post from the Blogger app on my iPhone, as I lay here in bed before shutting off the light to go to sleep. Let's hope the convenience of the app results in a steadier steam of updates. Tomorrow I promise I'll find something of interest to tell you about...I just can't promise I'll post it (but I'll try)!

Happy Halloween

This is our first Halloween in the apartment on Charlton Street. Being so close to the West Village, we are in the heart of the annual Village Halloween Parade and are getting to experience the festivities up close. Apart from feeling a bit trapped in our apartment since the building has been barricaded, we get to enjoy the energy with a bird's eye view. While our living room looks out on to Charlton Street, we are close enough to the corner of Sixth Avenue that we can see the parade diagonally out our window. The people below are 15 deep, craning over each other to get a view. This is our view from the warmth of our apartment. Meanwhile, we wait for the trick-or-treaters to knock on our door... while we eat their candy. And yes, we just watched a team of zombies do the entire Thriller dance.

Pierre Terrarium

If I was going to make our terrarium purchase again or if we were to purchase another one, this is the one I'd go for (the medium one in the middle):



It's the Pierre Terrarium sold at Sprout Home in Brooklyn. A friend who knew I've been interested in terrariums just told me about these. They are beautiful, and seem to be built in a much more plant-friendly manner than the West Elm variety that we bought. That one doesn't have an open window or door to allow for ventilation. As a result, the terrarium needs to be manually opened every day for about an hour. The maidenhead fern doesn't seem too happy about this arrangement, which makes me think that this new terrarium may be a better bet. But do we really need more than one terrarium?

Keeping Track

After posting the last post, I noticed that Blogger tracks how many posts you have done on any given month or year. In 2010 we posted 85 times, yet as of today, we've only posted 28 times in 2011. Although I realize that we had so much going on last year with the renovation—it makes me feel like this year has been, well, rather uneventful. Or. Is it that we just aren't doing a very good job of tracking our year this year? I like to think it's the latter rather than that this year has been a bust. Maybe it's just that we are so busy enjoying our new apartment and neighborhood that we haven't been keeping you as well-informed? Regardless, I'd like to do better. This is sounding a bit new year's resolution-y. Appropriate as we near the end of the year, I think.

So Much Better

Two weeks ago, as we were cleaning the apartment a day before a house guest was to arrive, our vacuum cleaner broke. Normally we would not have been upset, as this vacuum was unbearably heavy and unwieldy and we'd been looking forward to replacing it for awhile now. However given the imminent arrival of our guest, we weren't pleased having to do a quick assessment the vacuum cleaner market and make a purchase. But we shouldn't have been surprised. This unhappiness was indicative of how we felt about our now-defunct vacuum.

We did some quick on-line review searches and headed off to Bed Bath and Beyond the next day. We were fortunate to find a VERY knowledgeable sales person who gave us the low down on the various options available in the various price ranges. For those who don't know, canister vacuums are meant more for wood floors while standing vacuums are better for carpeting (and they tend to scratch wood floors). The exception to this are the crazy expensive Miele canister vacuums. Since we weren't prepared to drop $400, we were directed to the Shark Navigator. It was slightly more than we wanted to spend, but can handle both wood floors and light carpeting. It's much lighter than our old vacuum, and much easier to handle. In fact, we were vying over who would get to vacuum this weekend. Quite the opposite than before.

Pumpkin Trifle

While we were on the way home from Montauk, Long Island last weekend we stopped by a Fairway supermarket. Part of the appeal, of course, was the large pumpkin display out front. Although we're going pumpkin picking this weekend, we wouldn't resist buying a handful (er, armful) of the mini albino pumpkins and some gourds to decorate our trifle bowl.

Terrarium

Back in May we went to Lake Placid for a friend's wedding. The event itself was wonderful and we had time to explore a bit of the area as well. While there, we found a cute little terrarium that we considered buying. Of course, we didn't... and have lamented that ever since. But then we went into West Elm to exchange our pendant lamp, and lo and behold, there was a terrarium quite similar to the one we passed by in Lake Placid.

And so we are the proud new owners of a small terrarium. A glass house for plants. We're still working out what plants work best in there... and are hoping not to kill the ones we have currently. It looks quite fetching on the drawers in our bedroom, next to the tv. Let's hope our green thumb holds out...

Revision

Our latest update has been a long time coming. Partly due to a busy summer season, and partly due to a lack of activity on the apartment. Now that summer is ending, work on the apartment has picked up again. Our contractor is back—finishing up the punch list and almost ready to pack it up for good. Thankfully, we waited this long to complete the punch list...

It was just last week that we received the latest West Elm catalog and spied a new pendant light—one that we liked BETTER than the original one we purchased from there. And it gets BETTER still—the original pendant was still in its box and the new one was the EXACT SAME price. Happily, the West Elm folks are lenient with their exchange policy and allowed us to swap one for the other. We are still getting used to having a pendant light rather than an exposed bulb, but are pleased with the new addition. Photo of the light in place to come. In the meantime, you can see the catalog photo here—it's the small grey one on the far right.

Window Garden

After several weeks of buying flowers on Sunday and finding them dead by Tuesday, we came to the conclusion that perhaps buying a plant would be more economical. Given my disdain for orchids and most colorful flowers (lovely as they are, I always prefer white ones—even if they do symbolize death), we've decided to try our hand at raising succulents. We've done this before but with limited success in other apartments. This time, with a jade plant (middle) and two other varieties, we seem to be doing well so far—cross your fingers. Next we're hoping to add a small terrarium with ferns. We found a beautiful terrarium when we were in Lake Placid a few months ago, but alas, did not buy it thinking we could easily find one. Now that we are searching, let us know if you see a good one...

Match Set

Now that we have fully fallen in love with our not-quite-so-new-anymore sofa, we're starting to think about getting a coffee table that works with it. Up until this point we have been using a bench that used to be in our entryway, but have been toying with the idea of getting a matching ottoman for the sofa. We would like a large, oversize piece that could be used as both a coffee table and a place to rest your feet. As luck would have it, Canvas Home has just started producing a chaise that matches our sofa. AND they are willing to customize it to fit the size we want (and of course to create it without arms). We're not planning on getting this anytime soon but thinking ahead to 2012.

Next Door

The brownstone next door is still undergoing it's renovation, but is finally showing signs of nearing completion. One area of great interest to us is the terrace, which is at the same level as our apartment and sits almost next to our guest room. (Perfect for eavesdropping and spying). Maybe we'll strike up a conversation with them—shouting across the small alley between our two places. And then they can invite us over for a BBQ. All we'll need to do is extend a plank and we can walk over and join them...

Blooming Hill Farm + Stone Barns

This weekend we rented a car and took the opportunity to visit some places a bit farther than around the corner. On Saturday we did the SBR sprint triathlon in Harriman State Park—and then went to the most amazing little farm for a surprisingly wonderful post-race meal. The Blooming Hill Farm is about an hour outside of NYC, and has a small cafe, bakery, and of course sells its produce. It's also a CSA. If we lived closer (or rather, if they were closer to us), we'd love to belong. The fairy lights in the old barn made the place even more special.



On Sunday we visited another farm—Stone Barns—with Beth and Rob Turner. I still cannot believe we had never been there before. For years I've heard how wonderful it is, and wow, it's great. We arrived smack in the middle of lamb season. There were tons of them frolicking about in the pasture, along with their moms (and perhaps pops, too). We tried not to think that they would be someone's meal one day soon—even as we plan our own trip back there for dinner.

Guest Room

Last weekend Steve's brother and sister-in-law came to stay with us. This gave us the much needed kick in the pants to finally organize the storage room our second bedroom had become. Items were sold. Some thrown away. And most relocated to various closets around the apartment. Finally our second bedroom became what it was meant to be—a bedroom. Now we just need to finish furnishing it. For now we have our old sofa in there (conveniently, a sleeper sofa), a bookshelf donated by Lara's sister, and a fabulous little side cabinet we got from Archipelago in Cold Spring, New York.

Maya Muse Pillow

Our very first day on vacation in Australia, we had the opportunity explore a bit of Sydney. We only had that one day before we left the city to travel south, so we headed to the Woollahra neighborhood to visit the Donna Hay store. Since we were in the area, an Aussie co-worker suggested that we eat at Bill's—a local restaurant helmed by chef Bill Granger. The ricotta pancakes and corn fritters were as good as promised, and we decided to walk it off by heading to the nearby Paddington Market. We were lucky to be in town on a Saturday, since this is the only day the market is open. While there, we met Maya Walsh of Maya Muse Textiles and picked up this fabulous silk screen pillow case. We love how it looks on the new couch—and adore how it matches the alpaca-wool throw that we also got on the trip.

A Vacation

We've been away. Both from the blog and NYC. And actually the latter explains the former. We went to a friend's wedding in Australia and took the opportunity to extend the visit into a full blown three-week adventure. I can't say that this fully excuses our absence from the blog, but now that we are back we are hoping to be updating this a bit more regularly. Starting with the newest addition to our apartment—The Sofa! It arrived while we were away and so we had it delivered as soon as we were back. We love it. It's comfortable. Beautiful. And alas, attracts a whole lot of cat fur. It doesn't help that the cats like it as much as we do. Sigh. I guess you can't win them all.

First Look

The same day our chalkboard arrived, so did our new mirror. The mirror now hangs on the wall facing the front door (not that there is a back door) to our apartment. Now all we need to do is figure out what goes underneath it.

Add it to the List

We recently debated the merits of having a custom chalkboard installed on the narrow wall at the entry of the kitchen (as a place for us to write our to-do list). However, the slate stone we were thinking of using was not an ideal writing surface. It was also quite expensive and specific to our tastes—therefore it would probably never add to the resale value of the apartment. So we also discussed painting this same wall with chalkboard paint, but weren't sure we would like it as much as the look of the stone. Therefore, we went with the Pottery Barn route—we bought a small chalkboard from the retailer and hung it in our office. This has proven to be a quicker and cheaper alternative—and just as effective.

Mirror, Mirror

We have been debating for some time about what to do with our front hallway. Now that we have our zig zag runner, it seems only appropriate that we furnish this area as a true welcome for our guests. That and we are just plain tired of seeing a blank wall when we enter the apartment. Thus, we have agreed upon a mirror. Always practical when leaving the house, we hope that it will be just as welcome upon entering. Eventually we plan to get a stool or small table to go underneath it (for keys and mail), but in the meantime this should do. We could probably fuss over the choices for much longer—but for once it felt nice to just make a decision. Period.

Pendant Light. Finally.

After holding out for the "perfect" pendant light, we caved and decided that a decent light is better than no light (or rather, a naked bulb). We've decided that until we do find the perfect fixture this pendant from West Elm should do nicely. Not sure why we keep heading back to West Elm, but it probably has to do with the reasonably priced, reasonably designed items they sell.

We like that this pendant light is glass, so when you walk into the apartment and look into the living/ dining area, there is no shade obstructing the view. Our only concerns are how this will be hung and if the light will be too small for our dining table. That said, it will be a good placeholder for now—one that will likely become permanent if we had to bet.

Zig Zag Straight Ahead

A few weeks ago we mentioned that we had ordered a runner from West Elm. Well, yesterday it finally arrived and we rolled it out into place. Not only are we happy with it, the cats seem to like it as well. Now we realize how badly we are craving rugs and how many we still need.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

On Monday the plumber came to install our kitchen faucet, which we ordered back in Fall. Although we're loving how it looks, the spray that we ordered to go with it is conspicuously missing—you can see the empty hole to the right of the faucet. We were told by the plumber that the spray does not "work" with the faucet. Hmmm. Not sure about what this means, but we're leaving to the place we bought the faucet and spray from to figure it out.

The same day the plumber came, they also came to fix some of the cracked glass tiles in our guest bathroom. Unfortunately, we didn't know that this would be done so we didn't leave out any replacement tiles. Therefore, we now have empty spaces on our guest bathroom wall, where new tiles will need to be placed. Similarly, although the workmen spackled some areas around our windows and closets that had cracked, they did not paint over the spackle. This means that we are now in a pseudo-work zone. Again. Let's hope this doesn't last long.

Work Day

This morning I am working from home as two of Lou's crew are here tackling some of the items on our punch list. Unfortunately, not everything can be done today—the most unfortunate being the plumbing as we were hoping to have our new kitchen faucet installed today. Instead, they are working on filling cracks and doing some caulking. They also installed the glass shelf at the back of our guest bathroom tub, and we now FINALLY have a towel bar in the master bathroom. This means we actually have a place to hang towels rather than resting them on top of the toilet tank. This is a small, much needed improvement.

By Popular Demand

We had a specific request to post an updated photo of our media area now that the tv has been installed and much of the surrounding bookshelves filled. Mind you, this remains a work in progress (as is our entire place), but this is where we are today. There are a pair of wooden pig bookends that we were contemplating buying awhile ago, so perhaps they will one day make an appearance here.

Indecision update

In reviewing our previous posts, we realized that we never updated you about our indecision. Mid-January we had asked you about a fabulous Chesterfield sofa we found at Canvas. It was on sale through the end of that month and we were debating whether or not this would a good fit for our place. Well, we loved it, and since it was on sale, we figured that was a sign. Most of you agreed. So, we plunged in and bought it. We are now in the midst of a 6 to 8 week wait for the piece and we couldn't be more excited. Once it arrives we'll take some snaps and post them.

Zig Zag

We've been admittedly delinquent in posting to the blog. Mainly it's because most things are done and we're now, slowly, working on furnishing the apartment. Not much to report, really. We are still waiting on our Chesterfield sofa to arrive (we hope by the end of March), so will probably not get a rug for the living area until that is in place. In time meantime, the dust bunnies have been flying free. We think that is due to the lack of rugs. So, while we wait on getting the living room rug, today we finally ordered a runner for our entryway. We found this from West Elm, although I think we first saw it on Design*Sponge. This was sort of a quick, fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants sort of decision—much different than our couch contemplation. That said, we think that the rug we chose will spice things up a bit. We hope you agree:

Taste test
	Too much spice, I'm gonna be ill.
	Just the right amount of pizazz.
pollcode.com free polls

A Pause

At this point most everything is completed in the apartment. We are gathering punch list items for Lou to finish up, but will wait till we have a fair amount of things for him to do before his team comes again. We might even wait until February, which is when our kitchen faucet will FINALLY arrive. Until then we look for things for Lou to fix (which unfortunately means we look for things to go wrong). We have already spotted two areas where there seems to water damage of some sort. We also need to figure out how we will vent our air conditioning units and determine what light fixture we will get for above the kitchen table. Those will likely be the last two big things that will be completed.

Room with a View

On Saturday our new dresser from Room and Board was delivered. It's just like our old cabinet from there, but has drawers instead of cabinets. We did, however, make sure that there would be one glass-front cabinet for our cable box to go into. Our closets have a bit more breathing room, now that we've moved some things into the dresser. Dibi is admiring the view from his spot on the Corian window ledge, which was recently installed.

Indecision

We've been looking for a new sofa for our apartment. Something comfortable, but stylish. Nothing too crazy, but not Plain Jane either. We've found a lot of nothing—generally there are sleek (read: boring) couches or overly-cushy (read: suburban) couches. But then one day, walking home from the (supposed) furniture store mecca, Mitchell + Gold, we wandered into Canvas. They only had about three pieces of furniture, but one struck us in particular. It's called the Chesterfield Sofa. Based on a vintage piece, it's upholstered in a deep midnight colored linen. It's fab. We love it. But we wonder... is it too... out there? What do you think? Let us know and let us know soon, because the sale is ending at the end of the month.

What do you think of the Chesterfield Sofa?
	You're crazy, yo!
	Go for it!
	Keep looking.
pollcode.com free polls

The Last Big Thing

This week the last pre-punch list item was installed. We now have a seamless, low-iron, tempered glass backsplash, and we L-O-V-E LOVE it! The backsplash was installed in three spots—the kitchen, above the wine fridge (aka the dry bar), and the buffet area in our built-in. The backsplash people also installed a small glass shelf in the guest bathroom, and a mirror inset into our master bathroom door. We're particularly happy with the mirror and would love to keep our master bathroom door closed all the time so we could admire it—but alas, our cats loathe to be locked in or out of any room. And so the door remains open and the mirror hidden, for the most part. In addition, the Corian window ledges were FINALLY installed. We'll leave the specifics around the Corian drama to another post, but let's just say that it wasn't the smoothest process (nor would we recommend our installers, Evans and Paul).

Two Working Sinks

After getting used to traveling between our master bathroom and the guest bathroom to use the sink, we now have both bathroom sinks functioning. In addition, we had Lou create a 3.5" extension to the guest bathroom under-sink cabinet to make it easier to use the sink there. Previously, it felt like you were going to hit your head on the medicine cabinet every time you bent down to wash your face or brush your teeth. Dibi is particularly happy with the new master bathroom sink since there's a wide ledge he can sit on while drinking from the faucet.

Rotisserie Skewers

For the second time we used the rotisserie feature on our oven. This time we tried shish kebobs. We started cooking the potato-only skewers first, since those take longer to cook, and added the onion-steak and pepper-zucchini skewers later. No recipe required and absolutely delicious—and presumably pretty darn healthy.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

This week has been an eventful week in the bathroom. Luckily the problem was the plumbing and not our, er, plumbing. The sink AND the shower were both clogged in the guest bathroom, and we were informed that our master bathroom shower was leaking water into the apartment below ours. YIKES! This meant that we could only use the guest bathroom shower, even though it meant showering in ankle-depth water. Today the clogs were fixed by accessing the trap through our downstairs neighbor's ceiling. Thankfully, the apartment was recently purchased and the new owners had not yet moved in. Conveniently, they are also planning on doing some renovating of their own, so they've been understanding.

In the master bathroom, the leak was fixed by accessing the pipes through the wall in our master bathroom. You can see the hole in our shower wall, which will be re-tiled tomorrow. We hope. In this picture you can also see the sink—which JUST ARRIVED after WEEKS of waiting. Tomorrow the faucets for the sink should also be installed. Also of note in the picture—our new shower door handle. Hopefully by end of day tomorrow, after living here for a month, we will have two fully functioning bathrooms.