We bought a very nice little oscillating fan last night, and as a result I feel comfortable doing some more gloating. Here we go:
The sky is currently that flat, lovely shade of grey that indicates we might be getting a bit of rain. If the scent in the air is any indication, it'll be soon. No wonder everything is so green and blooming up here. Water actually falls from the sky.
I was up until a little past five this morning, I suppose, trying to imagine which pieces of furniture we need (oof, wow, there's a skunk outside somewhere), what style we'd choose, and what our color scheme will be. The plotting wasn't going very well. And then, revelation! The first thing we need is a color scheme. And then a rug that fits that scheme. The other decor (including furniture) will fall into place after that.
Because the walls do lean inward, I think we'll go with rather low furniture. Our focal point will be the floor, drawing the eye downward to the largest part of the room, thereby (hopefully?) making the room seem larger. Bright rugs, one in the bedroom and one in the living room.
The bedroom will be soft greens/blues/creams/browns. The living room will be in the red/orange/yellow range. We'll purchase some nice sheer-ish curtains for all the windows.
It feels very nice to have a solid idea of what we'll be doing! It feels a little weird, though, that our first step is rug shopping.
Of course, once this was all figured out, I felt right asleep. And as soon as Andrew's alarm woke us up, I turned to him and said, "I have made a decision," and launched into my Master Plan. Which did indeed include furniture choices and placement as well as color scheme. He, of course, applauded my ideas, and agreed that we'll start rug shopping asap. And then we said good morning to each other, since I'd skipped that step.
We leave the windows open constantly, to let in the cool air. At about six in the morning, the birds start to wake up on the tops of the houses and trees around us--which in turn wakes up the cats, who try very desperately (and in vain) to jump up into the windowsills for some early morning bird-watching. One bird in particular has a very sharp, single-note CHIT. CHIT CHIT. CHITCHITCHIT. Echoing through our bare apartment, it sounds like sneakers squeaking on a basketball court. I think this bird lives in the eaves of the building next door.
No pictures yet. Hopefully this evening!
(P.S. It just started raining! It sounds beautiful.)
Friday, June 17, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Layout
So I'm sprawled across K&J's very comfy air mattress with all the windows open and counting down the minutes until Andrew gets back from New Student Orientation Day One, because all I want in life--other than, say, a Dr. Pepper--is an air conditioning unit. Or maybe a fan. Possibly a nice hired servant to waft giant banana leaves over me.
I gloated to Mom yesterday that our weather (yesterday) ranged between the fifties and the seventies. Apparently Rhode Island frowns on those who gloat.
The drive went remarkably smoothly. We didn't take a single wrong turn, the cats behaved fairly well, and the scenery was gorgeous. Andrew took more scenery pictures than I did, but I don't know if any of them came out yet. We need to download everything off of his phone when he gets back from campus. There are bound to be some very cute pictures of Sophie and Augustine curled up in the floorboard and/or in the passenger's lap, though. (They cried relentlessly in their crates, but fell asleep the moment they were put into a lap or on the floorboard. However, now that we're at the apartment, both of them want to spend most of their time sleeping in their crates. Go figure.)
Also when Andrew gets back--or possibly tomorrow--we'll make a video of the apartment. I've made a rough sketch of the apartment's layout (not the scale, because that would involve math and such, and that's beyond me even when I'm not slowly cooking). Guess I'll post that now.
(As always, right-click on the image and select "Open Link in New Tab." Once it opens there, you might need to left-click on the image to make it zoom-in to its full size.)
(Another side note: front of the building is at the top of the image, and overlooks the street and that pretty stone wall overhung by trees. The back of the building, at the bottom of the image, sees a lot of sky and the rooftops of some other apartments.)
There are two keys to get into the building: one for the back door and one for the front door. There is a separate key for the laundry room, which is in the basement. There's a key to enter the first door of our apartment. There's another key to get into the inner door of our apartment. Yes. This means we were handed five keys total. Five. This is the safest building in Providence.
I hope the layout is easy to understand. You walk up the stairs (or, if you're finger-walking the stairs in the layout, finger-walk down to the bottom of the image), where you end up on a landing. Turn right and you're at our apartment's outer door. Take out a key and unlock that door. You're now in a very dark entry way, surrounded by more doors. Open the door to your left and you're in a black-and-white tiled bathroom, complete with a clawfoot bathtub (that doubles as a shower stall). If you take out another key and open the door in front of you instead, you enter our bedroom. If you open the door to your left instead, you enter onto the balcony.
The apartment's walls are all white plaster, and would maybe benefit from a new coat of paint. The floor are an ancient orange hardwood--real wood!--covered in dark brown and black knots, and hammered into place with dark nails. The boards don't all lie flush together; sometimes the cracks between the boards are a third of an inch wide, creating long black stripes down the orange floor. "Orange" makes it sound ugly, so let's call it "amberish" instead. Because it isn't ugly, although it isn't exactly pretty, either. A few of the boards creak underfoot, but not as loudly as the narrow, carpeted stairs do on your way up to our apartment.
The walls (except for those that don't have windows) all slant inward with the roof, and in the afternoon sunlight the amber of the floors is reflected on the slanting walls, making the walls appear a beautiful glowing yellow/orange/cream.
Like the bathroom, the kitchen features a black-and-white tiled floor, though these tiles are much larger than the little bathroom tiles. We have a small gas stove/oven, a very big sink, a decent number of cabinets, and a three-quarters size fridge/freezer. No dishwasher. Hence the giant sink.
And the balcony! It is certainly large enough for a comfortable chair, several bookshelves, a tiny desk, and a lamp. I think I'll buy a few room dividers (like this one) to make it private--just on the off chance someone comes upstairs. Ours is the only apartment on the third floor, but you never know. Someone might venture up accidentally. Not that I would be horrified and shamed if someone saw my book collection (despite the number of teen vampire-werewolf-faeries-magic-luv novels I own), but privacy is nice.
In all, the apartment is very honest: the house is a few centuries old, and the attic wasn't intended to be used as an apartment. It looks old; it looks like it shouldn't be an apartment. If you look too closely at anything in particular, you'll see vast room for improvement (like the gaps between the floorboards, and the entire layout of the bathroom. You have to sit on the toilet at a 45 degree angle because of its proximity to the sink). But despite the initial appearance of it's-old-and-crumbling-and-maybe-kind-of-gross, the apartment is actually incredibly clean. (Well, there's one spot on the floor that looks like mold is spreading; it had been hidden behind a piece of the last tenant's furniture in a corner of the living room by the radiator. We contacted the landlord as soon as we noticed it. That should be remedied quickly.) But really, this place is cute and charming and has a lot of potential for prettiness.
It also doesn't hurt that we've had absolutely delicious food for lunch today and dinner last night, both at restaurants about a five minutes' walk away. Dessert, too.
This is a great place. Now: to get a fan.
I gloated to Mom yesterday that our weather (yesterday) ranged between the fifties and the seventies. Apparently Rhode Island frowns on those who gloat.
The drive went remarkably smoothly. We didn't take a single wrong turn, the cats behaved fairly well, and the scenery was gorgeous. Andrew took more scenery pictures than I did, but I don't know if any of them came out yet. We need to download everything off of his phone when he gets back from campus. There are bound to be some very cute pictures of Sophie and Augustine curled up in the floorboard and/or in the passenger's lap, though. (They cried relentlessly in their crates, but fell asleep the moment they were put into a lap or on the floorboard. However, now that we're at the apartment, both of them want to spend most of their time sleeping in their crates. Go figure.)
Also when Andrew gets back--or possibly tomorrow--we'll make a video of the apartment. I've made a rough sketch of the apartment's layout (not the scale, because that would involve math and such, and that's beyond me even when I'm not slowly cooking). Guess I'll post that now.
(As always, right-click on the image and select "Open Link in New Tab." Once it opens there, you might need to left-click on the image to make it zoom-in to its full size.)
(Another side note: front of the building is at the top of the image, and overlooks the street and that pretty stone wall overhung by trees. The back of the building, at the bottom of the image, sees a lot of sky and the rooftops of some other apartments.)
There are two keys to get into the building: one for the back door and one for the front door. There is a separate key for the laundry room, which is in the basement. There's a key to enter the first door of our apartment. There's another key to get into the inner door of our apartment. Yes. This means we were handed five keys total. Five. This is the safest building in Providence.
I hope the layout is easy to understand. You walk up the stairs (or, if you're finger-walking the stairs in the layout, finger-walk down to the bottom of the image), where you end up on a landing. Turn right and you're at our apartment's outer door. Take out a key and unlock that door. You're now in a very dark entry way, surrounded by more doors. Open the door to your left and you're in a black-and-white tiled bathroom, complete with a clawfoot bathtub (that doubles as a shower stall). If you take out another key and open the door in front of you instead, you enter our bedroom. If you open the door to your left instead, you enter onto the balcony.
The apartment's walls are all white plaster, and would maybe benefit from a new coat of paint. The floor are an ancient orange hardwood--real wood!--covered in dark brown and black knots, and hammered into place with dark nails. The boards don't all lie flush together; sometimes the cracks between the boards are a third of an inch wide, creating long black stripes down the orange floor. "Orange" makes it sound ugly, so let's call it "amberish" instead. Because it isn't ugly, although it isn't exactly pretty, either. A few of the boards creak underfoot, but not as loudly as the narrow, carpeted stairs do on your way up to our apartment.
The walls (except for those that don't have windows) all slant inward with the roof, and in the afternoon sunlight the amber of the floors is reflected on the slanting walls, making the walls appear a beautiful glowing yellow/orange/cream.
Like the bathroom, the kitchen features a black-and-white tiled floor, though these tiles are much larger than the little bathroom tiles. We have a small gas stove/oven, a very big sink, a decent number of cabinets, and a three-quarters size fridge/freezer. No dishwasher. Hence the giant sink.
And the balcony! It is certainly large enough for a comfortable chair, several bookshelves, a tiny desk, and a lamp. I think I'll buy a few room dividers (like this one) to make it private--just on the off chance someone comes upstairs. Ours is the only apartment on the third floor, but you never know. Someone might venture up accidentally. Not that I would be horrified and shamed if someone saw my book collection (despite the number of teen vampire-werewolf-faeries-magic-luv novels I own), but privacy is nice.
In all, the apartment is very honest: the house is a few centuries old, and the attic wasn't intended to be used as an apartment. It looks old; it looks like it shouldn't be an apartment. If you look too closely at anything in particular, you'll see vast room for improvement (like the gaps between the floorboards, and the entire layout of the bathroom. You have to sit on the toilet at a 45 degree angle because of its proximity to the sink). But despite the initial appearance of it's-old-and-crumbling-and-maybe-kind-of-gross, the apartment is actually incredibly clean. (Well, there's one spot on the floor that looks like mold is spreading; it had been hidden behind a piece of the last tenant's furniture in a corner of the living room by the radiator. We contacted the landlord as soon as we noticed it. That should be remedied quickly.) But really, this place is cute and charming and has a lot of potential for prettiness.
It also doesn't hurt that we've had absolutely delicious food for lunch today and dinner last night, both at restaurants about a five minutes' walk away. Dessert, too.
This is a great place. Now: to get a fan.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Gettin' Stuff Done
Nothing really interesting to report. No kitty pictures. But we're making progress!
Our apartment is bare of furniture, and we're packing up the last load or two of stuff to give away. We have a mountain of trash to haul to the compactor. The cleaning-of-the-apartment adventure is underway. Utilities and all that are taken care of, for both apartments. You know, the usual moving stuff.
We'd bought a soft cat sack similar to this one for the kitties several months ago, and--as far as we know--neither of them has ever so much as touched it. So, intending to throw it away, I slipped my hand into it and picked it up off the floor. And felt something wet inside. Someone had peed in it relatively recently.
A few days ago, someone had peed on the bath mat right in front of one of the litter boxes.
I'm starting to see a trend.
We've switched the cats over to Yesterday's News, which is a pellet litter made of, obviously, recycled newspaper. I love it. Augustine uses it just fine. Sophie, I think, is resentful.
I'd tried to introduce her to it gently, pouring a little bit into her clay litter every day, easing her onto it like it's a new type of food. No dice. Or maybe I just didn't give her long enough to adjust? For the last few days both cats have been locked in Augustine's room--where the only litter box is Yesterday's News--due to fire inspections and maintenance guys coming into our apartment while we were at work. Sophie probably used the cat sack then.
I really want to use Yesterday's News during the car ride, because it's cleaner, easier to manage, and smells better than clay litter. Looks like we'll have to use clay litter, and keep trying to adjust Sophie to the new stuff. Fingers crossed that it works.
In other news, I've recently become aware of how often I say "yer" instead of "your" and "you're." Texan much?
Our apartment is bare of furniture, and we're packing up the last load or two of stuff to give away. We have a mountain of trash to haul to the compactor. The cleaning-of-the-apartment adventure is underway. Utilities and all that are taken care of, for both apartments. You know, the usual moving stuff.
We'd bought a soft cat sack similar to this one for the kitties several months ago, and--as far as we know--neither of them has ever so much as touched it. So, intending to throw it away, I slipped my hand into it and picked it up off the floor. And felt something wet inside. Someone had peed in it relatively recently.
A few days ago, someone had peed on the bath mat right in front of one of the litter boxes.
I'm starting to see a trend.
We've switched the cats over to Yesterday's News, which is a pellet litter made of, obviously, recycled newspaper. I love it. Augustine uses it just fine. Sophie, I think, is resentful.
I'd tried to introduce her to it gently, pouring a little bit into her clay litter every day, easing her onto it like it's a new type of food. No dice. Or maybe I just didn't give her long enough to adjust? For the last few days both cats have been locked in Augustine's room--where the only litter box is Yesterday's News--due to fire inspections and maintenance guys coming into our apartment while we were at work. Sophie probably used the cat sack then.
I really want to use Yesterday's News during the car ride, because it's cleaner, easier to manage, and smells better than clay litter. Looks like we'll have to use clay litter, and keep trying to adjust Sophie to the new stuff. Fingers crossed that it works.
In other news, I've recently become aware of how often I say "yer" instead of "your" and "you're." Texan much?
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Buying!
Total excitement over here. Grandma P and Grandpa R agreed to my aforementioned plan.
Which means that as soon as we unload the car--but, you know, after we sleep for 24 hours straight to recover from the road trip--we will get to settle down into the serious business of Buying Stuff. Well, I guess we should maybe measure the rooms first, and then carefully decide which pieces of furniture and so forth we absolutely need.
But then? Buying Stuff.
And as Andrew will be in classes all day every day until August, I will bravely take it upon myself to go do the deed.
Also: Augustine thinks Sophie's tail makes for a great footrest.
Also: Augustine's just adorable.
Which means that as soon as we unload the car--but, you know, after we sleep for 24 hours straight to recover from the road trip--we will get to settle down into the serious business of Buying Stuff. Well, I guess we should maybe measure the rooms first, and then carefully decide which pieces of furniture and so forth we absolutely need.
But then? Buying Stuff.
And as Andrew will be in classes all day every day until August, I will bravely take it upon myself to go do the deed.
Also: Augustine thinks Sophie's tail makes for a great footrest.
Also: Augustine's just adorable.
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