Finally, A Pantry

I have complained to just about everyone who will listen about the lack of storage in my kitchen, but after Christmas things reached a sort of breaking point.  I received several things from Christmas, among them a paella pan, a knife block, a frying pan and lid, a food processor, and some assorted food items (assorted spices, arborio rice, etc.).  I realized, upon returning home, that while I might have been doing all right before Christmas, all these new additions needed to go someplace, and I didn't have a place to put them.  This problem was underscored when I returned from the grocery store with a couple of things that, in Chicago, I would have stuck into my pantry - olive oil and pasta sauce - which, combined with the other food items I couldn't find places for, make it blindingly obvious to me that if I ever wanted to clear off my counters, I would need more storage space.  So I betook myself to the Target in Columbia Heights (which I'm marking on the blog map, because I go there so often) and resolved to look for storage.

I had a bit of trouble.  I found the storage section without much difficulty, and bypassed plastic and metal for particle board that looks like wood - wire is all well and good for a closet, but anything in or near my kitchen is in plain view 24/7, so I wanted something that looked nice.  I came across a one-door, five-foot tall cabinet unit which, while it would have served perfectly as a pantry, was far too heavy for me to cart home on the Metro.  I then saw a two-door, three-foot tall cabinet in three colors which seemed exactly what I needed.  Better yet, one of the colors, alder (a sort of neutral blond) had had its price reduced by six dollars - I would happily spend $25 for my pantry.  The problem: the alder unit wasn't on the shelves, and after inquiring of a staff member, I determined that it wasn't in the stockroom either.  Drat.  I didn't want white, because it's too clinical, and I didn't really want espresso either (even though my table, chairs, desk, and bookshelf are espresso), because 1) these pieces were made by a different company, so the colors might not be the same, 2) this is particle board, not wood (like those other pieces), so the color might not translate, and 3) I thought lighter would look better in the place I intended to put it.  But no alder was available, so I went upstairs to get an extension cord.

As I descended the escalator, I noticed that there was another storage section, in one of the the rotating areas where there had been Christmas candy the last time I was at the Target.  So I walked over and poked around, and after encountering some of the same pieces that I had seen in the first section I was ready to give up.  But then I turned around and saw it: two-door, three feet tall, alder, and right there.  It shouldn't have been there - none of the other cabinets were there (I suspect someone thought better of it after putting it in a cart and, rather than putting it where it belonged, just ditched wherever they were).  But there it was, just one - the only one in the entire store!  I seized it and hastened, Gollum-like, to the check out.  After lugging the box onto the Metro and home, I assembled it, and here it is:

Although I didn't plan it this way, the alder color actually matches the floor pretty well.  As you can see, I have now found a place to store my paella pan, since it won't hang on my pot-rack.  I took the opportunity to free up a bit more space around the apartment by adding some things to the top of the cabinet so it looks all professional and such.  I am most pleased, of course, by the extra storage space - three feet tall, one foot deep, two feet wide, and three shelves gives me lots more room for food and whatever else needs to go in there.  And for $25 dollars!  I'm only letting myself get one large thing per month, and this is January's, but I think it's a pretty good choice.

Of course, I know you didn't come here to read about furniture - I just wanted to share this particular triumph with you.  I owe you pictures from and posts about my time in Gettysburg, and I promise to write them either tomorrow or Monday.  I'll back-date them to the middle of this week, but I'll be sure to provide links to them if they aren't immediately apparent on the home page.  I wouldn't deprive you of those pictures - I stayed in this incredibly kitschy hotel that you've just got to see...

A Very Productive Saturday

Today alone I've made up for my lack of productiveness last weekend (I accomplished basically nothing last Sunday, and was quite perturbed about it at the time).  But today has gone quite well, and it's only quarter to eight!  Here's what I've managed to accomplish:

1)  Draw up a budget for the new year, and determine that repaying my student loans will not entail grinding poverty and destitution. 

I had been meaning to do this for a while, but this morning (after a languid hot shower which was far longer than strictly necessary - shoot me, environmentalists), I sat down and did it.  Thanks to the National Student Loan Data System, I can draw up a page that details all of my federal loans (and, since all of my loans are federal, this means I can see all of my student loans).  The site does lag behind by a month or so, so outstanding interest figures are behind, but sometimes you just need to know exactly how many loans you took out, and how big they were.  But most importantly, you can also figure out who's servicing them, and then head over to their website to get more precise information - like monthly payments. 

Armed with the knowledge of how much I'll be expected to fork out in January, I pulled together a spreadsheet where I deducted my various expenses from my salary (including anticipated deductions for health insurance, which starts next month), allowed for various other irregular expenses (like haircuts) and came out ahead.  Not rolling-in-dough ahead, but ahead enough that I have a bit of discretionary spending money.  Not much, but far more than I had last year when I was still in grad school.  Essentially, I have to live until September much like I'm still in grad school, in terms of consumption.  Why September?  Because that's when I'm supposed to get my grade increase - the president may freeze my salary, but if I get a promotion I earn more, and there's not a thing he can do about that!

2)  Find (and purchase) curtains for the sliding door, which lets heat out like a sieve.

After lunch, I hopped on the Metro up to Columbia Heights, for to get a Christmas tree, but first I stopped at Marshall's, my favorite knock-off store in the DC area (of course, I don't know very many others besides Filene's, so if you have recommendations, by all means leave them in a comment).  I was just wandering through the home goods section when I cam across the curtains.  And I suspected - correctly, it turns, out - that I had hit the jackpot.

You see, I have come to the conclusion, as the weather has gotten colder, that my windows leak.  I'm not quite certain which way - if they leak heat out, or cold in - but I've had the heater in the dining room running non-stop for days, and this morning when I finally pried myself out of my warm bed my hands were so cold that I didn't even want to touch me.  Now, I've had bad circulation for a while, but honestly, "hands of death" indoors, when you've had the heat on, is a bit much.  So I decided that, even if I didn't need curtains aesthetically, I needed curtains to stay warm (thank Heaven I don't pay for heat).

This is what I eventually decided on:

They're not actually shiny - that's just the flash.  They are, however, too short.  This is because 84" is the longest standard curtain size one can find with any sort of ease, and my windows are floor-to-ceiling.  Also, my curtain rods are somewhat higher than they should perhaps be, but that comes as no surprise, given who put them in (not me, and that's all I'll say).  More importantly, they don't clash with the rest of the apartment - the tan basically matches the majority of the walls and the brown matches the accent wall - they cost less (both of them together) than a single panel would have cost at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and most importantly, they work.  Ever since I put them up I've felt warmer, even though I haven't turned on any more heat.  I'm sure that when I move somewhere with standard sized windows the curtains will fit better.  For now, I'm just not going to worry about it.  Who sells 96" curtains?

Also, I'm rather fond of the detailing on the rings.  I'm just a bit weird like that.

3  Obtain a Christmas tree

After my triumphant purchase of curtains at Marshalls, I headed upstairs to case the joint at Target.  I was unimpressed with the Christmas trees, and remembered seeing some in the catalog of Bed, Bath, and Beyond that shows up, unannounced and unsolicited, in my mailbox on an oddly irregular basis.  The catalog also had a "20% off a single item" coupon in it, which was enticing, since I wasn't pleased with the prices at Target (not something I usually say, but perhaps someone decided to gouge holiday shoppers this year.  Or maybe we haven't been harvesting as many artificial Christmas trees this year due to climate change or something).  In the front of the store - thank the Lord, since going through Bed, Bath, and Beyond is sensory overload to an unpleasant degree - was my quarry.  I got a 6.5 foot pre-lit tree for $40, after the coupon.  Not too shabby.

Of course, when you unpack an artificial tree, it looks like hell.  I remember reading reviews on Target of the various artificial trees, and inevitably, someone would complain that their tree didn't look like the picture.  No, of course not, because your tree has been inside a box since it left China a couple of weeks ago, twit.  Real trees may be messy and expensive and give some people (like my boyfriend) allergic reactions, but they have one jump on their artificial cousins: they don't have to be fluffed.  My tree looked like it had been in a fight with a hay baler of a cylindrical (rather than cubic) persuasion, cross-bred with a poor-quality broom.  So I set it up and commenced fluffing.

An hour or two later - I lost track of time, probably because I needed to stop and get a pill for my headache partway through - I was done, the tree properly fluffed.  It's a lot of work - if you don't do it right, you'll be able to see right through the tree, and there's no sadder reminder that your tree is artificial than being able to look all the way through it.  Or, worse still, looking into it and seeing wire.

So, properly fluffed (for the most part - I still need to do a bit here and there), here it is:

(Hooray for pre-lit trees, right?)

I'm also pleased that I was finally able to put the random black sheet (that I've had for years now) to good use - as a tree skirt.  A very professional-looking tree skirt, I should add.

Now, I haven't done any decorating yet, but these are my ideas:

- paper chains or lattices (very fine, in either case) to help cover any remaining gaps; I could do the same with strings of beads, but I can make things out of paper (which is cheap), whereas I'd either have to buy materials for strings of beads and string them myself (ooh, fun) or just put out for strung beads.  I'd rather do paper.
- homemade salt-dough ornaments, which my parents did when they were a young married couple without children
- a large something for the top of the tree.  Not sure what that's going to be yet - at home it's an angel, but if I decide to make something, it's won't be an angel, as I'm just not that artistic.  I am, however, going to Eastern Market tomorrow, so maybe I'll find something...

On Craftsmen

I have been remiss in my blogging lately because I have been assigned temporary duties at work which generally leave me too frazzed to write anything even mildly interesting, and because very little has happened in the past week that is of any interest to anyone, even me.  Except one thing.


Plumbing.

Now, before you picture me being washed off the edge of my balcony by a raging flood of backed-up dishwater (or worse), allow me to clarify: the only thing at issue is my kitchen sink, and the problem appears to be not that it won't drain, but that it won't drain all the way, which I discovered Tuesday night after doing my dishes.  Running the disposal somehow allows the water to drain from the sink, but not from the chamber directly under the basin which houses the disposal blades.  I tried to unplug whatever's plugging the sink (if that's even the problem) with some drain cleaner, but even after leaving it in over Tuesday night, it didn't help.  So, on my landlady's advice, I called the front desk after lunch today and asked them to send someone up to look at it.

I didn't expect that they would have accomplished this by the time I got home, but indeed they did.  The only sign that someone was here was this note, scrawled in marker on a bit of paper towel:

I'm not sure who exactly wrote this note (a "Kay," perhaps?  Or is it "Kg"?) but I find it oddly comforting.  There is something comforting about having someone promptly attend to your problem and have a solution prepared  all before you get home from work, rather than drawing things out for days or even weeks at a time (that's right, U.S. federal government, I'm looking at you).  That, I think, may be the primary difference between craftsmen and bureaucrats - the one has a practical solution which can be implemented relatively quickly, while the other has six reams of paperwork to go through (half of which will contain errors) before he or she can do anything.  This is why a good craftsman is a good thing to find indeed, and as anal as my complex may be about other things, I am grateful for their promptness in this matter.  If this afternoon is any indication, all I need to do is clean out the cabinet under the sink tonight, and by the time I get home from work tomorrow my sink should be successfully snaked (that's a verb now) and back in working order.  Thanks be for good craftsmen!

One More Addition

I'd like to introduce the newest - and most expensive - addition to my little kingdom.  After a trip to Ikea last night (my very first) and some assembly today, I finally have a very handsome futon.  See?

I spent just a bit under $500 and got the frame, the mattress (the most expensive of the four variants, which is also the only one with springs), the cover (which included those two middle pillows, much to my surprise), and the two arm pillows, in addition to a paper lantern and some hangers (I was running out).  Although it's the largest single outlay of money I've made since I moved to this city (rent excepted, of course), I think it was well worth it.  It's quite handsome.

At first I was a little worried about picking a red cover - I thought about navy blue instead - but K (of the K & R couple, who kindly drove me out to the Ikea since they needed to look at some things as well) reminded me that, since I face north, too much blue will make the apartment feel cold.  Since my wall of windows gives me enough trouble heating, red seemed to make sense.  Seeing it out together and positioned in the apartment, I'm very glad I chose red.  It's a bold color, but I like it.

Naturally this has necessitated a bit of rearrangement, but not as much as you might think.  This is the final result for the west side of the apartment.  Not bad - looks finished, doesn't it?  I've still got some other things I want to get - like a real bed - but that can wait.  I've got a perfectly good air mattress which I've gotten used to, and I've got a table to eat at, a desk to work at, and somewhere to sit (not having anywhere to recline was really getting on my nerves).  The place is just about ready for a housewarming - which is what I intend to to over Veteran's Day weekend, when my other half will be in town.  I'm starting to feel quite at home in my little kingdom.

My Rug Came!

And it was good for me.  Was it good for you?

Heyyyy bay-bay...

I have long been a fan of hardwood - floors, that is - but my experience with it, especially in my parents' home, is warm glowing hardwood which has lots of rugs and furniture on it, so it's more like you get little glimpses of caramel-yellow.  Here, on the other hand, I get great wide expanses, because I don't have hardly any furniture (also, my hardwood floors are not as nice as my parents', because theirs are original to the house (late 1800s), while mine are original to the complex (mid-1960s).  Still, far better this than wall-to-wall carpet, which is a maintenance issue I just don't want to have to deal with. 

Of course, you'd like to see the rug spread out now, wouldn't you?  So would I.

Nice, no?  I have to give artistic credit to my sister, who spotted it on Target's website while I was tweaking out about something (I forget what) back in August during move-in.  The colors are in reality a bit richer than this photo suggests, but northern light has a tendency to wash things out.  Fortunately, though, it doesn't fade stuff, and my plants don't seem to mind too much.  The rug draws a bit on Frank Lloyd Wright's design style (in stained glass, specifically) and definitely his color palette, and happily the brown edge is pretty close to the brown I painted my wall - I can claim in truth that I planned it that way, since this rug is what inspired me to paint the wall brown. In short, I am quite pleased.  Now I just need my dining room set to show up, and then I can buy a couch...hooray capitalism!  And delicious carpet.  You up for a little rug-burn tonight?

My Kitchen

(Backdated from Sunday night.)

It has been a long and arduous process, but I have finally wrestled my kitchen into submission and turned it from sticky, greasy, dusty, and inhospitable to a workable - if still imperfect - space.  Remember the blueprint?

The kitchen is in the upper left corner.  Now, remember that this was the kitchen in which Mom spent hours cleaning the floor with pure ammonia because nothing else would get off the wax so she could get to the dirt underneath, among various other horror stories.  Well, now it looks like this:

Plush and swanky it is not, despite my champagne tastes, but it's approaching pleasant.  I must, however, give credit for the rug to my friends from the university (K and R, the wife and husband pair who have made my time in Washington far more enjoyable than it would have been alone).  They got a pair of them in Morocco, and have one in their own kitchen, but didn't need the other because the rest of their apartment is carpeted.  They very kindly lent me the other rug of the pair until I get something of my own for the kitchen floor, which will probably be a while, since it's not a very high priority.  If I get rugs, it'll be for the living room first, because I've got to do something to kill that echo.

Anyhow, as you can see, I've got a nice pot rack, a full sized oven (hooray!), an ancient refrigerator/freezer (but they still work!), a dishwasher (which I don't use) and a built-in microwave, which I was a bit leery of, but have grown to appreciate.  I don't have to press start unless I'm using "time cook" - otherwise I can just press "2" and off it goes for two minutes, which is enough to steam frozen vegetables for my dinner.  I've also got a funky turquoise folding chair (its mate is currently on desk duty - as in, it's my desk chair), the granite-topped kitchen cart I mentioned way back (at least, I think I mentioned it), and a spice rack of my own construction to the left of the oven.  When one has limited space and limited funds, one is forced to become creative.

Here's a close-up of the part where I spend most of my time:

It's definitely a one-person kitchen, and what's perhaps most displeasing about the whole thing is that vast swathe of counter space in front of the toaster, which because of its location isn't really usable, except as a home for the dish drainer when I have dishes to be dried.  Underneath it is, of course, the Black Hole of Calcutta, which is another vast region of unusable space, and not simple because it's inconveniently located, but because I can't physically reach it.  I'm thin, but not that thin.

Along the wall under the cabinets are old cork mats (too small for place mats, but not really thick enough to be trivets) with paintings of various London landmarks on them.  And is that a fish?

Why yes, yes it is.  I got it in Williamsburg (at the Pottery) and intend to drink it sometime - with friends - when I have a good reason.  I hope the wine is good, but even if it isn't, I'm keeping the bottle.

Welcome to My Apartment

I've delayed posting for a couple of days because I wanted to have all I needed to make today's post.  Even so, I'm not going to cover everything, because I've still got organizing to do, but I thought it was high time to introduce my readers to my apartment, since I've been talking about it so much.

Apartment, readers; readers, apartment.

I suppose I should start with a blueprint because, typical of me, I have one.

You'll notice that the text in this picture is backwards; this is because I had to flip the image I acquired from my building's website to show how my apartment is actually laid out - the way this looks with the text flipped is the mirror opposite of my apartment, but this is the right way around.  In this picture up is south, but I didn't think rotating it 180 degrees was really necessary.  The entrance is in the upper right, and the balcony in the lower right.  That boxy thing above the balcony's right side is an air-conditioning/heating unit (as is the boxy thing at the bottom of the dining room), above which is a window (no window in the dining room, alas).  Above the balcony on the left is the sliding door, and the portion of wall to the right of the dining room is window.  Incidentally, that's also where I'm sitting right now, because my desk looks out that window.  The living room window is big and square, but the desk window is tall and thin; I'd be tempted to nickname them Abbott and Costello if I could only remember which of them was which (answer: Abbott's the fat one, but Costello was no taller than his counterpart, so the comparison doesn't really work.  Oh, well.).  And just to settle any questions, the accent wall I painted last weekend is the wall that faces the balcony - that is, the wall whose other side is in the dressing room and bathroom.

Anyhow, today I wanted to introduce you to the living room (living room, readers; readers, living room), because I've spent the past two days decorating it (along with the usual docket of cleaning, organizing, and running errands).  In the past "decorating" for me has primarily meant "putting things on the walls" because furniture has always been provided (dorms and furnished apartment), but although I have to supply my own furniture here, putting things on the walls has actually become more important because I have so little furniture to begin with - with bare walls I feel like I'm living in a super-sized shoebox.  But with things on the walls, it's much more homey.

As you can guess, my decorating is no minor affair, so without further ado, my two newly-decorated walls:

This is the brown accent wall over which I labored so hard on Saturday, and again yesterday.  At floor level you can see the makeshift couch I've put together (six layers of cloth, and it's actually pretty comfortable).  To the left is the one shelf my landlady left in the place (she took down three more above it, which makes about as much sense as...well, never mind).  You can also see that the stuff on this wall has given me a little trouble - I woke up to find two of the maps and one of the pictures on the floor because I hadn't secured them enough (I'm using masking tape, because it's what I have and it's usually gentle on paint and paper alike, but too little and things end up on the floor).  As you can see, Southeast Asia doesn't want to stay on the wall (Taiwan wants its independence), so I'll have to re-tape it in a bit.  None of the six big maps are ones that I've displayed before, so they'll have to be beaten into submission.  Interestingly, the post-World War II World and Africa are the only ones which haven't given me trouble - 1950s Germany and Middle Asia were both on the floor this morning.  (Blow this picture up to see more detail.)

Here's today's effort, the wall to the right of the accent wall, or to the left as you enter the room from the foyer (are you referring back to that blueprint?)  There are fewer small things on this wall because I used most of them up on the accent wall yesterday, but that's just as well, because smaller things mean more work.  Spain, the Heavens, and the world at night are all reappearing after a successful stint in Chicago, but the United States is new (I didn't display it in Chicago because it's so big) and I've retired my old map of Italy, which was falling apart, and replaced it with a Traveler's Guide to Italy version.  Normally I shy away from "traveler's guide to" maps (I have one of the British Isles which I don't like at all), but this one is actually quite well done.  Italy's just so photogenic.

Once I've cleaned up the remaining rooms in my little kingdom I'll have pictures for you (don't you want to see the Black Hole of Calcutta?), but in the meantime, it's back to cleaning and organizing for me!