Thursday, April 3, 2008

i'm back!

okay, so i've been busy! i swear i have. i'm not sure what i was doing, but i'm sure it was something. something rewarding and worthwhile...

so the Bad Cat ate the tops off of most of my pepper seedlings last night. grrrr. i will assess the damage tonight after work, but judging from what i saw this morning... it ain't pretty. in the words of the wise and patient Miss Hannigan, "Kill, Kill, Kill!"

in cheerier news, i am redecorating eric's apartment this weekend!! wheeeeeeeeee! i absolutely cannot wait to get started. i've been itchin' to get my hands on his place for years now, but i never wanted to offend him by offering. but through a strange twist of events, he asked me! and gave me a $500 budget!! eric is going to be in NYC from friday evening until sunday late night, so i have to get it done over the weekend. i don't want to just clean up and organize - i want him to walk in on sunday night and simply fall to his knees. well, maybe not that dramatic... but still. i want some visual impact to say "this is a new place!"

now, i haven't watched a lifetime of HGTV and TLC makeover shows for nothing. i'm taking hints from the "pros" and trying to stretch my money to get the biggest bang for my buck. i am also blessed with good luck and creativity in space-management (is there such a thing?). but even this project was posing some problems that i could get past. eric has (hoards?) a multitude of media - VHS tapes, DVDs, film reels, obsolete gaming systems and cartridges, odd stuff. you name it and he probably has a small pile of it on the floor of his SMALL EFFICIENCY APARTMENT. and for those non-city-dwellers, that means a livingroom/bedroom, bathroom, a large closet, a hallway, and a separate kitchen. so better than a one-room studio, but still. not much room at all. and limited ways to rearrange the furniture, since the couch has to turn into a bed at night.

but today. oh, people. today i made a sublime discovery.

well, i suppose i made the discovery three years ago when someone told me about this place. and i suppose it wasn't exactly a discovery since tons of people already knew about this place. but oh, this place. it blew my mind.

TERRAPIN TRADERS. if you live anywhere near college park, MD, and if you are looking for filing cabinets, shelving, desks, couches, chairs, display cabinets, clocks, racks, TVs, old media and laboratory equipment... THIS IS THE PLACE FOR YOU. and e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y cheap. as in, "are you serious?" el-cheapo. and especially if you are partial to mid-century industrial and office furniture like i am. if you've ever contemplated stealing a chrome-and-teal chair combo from a waiting room in the bowels of a state university... or if you actually *liked* your dorm furniture... boy, are you in luck. i picked up a nicely shaped solid "wood" shelf mounted on jazzy triangular legs for $7.00. it's banged up, but i plan on painting it black so no matter. AND. this uber-cool short metal cabinet on casters, with two front doors that close over some shelves inside for only $25.00! the top is scratchy looking with one dent, but i plan to put an upholstered cushion on top for additional seating so that doesn't matter. and magically, the total rang up to be $27.60? there must be a sale on or something. so those are two less things that i have to buy at IKEA. i had been planning to buy two similar items at IKEA, white particle board with no visual interest, and for about $150. !!! so that frees up another $125 for buying other stuff. woot!

while walking home from the dentist yesterday, i decided to take a detour down U Street to check out this furniture store called millenium decorative arts, which sells mid-century/danish modern-ish furniture. old stuff, no repros, and most of it is gently used which means less money. i wanted to find something nice, to jazz up the rest of the IKEA stuff. well, i got there and the durn place was closed! they've changed their hours and are now only open from friday to sunday. so i stood there, kinda miffed, staring at the door... when a pile of scrumbly furniture caught my eye. looks like millenium was getting rid of stuff! most was a pile of broken shelves from some kind of larger unit, but right beside my foot was this cool wall-mounting desk with 2 drawers. solid maple! the bottom of one drawer was stained on the inside from what looks to be spilled fountain ink.... but that's the inside of one drawer. who gives a flip! not me. so i picked it right up and walked home with it. and it was heavy.

either i'll use it in eric's place, or i'll keep it and use it somewhere at home someday. it was too nice to just leave there.

and speaking of the dentist, have you ever had your top teeth filled? i had a small cavity yesterday in one of my top front/side teeth, and the novocaine numbed my entire lower face - including my entire nose! i nearly had a freakout/asthma attack because it felt like i couldn't breathe. then i walked around drooling for a few hours. and now my jaw hurts.

pity me, because i deserve it.

2 comments:

Jessie and David said...

can't wait to see pics of eric's new place! you do know where your camera is,right? are you going to get do any McGyver type stuff? i bet Mrs. McGyver could do a mean re-decoration! ~bess

mel said...

that's awesome. mrs. macGyver. i love it! i might be macgyvering some stuff, but i hesitate to do that in someone else's house. in my own house, i might know "better not sit too briskly on that slapped-together cushion made of repurposed mittens and grocery sacks" - but i can't count on eric to be so considerate...