Before, During, and After - Pink of Course

The first picture is how this room looked just a few weeks ago. This is how the tenant had it set up. The second picture is right after we painted and moved up all our stuff. Now it's Alexandra's office. Pink of course.
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Now playing: Angelo Badalamenti - The Pink Room
via FoxyTunes

"I would never let my husband pick a paint color"

That's a pretty rough statement. Here are the results when your wife makes that "Leap of Faith". Bullseye Red is the color. I would never describe the local Reddish family as interior decorators. However, I think it is fair to say that I (the husband) made a pretty good choice with our dining room color. I like to say my choice was based on vision. It's also fair to say that you might think I have gone over my usual two beer limit for the night. Here is how the thought process went:

All the dining room furniture we have is dark wood. We plan on stripping the window molding and the base boards back to the same type of dark wood.Once that it is done I think the slightly orange red will blend in nicely with the dark wood furniture and detail. Worse case scenario is that we paint it again- we are not curing diseases.
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Now playing: The Promise Ring - Red Paint
via FoxyTunes

Allen Wrenches and Pressed Wood

Man, oh Man! The wife and I finally made it to Ikea last week and scored some "temporary" furniture. When I first went to Ikea back in 1993 I bought a desk, entertainment center and a sofa (actually Mema bought that). The entertainment center and desk were pretty crappy. God forbid you got a little too aggressive with the allen wrench. If you did, chances are your would mess up the tender pressed wood. The messed up that desk for a number of reasons. The person who used the desk was pretty unhappy. The entertainment unit lasted an amazing five long years. The sofa was the best purchase of all and I believe is still being used by my old landlord (Tommy Marinos). Fourteen years later I have to say that the pressed wood furniture is pretty solid and they have upgraded their other offerings. Leading me to believe that this furniture could survive three boys abuse over the next 17 years. So, we bought the following:

- Modular file cabinet
- Desk (best $87 bucks I spent all week)
- Storage Unit for the kids room

The furniture has gotten simpler to put together and it all looks pretty good. I managed to put all three together in about 4 hours. I think it took me four hours to put the desk together in 1993.

My First PTA Meeting

Yeah! It's as exciting as it sounds.

Master Suite Complete

I did the walls, Six Pack did the trim and the ceilings. Now let's get the furniture up here. Just wish I could get a better picture of the room.

The Boys Room

The first room is ready in the duplex. Six Pack and I banged this out yesterday. The "Master Suite" should be ready today.

Hanging on Ft. Hamilton

Getting out of Rocco's was a nightmare kids everywhere. I was half thinking they were going to run out onto Ft. Hamilton Parkway.

Dylan and the chocolate ice cream

Well, we headed out to IKEA last night in hopes of hitting some holiday traffic. What a nightmare! We made it as far as Ft. Hamilton and 86th street before giving up. On the way back we went to Rocco's on Ft. Hamilton parkway and 60-something street. They are known for their Calimari. It's pretty good. We promised the kids chocolate ice cream if they ate their spaghetti. As you can see from Dylan's face-- Mission Accomplished.

Alexander the Painter

Dylan and Alexander both took turns painting. I thought it was neat until the paint dried. Where they were "painting" looked streaky and messy. No Technique! Alexander is 2 now and should know better. :)

A Different View of Newkirk Plaza

This is the view from my master bedroom. it's kind of cool and reminds me in some ways of growing up in the Fordham section the Bronx.

A Newkirk Friday Morning

The day off... heading out to DD for coffee... What a beautiful view on a street many think "ain't so beautiful.

Painting.....

Part of our basement is furnished so I had to give it what I would like to think is my scheduled "decade" painting of the areas that need painting. It's not a big space-- but what a PITA. Though when done I had to admit that it looked a little nicer. Hopefully in ten years I will feel the same way.

Starting fresh... again

The "Ladies" (as Alexandra called them) vacated the duplex upstairs. So, over the next twenty days we will be preparing, painting, moving, and bitching about carrying every item we own up two to three flights of stairs. I can't wait to get up to the bigger apartment. Over the weekend the seemingly spacious two bedroom seemed to have shrunk dramatically.

My first appliance

This is really not my first appliance. I bought a washer machine last year. This fridge is a behemoth. I have not read the specifics yet, but when you close the door the air seems to be sucked out of the fridge. I am sure it is something else. Until I am in the "know", I will go on deluding myself about the "vacuumed fridge" I bought.

The next generation

Dylan's first day of kindergarten. He was all excited and completely the opposite by the end of the day. He went back today and tomorrow he will go back again .... everyday for the next 13 years.

U.S. (Ultra Sleazy) Window Factory

This story has a happy ending but I have to say that dealing with this company has not been fun. We canceled our contract in plenty of time but had to jump over hoops to get our money back. Essentially, we found better windows as a comparable price. Here is what happened:

- Sales Rep comes to the house and does well enough to convince us to sign a contract and put down a deposit.
- Sales Rep will match any price
- Sales rep does not have any collateral (brochures, etc.) for his product.
- Sales rep promises to send collateral
- We shopped around the next day and know that we made a mistake committing to the contract
- Sales Rep then reiterates that he will match any price
- Described to Sales Rep what I was looking for: Faux Wood Look, Collateral, and a little more time to make my decision
- Extends cancellation policy by one week - Kudos
- Collateral? "I never said I was going to send you that and it won't be available until October"- bad sign, since the windows would be installed in September.
- Asked him to show me some more options and the type of window I liked,
Sales Rep: "That would be more expensive"
Me: "If it's worth the money then I might consider it. (Described Windows)"
Sales Rep: "Those windows are for old houses, like the ones out on Long Island-- Not your modern house"
Me: (Dumbfounded) "I live in a hundred year old Victorian-- you don't think that is old"
- Needless to say we got the extension on the cancellation, but no follow up on those other "long island" windows
- Next Day we decided to Cancel for the following reasons: 1) Sales Rep lost all interest after the contract was signed 2) Didn't attempt to provide anymore information 3) Made a stupid assumption that "he" and only "he" knew what I wanted
- After the cancellation it took about 15 phone calls to get confirmation that my contract was canceled and that I would get my money back.

As they say in Brooklyn, "Oi Vey!"