text:
Does Your Home Have DIYs You Wish Hadn't Been Done?
Almost every place we've lived — house or apartment — has had some DIY project done by the landlord or previous inhabitant that we really wish had been left up to professionals. It took us awhile to figure out that the back hallway of our current house was not covered in a high-gloss vinyl, but was actually a painstaking DIY enterprise.
Once it started peeling up, we realized that the original vinyl tile had actually been decoratively painted to look like … faux marbled vinyl? We can't help but admire the work that went into this endeavor, but we also couldn't wait to cover it up with some runners.
Of course the funny thing is that we're equally guilty of leaving previous apartments with our own questionable DIY touches. Sometimes it makes us think, maybe I can't do that — but usually we march happily along wreaking havoc with our hammer and nails.
What DIY projects are in your home that would have been better left undone?
68 Comments
We have vinyl in both the bathroom and the kitchen that looks like someone attempted to spread it out like a rug. It isn't fitted correctly, leaving areas with too much leftover or too little. It's terrible and I do my best to decorate more to camo it rather than actually decorate.
Someone built a cabinet to hold a front-loading washer and dryer (stacked). Seems like a good idea, but it's made out of particle-board and not quite straight.
There is the wall in my living room that I tried to paint so it would subtly mimic the clouds in an adjacent painting. Instead, the wall looks like an unfortunate victim of a party where some one drank too much Blue Curacao and threw up all over.
Someone poorly painted the ceiling sky blue. Don't ask me why. But in a house with yellow walls and dark hardwood timber floors it was awful. Our house has only just recovered. Lol.
we once installed a dimmer switch-which worked great until about a month before we moved out, when we learned that there are different dimmers for multi switch set ups. the occasional crackling noise clued us in and the loss of part of our security deposit cured us of DIY projects done without thorough investigation.
I once lived in a house where the previous owners had built the kitchen cabinets out of scrap wood etc. We ripped up a shelf, flipped it over, to see the word "YIELD" in huge letters.
I won't even go into the kitchen floor done in "abstract" designs with scrap vinyl tile. I should really scan in a photo and send it in. It beggars belief with the ugliness.
Our bathroom has some sort of plastic or vinyl marble-print paneling that the previous owner sealed to the walls with dark yellow caulk and white plastic strips that I think are made to fill in thresholds. It covers the room, and I'm scared of what I'll find when I rip it off!!!
The previous owners of our condo painted everything in flat, which isn't bad until you get to the kitchen that has no backsplash! After spending multiple days and different cleaning products on the kitchen walls we gave up and just painted it over in semi-gloss thus ensuring our ability to clean the walls should they get splattered.
After moving into our home we discovered our gray kitchen counter tops were actually painted with faux stone spray paint! We are a bit worried about prepping food on them, hopefully we will be able to replace them soon.
Where to begin? I am currently without a bathroom because my brother-in-law tore it out before realizing that he doesn't know how to put in the new plumbing. There's a toilet, but all of the walls and ceiling are torn down to the studs. I love hearing my neighbors use the their bathroom.
The kitchen and other bathroom were painted with flat paint- in the bathroom, a single thin coat so that we can still see the drywall and in the kitchen, directly over peeling wallpaper. The carpeting was taken out of our bedroom and replaced with (crookedly placed) linoleum tiles. Too bad that our room is partially below ground and freezing. It feels more like a basement now.
The previoius owner of my house painted everything - walls, ceilings, closets, woodwork, even inside the bathroom medicine cabinet - a putrid mixture of somewhere between orangy-tan and pepto-bismol pink. It is the most dismal color I've ever seen.
The worst part of it was, when I was painting over it, I chipped some of the paint on the baseboards and window frames and found out that underneath was beautiful wood that matched the house's original hardwood floors! Someday, I hope to strip it all, but there is so much, and so many layers of paint, that it's not likely soon.
I still have one area of that old paint left, mostly because I can't figure out how to get rid of it. The basement stairwell can't be painted without one of those funky ladder that bends in several places to stand on the steps (which is what I'm guessing the previous painter must have used), so... I see puke pink every time I go down the basement steps!
"marching happily along wreaking havoc with their hammer and nails" is precisely why I won't allow my tenants to make their own changes, however minor, to the property I'm renting them.
To mellon: this is the perfect opportunity to buy some foam pipe-wrap (the denser the better) and wrap all pipes you see, both the copper and the big drain pipes. You'll have a quieter bathroom when you are done.
anything with sponged paint is a bad idea. we once rented a basement suite with a bright yellow sponge-painted kitchen, ostensibly to "brighten the place up." it also had badly painted floors, in a dark, institutional green. (it also reeked of sewage every time the furnace kicked in. that was awesome.) many years later, we have a large, mostly lovely home...with a bright yellow sponge-painted basement room, courtesy of the previous owners. i will be painting that soon.
To mfarling...
The more layers the better when it comes to stripping paint. If it chips downs to the original wood and finish it will almost certainly come off smoothly with a heat gun and a 2 inch putty knife. Do a couple of moldings a week. it adds up fast.
My bathroom is a victim of a bad DIY tile job. It features white 4" x 4" tile with vertical grout lines that almost line up and a grey faux rope between two rows. I'd love to remove it, but I'm afraid of making holes in the drywall or ruining the panel that covers the whirlpool tub electronics.
My old house had numerous DIY disasters from the previous owner. He installed a wall of built-in cabinets - all crooked; put peel & stick vinyl on the basement floor that became unstuck when I had a small pipe break; fixed a toilet with a hair rubber band, installed carpet over old pad and carried it over the entry tile (no pad uneven); carpeted the main bathroom and kitchen, and installed a wood-burning stove with a crooked chimney pipe and bathroom tile hearth (I later learned they had a chimney fire, and my insurance company threatened to cancel my policy if I didn't replace the whole thing). Every time I had work done, I got a call from my contractor to ask about a new problem he found. Ironically, he was the construction manager at the local nuclear power plant.
We were planning on pulling up the nasty (really nasty) carpet in our finished basement when we moved in. The basement is great- but the indoor/outdoor carpet really took a beating with the owner's 3 small kids (plus, they had 18 family members stay in their basement after Katrina!!).
They did SUCH a good job renovating the house, but then we find out- they GLUED the carpet down. Apparently, they were just going to put new carpet on top of it some day (ick!). Not cool. Getting it up would be a huge pain now, so we just live with it and covered it up with rugs... lots of rugs...
All of our electrical outlets have reversed polarities. The outlet in the bathroom? If you plug in a hair dryer, then turn it on, the bathroom lights turn on, dimly, and the dryer runs weakly.
But the construction-type work was well done.
Oh, boy -
Well, the last place I lived in was advertised as a three-bedroom. Third bedroom was an attic, which we viewed during the winter. Summer hit and I found out that the attic? NO. INSULATION. AT. ALL. You could see the seams of the plywood they used for the walls...
Also, the water heater broke like, three times because the landlord was convinced he could DIY that. :S
Now I've got only three very minor 'issues' in what is generally an AMAZING home which I <3 to pieces.
Weirdness 1: The closet in the master bedroom is kind of like a box built up against the wall. Which is fine. Except there's this weird space above it - not quite small enough to be unobtrusive, not quite big enough to make for proper storage.
Weirdness 2: There is NO storage in the bathroom. None. So someone cut a hole into the wall and extended a sort of cubbyhole through the bathroom wall and into the hallway closet. Except they took the shelving with them when they left. So it's kind of just like a ridiculously deep and long cavern in the bathroom wall. Easily fixed with a plank of wood, brackets, and a curtain - but it's weird...
Weirdness 3: You know that awful popcorn ceiling texture? Well, when they built the office add-on, they apparently got sick of the lovely wainscotting three-fourths of the way in and went batshit with the texture. A whole wall of it. Floor to ceiling. My solution was to paint it a dark, matte color, put floor-to-ceiling bookcases and cover up the rest with a big canvas.
Um, yeah.
My entire bathroom is a DIY. My shower is sad. The worst part is that the shower was redone by a "professional" to cover up the first DIY and its still just as bad. Water pools in one corner because the floor isnt slanted to the drain properly.
Now that I think about it, I think my entire place is a DIY. I rent a back house from an elderly lady and I think my place was her son-in-laws DIY project.
The whole thing is a disaster really but its in a nice neighborhood and the rent is cheap so I do my best to throw some decent looking furniture in it and deal.
To Mfarling:
Upon moving into this place, my eyes were assaulted with that same color of paint. Putrid indeed.
In the early 70's the previous owner decided they were tired of doing laundry in the garage then hanging the laundry to dry in the attic, so they proceeded to make the back bedroom into the kitchen, complete with washer, dryer, a bathroom only a very slim person could love, and a back door to the yard. This back door is perfectly positioned to catch every rain drop that falls, so they built a roof to protect it (haha). All the roof does is redirect some of the rain onto a hefty set of concrete steps which pools the water up by the house and is probably why this part of the house is sinking. But they built a "deck" to cover that up. Sigh.
The wiring in this new kitchen is the kind that makes the electrician not want to come out.
The old overhead kitchen cabinets were nailed up for life over each toilet without first bothering to fill in the cup hook/can opener holes; by throwing a piece of plywood over the opening the sink cabinet was used to hold up the hot water heater in what used to be a small, squarish patio off the garage but now became an enclosed space in the garage proper. That brought the water heater up to code and gave the dog a place to come in out of the cold -- as long as you left the door wide open.
At some point they acquired a HUGE microwave/convection oven so of course the only sensible thing to do was cut a HUGE hole in the former outside wall of the house and build an unventilated enclosure for it, which meant moving the frig into its own enclosure that juts out into the garage and is (sort of) supported by a few concrete blocks.
Meanwhile, the old kitchen area was presumably turned into a dining area except for the fact that all these "improvements" really turned it into a passageway from the living room to the new kitchen as the best place for the dining table is shoved up against the corner so you can eat facing a wall. Lovely.
If I had enough money I'd restore this mess to its original state of being.
The worst part--the WORST PART--is that my landlord actually took the time to tell me how long his terrible, awful wall "texturing" took to do, and how proud of it he was. It's currently crumbling off the walls in some parts, but I can't do anything about it but vacuum it, for fear of insulting him.
I wanted to switch out some ugly flourescents in the kitchen of my recently purchased older home. The previous owner had thought himself quite the handyman.
When my electrician broke into the ceiling and started pulling the old light out, he burst out laughing and asked me (jokingly) if I thought the house had been built to code. Sadly he was making some black humour regarding the wiring. It seems the previous owner had done much of the wiring himself and done it poorly.
I used to live in this huge old house that had been turned into 4 apartments. They made the back stairwell into this wonderful huge deep closet (a rare find in historic buildings). Except my landlord installed these huge drawers in the back of it. They were all about a foot deep and at least 2 ft. long. Storing or hanging anything in the closet means that you block the drawers and can't open them. And they went almost up to the ceiling. I'm 5'6". The top 2 drawers were above my head. What the heck was I supposed to put in those two? Whatever it was I would never be able to get it out again. Even standing on a chair with a mirror and a flashlight I couldn't see into the back of that top drawer. Crazy.
One of my previous roommates insisted that there was something wrong with the tiles on our bathroom floor. I thought it looked fine. He insisted that the landlord come fix it. The landlord hired this guy to come and re-tile the floor, but it was obvious this guy was no professional. Now we have nice white tiles on our floor that look like they are permanently dirty! I think he was supposed to clean up some kind of substance before it dried, and he didn't, so now it is impossible to get off, and it looks like we haven't cleaned the bathroom in 10 years. That's the kind of thing you have to explain to guests! haha.
Our previous house was extended by the owner who, I think, was a builder but it meant that every single thing was not quite as expected and any job we tried to do took longer than predicted and threw up problems. We learnt not to take any assumption for granted!
In our current house (rented), they repainted before we moved in but very, very badly so there are splodges of paint an inch wide on all the trim and edges of the ceilings. Very annoying!
Someone laid vinyl flooring over vinyl flooring in the kitchen - but it's haphazard and there are 1/2" gaps between some of the squares, and they didn't bother to move the appliances out before doing it, so everything is a bit wonky and the gaps are perfect for trapping all sorts of debris. I think a preschooler with safety scissors and Elmer's Glue could have done a better job.
Someone also thought it was a good idea to repaint the guest bath with some heavily textured matte painting technique (in a putrid orange color over a matte mustard) - meaning that the walls are near impossible to clean. But it goes great with the horrific faux antique hardware that they installed in there, as well as the two off-centered and crooked lamps with crystals hanging from them.
And I'm not sure how anyone ever thought it was a good idea to play electrician for a day and mess up all of the light switches/outlets and then cover up the hard wiring in the ceiling, rendering the switches useless and the ceiling "outlets" (not sure what they're called, the spot where you'd hang a light or ceiling fan) completely concealed. And there are dimmer switches in the closets - my clothing and shoes really enjoy the mood lighting.
I try not to mind too much, as we're just renting - and it's "quirky"! It drives my husband nuts, but I just try to embrace the quirks.
We just bought a house and are suffering with the previous owners' DIY projects, which they did to put the house on the market. We're finding that on first glance they might look nice, but if you start looking closer, you find that it was all for show and the projects were either sloppily done or unfinished.
1) Pulling out the old washer and dryer (to make room for our newer ones) we found the drywall behind them not installed and the outline of the washer in old paint, where they hadn't bothered to finish painting.
2) Baseboard trim in the kitchen unfinished behind appliances
3) Overspray from the white paint job on the black refrigerator
4) The kitchen countertops (a very thin piece of faux-granite not cut well, or joined well together, with an extra 3 inches on one side tacked on like they forgot to measure correctly
5) The kitchen doorway and window trim painted a flat black. How the heck do you clean that up?
6) Bad wiring in many places in the house
7) Bathroom tile that was grouted, but not sealed
8) Patchwork tile around the faucets, instead of precise cuts
9) Nightmare caulking - they caulked everywhere, and then didn't come back and smooth it out.
10) Wonky tile setting, so that the bathroom shower wall looks like it could be a skate park
11) Messy, messy painting EVERYWHERE in the house. This causes my in-a-previous-life interior painter husband to swear a lot.
The funny thing is, the previous owner is actually a house inspector! The cobbler's children have no shoes...
We've taken to using their name as an oath whenever we come across a new offense. And we're tucking away money to eventually restore our gorgeous 1916 semi-Craftsman beauty to it's full glory.
I did my own poor DIY job, not on my apartment though, but on a coffee table. I decided to do a mosaic art piece out of an old worn out and ugly coffee table, and honestly the project was going pretty well and looked really nice.
That is, until I ran out of tiles and realized that the store I got them from doesn't carry that type any more. So now I have a half finished mosaic table in my living room, mostly because I am too stubborn to let it go, always hoping to find more of those stupid tiles.
Not the worst DIY mistake, but it stares me in the eye every day all the same :(
The vinyl in my apartment was painted white...to match the walls. I think even the faux wood vinyl tiles underneath would have been better than constantly and obsessively cleaning the floors. Thankfully the circular area rug covers up most of it, but it is definitely my biggest pet peeve. I also hate the screws sticking out of the kitchen cupboard door because the previous tenants just HAD to screw their garbage can to the door. I contemplated painting the floors a different colour but it wasn't a project I wanted to tackle before moving in! The joys of renting!
1) Large hole in the kitchen wall that we found when we replaced the over-the-range microwave with a standard vent hood.
2) Every surface of the kitchen covered with cheap white tile -- walls, counters, floor. I daydream about taking a sledgehammer to the whole room.
3) Congealed paint drips on nearly every piece of trim. Apparently they really globbed on the paint, and then neglected to go back over it to smooth the drips.
I could go on and on, but it only raises my blood pressure.
Our house is full of poorly-done DIY projects from the previous owners.
The worst is our bathtub. Apparently it had hard water stains or something, so they decided to paint it with some kind of gloss enamel. It began chipping off with the first shower after we bought the house. I dream of the day we can afford to renovate the bathroom!
all of these comments make me laugh since i am wrapping up a gut reno on a home i bought this summer. it is only funny looking back, not so funny when you have to resolve the issues. here are some issues i ran into:
1. basement bathroom fan vented into floor grate of the room upstairs! just disgusting.
2. basement window broken in order to vent dryer in the basement! so much for keeping rain or winter air out of the basement.
3. electrical held together with tape in some places, and spliced together every which way. major fire hazard.
4. bedroom closet made out of 3 layers of wood paneling! a closet where you can't hang anything, perfect! ;)
Even though it's more expensive, I rather pay a professional to do the job correctly. I have no patience for lines that are not straight or paint that is sloppy. My DIY projects tend to be on furniture or less permanent things.
I was going to tile my bathroom floor and am happy I didn't. The house is old and everything is uneven and it took the experienced tile person, a long time to level the floor and each individual tile.
Dear HGTV-Obsessed, Sponge Roller Happy former occupant of my condo, while I appreciate your creative impulse, the bedroom's purple and lavender harlequin diamonds half way up to the lofted ceiling lost its pizzazz due to their single wall presence while the remaining walls were purple sponged except behind (what I am assuming were) the TV and curtains.
Your reasons for painting the rest of the condo walls in gold sponge must have transpired the obvious fact that gold sponge in an oddly shaped/ oddly lit condo causes the walls to look dirty.
The construction-orange walls and the laminate wood counters covered in wall paint (due to a giant singe) in a kitchen is smaller than an average walk in closet were cruel to the corneas and fingertips of guests/ future condo owners.
Even though we never met because the HOA got the Constable to remove you from the premise, I will forever think of you. Ultimately because you left three cans of unused bubble gum pink paint and two 80 pound bags of plaster in the storage closet, and since the condo is 738 sq. feet, what in the world were you planning to do with them?
PS - You also left the purple tinged sponge roller kit.
Our house is full of previous owner DIY's gone wrong!! Beginning with the entire inside of the house (including the trim, doors and their hinges) being painted the same high gloss slightly grayish, blue, off-white color. Many of the windows are "sealed" with something that is NOT caulk (that's going to take awhile to re-do). Near one of the outlets in our living room, the wall is patched with bathroom caulk instead of spackle (so it's kind of rubbery!). Also, the master bath has a horrible vinyl floor that is peeling in some areas and barely makes it to the other side of the room. Also, the numerous layers of paint in the guest bath...there's one spot where I found wallpaper sandwiched in between many layers of paint! There is a lot of work to be done :)
OMD. My previous house had a list of idiot redneck single guy (the previous owner) DIY's a mile long, but my favorite was that he decided to spray the inside of all of the closets with popcorn ceiling texture crap. Because he loved it so much that re-doing the ceilings with it wasn't enough?
What a PITA, constantly having that chunky stuff and dust get all over anything in there.
There were days when I seriously considered calling the guy up and telling him exactly what I thought of his "ideas".
My friend bought a house that had fir floorboards under the dirty 70s carpet, so of course she ripped the carpet up...
to find that someone had carved 1 inch wide grooves into the actual floorboards to accommodate the TV cabling!!! The grooves are cut right across the MIDDLE of the living/dining room, then make a L turn towards the front door.
Every time I think 'what type of person would do that?', my head boggles - there is a basement directly below those rooms, so they could have just drilled one small hole to feed the cables through, then another at the front of the house.
The effort involved in making what appear to be hand-chiseled grooves for some 20 feet through beautiful fir floorboards would have been considerably harder than just drilling a few holes.
My house was built in 1880. Awesome, right? Unfortunately, it was completely re-done in the 70's to include wood paneling (with no insulation behind it and which has been painted multiple shades of beige), an indoor bathroom was added that is NOT up to code and is being supported by a 2'x4' on a sideways broken cinderblock, crappy cardboard-type ceiling tiles were added to hide the exposed beams, beige wall-to-wall-carpet was installed to cover the wood floors and absorb every cigarette smoked and urine expelled from a pet, and every ounce of charm was either removed or covered. We've removed the ceilings and carpets but all the other stuff is heartbreaking. Not to mention the deck is unsafe for even a cooler, our basement floods, and the whole house is slanted. The stairs consist of 3 normal steps followed by 8 pie-shaped wooden steps that have contributed to broken ribs and a bruised butt but we put some gorgeous sandpaper tape on the edges of each step. Also, the smallest bedroom has four electrical outlets while our bedroom (which was originally two rooms back in the day) has one outlet...in my husband's closet.
Still, despite its faults, I love the crazy house.
I painted my bathroom tiles - big mistake. Despite doing all the relevant prep work and priming, the paint has peeled in certain areas. If I could do it over, I would rather just retile properly.
When my roommate and I moved back into the house he owned and had been renting to a family for a couple of years, we discovered a number of horrid things they had done to it. The master bedroom was painted a Wizard-of-Oz Emerald City green, the kitchen what I can only describe as baby diarrhea brown, and my room (formerly the little girl's) was dark charcoal gray with the most awful white sponge job on one wall. When we were repainting, we discovered that the sponge accent had been done in latex paint, and we had to sand it all down lest it leave spongy shaped bumps on the wall.
Their little dog had also chewed up the corners of the adorable 50's white vinyl dinette booth that had been custom upholstered. Sad :(
Our well-shaded apartment has two bedrooms. When we moved in, one room was had forest green walls. The other had one cobalt blue wall and a cobalt blue CEILING. Both of these paint jobs were done poorly, and all of the walls - especially those that were still white - were scuffed up. I have no idea who thought this was a good idea, but we immediately painted over it.
A previous apartment had a very badly tiled bathroom - we were told that it was a collaborative effort, and one person started at one end and the other at the other end, and I'm sure you can see where this ended up.
Yet another apartment had a square but kidney shaped tub that previous tenants had PAINTED pink. About every other year, our landlord had to sand down the tub and repaint and reseal it. It was effing gross. Same apartment had the most hideous carpet (in the kitchen!) that I'd ever seen. The previous owner was also really into tiling. REALLY. As in, every surface imaginable had small tiles: walls, windowsills, backsplash, all faces of the pantry shelves (top, edge, underneath), backs of doors, etc. MAYBE the most ridiculous place I've ever rented, which is really saying something.
My current house is quite lovely but my starter home had been previously owned by a barber, who had rented it to his ex-wife along with her un-housebroken dog & cat. At least the carpet had been removed from most of the rooms before I saw it, but the stench of animal urine was so overpoweringly bad that it took 5 gallons of white vinegar poured directly over the floors, combined with a week's worth of ventilation before I got rid of the odors permanently.
The barber's idea of adding a light fixture consisted of stapling an extension cord from the kitchen outlet, up the wall and across the ceiling into the next room. He attached one of those plugs to the end of said extension cord to add one of those light bulb with a pull chain attachments above the basement stairs. There were other extension cords stapled to other walls, but this basement light was truly the most dangerously awful DIY I've ever seen. Sad.
There was also ugly yellowish linoleum that had been carelessly glued over original hardwood floors without sweeping first so that there were little lumps everywhere underneath the kitchen and bathroom floors from dirt.
The spare bedroom had been made over ( I can't bring myself to say remodelled) into a barbershop, and had truly awful wallpaper, the kind with the old fashioned, 1900's type of advertisements on the walls. Too bad the installer either hadn't learned how to line up the wallpaper or was in a big hurry because it was both crooked and peeling.
The final DIY project I tore out was the patio "room" made from plywood nailed directly to loose 4 x 4's - apparently whoever designed it had never heard of post holes, post mix or anchors of any kind. The two sheets of plywood were topped by roofing tiles which added quite a bit weight and I was afraid the whole thing might topple over and kill someone.
When I sold the house it was 1000% safer with fully restored hardwood flooring, new electrical wiring, a new roof, new plumbing, new windows, the works. This was long before the trend of "flipping" houses and was a labor of love.
I love our house to bits, but the previous owners pretty much eradicated all of its 100-year history. Everything that wasn't painted mint green - :-( - was clad in corn-yellow plastic panelling. Except the bathroom, which is GREY plastic panelling. Oh, and except the downstairs loo, which is BLUE plastic panelling. With flowers. Any visible wood had turned a cheap orange.
We knew it was going to be a huge chore, but three years later no end is in sight.
Let's just say the electrician's expression was of the "I get to tell them that my estimate is now doubled" happy type when he had finally figured out that the previous owners, in redoing the kitchen themselves, had put the refrigerator, disposal, stove, dishwasher, microwave, and three wall outlets all on the same 15 amp circuit.
Extend the same sensibilities -- not just electrical but also caulk-, tile-, and paint-wise -- to every other room.
But it's a great house, and all the neighbors let us know how happy they are about the work we are doing on it, using professionals in those places where we (believe we) know our limits.
This is one seriously depressing thread!
I'm uber-picky and back when I had to rent, if the place felt wrong, I just couldn't live there -- so I have had pretty good luck. One weirdness though was an apartment where the beige carpeting had two spots where it looked like someone had cut out squares of the carpeting at about the distance apart that a person might place speakers. Maybe to have contact with the concrete sub-floor?? I don't know. But the holes were patched with BROWN carpet. (I covered the whole zone with furniture.)
I feel sad for everyone above -- what horrors! (I support landlords who keep their properties up and who are pretty strict about what tenents can and cannot do. My former landlords and I agreed that I could paint within certain limitations, install improvements if I left them (and they often even reimbursed me for my investments) and so on, but I ALWAYS checked with them before messing with their property.)
In the bathroom of my rental unit in a 100 year old house, previous DIYs had left several big gaps between walls forming an indented closet thing. I imagined giant creepy spiders living in there and coming out at night to invade us.
The proper thing to do would be to get drywall tape and plaster etc. and mud up the gaps. But I was in a hurry.
So I taped off all the seams with plastic packing tape, and then painted over top! It looks fine! It's in the corner and you'd never even know. Just don't touch it, okay?
We rent the upper floor of a beautiful but decrepit 100-year-old house.
1) Our downstairs neighbour bought wood laminate flooring to replace her hideous vinyl tile in the kitchen. The landlord's brother (landlord lives in a different province) came over to install it and got frustrated fitting the tongue-and-groove edges together so he sawed them all off and used a combination of glue and nails to affix the planks to the floor.
2) Someone decided to partially upgrade the knob-and-tube wiring some time ago... with very rudimentary knowledge of wiring. It's a hazardous mess that we have been campaigning to have fixed because we have repeatedly gotten shocks from places that would not normally carry any current like the bathroom faucet, the handle of our electric tea kettle, the fume hood on our stove, etc.
3) A backsplash painted in eggshell finish Electric Peach.
4) Tiny nails hammered into the hardwood floors EVERYWHERE to stop the floor from creaking. Many of them have worked their way out of the wood and sit there waiting to rip holes in our socks or trip us. We'd personally rather live with creaking than have to wear shoes in the house 24-7.
5) A new wall erected between our living room and bedroom to create space for a closet and bathroom off the bedroom... but the wall was put up so it bisects a window, leaving half in the living room and half at the back of a closet.
6) Kitchen floor is so dramatically not level that if you drop anything, it rolls out the door. Understandable in an old house, except that the kitchen floor was re-done sometime in the last decade. The vinyl tile is so flimsy that it rips every time we scrape a chair leg against it... and that reveals the lovely plywood sub-floor.
7) Someone ran out of beige tiles while tiling the bathtub enclosure and switched to marbled white-and-bronze ones 3/4 of the way through.
Oh, I could go on and on, but you get the idea! Loved reading everyone else's too!
Well, I was going to complain about my kitchen, where somebody had painted over the hideous wallpaper with equally hideous peach paint, but after reading this thread - never mind! It gets SO much worse!
ngnerd: Construction manager at a nuclear power plant?! TERRIFYING
I once glued down astroturf to a covered balcony. Yuck, yuck, yuck!
Our current rental could be a lovely 1920's house if the owner and/or manager had taken the time to take care of it. Instead they:
- Painted over beautiful subway tile in the bathroom instead of replacing 3 tiles easily found at a hardware store.
- Painted over crystal doorknobs, plugs, hinges, WALLPAPER
- Painted over cabinets so many time that the doors won't close.
- Replaced a wood banister with a cheap outdoor wrought iron
- Put linoleum (that is peeling at the edges) over floor tile, put carpet over hardwood
- Started painting the stairway but stopped when they couldn't reach any higher
- Painted over brass pipes, vents, and outlet covers
And the list goes on. This is all in one house and I wish I could keep them from making anymore horrible choices.
In my garage we decided to put up an industrial ceiling fan to replace the bulb that was there. When you turned the fan on the garage door went up. We had to take the whole thing down.
I've been laughing out loud at these posts! Such a fun thread. I have been feeling a little better about our own "crazy" 70's-built house. Too many strange quirks to mention and my mother was right about house-ownership: you're never done. One thought- for years whenever we opened the front aluminum storm door we'd get a mild electric shock if our feet were bare (summers on the cement-floored porch). An electrician finally figured out the wires in the doorbell were messed up. I kind of miss that now (just kidding)! My guess is that that was "fixed" by the the DIY-er previous owner.
Confession: Many years ago as a renter of a house, I removed the heavy drapes the owner had up and put my own lighter curtains up. As we were moving out, I decided to do her a "favor" and clean those curtains; I threw them in the washer and dryer without consulting the cleaning instructions. They went back up significantly shorter in length than when I took them down! She was nice and didn't give us a hard time about it, but I have always cringed about doing that.
So I moved in 2 years ago into a small cape 2 yrs ago. Instantly we saw things sooo wrong, like gray wood panelling over two layers of wall paper and 2 bathrooms that have linoleum tiles that were put down like stickers over ceramic tiles. One the bathrooms still has a window in the shower. The funny thing is the view is the drywall for the all season porch on the otherside. No sunshine, No light of any kind. :(
The previous owners of my house painted over old wallpaper in the bedrooms -- which I discovered whilst re-painting when the walls began to pucker. They also installed white vinyl over rotting subfloor in the kitchen, and installed one of those hideous surround baths with mottled glass sliding doors in the upstairs full bath, and an equally dreadful stand-up shower in the downstairs full bath. You can only imagine the caulk job. My husband and I almost completely remodeled the kitchen (saved vintage cabinets) but can't deal with any more demolition and mixing/laying cement and destroying router bits on stone 'til summer. Thank God they were too lazy to do anything else -- they left beautiful multi-pane windows and little abused oak floors.
We left our own little gift for the next owner: some in-cabinet jerry-rigging to support the 200 lb. range top I bought after measuring improperly.
We've been in our house for about 10 years. The people before us "flipped" the house so there were all sorts of weird poorly done renovations.
My favorite, which we discovered the day we moved in, is that they had taken out a built in medicine cabinet from the downstairs bathroom -- and papered right over it. So, it's like a drum. I was able to hang a new mirror over it by nailing in a hook over where the hole was, but it was still weird...
The last basement I rented.
The ENTIRE basement suite must have been DIY. The WHOLE THING.
- The kitchen ceiling was actually the staircase that was awkwardly chopped off, the hole covered with plywood and not even patched up. I don't know how they hung a light there. It shook whenever someone walked around upstairs.
- The wiring in the entire suite was completely backwards and ungrounded. We probably should have burned to death.
- The fridge, microwave, oven and the entire "living room" was all on the same circuit.
- The plumbing was so connected and so clogged up (probably air bubbles) that whenever I drained the kitchen sink, greasy sludge would gurgle up into the bathtub. Took a while to figure out why the tub was always smelly, greasy and covered with bits of food.
- Fan in the bathroom, but no ducts.
- Front door was very broken.
- Nasty fake wood paneling that just hung off of the walls and was home to many creatures.
- Circuit box for the entire house wasn't even enclosed in metal. It was just sitting in the drywall over our bed.
We lived there for a year and somehow made it out alive. If the fire hazards and the gas fumes weren't enough, we slept with a machete nearby because of the crackhead neighbours.
Oh gosh, Melle, your number four point happened to us in our new-ish apartment! It's a renovated old house and the landlords were definitely eager to fix the problem but it was so gross to see old bits of food in the bathtub when you least expected it.
Our apartment has a lot of little DIY quirks but I'm not really bothered by them. The floors are uneven (I dropped a bottle of pop the first time we went grocery shopping... it just rolled toward the cabinets, haha) and the bathroom is a weird uneven disaster. BUT it's a place to call home and we love it, despite it's topsy-turnyness.
The previous owner of our condo was a "contractor" (using that term loosely here) who completely remodeled everything. The problem is that the floors aren't even and the laminate is pulling apart, he apparently didn't ever tape any woodwork when painting, patched holes in the wall leaving "lumps" under the paint, took out fixtures and instead of patching drywall, either installed cabinets in front, or used metal plates to cover the holes. And the cabinets aren't square. And I could go on, and on and on.
So even "professionals" do bad DIY projects.
Where do I begin? How about the bedroom that was papered in 3 walls of leopard print wallpaper? The 4th wall was covered floor-to-ceiling in mirrors.. the approx. 8x8 kind with the peel back adhesive. And the hand stuccoed ceiling, complete with a small track light smack in the middle of the ceiling. That contained one light! Oh, and the huge heavy hand made painted black waterbed frame. Yes, of course, a filthy low quality shag rug! Wish I'd taken "before"photos.
And that's only the beginning....
Oh my god. Where do I start.
I guess I'll start with the kitchen.
All the cabinets except for one have the handles on upside down. The cabinet under the sink has been fixed with Styrofoam, the trap door to the basement has a key-chain as the lift.
The basement. The walls leak badly when it rains, so badly that the small windows have become so water sodden that they won't even close. The solution my landlady had? Paint the walls a horrible neon seafoam green.
The living room is fairly decent. but the bedroom has an awful linolium floor with matching yellow walls. I assume that it used to be a dining room because it has an outside door. This baffles me because I don't understand where the bedroom used to be. That and there is a misplaced row of shelves along the wall above my bed.
The bathroom...oh yes the bathroom.
The ceiling leaks above the window so badly that its destroying the floor, and every so often it leads to a wonderful fairy tale forest of mushrooms. The shower is repaired with duct-tape. She offered to caulk it, decided against it and used West Virginia chrome.
The walls have this horrible tiling on it, that they painted this chalky powder blue. and for some reason the toilet is SIX INCHES FROM THE SHOWER STALL. FACING IT.....you have to sit sideways on the toilet lest you wipe your feces on your side.
Yeah, there are plenty of cases wherein the people are more inclined to have the marble flooring and they do call in for a contractor to provide the professional touch as this is indeed something that would be of a much more importance.
home renovations jobs
Ohhhhh, I have so many!
My parents decided to rip up the carpets in their 70's built house, only to find the carpet was laid on bare ground - no floor was ever thrown...Also, the chunks of plaster falling from the walls when my mom tried to remove the brown and beige polka dot wall paper...
Commune at varsity - when complaining about my leaking roof, the landlady replied "oh, I prayed so that it wouldn't rain", got her nephew to seal the inside of the ceiling with caulk, creating a dam on top of the ceiling. A week after I moved out, the whole ceiling collapsed with a dam of rotten water onto the next sucker's stuff.
Ohhhhh, I have so many!
My parents decided to rip up the carpets in their 70's built house, only to find the carpet was laid on bare ground - no floor was ever thrown...Also, the chunks of plaster falling from the walls when my mom tried to remove the brown and beige polka dot wall paper...
Commune at varsity - when complaining about my leaking roof, the landlady replied "oh, I prayed so that it wouldn't rain", got her nephew to seal the inside of the ceiling with caulk, creating a dam on top of the ceiling. A week after I moved out, the whole ceiling collapsed with a dam of rotten water onto the next sucker's stuff.
I recently bought my first 60 square meter apartment in Cape Town, with gorgeous Rhodesian Teak parquet floors, the works. Only problem: The bathroom and kitchen tiles had been handpainted badly. The previous owner had used prestik (blu-tac) instead of grout and filler. He proceeded to paint over it. Light fittings receding an inch from the ceiling - just use masking tape! We removed three generations of curtain fittings from the walls. The oldest was metal brackets screwed onto the walls. They just smoothed it out with plaster into a little hill and painted over it.
the occasional crackling noise clued us in and the loss of part of our security deposit cured us of DIY projects done without thorough investigation.
---by chimney pipe
Our house was built sometime before indoor plumbing and electricity (I'm not sure exactly when; it's a rental), and they didn't build in any storage at all. Sometime in the 70s, someone decided to build a closet in the bedroom. The bedroom is gorgeous- 10' ceilings, big windows, and about 10' x 14' or so.
The closet? It's the full width of the short side of the bedroom, all the way up to the ceiling, and a grand total of 20 inches deep, if you measure the full depth to the drywall in between the exposed studs. Then, because it was pretty ridiculous to put the hanging rods on the short ends, they got a 10' pole and hung it 8' above the ground. Not only couldn't I reach it, it sagged tremendously when anything was put on it, and they also put 16" deep wire shelving at about belly button height on both sides (so that you couldn't even walk into this ridiculous closet to get anywhere).
We took it all out and now essentially just have two closets, one on either end. Ugh!
This is on top of the fact that our bathroom is the absolute smallest bathroom I've ever seen. It is literally twice the size of the bathtub. The bathtub is on the far side from the door, but directly in front of the door (and halfway blocking it) is the wall-hung sink. The toilet is close enough to the sink (facing it, too) that you could wash your hands without getting up. And it has no storage whatsoever. Everything is on a set of shelves outside of the other bedroom.


text:
locally grown
good reads
locally grown
good reads
Alamosa Books is a locally-owned,
independent bookstore
located in Albuquerque's Northeast Heights.
@ the corner of Paseo del Norte and Ventura
in the same plaza as Trader Joe's.
Store Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 am to 8:00 pm Main Store
Tuesday - Saturday 9:00 am to 8:00 pm Reading Room
Sunday and Monday Noon to 6:00 pm
We are closed most major holidays.
Watch for postings.
Alamosa Books is the only Southwest bookstore to specialize in all aspects of publishing for kids. We carry a broad selection of fiction, ranging from picture books and early readers to young adult literature and classics. We carry science fiction, fantasy, mystery, adventure, graphic novels, poetry, international titles, and have a whole wall of general fiction, including many books that speak to teen issues.
We also have non-fiction that appeals to kids. We have large history and science sections. We carry books on art, music, writing and many other crafts. We augment these sections with toys, games and kits that engage kids in doing what they read.
All our shelves have books that focus on New Mexico or are written or illustrated by New Mexicans. We also carry a selection of gift items made by local artists, including Tinworks ornaments and Julie's Flying Hearts greeting cards.
We recognize that buying books for kids can sometimes be baffling. So we have a broadly-educated and hip staff that can recommend the best book on any given topic for any age range and reading level. We try our utmost to keep up with new releases so you don't have to. We are avid readers. And many of us are kids' books addicts!
Alamosa is a great place to shop, but it's also a great place to be. We have a craft corner, comfy chairs and pillows for reading, tables for homework or meetings and a highly relaxed atmosphere. (Except when Elizabeth is moving the furniture.) We have a fabulous event space, accommodating groups of up to 75 comfortably seated. We can do 100 in a pinch. We have a projector and screen if your group or event needs a multi-media touch and have sound equipment (and tech boys) available for performances of all kinds.
And, yes indeed, we hold events of all kinds. We have periodic Open Mics for music and poetry. We host private writing groups and book clubs and serve as home to the local chapter of the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (second Tuesdays each month at 7 pm, open to the public). We have author events that range from intimate gatherings to book release festivals. We also coordinate and provide book sales for off-site events.
Alamosa Books is a member of the American Booksellers Association and the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association. We report weekly sales to Bookscan and the NYTimes Bestsellers.
Contact information:
Alamosa Books LLC
8810 Holly Avenue NE Ste. D
Albuquerque, NM 87122

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Walking through the doors in a back alley, into a space that screamed 'underground' cool,I couldn't have been more ready to see what this night of mainly fashion, with its pleasantly intervening perks,would bring.
This Is London was a fashion showcase that was organised by the founders of two already UP and wont stop Coming fashion lines; L.monroe and Horoco. On arrival , it was straight down to business;a whole lot of dressing girls, checking girls, asking questions, getting answers, looking for shoes, getting this and ironing that and making sure of one or the other.Being all over the place, didn't stop me from making sure I was in the right place, to talk to the right people.Its easy to get wrapped up in the hype of the moment, but in the chaos; its hard to missed the very frequent, swap of numbers, facebook names, twitter and BB pins. It was interesting to note how industry people will not allow opportunity to slip through their fingers, the rule; "
DO NOT TALK TO STRANGERS" can rightly be considered a crime against your career in such a networking based institution.
Keith Colin, Pc Williams, ODF Clothing,Lalka, Kenema & Co and of course the innovative L.monroe and Horoco, graced the runway and I made sure that behind the scenes I got a the essense of who they are as a label and designer and spoke.
I saw it in the eyes of some of the clothes and label designers, the passion that I could VERY MUCH relate with.Their pieces were like their babies and after small chit-chat with them, I realised their attention was in the detail. Regardless of whether anyone would take notice, of what they must've believed to be 'garment genius' at the point of creation, a sense of pride emerged when they described and explained the nature of their pieces.
And OOOFF COUURSE I couldn't resist the Kenke Kodak moments.It was a true pleasure to be in the midst of creative people of MY SORT and even though I was running around( true back-runway style), missing the final result of hours organising and prepping, it was a price easily paid to experience the rush of adrenaline that a behind-the-scenes of a fashion show gives.It was most inspiring and encouraged me to get busy because my own goals are only a 'Kenke getting busy' away.I can make ME happen.
I can DEFINITELY get used to this.I think I already am used to it.Maybe I was born used to it……Just maybe almost certainly definitely.
I wanted a story to drive the purpose of a mini shoot, campus and student based; I found it most appropriate to go for STYLE PROFILING. After coming up with the not so 'fresh' idea I tried to make things more exciting and gave the style profiling a bit of focus. I decided to tell the girls to bring those KEY items from there wardrobe this winter that have become, almost subconsciously, vital for their day-to-day ensemble. The girls came with their key items (Monica- chunky jumper, Chloe- Chelsea boots and her Gold 'Retro' Casio, Lucy-Her worn boots). I planned to simply get a couple of quotes from the girls about why they had chosen these things as key items and why they wear it the way they do. But as the KENKE I am, the discussion, inevitably, took a more interesting turn.
After talking to the girls and encouraging them to search for depth in the subject of their fashion and style, unsurprisingly, like any other aspect of our day-to-day life, the subject emerged to be as political as any other subject in society. Chloe used the words; Indie, quirky and dated to describe her look and shunned the idea of measuring her sense of style against the looks that inundate the pages of the, now many, fashion mags that have overtaken the shelves of our local news agent. Likewise Lucy, who shopped in charity shops 'before it was cool', also denies the popular culture of 'following fashion'.
I'm used to hearing this idea of 'not following fashion' and can no longer ignore the slight hint of elitism concerning the whole subject. I mention this to the girls and a swift claim of modesty arises. So I had apparently got the wrong end of the stick, so I ask Lucy why she appeared to be annoyed at the sudden interest in charity shops and vintage clothing. It seemed, interestingly, to have nothing to do with the involuntary membership to the inevitably 'un-cool-'cool'' majority and everything to do with the function of society. Likening herself to a hippie, after a travelling trip across the world, Lucy decided to take a Marxist approach to life and her wardrobe. Deciding to deny a consumerism attitude, Lucy decided to reject capitalism and refuse to contribute to the big high street names that impose money making ideologies; ignoring the unlucky labourer at the bottom of the 'food chain'. Charity shops were one of her options, moving away from fashion capitalism; being second hand, cheap, economical, socially friendly, it seemed like a solution.hmmm
UNTIL NOW . Charity shops appear to have become the new 'addition' to the exploiting consumerist culture(due to popularity), much to the annoyance of Lucy, she can now be asked to pay 50 pounds for that 8 pound dress she spotted 2 yrs ago. Shame? But not so shameful? More money for the people in need?… Doesn't seem to matter to some, the way they see it, it's just one more area that has been taken over by the not 'sooo cool crowd' making things more complicated in the world.
I am studying sociology at university and now more than ever, I'm seeing fashion in a whole new light that finally makes sense to me. I can now apply sociological theory to the infamous 'Kenke Fashion Theories' that, previously, were labelled as the result of me 'thinking too much' or 'TAKING FASHION TOO SERIOUSLY'.I can now verify that the relationship between fashion and society is very much alive and can be explored on the notion that one's views on the economy, politics and culture, can very much be reflected in there image. I must admit, a little bit more digging and investigating is required to discover what the origin of one's influence , concerning something as 'trivial' as choosing what to buy and wear.
It has never been trivial to me, why do you wear what you wear?
……Food for thought ay!!
The same way in which a city black out would catch your attention, this black out will not fall short of making you take note. I have forEVER struggled to achieve the 'Simply Neat' look. Ironically, trying to look basic has always left me mind boggled. I've always associated simplicity with elegance and that 'VIP' vibe, that oooozes 'I'm so cool, I'll stand out even if I didn't want to, no sequins necessary'. I'll have it all planned out; 'I'm going to stick to 3 colours!' I'll kid myself, BUT like there's a secret inner child screaming to get out, I'll leave my house realising, 'DOH!!' (Homer Simpson style), I have SOME HOW managed (with a funky scarf and statement jewellery) TO DONE IT AGAIN! Siiiiigh There goes inevitably funky Kenke, in all her conspicuous glory. I had to find a solution. I needed to find a way to keep the cool simplicity, without the irremovable funky character disrupting the whole operation.
And with a BANG, it came to me, ALL BLACK.
An easy rule to stick to, infallible even. This allowed me to play around with as many different textures as I wanted. (QUEUE THE faux fur, leather, suede, plastic fantastic, mesh, denim, velvet, tweed numbers with no fear of clashing!!) I still caught eyes, but not for the obvious 'oddness' people came accustom to associating me with. This look required more attention from onlookers, who would; with a more inquisitive eye, discover the depth of the simple but not so simple ALL BLACK ensemble.
As much as I credit the naturally gifted, simply elegant, 'VIP' cool people mentioned earlier, ALL BETS ARE OFF FOR THE UBER COOLEST OF THEM ALL, we have a winner. I don't think anything can beat or go wrong with a (far from bland) BLACKED OUT chick or guy, day or night, come rain or sunshine (mmm sunshine, heat hazard? But worth it?) Although it may be dull, I find it definitely makes ME stand out , literally, it makes my skin BURST out of my clothes.
And the BLACK PARADE doesn't stop there. ALL BLACK works a treat with that ONE statement piece you want to catch eyes.YEP, I'll give the black rule a bit of leeway, for the sake of that fiery red leather jacket or that embellished metallic gilet.mmm YUM
All in all I think the 'BLACK OUT' look(allowing the odd burst of added colours and accessories) is the epitome of cool and sophistication; timeless, even without being associated with 'little' and 'dress'. Approached correctly, with a true sense of style, this look is foolproof. Maybe it's the idea of removing the startling statement colours and patterns, that may be relied on to have the 'WOW' factor and still showing character in the 'blandest' of colours, that I'm enthralled with. HEY. Whatever it is, I LOVE IT. OR maybe it's just a phase I'm going through. Good thing everything I own isn't black (because I still have my colourful days).
On the contrary, to be honest, like everything abstract and 'artistic', such as fashion, the rules are not the written in stone. YOU CAN DO WHAT U WANT WITH BLACK. Heck, I do. As much as my look works in my eyes, yours should work in yours. SIMPLE ;)
So my sister had a classic Casio Digital watch in 2008, honestly, I didn't understand it, but I respected the difference and to some extent admired the fact that she took a liking to something that wasn't IN YOUR SHOPPING FACE . I have never really been a 'watch person', needless to say, the odd sleek time teller has never failed to get a second look and maybe a failed attempt in finding the motivation to actually to go out and find an wrist bound eye catcher .I'm not one to get sucked into the hype of seasonal watches from various brands, personally I think it will be too hard to keep up with and harsh on my bank account. I'm in the pursuit of a classful timeless watch; one for the party as well as the office, never failing in to enthral/mesmerise onlookers as well as myself with each and every glance given to capture the year, month, day, hour, second, moment in time that will never come again, reminding me that the very moment in life that I am In should be savoured and enjoyed in all its preciousness. Siiiiiggghhh. Yep, this watch possibly only exists in my dreams.
Well in the mean time the vacancy for 'something that will do' (with the necessary appealing, price, look, practicality and cool factor) came up . Not after much searching it seemed the digital Casio seemed to be recurrent in my cool image eye. I took it upon myself to take my mum's DKNY gold plated watch and, for a short while, thoroughly enjoyed the vintage rich vibe that my wrist was giving off, but it wasn't mine and wasn't the hard wearing watch my-rough prone-self needed. THEN ON MY BEST FRIENDS WRIST I SAW THE Casio Gold Retro Digital Watch A168 A168W A168WG-9W all of a sudden I had an Epiphany! Flash backs thoughts of the 'something that will do' criteria came to me as I realised I had found the OTHER one.
Although the new adapted Casio G-shock watch seemed to have taken front stage in the cool competition, the mere fact that the Classic Casio Digital (original G-Shock)watch has managed to maintain sales enough to continue production for over 25 Years, is statement enough and deserves some sort of credit . It SCREAMS authenticity and personally, I just like it. Simples!
SO I got me one.
And it seeeeems I'm not alone!! look at the pictures I got of my fellow CASIOers of the moment !
It seems my indecisiveness is not just restricted to deciding what to buy in the supermarket, or what dress to wear, or what book to read…ETC.I have found another area of obscurity, siiigh; people ask me what I do, hmm, photography? styling? designing? creative directing? WHY MUST I BE PUT IN A
BOX ! LOL .Society is addicted to categorising, although one would think when it comes to more artistic, 'abstract' (lol) things, there will be an acceptance of a more looser approach to labelling? no? THIS IS A PROBLEM !!!
OOOOOOORRRR maybe I'm just avoiding making a decision because I LOVE it ALLLL.:) OK BOTTOM LINE, I just love creativity and will put my mind to work with almost anything and I want to develop, so until further notice I am a self-proclaimed (and also a new word founder) 'CREATIVER' …
For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode, but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.
It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows.
The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.
If you share this with another woman, something good will happen — you will boost another woman's self esteem, and she will know that you care about her."—Audrey Hepburn, Actress.


text:
Asustek Computer Inc. caught its big break last year by striking a co-branding deal with Google Inc. on the Nexus 7 tablet.
The popular device helped the Taiwanese company leapfrog to become the world's third largest tablet maker by shipments, behind only Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
But Asustek is now putting the focus on its own-brand tablets — a possible indication that Google may be looking elsewhere for its next Nexus 7 partner. Read More »


text:
Day 3: Declutter Appliances, Gadgets and Tools
The Kitchn Cure Fall 2013
Day 3: Wednesday, October 2
Assignment: Declutter appliances, gadgets and tools
I've had days in the kitchen where I open my drawer, my one and only drawer in my kitchen, and I find things so caddywhompus that I feel like shutting the drawer, turning around, and ordering take-out. Does this sound familiar? The corkscrew is twisted onto a whisk, there are wooden skewers poking into the sides of the drawer, and the ubiquitous drawer full of leftover containers with mis-matched tops. Up on the countertop there can be a different kind of chaos: appliances you don't use, tangled cords, perhaps a utensil jar with a melted rubber spatula, five of the same size wooden spoon, but not a single slotted spoon in sight.
It's time to tackle your stuff.
Today's Assignment (estimated time: 1-2 hours)
1. Take before photos of your kitchen tools: We want to see the scene before you weed things out. Show us your countertops, cupboards and other places you keep your kitchen tools and equipment. In the "before" shot, DO NOT clean things up for the camera. Post them to social media using the #kitchncure hashtag.
2. Declutter and purge: Make three categories: stuff you use regularly, stuff you use occasionally, and stuff you never use. It could be as small as a stray corn cob holder or as large as a KitchenAid mixer you got as a wedding gift and just don't use. Think about plastic food storage containers that don't have matching lids. Get into the flatware and plates if you want. There must be things in there you don't need.
- For stuff you use regularly: set it aside. It will be going back in the cupboards, but not before you wipe down all the surfaces.
- For stuff you use occasionally: consider using spaces in the back of a cabinet. For me this is my ice cream maker, a grain grinder, knife sharpening stones, and muffin tins. We often are asked how to maximize deep cupboards, so here's your chance. Also consider boxing up some of these items, like special occasion dinnerware, seasonal things (margarita glasses? BBQ tools?), all labeled neatly and placed in the rear of deep cabinet or in a high place in the kitchen like above the refrigerator.
- For stuff you never use: consider giving it away or selling it. I meet so many people who keep things in their kitchen that were given as gifts. This is your chance to take a leap, be bold, and get rid of those unused wedding gifts or things your bought because you thought you'd use them but you just don't. List them on on our classifieds, eBay or Craigslist. Believe me, someone wants your yogurt-maker. You don't need three grill pans. Be brave!
4. Put everything back in a logical manner. This might mean moving things around a bit. It might also mean adding to your shopping list things like a pot rack or some drawer dividers. Of course you don't have to spend a cent on this Cure but if you do have a budget, there are a few organizing products we can recommend for days 5 and 6. Be smart: nest bowls, consolidate leftovers containers, utilize counter space if your drawer space is lacking, think about a knife magnet for your knives.
The Kitchn Cure Liveblogs
Follow the progress of The Kitchn Cure in real live kitchens in our liveblogs:
Join The Kitchn Cure!
- Questions? Comments? Pictures? Email us at email@example.com
- Follow and show your progress on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter! Make sure to use the #kitchncure hashtag.
(Image: Previous Kitchn Cure participant and Flickr member JEAW licensed for use under Creative Commons and Emma Christensen)
More posts in this series
The Kitchn Cure Fall 2013
25 Comments
A great way to organize things cheaply is to go to your local Dollar Tree and pick up some small baskets! It's how we organized our bathroom drawers!
I figured this was coming. I've been meaning for years to take that challenge where you put the contents of your whole kitchen tool drawer in a bag and donate whatever you haven't removed to use within the following month. But since I haven't, I guess today's the day.
That comment about leftover cookie dough hanging around on the mixer fits me.
Maybe I can get my fiance to get the utensil drawer put back into the cabinet...
This is going to take a time for us - four drawers plus appliances. I still have the freezer to do and pantry/spice cupboard.
I heartily disagree on the numbers of bowls, tongs, and whatnot. Provided there is space to store them, multipes of most-used items can be wonderful. We have a double set of dry measuring cups, measuring spoons, multiple sets of tongs, and doubles of several sizes of mixing bowls. Especially when entertaining or cooking in quantity, they're invaluable.
I'm so excited for this clean today!
Nami 13, I'm with you. I use multiple rubber spatulas, mearsurers and tongs.
But I see the promise in getting rid of redundant pans, pot holders and storage containers.
Noooo! Not my "stuff"! The food wasn't so bad to part with. The stuff, that's a whole other matter.
bought a magnetic knife rack yesterday. i kept my knives in a cup, then moved them to a drawer and i can never find anything.
still organizing my pantry. every kind of flour imaginable except for wheat. and my spices. so many spices!
i don't have any gadgets i don't use, so that's no biggie.
Aha - I'm ahead of the game on this one. I did a purge of my kitchen cupboards a few months ago - things were taking up permanent residence on my counters and that drives me crazy.
Then I invited some friends over to have a glass of wine and help themselves to anything they desired from my weeding pile before I took the remainder over to the local second hand/recycling depot.
And it's a good thing I'm ahead on this one 'cos I'm still a bit behind on the pantry job - this will give me time to catch up.
Okay, that one took 1.5 hours, which is better than the others. The cookie press and ice cream scoop are in the donation bin, along with some other things. The magnetic knife rack for some reason made the cut, even though my small kitchen is all tiled and there is no where to put it.
The microwave was the worst job today. Also I managed to turn on the blender while I was cleaning the base unit and it shot soapy water all over the mail. sigh.
Not fun, like it shows in the movies.
Nami13 you are soooo right, you do need multiple wet and dry measuring cups, multiple sets of measuring spoons, savory and sweet spatulas, as well as, multiple sets of mixing bowls, cake pans, tart shells, drying racks, sheet pans etc. The whole key is to be INTENSIVELY ORGANIZED and ALWAYS put things away in the right order/place after using. I spent 9 weeks in the hospital this summer and my brother and sister-in-law made hash of my beautifully organized kitchen. They even threw away tongs, spoons, speciality baking equipment and measuring cups, because I had "too many." GRRRRR I am still looking for things, re-organizing and trying to get ready for the holidays. The most important thing about YOUR kitchen is that it works for YOU!!!!!
They threw away your stuff while you were in the hospital??!?!? Wow, that's low. I'm sorry.
I have a cousin who was hospitalized and one thing that got her through it was knowing her garden would be waiting with all sorts of fresh tomatoes for her to use (she finds gardening and cooking very meditative). When she got home, her neighbor had picked them all, canned them, and kept a lot of the cans for herself because, "I didn't want you to have to do any of that." Some people and their favors!
I just moved and did drastic downsizing in June, so I will be tweaking everything for these first 3 days. Still trying to get a flow going in my tiny kitchen. I have long used canning jars for various grains, flours, beans, etc. Just lost my job so this came along just in time to give me an indoor project to start on (still finishing some of the planting and organizing outside and in garage before winter hits....) It has been hard to change my thinking/cooking habits from me and 4 grandchildren to just me!
I'm in a similar boat with the magnetic knife rack. I really like mine and it's such a great solution! But similarly, where I live now the kitchen is tiled to the bottom of the cabinets, and while there is wall space I could drill into elsewhere in the kitchen, it's not in a good place for something I use so often. If I weren't a renter I'd just attach it to an exposed side of cabinet that's in the right spot and is almost exactly the right size.
I'm thinking I might put it up in the spot where I keep all my keys (I have amassed a large collection of spares to friends' homes), which are in a bowl on the edge of the kitchen counter by my front door. The magnets will grab the keyrings, and I think I can also get the coupons and things that are in and around the bowl stuck to it as well. That will free up counterspace - not much, but I wind up moving the bowl out of the way often enough that I think it'll be worth it. Maybe you can repurpose yours, too?
I'm with you, too! I have two tongs, multiple rubber spatulas, two sets of dry measuring cups, and six liquid measuring cups of various sizes (an 8 cup measure is a great one!). I don't like to stop cooking to wash and rewash - I'd rather have a sink full of hot soapy water to put every thing in and wash at the end.
And I repeat my request for a calendar of the Cure! I have done Days 1-3 in the recent past - I'd love to get started on the next steps, if only I knew what they were! I feel like I'm treading water. Thanks!
I don't have a lot of gadgets (handmixer and electric water kettle, that's it, I promise!) and my stuff is fairly limited to things I actually use because I moved just a couple of months ago from a tiny apartment with an equally tiny kitchen to a much bigger apartment with a much bigger kitchen, that unfortunately does not have a lot of storage space... So, easy job today. Took me about 40 minutes.
I needed a short task, too, because my day was looooong. 12 hours at work, anyone? I hate deadlines...
Yes, I agree with Nami13 and the others. I have several tongs, sets of measuring wet/dry cups along with large sets of glass and stainless steel mixing bowls (got rid of the plastic ones). I have been cooking in my own kitchen for 35 years, so you tend to get items as you need them, it wasn't all bought at the same time. You'll see, as you get older! :-)
I only had time for one drawer today, but I'm definitely getting rid of some unneeded items. Tablecloth weights? Really!? I moved some once-a-year entertaining pieces to where they really belong in secondary storage, and now I think I can see and usefully reach everything in the "everything" drawer.
The first photo looks like my gadget drawer. Where did the wooden spoons go in the second photo? Looks like a lot few gadgets have disappeared. Cleaned up one drawer by making another drawer a bigger mess?
Thank you for your comment. Actually the kitchen purge was only the beginning of the disasters they created. Luckily I managed to will myself well and return home before they uthenized my "bothersome" cats. Sorry for your cousin who was "spared" the task of picking her tomatoes!!! PEOPLE!!!!
Yes, yes, a cure calendar! Sounds like I'm not the only one who's behind. Would love to know if there's breathing room coming up in the schedule or if I'm just doomed.
When I'm cooking several dishes at once, I don't want to use the tongs that I turned the fish with on something else. I have three sets of tongs and spoons, three sets of measuring cups. I don't want to be washing an oily measuring cup so that I can put some flour in it.
I've done my drawers and gadgets. I'm throwing out a few things. Luckily I had done my drawers early last year so there isn't too much accumulation.
But I have very little space in my kitchen. And most of the tools that I use I hang on my… wall. I put up a grid like metal frame with hooks and I hang all my important tools right by the stove flush to the wall. And I use them all so they all get washed regularly and none of them accumulate any oil or dust!! It's very handy to have them right at arms reach right next to the stove. And I think they make a kind of cool statement or decoration.
With this cure, I need to buy stock in Command hooks and whatever company sells little plastic baskets... because they will be purchased in bulk to organize my kitchen. I moved to a kitchen that's a good size, but it has a completely different layout from my old kitchen. I'm completely at a loss as to how to efficiently organize my kitchen stuff in this new space, and I keep "losing" things in the backs of drawers and shelves.
Appliances and gadgets are not my problem. I have too many baking dishes. I don't make many things that go in baking dishes. And given that I have enough to serve two baked sides in 3 sizes (6 total) that match, and 4 more that my mom "KNEW" I would love, plus 2 that were handed down to me, I think that I need to do something about that instead. Not to mention serving platters of various sizes when I rarely entertain on that scale.
One of my serving plates got re-purposed in my oils/spices cabinet for all of the oils and vinegars to sit on for easier clean up. Should I actually need to serve on it, it is easy to put back into use.
if anybody has a kitchenaid blender they got as a wedding gift and just don't use, i will happity accept it.


text:
The Vigo County School Corp. Festival of Trees at Honey Creek Mall is now on display.
The event is a fundraiser for its backpack program and the Shoe Bus, which benefit needy children. Twenty schools decorated 21 trees with various themes.
The trees have been set up between J.C. Penney's and Carson's and will be there through Dec. 7.
The trees will be raffled at 1:30 p.m on the 7th.
On that day several of the school choirs will perform and other events will be held.
Last year, the event raised over $5,000 for the programs.
The backpack program costs about $1,500 each week and sends food home with students each weekend.
The Shoe Bus provides footwear and socks to children in need.


text:
Originally Posted by Cosmored
I'd like to hear everyone's opinion on this.
Forum Rules
and your problem IS? beyond of course apparent severe paranoia and a compulsive need to insult complete strangers?
There is one thing to look forward to, George Soros is in his 80s I believe, he will be assuming room temperature in the near future.
Everyone just needs to give up on this bastard. He's useless, other that being an excellent example of a traitorous muzzie.
I did so when he got elected the first time.
$6.4 Million from Soros Behind Legal Battles for 3 Conservative 2016 Contenders, Media Ignore
Not to mention calling anyone who is pro-Israeli a traitor to America.


text:
The Ballad of Jim the SquidO Muses of EquestriaThe Ballad of Jim the Squid by xtheredmagex
Of odes both bright and grim:
Your blessings I beseech you give
To this, the Tale of Jim.
That blessed squid of thoughts so deep
And honor of a knight,
Sacrificed all for a damsel
In her dark time of plight.
Out from the sky Jim came to be
Within his lake, his home.
And now its secrets does he keep
A living, squid-shaped tome.
And as all tomes are wont to do,
His secrets does he share:
He fills his gummy gator friend
With thoughts and hopes and care.
For hours those two ponder life
And what its depths do hold,
Of meaning and fragility,
Of warmth and air and cold.
And to the sky his thoughts would oft'
Rise up into the light.
And oft' he dreamed of joining them
Ascending wise and bright.
One fateful morn came as they do:
With cloud and dark and strife.
A rainstorm meant for nourishment
Would end one dreamer's life.
Jim's scaly friend did seek him out
With earnest and with speed.
But when he came he found with shock
His friend was but a steed!
A demon sat upon his he


text:
'Me too' thinking endemic at E3 as vendors eye up each other's turf
The distinction between games consoles and connected TVs became even more blurred at the recent E3 computer and video-games trade show in Los Angeles. Even Nintendo has given up on the notion of a traditional games-only machine. Its soon-to-be-released console, the WiiU, might principally be about playing games, but it can also be used as a media hub.


text:
Next, you'll be asked to connect with Twitter. Rest assured, we will never send a tweet from your account
without your permission.
We will send you an email with an invite soon.
Easy Chicken Recipe: Chicken Tetrazzini http://t.co/VCgR3cd2ri #easychickenrecipe http://t.co/VBy7qGeHAm
#EasyDinnerRecipe: White Chicken Lasagna
10 Spectacular Spring Recipes from Asparagus to Rhubarb: After a long winter of root vegetables we're now...
10 Spectacular Spring Recipes from Asparagus to Rhubarb
Sautéed Chicken with Delicious Veggies
It's Nat'l #Empanada Day! Try these Cuban Chicken Empanadas
Quick and Easy: Herb Roasted Chicken: Every cook needs a quick and easy recipe for chicken, that turns out...
See what's Trending Now for @foodista
Follow @foodista on Twitter


text:
When I started visiting the Asian markets along with the Middle East in the '90s, I did receive massages every often. But these were usually at professional massage places like Spas, Hotels etc. The masseur typically would be a female, and in the rare instance I had a male masseur he would be fairly professional, usually middle-aged or older, or combinations of the above. I rarely took the trouble of venturing out and looking around the seedier places (like Saunas, gay spas etc.) , as my schedules were fairly tight and it felt easier to just get a rub in the hotel I stayed or a popular spa close by. I also was fairly risk averse then. Another factor also was that Asian traditional massages didn't require me to undress or sometimes a foot massage would be good enough, therefore ruling out any possibility of going beyond
Therefore my first discovery of a male-to-male massage, as in a completely erotic, sensual experience much later, was an awakening to the pleasurable side that Asian massage places could offer. And I still remember it fondly, like it happened yesterday. What you'd be surprised to note is that it didn't take place in Thailand but another Asian country.
During a trip to this location, I had checked out of my hotel in the morning to complete my meetings and then take a flight out around midnight. My meetings got completed by late afternoon and I politely declined any requests for social gatherings that my local teams felt obliged to host. So I had an early meal in the evening and decided to walk to the central biz district which also had some tourist spots. It was hot, muggy and carrying my laptop bag around I realised it wasn't such a good idea even though the place looked fun. So I parked myself at a small restaurant to sit and sip a drink while watching the fun around. And I noticed this sign which said "Male to Male massage" with address and phone numbers. I asked the waitress where the address was and she mentioned it was just around the corner. So I paid the bill and walked in search of this joint.
I found this place in what seemed to be a line of heritage buildings (built around WW I) that were taken over by seedy businesses but now revived by small boutique businesses. I walked in and found the spa desolate, it didn't look like they had any business on a weekday evening and the receptionist, a young smart guy, who spoke good English sounded not very encouraging – asking me to chose from a menu and would let me know if its possible to get it or not. I asked him if I could just get a relaxation massage for about 90 minutes. He hummed and hawed saying the shop would be closing soon and seemed reluctant. Then, another guy dressed in the Asian uniform for a masseur (baggy pyjamas, a loose collar-less t-shirt etc) came in with a glass of water for me, and then chatted with the receptionist in the local language. Post which, the receptionist mentioned that he could squeeze me in, and gave me a key and a towel asking me to change, mentioning the boy would come to collect me, and to deposit all my belongings in the lockers provided. The showers and changing rooms/ lockers were in a different floor.
I went up to the changing/ locker room and realized my laptop bag couldn't fit into the locker, so I walk down to the receptionist and told him if I could take this to my massage room. He was a little pompous mentioning there's no guarantee my bag would be safe in the massage cabin etc. I felt it best that I move on from this place and was about to give him the locker key. He then seemed to have a change of heart and called in the masseur and advised him something.
The masseur then asked me to come with him and took me at the rear of the building where there was something like a fire staircase and we kept walking up at least a few floors. I asked him if I could take a shower first, as we'd passed the floor with the lockers/showers and he replied in pretty decent English – that the room we were going to contained a shower. We seemed to reach the top floor and entered the only room (i.e. no corridor with small cabins unlike the other floors). He switched on the AC and asked me to keep my bag in the corner and remove my clothes handing me a towel. I asked him where I could take a shower and he said it was outside. And surprisingly he too undressed completely and without any shyness, self-consciousness and seemed totally non-provocative
He then (buck naked) opened the door which lead us to the terrace that had a nice small garden with some vine creepers which protected our view. I could look up and see some of the prominent landmarks of the city glittering brightly from the terrace. (and as a result there was no need to have a lamp on the terrace).
He asked me to keep my towel on a holder and take the shower after he'd tested the temperature of the water. This was the first time I had this sensation of erotic adventure in Asia – not only was this terrace so to say quite a 'public' place to have a shower, but I had another naked man standing with me. :-)
I stood under the shower which had a large feeding spout and could sense the masseur come and stand close behind me, asking me if the temperature was correct. He then started rubbing the water on my back and shoulders guiding me to ensure I was totally drenched, and then turning me to face him he stood close enough to stand under the shower so that he also got drenched. My hard on was poking his abdomen but he didn't seem to notice. He paused the shower and and started rubbing some shower gel over my body methodically generating foam. I quite liked the sensation and started looking up into the adjacent buildings and also at the commercial skyscrapers around to see if anyone could notice us while enjoying the high of doing this in Public. WOWZAAAAAAAAA !!!!!!!
The guy moved down and didn't hesitate to soap my hard cock and balls, and this after he'd already done my crack and perineum while covering my back and my legs. Post this I stood quietly as he did a quick soap rub all over himself and I studied his slight build and even though he seemed to be around 30 or older his body would be that of a teenager in Europe. He was about half a feet less in height than me, which meant he was taller than most other Asians. He was darker in skin tone (he was from Burma as he told me later) but completely smooth, the only body hair visible being the pubic hair.
He then switched on the shower again and helped wash off the soap on me first and then from his own body. What I found totally amazing was how totally comfortable he was touching my body - including cleaning my crack, perineum, balls and dick in a totally non-sexual manner, and not being shy at all. I then took the first step pulling him closer and brushing off the soap of his body. He welcomed this by turning over and allowing me to do the back. I was a tad too shy to touch his butt or grab his limp dick, though I think he wouldn't have minded
Post the shower – he passed me a towel , taking one himself and dried his body luxuriously not missing an inch or a crevice. We then went inside the room and he asked me to lie down on the mattress face down. I removed the towel and lied down.
The massage began and he did my back and legs smoothly and I could notice he was naked, though not hard. We had polite conversation, where he's from and he does the usual where am I headed etc. He then moved in front of my face.
I am not quite sure here about what I can possibly do, so while he's near my head doing my shoulders and back, my hands reached out and felt his legs, stroked his balls and as he's bending over to stretch his hands towards my lower back, I cupped his butt and it felt heavenly. He didn't seem to mind at all.
I continued to feel him as he moved around, and the tactile sensation of just touching this guys' skin was beautiful. He'd got some light hairs on his legs, and his butt and crack were a little fuzzy (I suspect he'd been late on the bikini wax) but his chest and back were smooth and creamy to feel. His face though did not betray any emotion.
He then stopped and seemed to move behind, and I was not sure what he planned to do, but I waited patiently. Then I felt his legs straddling mine as he lowered himself over me. He'd rubbed his chest and abdomen with oil and was gliding his upper body up and down my back….. and the feeling was just marvelous. I let out a deep moan. I could feel his dick hanging between my legs and I tightened my legs and he reciprocated. I could imagine we were like two frogs gripping each other in heat.
He heard me moan and started doing this even more gradually and as he reached my neck he stretched himself further and I can feel him breathing down my neck, I turned my face towards him and could feel his breath. As he glided down he held his chin down and even though there's no stubble visible I could feel some prickliness gently scraping down my back.
This went on for sometime, and the boy was generating heat (in every way) while tingling my spine and every tactile sensation had been activated. What would have been a cherry is if he had a hard on :-)
We then turned over, and he moved to a regular massage (i.e. using his hands) he did my legs, chest, hands and abdomen and then wiped the sticky pre-cum off my dick with a towel. He then started gliding on my chest, but with his back arched so that there was no crotch contact – though this was unavoidable as my dick was in full salute and grazed his abdomen and balls as he glided over me.
He generated heat in my chest but refused to have any eye contact. He was holding my hands carefully keeping his weight gently on them, so that I couldn't grab him. I was trying my best to kiss him but he turned his head each time– the only concession was when he offered his nipples to me, bringing one closer to my lips at a time. I was licking him across during each swipe of his.
With enough heat generated, he lowered his body on to mine and went down lower so that my dick was now tightly held between my abdomen and his chest. He reduced his swipes to now massage only my dick with his chest. There was eye contact as he raised his head to keep looking at me. I am amazed at how well he has managed to increase the tempo. I couldn't hold out any longer and there was a release my legs enveloped him and though I want to scream but I only let a loud groan. He didn't stop but merely reduced his tempo. I liked the fact that he didn't mind the hot stickiness at all.
He slowly picked himself up and took a towel to first remove the jizz of my body and then wiped himself clean. He asked me to sit up and carried out the finishing touches on my back, neck, shoulders and head – in line with what a traditional Thai massage would finish with.
He then directed me to take another shower. At the shower, he was professional yet mechanical in scrubbing me with soap and washing my legs, pulling my foreskin back and soaping the head etc. This time I also took the lead and started doing him, though he continued to be limp, but didn't mind me touching him or scrubbing him in different places. I could understand he must have had a few customers as I tugged at his penis and he responded that he'd met his boyfriend in the afternoon (as in, he'd spent already). I cursed his lucky boyfriend.
We dried ourselves, and went back into the room to change. He waited for me to clear the room – asking me to check if anything has been left behind, and then switched off the lights and locked the door. We went down the stairs to the reception. I cleared the bill and paid the masseur a handsome tip. I even forgot to notice what treatment was I charged for as I was so light headed, I barely noticed my feet taking me out of the spa.
I went out and took a cab to the airport in a state of complete bliss, and took the flight out totally in a state of Nirvana. I simply couldn't wait to come back to Asia and explore every venue that offered a male-to-male massage, at every location I'd be visiting.
Sadly, with this outlet, there wasn't a great ending. I searched for this joint on my next trip nearly three months after this delightful episode. There was a rather un-friendly receptionist and I didn't get the boy I had met initially and the receptionist didn't inform me if the boy had left or was still around. Further when I went through the menu, I couldn't identify which treatment I'd received, so I went for a simple massage for about 90 minutes, which turned out to be a damp squib as this was in the hall with small 'cabins' next to each other, and the boy was completely dressed and I dared not explore touching him.
I didn't return there but my love affair with Asia had begun as I discover different treasures across the region –including the many splendoured jewels of Thailand :-)


text:
- Aja B.
- New York, NY
- United States
Online Community Manager, TED
This conversation is closed.
Happening Now: Live Q&A with TED Books Author Daniel Grossman on "Deep Water" and the Science of Rising Sea Levels
*** Live Q&A with Author Daniel Grossman: Tuesday, August 21st, 1pm-2pm EDT (New York Time) ***
We're starting a regular TED Book discussion group here on TED Conversations. Would you like to join us?
For the next two weeks, we'll be using this space to discuss Daniel Grossman's new book on the science of rising sea levels, "Deep Water". The TED Books are designed to be read in a single sitting, so it should be a quick read, and it will give us a good shared starting point for a broader discussion on climate change and what the future holds for our planet.
These are short eBooks, available for Kindles, Nooks, and iPads/iPods/iPhones. I believe you can also read Kindle books on your Mac or PC now, and if you have an iOS device, there's a new TED Books app.
Download options: http://www.ted.com/pages/tedbooks_library
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008R8U1LU/
At the end of our two-week discussion, author Daniel Grossman will be joining in for a Live Q&A session to share his thoughts and answer any questions we might have.
Closing Statement from Aja B.
Many thanks to Daniel Grossman and all our participants! This was an interesting and educational journey. To learn more about Dan's work, you can visit his website here: http://dangrossmanmedia.com
Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.
Comment deleted
Aug 21 2012: Many of these problems can be viewed from various perspectives. From the perspective of the 4.5 billion year life of the planet, a human life or even a civilization means little. From the perspective of the much longer life of the universe, what happens on Earth means nothing. On the other hand, what we see today around us are ecosystems that have developed and been optimized to current conditions over thousands and millions of years. (some of these "conditions" are a range of conditions, not the exact current climate). We inhabit a world that has been built by human hands over hundreds and thousands of years. Those things are in danger. That's not to say humans won't exist in the future or that life will not exist. But we are endangering things that we may thing are worthy or even sacred.
Aug 21 2012: Hi Daniel, Aja, Ken and everyone else. Like Ken I am from N.Z. I fgrew up in Wellington, on the harbour peninsula known as Miramar by Wellington Airport. Love the sea either Seatoun or Scorcher/Worser bays. N.Z. is my eden and any world system change is likely to impact N.Z. first, if it is not the wind it willl be the sea and then possibly the volcanoes. Don't know about glacier melts in South Island but do wonder if it was a factor in Christchurch earthquake. Experienced big quake 1969 plus father involved in rescue of passengers from Aromoana ferry disaster. Still hear Moaning Minne foghorn in my head tho my cousin says she is now turned off as even N.Z., has more sophisticated GPS etc.
Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.


text:
Fashion Reels
Left Col
Saturday, Nov. 16-Saturday, Nov. 23, Plaza Frontenac
In partnership with Craft Alliance's Fashion Lab, SLIFF features a quintet of programs focused on fashion, including three documentary features – Material Success (Nov. 16), The Tents (Nov. 18), and Versailles '73 (Nov. 23) – and a free sampling of documentary shorts Doc Shorts: Fashion (Nov. 18). As a special treat, the Nov. 17 screening of Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief – starring two exemplars of elegance, Grace Kelly and Cary Grant – includes an intro and Q&A with actress Susan Claassen, who appears in character as Edith Head, the film's legendary costume designer.
All film programs are $12
"Doc Shorts: Fashion" is FREE
Co-presented with Craft Alliance's Fashion Lab