Apartment therapy

The apartment I live in is amazing, but it's a little rough around the edges. It's a tradeoff - we pay below market rate for great space but have holes in the floor, no door knobs on most interior doors, and the back of the apartment is a good 2" lower than the front. Win some, lose some.

Historically our landlord hasbeen what one might call a douche bag. His Englishis questionable, and so when he can't understand that the fridge is broken I find myself doing that horrible, vaguely racist thing you see people do to tourists and immigrants - saying the same thing over and over slower andlouder. "The fridge is broken. The. Fridge. Is. Bro. Ken. THE FRIDGE IS F&$%ING BROKEN." We usually work things out.

Last August our landlord handed over the building to a management company, and the woman in charge seemed to actually care about the problems in our apartmentthat were clearly basic housing code violations. [Cue angels singing] It took a little while, but after some persistent reminders we got:

• a fresh coat of paint in the living room
• a new floor in the hallway
• locking doorknobs on ALL interior doors
• the hole in the kitchen ceiling fixed
• a fresh coat of paint in the kitchen
• a half painted bathroom (I did the rest - c'mon people)

Here are some before and after photos:

We even got to pick the color for the kitchen. We used the print Beth gave me as inspiration, and even though the renovations were finished before Christmas, I just got around to hanging the frame today.

Sage advice to start each day with. Now what to bake next...