a day of work

My parents came up for the day today and we got lots of things done on our apartment!

For months we have been wondering how to put a grouping of light switches in a row. The problem was that they are on a column containing a beam. The space between the wall and the beam isn't deep enough for the switches, so the switches were sort of scattered around the column. Today, Dad fixed it, installing an extra layer of drywall, which gave the switches a little more room behind them and they now fit in front of the column.

And my mother spent the day hemming curtains. Christopher now has a gorgeous brown linen curtain to shield his desk (and self) from morning light, and our bedroom curtain no longer drags on the floor.

Christopher and I went to Home Depot and then Lowe's looking for semi-decent ceiling fans as well as some supplies for the column/switch project. I love the Home Depot on 23rd St in Manhattan, but the Brooklyn one is just gross. And their fan selection is really wimpy. Lowe's had a larger selection and we surprised ourselves by getting fans completely different than we thought we'd wanted, but now our bedroom is ready for summer, with a big, dark ceiling fan above our bed.

I have to admit that we're still not certain about our bedroom fan. The wood in our bedroom is dark -mahogony and walnut- so we got a fan with dark wood. Last night it seemed odd to have this dark thing hanging over us, so heavy and taking up so much space. It was threatening. We've decided to give it a week and see if we get used to it. I'm hoping we decide just that it's different, not that it's horrible.