If I don’t use words then each sound goes unheard…*

*Lyrics from My Better Self by Tennis from their album Young & Old. I’ve listened to this song at least a hundred times (probably the entire album that many times) and I’m not sick of it, nor did I – until today, reading the lyrics as I sung along – even understand what I was saying. Which is ironic, given what the lyrics for the full song are. So, do this: listen to it WHILE you’re reading the lyrics, then read the lyrics (I noticed that some of the lyrics were not written down correctly – for instance, ‘what is it made?’ is really ‘what is innate?’ – I couldn’t find the official lyrics, so, sorry about that). I feel dumb for not getting it before. “Only the value given shows, that meaning comes and goes.” 

BEFORE: With the tenant's belongings I snapped a few pics to see how things were laid out so we could figure out if it made sense to move at all.

Happenings are happening all around me. My brother just got a job in Los Angeles – he found out on a Wednesday, and his gig started the next Monday – and he left NYC for 5 months. All three of my sisters are currently in temporary digs (and in various states of disarray) – though my younger one is more settled, in a way, than the others – and we just moved from our old pied-à-terre to our new one. Let’s call it the Pied-à-deux. Whew, it’s been a bit of a lot. I know that’s horrible English, but it’s true.

And, mere days after we moved our things down one flight I got a call to return to land of the Big House for a meeting with a new client. And three weeks went by before I could return to Brooklyn, and to my overworked, and overtired husband. See? A great big bit of a lot.

As for what’s happening in The Pied, part Deux (aka #piedadeux on instagram), mostly nothing much has changed from when we first set our things in place – paintings remain un-hung, lamps remain un-purchased, deck remains un-decorated. We did, however, manage to settle on a paint plan after our adorable and totally awesome landlord (anyone need to find a place in NYC?) said we could have the weekend to move into the new place. As I suspected, he’s doing a few minor renovations before he rents our old place. Lucky that we got to be the last ones to enjoy the grimy floors and leaking, but original bathroom sink (parts were on back-order, and the leak really was minor, lest you think our landlord was shirking his responsibilities). Eh, whatever. We’re upgrading, and therefore we’re going to invest a little more effort into the painting.

You see, when we first planted ourselves back in NYC, we needed to be up and running fast. Jeff was shifting from a home office in Massachusetts (where he worked full-time) to working full-time from his shared office with his business partner here in Brooklyn. He needed the place to be livable right away. So we sped through decisions, and just made everything work. Some of our choices, however, could have been improved upon, so we’re taking the opportunity to revise some of our original ideas.

For example, in the old living space we had only painted one wall with the deeply pigmented blue (Gentleman’s Gray); in the new space, we’re just going to go for it, and paint the entire room with that color. Bam. How you like me now?

Paint complete, we went with Gentleman's Grey in the living space, Stormy Monday in the bedroom, and Classic Grey in the kitchen, with Simply White for trim paint.

I’ll show you the rest, as we get settled, and after it stops looking like a place where thrift store furniture came to die. Like I said before, some of the old things will have to come with us, and will inform our design direction. However, some of the old ideas are gone now. Which only makes room for new ones. And I fucking love that.

Wanna see some before pictures? Of course you do. I apologize for two things: (1) invading the former tenant’s privacy by snapping a few pictures – hopefully these aren’t too revealing or intimate; and (2) the horrid quality – I had about 5 minutes to snap these with my phone without disturbing the tenant’s belongings, and, well, they aren’t the greatest. Nonetheless, enjoy!