Progress!
Accomplishment for the day: I hung up my IKEA pot rack that has been sitting behind my desk for a week and a half. It looks pretty nice, too.
It was tricky trying to get it level, since I do not have a level and didn't feel like walking eight blocks or so to the hardware store, shelling out some cash, and then trekking all the way back, just for this one project (because who really needs a level, ever? [answer: my dad and Norm Abram]). In the end, I affixed it at the middle and then measured the distance from the ceiling to each end of the rail. I don't think it's perfectly 100% flat, but it is close enough that I can't tell if it's off when I look at it, so I am satisfied. The thing I like less is that it is quite high up, but there wasn't much I could do about that--the only blank wall we had for the rack was the one above the table, and I am sure that if I had hung it lower it would have started to feel really, really looming. As it is, it's a bit of a reach to get the pots above the middle of the table, but it is doable for me. I hope it's not a problem for my slightly shorter roommates, but I think it'll be fine. At any rate, it looks nice, and that makes me happy. Our whole kitchen is really cute, actually. The appliances and things were nice to start with, of course, but we have lucked out and as the four of us moved in we have acquired a fully-equipped and even fairly matching bunch of kitchen accessories. I would post pictures of the rest of it, too, but I posted some a while back and it hasn't changed a ton, just in little ways. Plus, it's not exactly tidy. The only reason the table looks so nice is because I had to clear it off to stand on it and put up the rack!
On an unrelated note, I really like my roommates, but I think our neighbors are duds. I met one of them a while back and she was quite cool with me for no reason. Now there is a girl living right upstairs from me who is home during the late morning (i.e., when I am trying to sleep) and plays her terrible music with the windows open. And since her window is right above mine and the two windows open into a narrow little well that is there to get light into the middle of the house (and does not allow much sound outlet), this means that I get a healthy helping of her terrible music climbing in my window to wake me up every day. Of course, I could leave my own window closed to help muffle the nasty racket, but when I do that my room gets really warm and I can't sleep at night. And anyway, I can still hear it. So I lose no matter what.
It was tricky trying to get it level, since I do not have a level and didn't feel like walking eight blocks or so to the hardware store, shelling out some cash, and then trekking all the way back, just for this one project (because who really needs a level, ever? [answer: my dad and Norm Abram]). In the end, I affixed it at the middle and then measured the distance from the ceiling to each end of the rail. I don't think it's perfectly 100% flat, but it is close enough that I can't tell if it's off when I look at it, so I am satisfied. The thing I like less is that it is quite high up, but there wasn't much I could do about that--the only blank wall we had for the rack was the one above the table, and I am sure that if I had hung it lower it would have started to feel really, really looming. As it is, it's a bit of a reach to get the pots above the middle of the table, but it is doable for me. I hope it's not a problem for my slightly shorter roommates, but I think it'll be fine. At any rate, it looks nice, and that makes me happy. Our whole kitchen is really cute, actually. The appliances and things were nice to start with, of course, but we have lucked out and as the four of us moved in we have acquired a fully-equipped and even fairly matching bunch of kitchen accessories. I would post pictures of the rest of it, too, but I posted some a while back and it hasn't changed a ton, just in little ways. Plus, it's not exactly tidy. The only reason the table looks so nice is because I had to clear it off to stand on it and put up the rack!
On an unrelated note, I really like my roommates, but I think our neighbors are duds. I met one of them a while back and she was quite cool with me for no reason. Now there is a girl living right upstairs from me who is home during the late morning (i.e., when I am trying to sleep) and plays her terrible music with the windows open. And since her window is right above mine and the two windows open into a narrow little well that is there to get light into the middle of the house (and does not allow much sound outlet), this means that I get a healthy helping of her terrible music climbing in my window to wake me up every day. Of course, I could leave my own window closed to help muffle the nasty racket, but when I do that my room gets really warm and I can't sleep at night. And anyway, I can still hear it. So I lose no matter what.