Category Archives: new york city

Let’s pretend we’re tourists.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on March 4, 2010 – 12:55 am
Filed under new york city, voyages

I’ve often thought that I’d like to be able to see New York City through the eyes of a tourist. I suppose this is probably the case with every city, but the longer a place is part of your everyday life, the less you tend to observe in your surroundings. This is especially true in “vertical” cities where above-ground traveling is primarily done on foot. Who remembers to look up? Tourists, that’s who.

So when Evan and I went to MoMA (something I do embarrassingly infrequently), I tried to pretend I was a tourist. I wasn’t really successful, but I did manage to get over my fear of looking like a dork (um, I look like a dork no matter what, so I might as well do it with a camera in my hands) and take a few pictures.

I never get tired of snow.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on February 10, 2010 – 4:50 pm
Filed under new york city

Manhattan is so beautiful in the snow, especially up here in the Heights where nature still runs (a tiny bit) wild. I love having views of trees and primordial rocks.

I’m sure that those of you living in parts of the planet where it hasn’t been snowing like mad are starting to roll your eyes and say Enough already with the snow photos, everyone, but I can’t help myself. It was hard enough to limit myself to two!

I put in a 3/4-day at work, then headed for the apartment to hole up with Evan (also home early), Bruno, Fritz, and a big cup of lemon-ginger tea with raw honey. I’ve been fighting a cold for the last couple of days, and right now, nothing is better than being inside while looking outside at fluffy, falling snow.

Apartment kitchen progress!

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Posted by Anna at D16 on January 7, 2010 – 10:55 am
Filed under apartment, new york city

Wait…it’s 2010?! Wow. I completely missed entering the future while we were busy cleaning and caulking and making trips to IKEA and painting. And painting. And painting. And painting.

Last night was my first night sleeping in the apartment—not really a cause for celebration, considering the present lack of a bed or shower curtain. I was up until 3:30 AM (yes, more caulking…and more painting), then curled up in a little ball on the floor to sleep for a few hours. The magical part of the experience was leaving for work at 8:40 AM, though! Normally at that time of the day we’re already an hour and forty minutes into our commute.

Anyway, the kitchen! It’s coming together, and definitely starting to look as I had envisioned it. (What was that about finishing the whole apartment in six days? Um. No.)

The SNODD knobs from IKEA are so cute I can barely stand it. They really make the kitchen. I love the cabinets, by the way. I was overjoyed to find an apartment with a kitchen that hadn’t been renovated in about 20 years, and with frameless doors. Solid wood with a maple veneer, too. Nice.

I love how perfectly the microwave fits in the VÄRDE shelving unit. If I have to have a microwave in my life at all, I need it to be below my line of sight. We still have to hang the shelves above the unit—that’s where I plant to keep all of our pantry-type goods in glass jars.

(Do you like how the entire food-related contents of our kitchen currently consist of two cans of coffee, a jar of raw sugar, and a hilariously over-sized pepper mill? Oh, and I think there’s an apple and a little carton of soy milk in the fridge. This says a lot about us.)

Uh-oh. You can see my grubby paint brushes! And the Chinese delivery menus on the fridge, the vacuum cleaner, paper towels, and caulk. (Yes, and my beloved Keep Cup!) Are you happy now? I didn’t have the energy to move them for the photo. The important thing to focus on is the black wall! It’s painted with Benjamin Moore ‘Soot’ (Aura Matte finish, for those of you who like to know these things). The white walls and trim are are Benjamin Moore ‘Simply White’ (Aura Matte and Satin Impervo, respectively).

We’re going to hang the Stendig calender on the black wall, right above our flip-down table for two (which I will be painting the same black as the wall).

One more thing! I need to sing the praises (again) of IKEA’s ENJE roller blinds. They are inexpensive, well-made, look great, and they really do filter light beautifully.

Apartment kitchen planning.

86
Posted by Anna at D16 on December 31, 2009 – 1:02 am
Filed under apartment, new york city

WHEW. I am totally exhausted. Evan and I have been going back and forth between our house and the new little apartment all week, and it’s wearing me out fast. I think this is what happens when you take time off from home renovations for a while—you lose your swing.

We started with the kitchen yesterday (my incredibly patient and determined mother came along and spent the day cleaning the filthy kitchen cabinets inside and out—and then spent an hour stuck in traffic with us en route to IKEA), and I’m hoping we’ll wrap things up tomorrow. Today we got a first coat of paint on the walls, new knobs on the cabinets, and assembled a butcherblock that we’ll be using for extra counter space and storage.

Do you think it’s possible for us to finish renovating and decorating the apartment in six days? I actually think it might be, despite the fact that we seem to be on the six(ty)-year plan when it comes to our house.

p.s. IKEA TO THE RESCUE, OMG. What do those of you who live in places without IKEA do when you need something beautiful and cheap and you don’t want to thrift for it? I have no idea.

Apartment, before.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on December 29, 2009 – 12:28 am
Filed under apartment, new york city

It’s not very cute right now, but it will be.

I feel a little bit like Evan and I are getting ready to go away to college. There are piles of pillows and blankets, dishes and kitchen gadgets in a corner of our dining room, just waiting to be loaded into the car and transported into the city.

It’s a funny thing, suddenly buying metal steamer baskets and ladles and garlic presses and measuring cups at this stage in my life. (Again.) It’s been 17 years since I left for college for real, and 15 years since I moved into my first apartment. I never expected to shop for these little things a second time. You forget how much you need.

It’s fun. Overwhelming at times, but fun.

D16, pied-à-terre style.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on December 21, 2009 – 11:22 pm
Filed under apartment, health, new york city

I’ve been storing up a big secret for a few weeks now, and it’s finally time to let the cat out of the bag: Evan and I have decided to rent a small (400 square feet) studio apartment in Manhattan!

No, we’re not selling our house, and no, we’re not moving away from Newburgh. We’re just giving ourselves another option throughout the course of the week. Evan and I both spend a lot of time in the city, and having a little place there will allow us to do things like go to museums or concerts or dinners with friends without having to think about taking a long train ride home afterward. (Bruno and Fritz will always be in tow, of course.)

Having a pied-à-terre in Manhattan is most definitely a luxury (though our apartment in decidedly no-frills), but as with the ongoing renovation of our house (work is currently on hiatus until February, by the way—we needed a break!), we’ll be doing everything on a supertight budget and with a lot of careful planning. And, of course, I’ll be blogging about all of it here!

I’m excited to be taking a new direction with Door Sixteen. Renovating and decorating a rental is a very different kind of undertaking than working on a house that you own—not to mention the challenge of making life work inside of much smaller place, and in one room to boot!

I hope you’ll follow along in this new space. Sunday the 27th will mark Day One of cleaning, painting, and planning. I can’t wait…

Tonight.

30
Posted by Anna at D16 on March 26, 2009 – 12:01 am
Filed under music, new york city

In 1994, I slept on the sidewalk outside of Carnegie Hall for two nights* (see, kids, this is what we had to suffer through before we had the internet) to get tickets to see Morrissey there. I got great seats (9th row center, if I recall correctly). The show was initially “postponed”, so I waited patiently for the new date to roll around six months later. Then, in true Morrissey form, he cancelled. And didn’t reschedule. HEARTBREAK. I still haven’t gotten over it.

15 years later, I am FINALLY going to see Morrissey at Carnegie Hall. This will be my 26th Morrissey concert, but I still feel nervous and excited every single time I see him.

(*Those were a craaaaazy couple of nights. MTV and the NY Times were there to film and interview us, and a radio station brought us breakfast in the mornings. The guy up at the front of the line had been there for days. I could never do something like that now, but I’m glad I was so ridiculous and silly once upon a time! Even though the concert was cancelled, I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.)

Nine years ago.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on March 23, 2009 – 3:21 pm
Filed under new york city

These photos of my old brownstone apartment at 471 Henry Street in Brooklyn were taken in 1999 or 2000 or so.

It’s funny to see how differently I lived then; how important it was for me to have stuff all over the place. I still like it, though. I had no money, of course, and nearly everything I owned was either found on the sidewalk or came from a junk shop. It was such a comfortable space to be in! And OH how I loved (and still love) Louise Brooks!

The apartment was on the ground floor of the brownstone, with private access to the garden (which had a fig tree that produced a ton of fruit) and a full finished basement. With a washer and dryer! Such luxury for living in Brooklyn, I know, and it was cheap.

I still miss Brooklyn and Cobble Hill sometimes, but less now than when I first moved away in 2005. Leaving was so hard, but it got easier.

Manhattan.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on March 12, 2009 – 11:51 pm
Filed under inspiration, movies, new york city

I’m not usually big on naming favorites, but I have no problem giving that honor to the best movie ever, Manhattan. It is my favorite-favorite, and the intro is really just the best thing ever. Total perfection. If you love New York, I defy you to sit through the 3 minutes and 43 seconds of this clip without at the very least getting choked up.

Honestly, I could sit here all day just posting clips from Manhattan and Annie Hall and talking about how awesome both movies are, and how I could really just watch them both over and over and over again and reflect on how my reactions to both have changed throughout the course of my life—and how much Woody Allen’s directorial style and Gordon Willis’s cinematography have influenced my personal aesthetic and feelings about lifestyle and social comforts.

Just this one clip, though. Before I go to bed, to ensure sweet dreams. I love you, New York.

Where I work, part 2.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on August 25, 2008 – 3:41 pm
Filed under new york city, work

At my work-office, I try to keep my space very clean and tidy. I don’t have control over things like desks (they are awful wood-grain laminate) or carpet (industrial-grade blue), but over the past 10 years I’ve tried to make it a little more personal.

I have plants in the window. When I bought them, they were teeny-tiny. I’ve had to re-pot them twice (potting plants is a weird thing to do at work, but it had to be done!). I feel happy to see them every day, and to give them water from my bottle. I am very lucky to have this huge, old window to look out during the day! It’s especially wonderful when it’s snowing.

I keep a set of resuable plastic utensils here, as well as a supply of chemical-laden drink mix packets that encourage me to drink more water throughout the day. I also buy my own storage boxes (like this pink one, which holds CDs) instead of using the ugly black plastic ones from the office-supply catalog.

There are pictures of my loved ones, of course.

I keep my paper clips and rubber bands in a little green glass Marimekko dish. I bought this clock at a stoop sale years ago, and it worked perfectly until recently, when the cord suddenly started to dissolve and ooze green goo everywhere. It’s just for decoration now.

I have a Cable Turtle to control the slack on my extra-long mouse cord. I use an ugly, old Logitech mouse instead of a pretty Apple one because I’m so used to it. It’s hard for me to adjust to anything new!

My beloved Sigg bottle, which I fill up at least 4 times a day.

If you work outside of your house, what do you keep in your office to make your days a little happier?

Cooler weather, fresher air.

14
Posted by Anna at D16 on August 11, 2008 – 8:36 pm
Filed under friends and family, handmade, new york city

Veggie burgers and onion rings at SoHo Park, and an amazing painted door on Broadway.

Suddenly, it feels like Fall might be coming soon. (Remind me of this in a week when it’s roasting hot and humid again.)

Anna and Nicole.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on June 26, 2008 – 12:17 am
Filed under friends and family, new york city

Last night I got to see my oldest (and prettiest!) friend, Nicole McConville, for the first time in far, far too long. We grew up together (I’ve spared both of us the embarrassment of including any pre-1992 photos in that collage), but now we live 700 miles apart. Despite that distance and despite gaps in contact over the years, our lives have taken very similar paths. I am so lucky to have known Nicole for all this time. She is so special to me; I am so proud of who she’s become.

We went to Blossom for dinner with our matching, geeky husbands. The main courses were really super-delicious, but the desserts and coffee…not so much. It was just a couple of hours of time together, but it was enough to remind me that I really need to make an effort to see this girl more often.

p.s. This is Nicole’s house. Yes, seriously!!

Edible Estates/Animal Estates.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on April 24, 2008 – 10:16 am
Filed under art & design, four legs, garden, inspiration, new york city

Los Angeles architect Fritz Haeg narrows the divide between residents and their communities with projects like Edible Estates, an international effort to convert front lawns into working food gardens.

Watch it all the way through. It’ll make you feel great, I promise. (From Dwell.)

Read More »

Snow day.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on February 22, 2008 – 10:27 am
Filed under new york city

I probably should have stayed home today, but OH!—Manhattan is so beautiful when it snows, even from an office window. I feel a little bit sad thinking that this might be the last big snow of the season.

Brooklyn townhouse inspiration.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on October 9, 2007 – 2:52 pm
Filed under house, inspiration, new york city

Our house has 4 fireplaces, 18 doors, and 15 windows. This makes for a bit of a challenge when it comes to decorating, as there are very few expanses of uninterrupted wall space large enough to put a piece of furniture in front of. Coupled with the fact that D16 is a row house (attached on one side; with long, narrow room), it becomes very hard to integrate modern furnishings (TVs, large sofas, queen-sized beds, etc.) in an arrangement that makes practical sense and which complements the layout of the house. Did I mention that the house also has a curved bow front with three side-by-side windows? Another challenge!

I get excited when I see photos of houses (like this one) with similar layouts to D16, and I always make note of how they’ve dealt with their fireplaces and windows and doors. Today I came across this house in the New York Times real estate section, and my heart did a little flip. While our house may not have cost $1,725,000 (!!! it’s still amazing to me that just going 60 miles upriver makes such a MASSIVE difference in cost, but that’s another post), it does have virtually the same layout in the living room (excuse me, the parlor).

prospect heights, brooklyn (living room 1)

I love the sofa in front of the window! And the chair next to the fireplace! The best thing about finding these photos, though, is that I now know the right solution for the windows: half-height sheers for daytime privacy (and sunlight), with heavier full curtains on rings to easily pull closed at night. Perfect! And the rods should be mounted in the moldings, not inside the frame. I’ve been grappling with this problem for over a year now. Yay!

(There are some more photos of this amazing Brooklyn townhouse here. Look at the chandelier over the dining room table! Wow.)

Waiting room.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on September 26, 2007 – 10:04 pm
Filed under books, new york city

waiting at grand central

Tonight I sat in the waiting room at Grand Central, waited for Evan, and read my new book.

Office life.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on September 26, 2007 – 4:13 am
Filed under new york city, work

My work days are long and tiring right now. Thank goodness I have a huge window to get lost staring out of, and plants to tend to. I can’t keep indoor plants alive at home, but somehow I’m able to get them to thrive in a midtown Manhattan office building. Go figure…

over my plants and out my window at work