[img]958|left|Alex Campbell||no_popup[/img]Dateline Boston — Some people see the big picture. Me? I’m detail-oriented. I’ve spent hours thinking about our new apartment. I’m not a last-minute Mary—I like to be prepared so we can get in, do what needs to be done and have the place unpacked and ready to go in a week. Maybe less.
We got to see the apartment again last week, having viewed it only once. It was bigger than we remembered, which was a nice surprise. We discovered that yes, we could fit a dining room table in the alcove, thus turning the dining room into one rockin’ office.
S.O. measured and drew diagrams. I took pictures and noted minute details. While we don’t have a claw foot tub in the main bathroom, it is open on three sides, so it has one of those oval-shaped shower rods over the top of it. I took note of how many shower curtains we might need. After some discussion with S.O., we decided that we could get one shower curtain and three liners. That’s thirty-six shower curtain rings. Three packs, since there are twelve in a pack. I started a mental shopping list.
Space for Shelby
I saw that there was only one towel bar, mounted on the back of the door. We’d need more of those — could we put them on the wall? The cat litter box wouldn’t fit in the main bathroom, henceforth called “our” bathroom, so we’d put it in the guest bathroom, henceforth called “Shelby’s bathroom” (as in, Shelby the cat).
We went through the kitchen and I tried to decide which cabinets to put what items in. Pots and pans in the funky closet/cabinet next to the oven. Dishes and glasses in the far cabinet. Silverware in the china cabinet drawer in the alcove.
In the living room, it took about fifteen minutes to decide if we should get the couch with the chaise side on the left or the right. I counted all the pull chain lights to see how many cute trinkets I should buy to put on the ends of the chains. I nixed my original idea of putting a row of peg hooks on the wall for coats; it would look messy. People would just have to walk ten feet to the coat closet. But the kids would never do that; maybe we should put peg hooks on the wall.
At the time I was going through the various options of our new living space, I was battling a sinus infection, so that helped me curb my detail obsession. When I started feeling lightheaded, I decided that enough decisions had been made for the day, and we left.
The next day I ordered shower curtain liners online. I got an extra long one for claw foot tubs. Do I need a regular one, too? And will the long towel rack we got yesterday be long enough? For now I’ll just trust my instincts. And study at the pictures I took…one last time.
Ms. Campbell may be contacted at her new address, snobbyblog@gmail.com
