Entrance
Date: 2001-12-28
Our journey starts here, as we enter the apartment from the hallway outside. Going counterclockwise from the right, the fisrt thing we see is the foyer closet. Straight ahead there's the dining room. Beyond and to the left is the living room, and immediately to the left is the kitchen. Normally when you enter the apartment, Paddington is there to greet you, although in this case I suspect he just wanted to be in the picture.
Living Room I
Date: 2005-02-23
If you stood beside the TV, this is what you'd see. It's a pretty narrow living room, but it serves the purpose. Both couches fold out into beds. On the blue couch near the kitchen, Fluffernutter is relaxing on her favourite green pillow (you can't see it, she's sitting on it). The passthrough to the kitchen would be handy if I used it properly, but really all I use it for is as a hole in the wall to watch TV through while in the kitchen. It also makes a good shelf to hold the remote control so I can get at it from both sides. You'll have to excuse the lighting in these first couple of living room photos, I hadn't started playing with the shutter speed yet so I had to digitally brighten them, making things look grainy.
Living Room II
Date: 2005-02-23
The living room as seen from the light in the corner. You'll notice that Paddington is pretending to be an art critic, staring at my picture in the far corner. You can also see the Sony Playstation II controllers sitting on the footrest in the lower left corner. Alex rented the machine for a week and it found its way to my place for part of the time, during which I think I got my sister and her boyfriend hooked on SSX d:)
Living Room III
Date: 2005-02-23
This is really the same picture as before, except that I managed to get the collection of candles sitting on a speaker in the shot as well. Other interesting things to note: the cat's ball of yarn on the floor; the picture on the coffee table of a piece of wood penetrating the cottage wall; the picture above the couch, taken on Fire Island (Craig Island) at the cottage. You can find the original of both of these photos elsewhere in the gallery.
Living Room IV
Date: 2001-12-28
The living room, yet again. I think this is the only picture in the apartment photo gallery that has both cats in it at once. Oh, wait. If you go back a couple to the first living room photo, you'll see Paddington sneaking into the living room. You can't see it very well in this piture, but in the very upper right corner, there's a boomerang resting on the thermostat. Look for it in other pictures. Dave and Tara brought that back for me from their travels in Australia.
Dining Room I
Date: 2001-12-28
The dining room. Unlike the rest of the apartment, I paid for the pictures here (CDN$2 for all the pictures in the room, including the one hiding behind the door that Paddington sits in front of). My favourites are the two in the wood frames, on the left. There's now a wood spirit hanging between these two pictures. Oh, wait, I lied, there's a little photo on the coffee table (look underneath the farther of the two wood framed pictures. I didn't pay for that one, it's a picture of an outhouse wall, fallen, with a tree on top.
Dining Room II
Date: 2001-12-28
The dining room as seen from the storage closet. I didn't take any pictures of the storage closet, but it's big enough to hold my bike, the cat litter box and all its equipment, and some other cardboard boxes. On the table is my new camera case, without which I couldn't have taken these apartment photos. The kit, which I ordered in early September (and received in late December), includes a telephoto lens, a wide angle lens, two closeup lenses, pouches to hold them all, the case, and a lens pen to clean the lenses.
Kitchen I
Date: 2001-12-28
Now we visit the kitchen. It's hard to see Paddington in this picture, but he's under the table (he was in the last picture, too, but just his tail). You can see a lot of bottles sitting on the counter that I still haven't taken to the recycling room. *sigh* If you look closely at the fridge, you can see two owl S&P shakers. I got them at the same place I got the pictures in the dining room, also for CDN$2, but this lot included the shakers, some glasses and a teapot set. In later kitchen pictures, look for the lobster S&P shakers on the stovetop.
Kitchen II
Date: 2001-12-28
Hrm, you can't see them well, but the two red things on the stovetop are the lobster shakers. On the wall there's a "My Goodness, My Guinness!" poster (what bachelor pad is complete without one?) I put in the shelves above the stove and the table, they don't come with the apartment. You can also see that computer sitting on the liquor cabinet stand in the dining room. That's been sitting there since I moved in. It's not hooked up to anything.
Kitchen III
Date: 2001-12-28
More kitchen. This picture is taken from the table, a Christmas present from my mom, as are the two chair/stools that accompany it. There's not much else that's interesting to note here, except perhaps that my cell phone also snuck into the photo. It's over beside the stove, with the shoelace strap dangling over the counter. Oh, if you look in the dishrack you can see my favourite kitchen knife (looks like a cleaver but it's not). I highly recommend it, I use it all the time.
Living Room V
Date: 2001-12-28
Another shot of the living room, as seen from the passthrough. Fluffernutter has moved from the couch in order to grace the photo with her presence. Plus I think she wants to play with the ball of yarn. In the lower right corner you can see the can of Pounce. A great cat treat if you have cats. Oh, you can see the boomerang resting on the thermostat more cleary here as well.
Kitchen IV
Date: 2001-12-28
The kitchen, as seen from the passthrough. I like this photo 'cause Paddington is being cute, rolling over on his back. Coincidentally, he's doing that right now as I type this. What a great cat. You can see the cat's dishes more clearly in this photo (hiding under the table in the kitchen.
Kitchen V
Date: 2001-12-28
A final picture of the kitchen, from the passthrough. I can't see anything particulary interesting about this photo but I included it anyways. The stove equipment (spatulas, strainers, etc) are standing in a peanut butter container. If you look back at other photos, you'll see it more clearly, as well as the green peanut butter container lid that's right beside the stove on the counter.
Bathroom I
Date: 2001-12-28
Now we see the bathroom. The two mirrors slide away to reveal the medicine cabinet. In the lower left corner you can see a scale hiding. This is one of the few pictures Paddington didn't manage to sneak into.
Bathroom II
Date: 2001-12-28
The bathroom as seen from the bathtub. Interesting things to note: the toilet paper holder is placed sufficiently far away from the toilet that only an eight foot tall giant could reach it comfortably, hence the two rolls on the tank. Also, the fact that the toilet paper holder is so close to the towel rack means that wet towels will touch the TP roll and get it wet. All in all, a bad design. If I had money, I'd buy a new TP holder and attach it to the counter, right above that trash can I have sitting there.
Bathroom III
Date: 2001-12-28
I think this is the last picture of the bathroom. In the lower left corner you can see my shirt. Not professional, but hey, it's clsoe quarters. Note the shelves in the bathtub surround. They don't have a lip built into the edge and they're designed to be put in either upside down or right-side up, which means that if you try to put something on the shelf, it will probably slide off. Nonetheless, I have managed to get my shampoo bottle to stand there, so while it's a bad design, it's not too bad (the shampoo is on an identical shelf behind the shower curtain).
Hall Closet
Date: 2001-12-28
The hall closet. Off to the right is the office, and you can see my bicycle tire in the storage closet. Paddington is sitting on the wet carpet. Wet, you ask? Why? Well, building management decided to install a new bathtub because the old one was sufficiently rusty that they couldn't reglaze it. When they installed the new tub and its new surround (with the badly designed shelves), they didn't seal the edges well enough, and water leaks through the bad seals and finds its way under the carpet. They've already tried to fix it once, but it's still a problem, so I'll try again.
Office
Date: 2001-12-28
This is the only picture of the office, which is really unfair since I spend a lot of time in this room. Can you spot all the computers? Two of them are under the desk on the other side of the office chair. They both share the bigger monitor. You can see the iMac. There's a NetWinder sitting on the same leaf of the desk as the iMac, but to the right (look for the green picture sitting on top of two horizontal boxes with green lights... the NetWinder is standing vertically just to the right...it's small). Finally, just in front of Paddington there's a grey box with a black velcro band around it. That's Trux, the fifth computer in this room.
Bedroom Door
Date: 2005-02-23
I don't know why I took this picture, but there's three interesting things to note: The stop sign on the door was given to me by Tara, and it's very old. The doorstop is a wedge of wood from one of the trees that fell on the cottage. You can also notice the warping effect from the wide angle lens. Finally, Paddington is yet again posing in the picture. I guess that's four things, not three.
Bedroom I
Date: 2005-02-23
The bedroom. The ugly pink string light was a mistake I made. When I bought it I thought it was blue. You can see my stuffed penguin sitting in the chair just to the right of the entrance. You may also note that Paddington hasn't managed to sneak into this picture, although that changes soon hereafter.
Bedroom II
Date: 2001-12-28
A similar picture to the preceding, but with the pink light turned off. The light above the bed seems bright, but it's not. I had to really adjust the shutter speed to make these photos light enough. Interesting things to note: The Queensway (Hwy. 417) just outside my window (you can see the headlight streaks). There's a stereo in that cabinet to the right of the bed, which I got for CDN$47 including the cabinet.
Bedroom III
Date: 2001-12-28
Paddington finally snuck in after I stopped blocking the doorway. When I'm in bed, he usually lies beside me on that long white pillow at the head of the bed. If I roll to one side, he'll jump over my head and lie on the side that I'm facing. Strange cat, but I love him. You can also see the neat shadow cast by the fan, just to the left of the mirror. That fan is very old (made by Dominion Electric, its body is cast iron, it has a four digit serial number and one speed). Just to the right of the mirror, there's a hanging...shelf? that holds an incence container. Not too visible here, it might show up more clearly in superceding photos.
Bedroom IV
Date: 2005-02-23
The bedroom as seen from the walk-in closet. Paddington peeks over the foot fo the bed into the camera. At this point, I should mention that all the clothes you see lying around are clean. The stuff on the ironing board is awaiting ironing, the stuff under the ironing board is arranged into three piles, and the stuff in the laundry basket is awaiting sorting into those three piles. The stuff under the mirror has too many holes to be worn and is awaiting its destiny as either a cleaning rag or garbage or something else. The dirty laundry hides between the door to the closet and the wall.
Bedroom V
Date: 2001-12-28
From here you can see into the closet. You also get a good view of the penguin sitting in his chair. He's very content, having just had his fill of fish. He's wearing a Linuxcare bowling shirt. Of course, Paddington is comfortably lying on the bed.
Bedroom Closet
Date: 2005-02-23
The bedroom closet. The laundry basket in the lower left corner currently holds used fabric softener sheets, which make the closet smell nice. The clothes on the shelves may look messy, but they're all sorted into piles. Organized chaos. The real question is, why aren't the clean clothes in the bedroom in here on the shelves where they belong? The answer: I'm too lazy. I also think that male genes may preclude putting things away where they belong.
Bedroom Window
Date: 2001-12-28
The view of the Queensway. You can see headlight and taillight streaks. That little road in front is for buses exclusively; it leads to the transitway just down the road. You might think that sleeping with the Queensway just outside the window would be annoying, but it doesn't bother me. In the winter, the closed window blocks the sound quite well. In the summer, the constant background noise is soothing. However, every once in awhile there's an accident and they're pretty scary. Usually you hear tires squeal for about 1-2 seconds and you know that there's gonna be a loud noise, then you hear the crunch. I imagine it's worse for the people in the apartment across the road (you can see their triangular parking lot in this photo), let alone for the people involveed in the accident. Luckily, there's a fire station very close by, as well as an EMT/paramedic station.
Sunroom I
Date: 2001-12-28
My apartment comes equipped with something called a sunroom. It's like a balcony, except the outer wall is all windows instead of being open. When I moved in, the floor was concrete and the walls were an ugly, peeling stucco. I added the carpet and the wallboard, which I got for free while doing construction (destruction, actually) at a friend's house. I still have to attach the final piece (you can see it standing beside the chair to the left; it goes in the upper left corner of that wall). I also have to put up the quarter-round in the corners. Fluffernutter likes to lie on that purple pillow on the couch. You can see a brake light streak in the window outside.
Sunroom II
Date: 2001-12-28
Last picture, taken from the other end of the sun room. The window at the far end leads to the computer room, and of course the big sliding glass doors go to the living room. There's a dartboard at the far end, and an empty fishtank on that stand. In the summer, the stereo that's now in my bedroom lives out here where all those wires are sitting beside the white stand. I like to sit in the comfy chair and read out here while listening to jazz on the radio before going to bed. In this photo you can barely see Fluffernutter staring from the other side of the glass door.
