My poor neglected apartment

So I woke up Saturday morning, in a panic because of all the work I had to do, and thought for a moment about going to the beach to forget it all. But then I looked around my place and realized that I've spent so much time worrying about magazines and backhouses, that my apartment was overdue for a little project.

For 14 months, I have had a great Calphalon pot rack leaning up against the wall, and all my pots and pans stacked on the floor. This is not good for a woman like me who A) cooks regularly, and B) wants her home to look completely finished from day one. Having just come back from a week off, during which—yes, believe it—I finished sanding my stripped and replastered window and actually painted it, I knew it was time to suck it up and put up the pot rack.

Bye-bye beach. Hello drill driver.

Me being me, it couldn't be easy. At first, all went relatively smoothly. I drilled, anchored and hung the pot rack, then put all the pots on it and stepped back. Uck. I had hung it about a third of the way down the top sash, thinking it would look cool, but it looked horrible. I had to take it down and start all over.

Of course, moving it up to the top of the window meant now the screw holes went into brick. That precipitated a trip to the hardware store to purchase masonry screws, a special drill bit for those screws, and a special bit extender so I could get the driver bit into a tight space. Then I had to fill and repaint the old holes. But now it's done, and I think it looks great. In fact, I can't stop looking at it—having my pots finally hanging up pleases me to no end. Sometimes it's the littlest details that make the big differences.

By the way, the color around the window (which I plan to leave unfinished) matches the backsplash behind the brick orange counters I have, but I still need to paint the rest of the kitchen walls a green that's about 3 shades lighter so the contrast won't be so shocking. Also I plan to get rid of the cart, put a taller cabinet on the right, and build a little counter (with a copper top) that fits into the window arch and over the radiator to hold the appliances. But that's a job for another weekend.