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Sunday, July 1, 2012

Shawshank...All Over Again





Interesting design begins with interesting problems. That's my motto for a new redesign for an old apartment in NYC. Problem number one, the apartment complex management says you can "do nothing" to the apartment...interesting considering the apartment has been the same since...guessing here...1960-1970. Those dates remind me of a tombstone and it should, since everything original to the apartment is dead and in a state of decay. So what does nothing mean? No explanation from the staff... just "you can't do anything". So funny when I am sure that not many are living in such disarray, I could be wrong and maybe they are. Might make it a quest to see how many of the apartments I can view in Stuyversant Town, NYC.


Per management "No new appliances, no new cabinets or counter tops, nothing in the bath and no, you can not redo the floor". Well, that's about everything original that just plain paint won't fix. Finding the balance between beauty and bedlam, that's going to be the trick. How will I oust the old without them knowing? I have had visions of taking the kitchen cabinets out and breaking them into small pieces and getting rid of them in somewhat the same manner as Andy Dufresne did with his cell wall in Shawshank Redemption. As I considered this, the entire redo might be much like the movie itself.

Andy dropping his cell wall from a hole in his pocket.


Just like Red said during his narration of what he thought of Andy when he first laid eyes on him, It was the same thought I had of this kitchen, "I must admit, I didn't think much of the kitchen first time I laid eyes on it. Looked like a stiff breeze would blow it over." The next day as I was speaking to the management about what can be done, after just a minute into the conversation, I'm thinking to myself,  "How could you be so obtuse?"

Red also says, and I quote "I'm telling you, these walls are funny. First you hate them. Then you get used to them. Enough time passes, it gets so you depend on them. That's institutionalized". Institutionalized is exactly how this apartment looks...it is so fitting. But just as Andy felt, this apartment dweller wants freedom. Freedom to finally live outside of the Stuyversant institution. 

So, how do you go about getting around the prison walls of Stuy Town? It won't be as Brooks said in the movie: Easy peezy Japanisey. Nope, I'm thinking the same way Andy did it. Crawl to freedom through 960 sq feet of shit-smelling foulness I can't even imagine. I am sure this is what management would like to drag you through. But...even with all the confinement, I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. The start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I guess it comes down to a simple choice. Get busy living or get busy dying. I am going to redo this apartment so this apartment dweller is living and loves to come home to his freedom each day. I hope he has no memory of this apartment from the before. That's where I want him to live the rest of his life. A warm place with no memory of before (or during) this redo.


I am thinking blue, as in the Pacific as the dominant color for this redo and I hope it is as beautiful as it has been in my dreams.

Jo Ann