Spring is a myth in Boston

There—I said it out loud. Officially spring started last Friday. Sunday night/Monday morning, our temperature dropped to 22F. The high was 31. Today is not much better. The one saving grace is that it’s sunny outside. Sunny and absolutely FREEZING.

We are looking at ways to bring more natural light into our apartment. We knew going into it that light would be scarce, and it is. That’s also why we could afford as big of a place as we have, but in the meantime we are looking to boost the light. You might remember that our bathroom was originally painted dark gray (think battleship gray, only a bit darker) and has slate tiles on the floor and glass tiles in the bathroom that are three shades of gray. It’s a very dramatic look and in a space with lots of sunshine, it would work well. But not here—so the first thing we did was paint the bathroom a much lighter color and increase the wattage in the lights.

Saturday we got a different shower curtain and that’s made a huge difference too. The new one is slightly off white, and very sheer with more opaque leaves of the same color and material appliquéd on it. Being so sheer, it lets far more light into the shower. So next up in the bathroom will be painting the cabinets a glossy just off white color (they are faux cherry stained), and probably painting the walls a semi-gloss to match.

Our bedroom has a big window well with a small window. The well walls are made of poured concrete and we think at least one of us (OK me) can fit through the window. If so, we want to paint the concrete white. I’ve seen several window wells like ours around the South End that have been painted, and the paint really seems to increase the brightness.

Most of the painting projects require outdoor work, which in turn requires warmer weather. So I am waiting pretty impatiently for the weather to get warmer.