.Ten years after I bought my Manhattan apartment, I decided to replace the "temporary" shade on my enormous living room window with curtains. Since even a small lapse of judgment would've been extremely costly, I called my friend Thomas Jayne to come over for a look. Thomas is a scholar (he studied American architecture and decorative arts at Winterthur Museum's graduate program). He's good company, and I respect his eye. By the time we had finished a short drink, Thomas had managed to identify (correctly, alas) at least a half-dozen additional items in need of serious attention. Still, we were prudent-there was an "A List" and a "B List." Then, as the week turned into months, the two lists morphed into THE list, and the rest is history.   continued on next page