Update

Some things I've added to my home sweet home as of late...

A very much needed storage piece in the kitchen ($30 off craigslist). The bright orb is a pretty chandelier that i'm sad you can't see...


A mobile that I made, which was inspired by something I saw in an Anthropology store (cost me $0 to make).


A chandelier that I bought for $20 at an antique store and painted bright red! Hung in the living room.


The most amazing find of.. the month at least- a red LE CREUSET tea pot found at a garage sale and purchased for a haggled price of a mere $7. Thank you.


A chair I found by a dumpster, recovered and painted (cost= $0). Here's the before and after:

One more pic..

My computer is happy today so it's allowing me to post another pic of my living room for you.. Here tis! (I love this part of the room!)

The Finishing Stages (of what will never be finished)

The floor was shining white and I was ready to put my furniture back and bask in the sparkle. First up- the entry table, since it was awkwardly residing in the middle of the bathroom. I went to move it the short distance form bathroom to hall aaannnd... scratch. damn damn damn. My basking would have to be postponed since, obviously, some sort of sealing was in order here. After a moment on Ask.com I learned that I needed a water-based polyurethane floor sealer. Lowe's here I come (again). As familiar as I am getting with the store, I quickly found what I needed, scanned the label and- wait, what is this? "For painted wood, clean and sand away gloss". I'm sorry, wha?? I just painted with glossy paint! My sister and I looked at each other. I read the label one more time, shouted a few profanities a bit too loudly for public, and jerked the can off the shelf. When we arrived home, Meredith and I knelt in a corner with sandpaper in hand, making toddler whiny faces at each other and I said, "Let's just not.." After a moment she said, "Yeah, you know what? I doesn't really need to be sealed.." And that was all the convincing I needed. So we just said screw it. If the paint starts chipping later, we'll deal with it then. So then we got straight to the fun part! Of course, its not done, there are several things missing but it feels like a living room finally! So without further adu....
Tada!

I'll put a couple more pictures up later but right now my internet is being a little bitch.

Anyway, the next orders of business are: getting another set of twin mattresses to make the L sofa (which will change the layout completely!), getting a little cart for the TV, something for the kitchen for more counter space/storage since the table is coming out (I just found a butcher block top island on craigslist but am waiting to hear back!), a bookshelf, and then hanging all the art. And of course getting the bedroom into functioning condition.. sooo, a lot to do.

Let there be light..

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I hope you had a lovely weekend and that your mothers enjoyed their days yesterday. I think my mom did. Well, the second half at least. I got over to her house at around 4 and she was in a bit of a funk. She said that Mother's Day is usually pretty disappointing (wow I'm a terrible daughter)and then she started crying. Happy Mother's Day. Actually, we just got onto a subject that she got a little emotional about. But then we made chocolate-covered strawberries and went for a walk. Then my brother and sister came and we had dinner- taco salad with Katie's famous "Rock-amole"- and presents and such. I think she liked that part. Overall, not too shabby I hope. She is actually going through a bit of a hard time right now so I hope we did something to lighten things up, if only for a day.

In other news- very exciting news that is- I am pleased to announce that I have a progress report on the apartment! So this weekend... well, how about I just explain it in a thousand words?

On your mark..


Get set..


Tada!!


Then we had a little private concert by a member of the band Love and Theft. It was pretty spectacular.


So, now we are waiting on the maintenance guy to come lay the quarter round trim. I don't think he's gonna get to it all that soon, however, so I think I'm going to set up the living room without it and then just have to move everything again when he comes..

This evening I am picking up 2 very exciting Craig's List finds- This ikea jute 6X8rug for $50

and this ikea table for $25


Here's a bit more detail on the plan for our apartment. I didn't have a sofa when we first moved in so I had this idea- partly as a solution to my sister and I sharing a one bedroom and partly cause I thought it was a unique idea- to make a "sofa" out of twin mattresses (so I could sleep in the living room but it would still look like a living room). It was an idea I got out of an issue of my beloved Domino Magazine (RIP). In the magazine it was a sort of play room and a much larger space than what we have, and they had used 3 sets of twin mattresses (we are going to just use 2) to form an L shaped sofa. So when we moved in I set my twin mattress and box on the floor and made a box around it with wood that I painted white (see?). I used large pillows to form a "back" of the sofa. I never bought the second set of mattresses, though, because I kept changing my mind about what I wanted to do. Some days I wanted to just get a regular sofa, and then I had this idea to make a back to just the one with shelves... BUT now I am sure and I am going to follow through. Its back to the original idea. It will be in the corner of the room that has no windows and it will be a little cove of fluffy white pillows and yumminess. I will paint the box around the bottom the same color as the floor so it will almost seem trimmed out. I think it will have a really cool lofty feel. The TV will be right at the end of one of the sofas on a rolling cart (its a very small flat TV). Then across the room, right under the windows will be the new table and 2 chairs. The chairs are very rustic so I think it will be a cool contrast with the stark mod table. Where the rest of the stuff is going is a little up in the air but there will probly be a small desk and a shelf somewhere. The feel will be open and bright and comfy and airy. A lot of white with fun pops of color.
Here are a few pictures that inspire me.





Ok, well thats all the update I have on Project 208 for right now. I will put up pics soon of the new stuff I'm getting tonight!

Greg Gives the Go Ahead

So, a quick update- Ol' boy landlord came by and looked at the flooring surprise (remember the crackhead green diamond pattern?).. Now Ol' man Greg is an interesting man. And by interesting I mean boring and utterly emotionless. So I had no idea what to expect from his reaction.. Of course he said wow this is ridiculous, who would do such a thing, but he did not get mad at us. (phew..) Then we began discussing our options and he threw out-
"well we can just paint it like a dark brown.."
(GASP! oh good lord, please no.) i responded, calmly, with a hmm.. yes.. and then my dear brave sister says, "well, actually we were thinking about painting it white.."
I braced myself.
"Ok, yeah, that could look nice, especially with all the windows in here, there'd be so much light."
(YESSS!! Greg I love you!!)
And with my new confident in Greg's openmindedness, I added, "I've also seen it done with a high gloss and it looks pretty great.."
"Ok, sure.. And I'll cover the cost of the paint."
(Greg, will you marry me?)

So, needless to say, Mere and I are jumpin all over that puppy and pretty soon our place will be sparklin Domino-style.

Project 208

I think I may start using this blog to chrono.. um, chronolo... chronologize? is that a word? anyway, I'm gonna keep track of everything that I'm doing to my apartment. Here's why-
Last week, Mere decided to investigate into what was lying beneath our old, stained, disgusting carpet and so she lifted up a corner in the hall and "aaahhhhh" (angelic chorus), there was beautiful hardwood floors. So we got our landlord's permission to rip it all up and we said we'd do whatever finishing was needed on the floors. So a-ripping we went until we discovered why the carpets had been laid on top of such marvelous floors- a marvelous green and white [freehand] painted checkerboard pattern. If I had a name and location for whoever did this, I swear I would kill them... or at least call them a retard and throw something at them... or paint them with green and white checkers and say "how do YOU like it?? huh??" Seriously? So now, my house looks like this:

Its ok though cause I would pretty much take ANYTHING over the carpet that we had. We couldn't even walk barefoot or our feet would eventually be black. I know. gross.
I have always loved interior design. i worked in the field a couple years ago and I loved it. Now though, I am very broke so it makes it a challenging thing to create the feeling that I would like to in my space. But I welcome it. My new floors (however bizarre) have re-ignited the fire and excitement I had when I initially moved into my place (because flooring aside, i think its a very cool place). So i think I will start keeping you updated on the process of turning a tiny, shared, green and white checkered, yellow linoleum-ed, creaking, cracking, upstairs apartment into a cove of artistic inspiration, interest, warmth and cozy-ness. AND you'll see just how cheap I can be in doing the whole thing! I'm calling it Project 208.
So there's picture number one. (pardon the mess!)
And soon I'll take more pics get you up to speed on what in going on in it so far.