Moved in!

We’re all set up to run life business in our dwelling. I am desperate to paint! Did not win the battle of “this place is disgusting, you’d better clean it up.” Pfft, property management DOES NOT CARE.

Have you seen Behr Neptune Blue? Well, that’s what we’re thinking for the living room.

I’d like to get the new coffee table of course, and we have the stump now!! It just needs to be bug bombed. Can work on that this weekend.

Follows my original plan pretty well I’d say!

I wasn’t lucky enough to find a fiddle leaf fig. Gosh darnit, I want one so badly. We got this split-philodendron instead. It’s quite a beast and will only continue to grow down and out. I think we’ll end up transplanting outside under the cover of darkness (who would object to an awesome plant beautifying their landscape though?) or give it away. $12 at Home Depot.

List making

They tell us the apartment will be ready by Friday.

 

A list of things I’d like to have for the space:

LIVINGROOM

• get old sofa cleaned and slipcovered
• get rug cleaned
• buy plants: 1.) rubbertree plant 2.) fiddle leaf fig 3.) philodendron
• lamp
• coffee table
• large mirrors
• new desk
• entry hall table
• get artwork framed
• get an ottoman

KITCHEN

• 2 more place settings to match elephant dishes. Get matching floral bowls
• placemats
• white linen table cloth
• baby gate for dog

BEDROOM

• iron bed
• new white bedding. Comforter and shams
• sand and stain vanity. Have seat reupholstered
• lamp for bedroom. standing and tabletop
• dresser
• armoire
• Moroccan rug

Certainly is a lot to acquire…

 

Sad day

We were devastated to walk into our new apartment Friday afternoon, after signing our new lease, to find that they hadn’t bothered to clean it.

The entry hall had trash in it, the living room still had the previous tenants belongings, the kitchen floor was still filthy, and stuff was still in the drawers. The bathroom had a bandaid in the shower for Pete’s sake!

I had to cancel my parents trip to come help, reschedule the u-haul til next week, and this morning reschedule the disconnect on our utilities. Very much an inconvenience!

It really put a damper on my outook 😦

Now we’re sitting on boxes and random bits of trash and clutter waiting for this coming Saturday to make our move. Such a bad taste in my month about the whole thing.

To take my mind off my troubles I started planning the living room:

Packing up, moving on

A year ago (and a handful of weeks), we were packing up to move from ATL, GA to BHAM, AL. Honestly, I do not know how we packed up a 3 story condo because I am struggling to pack a 2 bedroom apartment! So much clutter and useless junk! Papers, old junky clothes, and stashed away objects that were never unpacked in the first place! To them I say: be gone.

This new apartment is very special to me and I hope to goodness I enjoy living there. Our current living situation has been made unbearable by the next door neighbors leaving their belongs in the hallway we share in this 4 unit building (2 units top, 2 units bottom). It is unbearable to come home day after day after day to heaps of junk sitting there. Most weeks garbage is left that they are too lazy to walk to the curb. After contacting our property managers and getting no response, we took it upon ourselves to leave them a note volunteering to take their rubbish to the street. They responded with “don’t touch our stuff” and now walk past making zero eye contact or smiles. Makes me chuckle. They’re horrible people and part of me wants horrible evil heinous things to happen to me. :[ They have made me angry and hateful…things I was supposed to be giving up as I grow and mature (like on my about page). I hope to get back to that and appreciate people as best I can. But come on, keep your trash in your own apartment/house/dwelling!

The building next door is no better. The upper level tenants throw trash, cigarettes, and liquids off their level’s platform (not quite a balcony?). It is DISGUSTING. You’d think we live in the wrong part of town. Apparently just on the wrong street. No body cares to clean up. The property managers don’t care. The tenants don’t care. Am I the only loather of trash!?

So, I am hoping for a peaceful existence in the new place. Roll on into 30 in a home I enjoy. Woo!

Now to find a space for all our treasures. We sign the lease tomorrow. EEE!

 

The elephants go marching in

When work is slow, you can find me at onekingslane.com or other such websites. I’ve been eyeballing some dishes but could never quite settle for a boring old white. Racking my brain for other sites, I remembered World Market! They’re always emailing me coupons but my email is full of a constant barrage of store/beauty website deals and updates. So, I tend to ignore.

Luckily, 2 days ago they sent a 15% off coupon! We got these two salad/dinner plates. I think it is divine!  I doubt I’ll ever be concerned about chargers. Is that a necessary tabletop detail?

Mix and Match at WorldMarket.com

I am learning. I tried it out with my new tablecloth and green napkins and love it! To the table!

(I will post pictures of the set up table upon move in. 4 days to go!)

Newly acquired

It dawned on me that I do not have to worry about a dining room table just yet. I was using Boyfriend’s old desk, his grandfather’s actually, as my desk in the sunroom but the only purpose it really served was as a surface for CLUTTER.

So, now that the new apartment’s walkin closet shall be my office space, that big desk won’t fit. I thought…why not use it as the dining table until we can afford a real table. I then began my quest for a white table cloth.

I swear, they are impossible to find! I looked in antique stores, tj maxx, burlington coat factory, walmart and tuesday morning. All were in vicinity of one another so I’ll have to venture to another part of town to hit up more shops. I did find a $4.98 green table cloth!

Then in an antique store I found these green napkins. Boyfriend detested them “they’re frayed!” but I told him my grandmother used to have green ones “just like this!” So home with me they came.

I’ve been searching ebay and etsy for vintage table linens. My decorating bible (The Perfectly Imperfect Home) has made me want to care about dressing the table. We’ll see how it all unfolds in the new space!

Not only did we get those green things, but I plan to use green chairs until we get actual dining chairs. We got a green dish for the entry hall, and a green picture frame for my painting. Um, …why all this green! AH!

How about one of these to add to the eclecticism of the room? Just kidding!

French doors

I LOVE french doors and I hope to have them (or maybe pocket doors) in my for real home. But that is eons away….so I started thinking about the new layout and that closet being my office area…

Wouldn’t it look so much better with a glass paned door!? Natural light would come in and I just think it would be a great project. So what if we’re just renting.

“Make your home as comfortable and attractive as possible and then get on with living.” – Albert Hadley

That is the goal! Today we did a bit of antiquing and plan to do more tomorrow. There is definitely a lack of storage/closets in the new apartment. Since I’ll be taking over the major closet, we decided to buy an armoire for our clothing to put in the bedroom. I haven’t even begun to explore the bedroom on the blog but boy oh boy do I have ideas! I pretty much know exactly what I want but I’m still tackling the livingroom.

We found a shop brewing with armoires! I have loved those things ever since I was a little girl. My paternal grandmother had a few and my mom was lucky enough to snag a beautiful one when my grandparents downsized to a smaller house. I believe the others were lost in a fire at the storage unit some years ago. Tragic!

The dream! I love this one!! Love love. Mom’s has mirrors just like this but isn’t as bulky. I just want to crawl right through on my way to Narnia 😛 For something this large, the $695 price tag is pretty good I’d say!

However, something like this is probably a better option for our apartment. It even has the original hooks and whatnots inside. Very cool. Attach a little tassel and call it a day! And only around $300. Very doable!!

 

Here is a great article on armoires and various uses for them (like in the bedroom, the kitchen, the livingroom, etc). My mother keeps hers in the livingroom and it is filled with candlestick holders, platters, and other kitchen/decorating treasures.

We found one!

Oh my Lord, the places I have seen. Last week I saw some really run down places. Think 70s roach motels. One window in the living room followed by disgusting carpet and very little space. And not for cheap. In my mind, when you are paying $700, you shouldn’t be shown THAT. Birmingham, AL isn’t NYC so I think you should get what you pay for!!

 

Anyway, today we saw 2 more places like this and told our apartment guide that we wanted the one with the porch (my first picture entry). She called her boss and it was taken! OF COURSE it was. We have no luck. She drove us a few streets over and showed us this and we unanimously said “we’ll take it!”

It’s only $35 over budget. We’ll be downsizing a good bit but I think we can make it really cute!

There’s an entry hall which I’ve never had before. I’m already planning an entry hall table and mirror. YES! A fairly large livingroom with a big walk in closet which will be fine for a small desk and all my crafting supplies. Yay! The bathroom isn’t glorious but there’s a HUGE mirror which will be SO NICE because currently standing at our mirror I can only see the top of my head. Why it’s hung so high I do not know. The kitchen has 2 large windows and an area for a kitchen table. Yay! The bedroom is of adequate size. Not a very large closet but I do plan to buy a dresser. I’ve been eyeing one at Anthropologie but maybe I can find one that isn’t a grand.

We drove by an antique store that I didn’t even know existed. “Mid-century furniture” it exclaimed. Must check that out!

I am so relieved to have found a place. It is a bit smaller and doesn’t have laundry in the unit, but does have a laundry room in the basement. I refuse to go to the laundromat. After all the horrible places and that huge upset with that spectacular place being ripped out from under us, I am relieved to find a historical apartment with hardwoods and character. woohoo!

If all goes well, next weekend is move in day!

Some quick cellphone snaps:

 

 

Livingroom (someone is still moving out) Front door (oh may, I didn’t know that slat was broken. Gross. Hope they fix that! Solid door behind this.)

Space for desk (there’s a lightbulb inside. I believe there was shelving behind that awkward board.)

The kitchen was actually bright in person. Hope they clean that floor! The “lobby” or entry hall is really cute I think. I liked the floor. I just love old hardwoods! And I love that all we have to do is walk through the courtyard, through this entry way, and down a hall to our new place when we move in. I hate lugging stuff up steps! I’ve never lived in a downstairs unit, hopefully the upstairs tenants aren’t stomping jerks. 🙂

Yay!

 

Fickle

Earlier today I thought sure I’d found the right coffee table (I know…like is this ever going to end!)

I thought this has the bit of gold (okay, it’s brass), glass, and wood requested of boofriend… I was set.

Then someone posted this on my posed question to the Houzz community:

This crazy room is the eclectic look I enjoy. And right there amidst that heavy sofa is a tainty gold/glass table. Gimmme!

I’m quite still in love with this one but it doesn’t have the free shipping the others do! That’s an extra $200. I roll my eyes at you internet and post office.

 

So, actually…I’m still confused. But I think the wooden/glass would be lovely. Right?

In a blink, it’s gone

So the apartment we viewed yesterday was a beauty. And we wanted it. And we thought it was ours.

Before showing, the owner stated another applicant had already applied but he’d show us the apartment anyway. Okay?

And of course it was amazing. And of course he took our money so we could apply. Of course we said “we’ll pay the deposit tomorrow!” for other applicant hadn’t done that and it had been weeks.

Well, this morning he calls and says he feels bad and is giving the other person a chance.

 

WHATEVER dude. My heart is crushed. Oh the decorating I could have done.

Well, moving on…..