On being stuck in a rut…

with no where to go and no way to fix it...

Hookay, so we had to get a rid of a lot of things for this move.  We don’t have a lot of furniture per se, but things still needed to be gotten rid of so that we could do the more economical thing and pull a U-Haul trailer behind the Xterra.   So things like my patio furniture, outdoor lanterns, storage containers (?), and some small pieces of furniture as well as other items, were discarded/given away/etc. 

So upon arrival to the wonderful (slight sarcasm) city of Broomfield, CO, we didn’t have much in the way of making a home.  We DO have just about everything needed for the kitchen though.  However, minus the broken wedding dishes, we still have kitchen stuff sitting all over the counters.  Why? Because we have about 20-30% less cabinet space than in our previous apartment.  So I was thinking, I’d get a china cabinet from Craig’s List and DIY redo it.  Maybe paint it a funky color with a bold pattern in the inside. 

That’s all wonderful…if we had some cash flow.  See we both spent all our dough moving out here to the land of altitude and dryness.  Both of our last paychecks went to moving, leaving us virtually nothing once we got here.  So even though the whole china cabinet idea would only cost about 150-200$, there’s no cash.  So what doesn’t fit in the cabinets sit on the counters, for now.

It’s kind of that way in every room. We have a crap ton of books.  But no book shelf.  So we can’t unpack.

Some of the china is in the TV console/buffet for protection (did I mention the destruction of our wedding china?).  So the items that usually go in there are either still packed up or displaced.

We also do not have a guest bed yet.  Nor do we have the filing cabinets that were in our precious guest bedroom that we used to store our, duh, files.  Those were gotten rid of as well…  So that stuff is still sitting in boxes. 

It seems like there is a lot we need in order to make this place (or any place) feel like home.  I need yarn/craft storage.  Or hell, I guess I could just get of all that too.  Seems to be the trend around here. 

Not all has been bad.  We did manage to buy a couch from Ikea.  

Ektorp

Not the best couch in the world, but hey, we have a place to sit.  We got it in white 1) because we didn't like any of the other colors and 2) because we figured once we decided on a design scheme, we could dye it.  We had bought an ottoman, which made sitting on the couch more enjoyable, but we took it back because after only a few short days of using it, it was showing signs of wear.

So we’re kind of in this circle of “can’t really do much until we get a _____.”  For example, I can’t unpack the books until I get a bookshelf.  I guess I could just stack them in corners in the guest bedroom…

So I sit here.  Seemingly bored.  But I have TONS to do.  I just can’t do it yet.  I keep finding awesome ideas on Pinterest, but I can’t do those either for lack of funds. I also still can’t breath.  Between bronchitis and the change in altitude… I feel like I’m dying all the time.

I have been applying for teaching jobs.  I’ve also started applying for part time jobs for the summer. 

One little thing that makes me happy and that makes this place feel more like a home than just some blah apartment, I made Ed let me use 25$ of our food budget to buy fresh flowers.  I bought peonies.  They are amazingly beautiful.  However, in the middle of next week, when we run out of food, I’ll just have to look at my peonies (which will probably be wilting by then) and be happy.  They smell really good too!

So soon, as in a week from this Friday, we’ll be able to start putting things together in here a LITTLE bit more.  Just in time for Ed’s family to visit (I’m thinking of putting Ed’s mom to work helping me to DIY some side tables and maybe more, we’ll see).

We made a list, broken down room by room, of the things we (mostly me) want in order to make this apartment a home.  So here goes:

Master Bath 

-wire shelves 

My Closet

hanging sweater     

Ed’s Closet

drawers  

Master Bedroom

curtains

lamp

side table  

chair

under bed boxes

Dining Room/ Kitchen

china cabinet

knife block

Living Room

shelves/media storage

two accent/armchairs

side tables (want to DIY)

curtains

ottoman

lamps

rug

Entry-ish Way

small half circle table

lamp

Guest Bath

Little basket for guest supplies

Guest Bedroom

bed and mattress

curtains

and I'm sure there's more

Balcony

patio furniture

plants

grill

General

ironing board

art/frames

tupperware

storage boxes

The crossed out items are ones that we have just purchased.  I don’t expect to make this all just appear one day.  I kind of want to take it slow and actually have things look nice and like they belong….to make it a home and not just a place to live.  Now only if we can get out of this rut.

Broomfield is actually not that bad...I mean, we do have wonderful views of the mountains: