On settling in….

So we are FINALLY getting settled in.  It’s starting to feel a lot more like we actually live here.  This past week Ed’s family came to visit.  So in order to prepare for them, we had to get a lot done.  Also, we were finally able to get some more furniture to help with storage and décor.  All but one piece of our “new” furniture was bought from Craig’s List.  The other piece was bought from a store I found via Craig’s List.

Here’s what we got:

A small dresser for Ed’s closet ($30)

Two accent chairs for the living room ($30, yes! for both!) 

China Cabinet ($50)

And the amazing antique dresser that we splurged on ($150)

Day Bed and brand new mattress ($200)

Even though our guest room and guest closet are acting as a storage unit right now because we still need bookshelves and to unpack a crap ton of boxes, we are definitely feeling more settled in.  So here’s what it looked like before Ed’s family arrived:

The view from the front door.

When you walk through the door, you have the washer/dryer immediately to your right and you can see some of the dining table, all of the kitchen, and into the living room and bedroom.

The Dining "Room"

When Ed's family came, they brought out other two chairs for the table...and you can see the china cabinet in the background of the dining area.  We plan to paint if some cool color and put some kind of design in the back of it.  It also has a light in it...hehe...kind of corny but cool.

The Kitchen

Just the standard apartment kitchen.  We think it's really nice.  But there's not much to do to it.  We did add two chairs to the island.  It's not actually meant to sit at, we don't' think, but we like to sit there.

The Photo Wall

Right between the kitchen and dining area, Ed and I made a photo wall.  Of course we have to change the pictures around and at some art.  We've actually added some cookbooks to the top of it already (one more unpacked box! YAY!)  And that is our awesome antique dresser.  We put the knobs back on it and cleaned it up a bit.  We still don't know yet if we want to paint or stain it, but we LOVE it!

The Living Room

So it's looking a little bare and cramped right now.  That's our new IKEA couch.  and you can see Ebba's bed on the right.  On the left if little big brother's bed (can't wait to get him!).  You can see one of our new chairs.  And even though that coffee table is not our style at all (if you look around, you can tell we don't really have ONE style) IT WAS FREE!.  I was thinking of maybe changing the legs on, painting it, and possibly adding some cool design on top.  I still can't believe that the two chairs were only 30$ for both!  We plan on recovering them in a funky fabric and painting them.

This is the rest of the living area.  We need to acquire/hang art, hang curtains, and just really figure it out a little more.  That sliding glass for leads to the patio.

The Master Bedroom

So the door next to the picture wall obviously heads into the master bedroom.  Not much to see here. Still need to hang some art and decorate a little, but it's pretty much set.

The Master Bath

Off the master bedroom, down a little hallway past the TWO walk in closets, is the master bath.  We added a little extra storage which has been really helpful....and behind that shower curtain is a ginormous tub (soaking tub?) that even Ed can enjoy!

Back through the living room and off the dining are is a little hallway that had a guest bath and a linen closet and leads to the guest bedroom.

So it kinda looks like crap.  We prepared it for Grammy and Karen to sleep in there while they were here.  We also bought a trundle to go under the daybed for extra comfort for guests.  It's not ideal for couples, but for having such a small space, we needed a space saving option, so it works for us.  notice that they also gave us the bedding for the daybed that they had.  We washed it and it's all good.  

Since Ed's family left, he has rearranged the room, moving his bike in with the indoor trainer and his weights.  So it's kind of man-ed up in there.

While Ed's family was here we did add a couple lamps.  They were on sale at Lowe's and since they aren't perfect for what I want (they are a nice style, wrong colors), I plan on spiffying them up a bit too. So if you're reading this post correctly, I have a lot of projects to do!

For those of you not keeping up on Facebook, you'll notice I mentioned little big brother.  I'll post on him later!

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: