Hello May!

This weekend my two cousins are graduating. I remember, when we made our hotel reservations waaaaaay back in October or so, thinking "Wow, that's so far away! By that time the wedding will be right around the corner!" Well, guess what, folks. It's not that far away anymore... and the wedding is right around the corner!

I'm the queen of cliff-hangers lately, aren't I? Like, last week (and, okay, for two months prior), I talked non-stop about our big move... and then didn't give you any details.

Well, here's the gist of it: We're exhausted.


The following is a brief photo tour of the "before" of our new apartment (click here to see the floor plan again):

The living room from the front door--don't you love the fireplace? It's gas. We thought it was wood-burning (because that's what the brochure says) and were pleasantly surprised to find out we wouldn't be needing to chop down any of the trees in the complex.

Another shot of the living room in which you can see the beautiful vaulted ceilings that I am absolutely in love with. P.S. The door on the right leads to our balcony (which I forgot to take any "before" pictures of).

View of the dining area/kitchen from the living room--yes, I forgot to take pictures until we'd carried in the first few loads of stuff.

The kitchen. It's snug. But, the cabinets are nice and deep, so there's more storage than it first appears.

Our cute little bathroom. Just wait until you see the "after" of this shot. One of my proudest accomplishments, for sure :-)

Our bedroom. There are no ceiling lights in here, so this picture is super-dark. Behind me there is a sliding door that opens to the balcony. This brings in some natural light, but (obviously) not a ton. We will be purchasing more lamps!

Our closets... sigh...

At least it goes all the way across the wall... (yes, I'm searching for a silver lining...)

Our hall closet. Double sigh.

The good news (for me) is that we do have a laundry closet with a relatively large amount of storage space. The bad news (for you) is that I don't have a "before" picture, and I don't want to ruin any surprises.

We had fun camping out the first week--since our move-in day was a Monday, and we both work full-time, we didn't move our furniture in until Saturday.

We had a picnic of pizza, salad, and wine our first night at home.

Our makeshift couch and end tables. Classy, huh?

Delilah's spot. She's taken well to her new home, and seems to enjoy having her whole family together under one roof.

Things are looking a little different now that we have all our stuff moved in. Be ready for an awesome mini-series of before-and-afters...

Moving Day!

It's moving day!

This morning we moved in our first carload of stuff (I had a dentist appointment, so had the morning off, and was able to get into the apartment in that extra time).

Tonight we'll celebrate by ordering pizza and sharing a bottle of wine as begin our week-long campout on our air mattress (the big stuff will be moved this weekend). 

When It Rains...

My previous post's title would be an apt name for life this past week. You know how they say "When it rains, it pours"? Well...

I started off a little down last Friday when a teaching position I'd had my eye on for next year was filled--by someone other than myself. I spent the weekend reviewing the several applications I currently have in to school districts and applying with a few more. Although I'm trying not to let the negativity of the economy and the current budget situation get me down, seeing district after district holding up their "We're Not Hiring" signs is a little hard to ignore.

Then, Monday morning, I heard from the service shop where I'd taken Sally, my 1997 Saturn, over the weekend for an oil change. I'd also asked them to take a quick listen to the new whirring noise I'd been noticing on the highway. Well, the mystery noise turned out to the be worst mystery noise possible--the transmission. It was time to look for a new car.

I've driven Sally since my 16th birthday. And my mom drove Sally before I did. She's been in our family for a long time.

I'm going to miss my tropical seat covers (covering the small tear in the seat cushion).

My reminder to myself that smiling makes everything seem better.

The sticker on Sally's ceiling is reminiscent of the first day my best friend, Kelly, came over in third grade. It was a remnant of the class Valentine's party we'd had that day.

Then, Monday night, over in the STL, my grandpa was taken to the hospital in the middle of the night. Although we've now learned that the problems he was having were caused by a poorly-reacting medication, I was pretty shaken up when I talked to him the next day. It's hard to watch someone you care about getting older.


Keep in mind that all of this was happening six weeks before the wedding, and one week before our big move. My cell phone and email were busy between all the car dealers, insurance agents, florists, chefs, Dairy Queen managers, banquet coordinators, musicians, grandfathers, and... sadly... no school districts. I was crunching numbers constantly, trying to figure out how we were possibly going to afford a car payment on top of our double rent (until July), honeymoon, etc. (The fact that I don't have a job lined up for fall made that especially painful.) 

Monday night I literally slept for less than two hours; by Tuesday afternoon, I had literally worried myself sick with a 100-degree fever.


However, as luck would have it, a couple from church just happened to mention to a mutual friend that they were looking to sell their 2006 Kia Sportage--which just so happened to be #2 on the list of cars I was interested in. After a phone call and a quick visit the next day, I agreed to buy the car (and they agreed to sell it to me) for a very reasonable price. Phew! Crisis averted.

My first ever new-to-me car.

Naming cars is a pretty important job. I haven't come up with the perfect name for her yet (yes, she's clearly a female).

The previous owners are big KU fans. Still unsure about the stickers--we're not NOT KU fans, we're just... not KU fans. We'll see if they make the cut.

Thursday, my grandpa was released from the hospital. He still has some physical therapy to go through, and it doesn't sound as though his problems are 100% resolved, but the situation is not as dire as it was earlier in the week. Again, some relief there.

I would love to end this post by telling you that Problem #3 was solved and I was offered a fantastic teaching position for the fall... but that didn't happen. Oh, well. At this point, I feel as though I've done as much as I can do. I'm contacting my contacts, brushing up my applications, and just plain trying to be the best ol' kindergarten grade level aide possible. The only thing left to do is to adopt a more positive attitude. So, now, I'm just reminding myself to "Smile!"

P.S. Remember what day tomorrow is??? April 25! Move-In Day!

The Kia's all packed up with our first load of stuff.

It's really incredible how much this car can hold!

In the Mood

If bad decorating was a hanging offense, there'd be bodies hanging from every tree!

~ Sylvester Stalone

My apologies for the rather graphic quote. It was the best fit I could find!

Decorating was never a priority for my parents. I grew up in a nice house, with nice things, but with no real decor. Plans were always in the making; the basement room was "in progress" and we spent seven years picking a paint color for the master bathroom--it never did end up painted. We did have matching furniture, a few pieces of framed art, and place mats on our table--but the style ended there. 

I was always a little envious of friends whose moms spent afternoons antiquing, who arranged fake fruit in vases on the kitchen island, or whose dining room table resembled a picture in a catalog, no matter what time of day/year. In my surly teenage years, I even became ashamed when I'd have friends over. I'd find reasons to explain, like "Oh, we're re-doing that room right now" or "We're in the process of painting." But those who knew us well knew these were excuses and that if they came back in six weeks--or even six months--nothing would have changed.

Nowadays, I've come to love my house the way it is. My parents are wonderful people, dutifullly involved in church activities, family relationships, and friendships. Staging a scene from House Beautiful is just not in the mix. I appreciate that now. The hours when I was younger that my mom could have spent arranging furniture or on DIY decorating projects, she instead spent taking me to the library, a movie, or on a walk. Currently, she spends those moments baking cookies for church members' birthdays, pursuing her dream of being a writer, planning Bible Study lessons, and lending a hand to family and friends whenever they call. I absolutely cherish her for these qualities, and would not wish for anything different.

However, I've got a decorating itch to cure. For the past two years, I've drooled over Trading Spaces, Martha Stewart Living, Good Housekeeping, and more recently, now Young House Love, Bower Power, and iHeart Organizing. I pride myself in being an independent, educated young woman... but I'll admit that I can't wait to be a housewife. Visualizing the unexplored frontier of my future home, a space for me to decorate, organize, and care for, provides a rush of excitement.

As we near our April 25 move-in date, the ideas are pouring in. And some decorating anxiety has started a-rumblin' in the pit of my stomach, as I realize that these painting, lighting, and sewing projects are actually mine for the doing--no longer a far-off dream, but a present-day reality. Buying new lamps last weekend was only the beginning--our (okay, my) list of to-dos to make our apartment a home is growing steadily by the day. I won't go into all the details--the list is quite extensive--but here's a run-down on two projects I hope to get done before we move in.


1) The Bookshelves.


Once upon a time, when I was just a young girl, in a rush of decorating genius, I decided to Scotch-tape photographs all over the sides of my wood-composite bookshelves in a haphazard manner. Here's the end result:

Pretty, huh? Well, now I'm kicking my thirteen-year-old self, because we just don't have the extra $$$ to buy new bookshelves, so we're going to try to make these work. I've done some reading, and my plan is to gently sand the contact-paper-layered-wood-composite sides, and use a couple thin coats of primer before re-painting. I'm also planning to wall-paper the back board. Oh, and lose the ceramic dolls, Coca-Cola tin, and fishy lamp.

2) The Entertainment Center


My parents have decided (just in time!) to replace the entertainment center that currently stands in their hearth room, and they're passing this old one down to us. It's really in pretty good shape; I just want to tweak it a little bit.

The main beef I have with this piece of furniture is the doors. For starters, we have a wooden coffee table, wooden pantry unit, wooden desk, wooden end tables, and wooden bookshelves that we're going to be cramming into a small apartment. They all match fairly well, but I'm trying my darnedest to avoid the rustic cabin look. In addition, as you can see in the picture that I've so nicely labeled for you, one of the doors cracked clean in two about ten years ago (thanks to yours truly leaning on the open door while trying to pick a movie one evening). I know it's not very noticeable, but it bugs me (probably because I did it). So, I'm hoping to find some replacement doors that have some glass panes or something. I don't know. We'll see how that goes.

I know that decorating is a gradual process, and that if I try to dive into all of these projects at once, I'll either 1) burn out or 2) go flat broke. We're planning to take it in steps. Eventually, of course we'll also need to buy a couch, a kitchen table, replace our mattress... Oh man, I can't even think about it right now.

The reason for my excitement is obvious. It really doesn't have as much to do with decorating, but with creating a comfortable space that B and I can call our own. I know we can be happy in a place with mismatched furniture, unpainted walls, and Scotch-tape marked bookshelves (okay, maybe not that last one...). But I so want our first home to be a reflection of who we are as a couple, and a product of our own inspiration and hard work. 

Our decorating process will be much like our relationship, I'm sure. We'll be excited, we'll work hard, we'll sometimes be in over our heads, we'll occasionally not have any idea what we're doing. But, hopefully, with some dedication, both our decor and our marriage will become as inspired, coordinated, and comfortable as I picture them to be.

Shedding New Light on our Living Situation

May the roof above us never fall in
And may we good companions beneath it never fall out.

~Irish Blessing

Our strain of good luck continued yesterday, when we met with the leasing agent at our apartment complex of choice.

Remember our indecision over Floor Plan #1 and Floor Plan #2? Well, we've mulled over the options and come to an answer! 

And the winner is...


Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrumrollllll, pleeeeeeease...

Floor Plan #2!!!

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, we opted for the separate laundry room, fireplace, and extra square-footage over the first-floor walkout with the cute little linen closet. 

So, after making this decision in light of the fabulous news about my job (my job! my job! my job! golly, I could say that all day), we made an appointment for Saturday--yesterday--to officially be put on the waiting list.

Good things come in threes, right? Well, if we had to number the past week, it would look something like this:

1. Katie gets a job.

2. B's apartment complex lets him move out early.


3. We sign a contract on our first choice apartment!

That's right. It just so happens that a guy living in our favorite floor plan on the upper level is moving out in April. AND the leasing agent worked a dealio with the manager to hold the space for us until our official move-in date of April 25.

We're so excited to have a clearer picture of our life together. I spent part of yesterday afternoon making a to-scale model of the floor plan and cut-outs of our furniture (thanks Young House Love for the help!). I tagged along with my mom and aunt to Nebraska Furniture Mart, where I came to the conclusion that we'll be retired by the time we can actually afford to furnish an entire house--no, actually, I was surprised/impressed with their reasonable prices! 

Last night after dinner, I talked B into going to Target where we hemmed and hawed in the lamp aisle before finally choosing two lamp shades and posts (that's right, we know how to live it up on a Saturday night!). If you haven't seen their mix-and-match lamp collection, it's marvelous. Although, for someone who deliberates far too long over every little decision, it can get a little dangerous.

WARNING: I apologize for the poor quality of these pictures. My 6-year-old digital camera has begun to show it's age (we're registered for a new one, so I'm trying my darnedest to restrain myself from buying a new one), and these are taken with my iPod touch.

Last night I was haunted by dreams of furniture-arrangement dilemmas (thank goodness we don't actually have 10 armchairs to fit in our living room). But during my waking hours, I've been daydreaming of paint colors (muted green), giant mirrors (on the wall of our dining area), and bookshelves (how to cover the tape marks on my childhood furniture??).

We have a lot to do between now and April 25. But I can't complain, as the end result will be waking up next to, cooking dinner with, and grocery shopping with my one-and-only.

The Waiting Game

Where thou art - that - is Home.  

~Emily Dickinson 

Our most recent marriage-preparation task has been searching for our future home. We've decided to go the apartment route for the first few years while we save for a house. 


I know, I know. Right now, you want to ask: Do we realize that this is a great time to buy a house? Don't we want the extra space? Why are we willing to throw money away every month on rent, when we could be paying a mortgage? These are the questions we get nearly every day from concerned friends and family. What do I wish I could say to them? Mind your own business. What do I actually say to them? While we might have enough savings for a down-payment, since I don't have a teaching job yet we're not comfortable making that kind of commitment.


We began our apartment search with two-bedroom apartments. But after looking over our budget once again, we decided that in order to be able to pay rent, utilities, feed ourselves, and still put money away for a house, we should probably be looking at one-bedrooms. At first, I was a little disappointed. I had already mentally-decorated our guest room/home office, and didn't want to give up my purple-and-yellow themed space (we're MN Vikings fans!). And, although I'm still a little nervous about keeping our master bathroom clean enough for visitors, I've come around to the idea of snuggling up in a smaller space together and making it our own.


We've narrowed it down to two apartment complexes. For the sake of the Internet safety that I preach to my students at school, I won't tell you the name or location, but they are both in the KC area. B loves his job, and we forsee free baby-sitting from our parents, if we stay in the area.


Here are the floorplans for our two favorites:

 

As you can see, in this floor plan, we love the kitchen. The island in the center has a ton of storage underneath, and creates a nice, open space into the living and dining area. The cabinets are modern (and pretty!), and it's a flat-top stove. However, I really dislike having the washer/dryer in the kitchen. I know it's hard to find a one-bedroom apartment set up any differently (just wait!), but somehow dragging stinky gym clothes through the kitchen is not too appetizing.

I also really like the huge closet in this floor plan. As I told B, there's plenty of room for me to have one side, and half of his side :-) 

This floor plan (which was harder to edit in Photoshop), is actually the one we're leaning towards. We love the "L-shaped" patio, the huge living room, and the separate laundry room. The downsides are the smaller kitchen, a really ugly light fixture in the dining area, and gross folding closet doors. Luckily, the latter two are easily remedied, and the dining area is large enough for a hutch to create some extra storage.


The other interesting thing about this second floor plan is the difference a first floor or second floor apartment makes. We originally really wanted a first floor apartment. As a matter of fact, in floor plan #1 (above), we would definitely want a first floor apartment, since we could let Delilah out from our back door. However, in this floor plan, the bottom floor has low ceilings with a huge beam across the middle of the living room. Yuck. But the top floor has huge, vaulted ceilings, and incredible natural light. B and I have decided that it's worth the extra calorie-burn to take D down and up a flight of stairs every time she has to go potty.


Neither of these apartment complexes is willing to hold an apartment for us until July (how rude!), so we are in the process of waiting to go on their waiting list. I've never been good at waiting (what can I say, I'm Generation Instant Gratification), and it's killing me to not know for sure where we'll be creating our future home.