christmas - wish list

so christmas is here.... as evidenced by my living room.

now is the time for present shopping and parties galore!

my family has been hounding me for months for my wish list. an initial email went out mid-october, then responses slowly trickled in, until i was the only one who hadn't responded. ever since i moved into my apartment i have known what i wanted... a couch. i have almost nothing to sit on; just a couple of dining chairs and my bed. neither of which are good for cuddling with the boyfriend. (he zonks out easily on the bed.) as much as writing to my entire family with just that one thing isn't that hard of a task, i wanted to put something together to bring the point home.

for weeks i had this idea. i'd google a bit here and there during work or in the evenings at my boyfriend's (i didn't have internet at my place for a long time.) finally i got around to doing it.

i took an image of the couch i wanted from ikea and the initial photo of my living room. i put the living room image into autocad and drew sight lines. then i plopped the image of the couch under the sight lines to get vertical reference lines. i then started to form the edges and lines of the couch.

in adobe illustrator, i opened the living room photo and scaled it to the size i wanted (so that it would show fully in an email.) i then opened the autocad file of the couch (illustrator can open autocad files.) a little copy and paste, and some arrangement of type and i was done!

do you like it? i'm hoping to be able to buy the couch without using any of my own money. cross your fingers!!!

room by room - christmas is here

so i finally got to it. i put up my christmas decorations. namely my christmas tree! now my boyfriend hates fake christmas trees, but i don’t like the smell of real ones. plus i already owned this tree from two years ago.

last year i was too busy to put up my tree, and despite the craziness this year i was determined to put it up.

finally on sunday i got around to putting it up. my boyfriend was hung over from a christmas party the night before, so i took the opportunity to do some chores around my apt.

doesn’t it look snazzy?!?! i was sort of hoping my deer head would have been up by now so it could also get adorned with ornaments, but since the tree is in its spot so i guess it’s okay.

don’t you just love decorating for the holidays?!?

room by room - living room boxes

so a majority of the boxes in my living room were filled with books. this was no surprise. what came as a surprise is how much shelf space all of this would take. i didn’t know what else to do with the books as i was unpacking them so i just lined them up (as i currently have no shelf space).

this is what it turned out to be. eleven feet and 3 inches of books. i can’t believe i have to buy that much shelving. and that’s just the regular reading books, and does not include sketchbooks, oversized art books, magazines, notebooks, cookbooks, and school binders. not to mention all the knickknacks that always find their way onto bookshelves. i’m thinking i’ll just double the length for good measure; at the very least it’ll provide additional space for buying additional books. heehee…

room by room - bathroom debacle

so the tub...

on november 1^st when i signed the lease papers, i mentioned to the building management that the tub was in disrepair. the management was willing to get it refinished and immediately called the building super to notify him that it needed to be done. apparently the super couldn’t do it, so it was decided that the contractor was to do it. a couple of days later i got a call from him asking to set up a time to do it. we agreed to the next day at 9am.

the tub before

not having any furniture, i was still staying with my boyfriend at the time. i had to trek from his place, meet the contractor at 9, and somehow get to work by 10am. no clue how i thought this could be done. i went to meet him anyways, hoping that the tub would take maybe an hour, and i’d only be a half hour late for work. well, i shouldn’t have been worried. we met up (he was on time. surprise!) and all he did was look at the tub. i had hoped that he’d do it that day, so that the two days drying time would end before i even moved anything in. no-go!

i tried to set up a time for him to come back, but he was impossible to schedule any further than a week in advance. all his available times, i wasn’t available. he seemed to think that i didn’t have to work mon-fri 9-5. oh well… finally after several phone calls, and an insane amount of hemming and hawing on his part (including an offer to do it on thanksgiving. yeah right!) we settled on last wednesday. then a few more phone calls we settled on 9am. (worked for me. it ended up being one of my random mornings off. ok so i don't actually work mon-fri 9-5...) finally the day rolled around. the boyfriend and i showered super early so the tub could be dry by 9. the bf went off to work and i settled in for a long wait.

9am nothing. 9:30 i finally called him and he said he’d be there soon. 10am he rolls in with some young guy. he explains what is going to happen, that it’ll smell. and ask him for the 20th time (cuz he always answered in the wrong way) how long it’ll take. he replies for the 20th time with ‘1-2 days’. ‘no’ i explain ‘right now, him doing it, how long will it take?’ finally i get the answer i’ve been looking for… ‘an hour’ he says. well… 2+ hours later the young guy leaves my apt. granted he had to seriously sand the crap out of my tub before even starting.

now my tub is super bright and white. it’s still bumpy though and you can see that it’s thin in places; what really should have happened, was that after the two days of drying time, they should have come back, done another finer sanding, and put done another application of the finish. then the tub would have been perfect. but of course that would have taken two trips and four days. it is lovely though just the way it is.

the tub after

room by room - bathroom

last but not least: my bathroom!

i’d say it’s tiny, but it is pretty normally sized. the tub is longer than normal, but the showerhead is in the center so you only get to use half the tub. wtf!

you can’t really see it in the pictures, but when i moved in the tub was a disaster. the building manager agreed to have the tub refinished. and then there was a whole debacle with a contractor, but i’ll go into that later.

plans for this room are pretty simple…. get matching shower curtains. though i kindda like that one of my current ones is see-through (nearest the window) and that the other is opaque (near the door). though the downside if that the light is blocked to the mirror. i got a rocking tub rack that holds all of my products. the major plan is to figure out how to get the showerhead on either side of the tub, instead of in the center. that and a storage system on the back of the door. currently everything is living in the closet and is inaccessible. and a curtain for the window. mostly so that in the summer i can open the window while showering and no one can see in.

that’s my new apartment and i hope you like it. and that you’re a little jealous. it’s the nicest apartment i’ve lived in and that i’ve seen my friends living in.

room by room - bedroom

another in the series: my bedroom!!!

so it’s super good sized. 12x12. what?!?!

more than enough space for everything. though it doesn’t have a closet. (no worries! there’s one just outside. in the hallway.) plus it has two windows! one of them south-facing. it gets gorgeous light in the morning.

plans for this room include a vanity table with chair. and a big lounge chair with ottoman. to sit and read in (while someone – my boyfriend – watches sports in the living room). and of course my bed. oh i had grand plans for a headboard, but we’ll see how that goes. and paint. this is one of two rooms that i feel paint is a worthwhile investment. i’m going to paint it the same soft green i had in chicago. it was such a soothing color, and it looked great in all lights.

oh… and lamps. this room needs more lamps. all of the rooms do actually. i need more light. and curtains. all of the rooms need window coverings. but i’m planning on making roman shades for the bedroom. and nice sheers for the living room. i think i might make a shower curtain window covering for the bathroom just for some extra coverage. the kitchen will get nothing. but it will get a window cling on the lower part of the window, because the window has clouded up and it just looks bad.

onto the bathroom!

room by room - living room

not that i’ve been ignoring my blog, but i’ve been super busy. plus my computer died. sort of, the power adapter died, which is the same thing.

anyways, i wanted to continue along… showing you my new apartment. here’s the living room!

it’s obviously VERY bare in these pictures. it’s slightly better now that my stuff is out of storage. it now houses my desk, bookshelf, books, and dining table with chairs. though that sounds like a lot and it kind of is; i’m still missing so much. i definitely need a couch (more on that later) and coffee table and maybe a tv with a stand. and book shelves. i have soooo many books. oh god… the boxes of them were over-running the living room!

the plan was to paint paint paint, like everywhere else, but that plan has been reduced significantly. now i am going to suck up the crappy paint color and move on. i think i’ll hang a wall hanging i bought in Chicago on one wall to conceal some of it. a couch is in the works. and coffee table may have to be something i just find on the street. the tv will be purchased: a) when there’s an awesome sale on and b) i have extra dough lying around. that’ll be never. plus i don’t have cable anyways. i barely got the interwebs.

next, the bathroom.