The first living room wall

When we picked out what color to paint the living room of the first floor apartment, we were a little more conservative than when we painted the kitchen. Now, we are focused on making the first floor a great rental space, so neutral was a must. Looking through a color pamphlet Mike picked up, I chose Olyimpic paint's Treasure Map. We went to the store and bought two gallons, grabbed the three shade swatch, and brought it home. We held the swatch up to our existing paint and realized that Treasure Map was a bit too similar to the color already on the wall. So we decided to go down to the second shade on the swatch, Bermuda Sand, slightly darker so that our bright white trim would pop a bit more. Mike took the two gallons of Treasure Map back to the store to see if they could add more tint and get us to Bermuda Sand. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. We couldn't get Bermuda Sand, but we got something darker and inadvertently made our own custom color. We're calling it "Christie Street."

 Emmett was not impressed.

 Wall behind the couch - DONE!

At first, I thought it was a bit too desaturated, but on the wall I LOVE it! So, we reached the goal for this week and finished the wall behind the couch. I definitely can't wait to get the rest done!

Starting the first floor living room

 We decided it was time to bite the bullet and scrape the painted over wall paper in the living room and start working on the first floor apartment every day, setting small goals for each week. Because our apartment is so small (about 800 sqft), it's not possible for us to clear a room and get it done in one shot. So we made the goal this week of scraping and repainting the wall behind the couch.

 Mike was in charge of the scraping and patching. He did a really great job!

We tried a steamer, but Mike wasn't happy with it, so back to home depot it went!

The basement apartment

 This is the kitchen of our basement apartment. I love the vintage stove, but unfortunately, decades in the basement has rusted it out. What I love even more? The tin ceiling! I would love to recover the tiles from down here and put them in one of the kitchens in the upper apartments.

 This is the bathroom. Look at that tiny sink! And the wall behind the toilet has been ripped down.

 Another view of the bathroom from the kitchen showing the vintage clawfoot tub. We would love to refinish this and bring it upstairs too.

 This is the view from the bathroom, through the missing wall.

 This photo looks from the kitchen forward to the front entry way.

This photo is looking from the front entry way back into the kitchen. The bathroom door is the one all the way on the right.

It looks REALLY rough now, but I can see beyond this to a great little garden level apartment perfect for a grad student. Dream big, right?

Take a look at our scary basement

 This is our basement, guys. Scary, right? Mike decided we needed to add some reinforcement beams, so we decided to take some photos while we were down there.

Through that doorway is a one bedroom apartment that hasn't been lived in or updated in decades. Our ultimate dream is to gut that apartment and build a new one bedroom that we can rent out, but it will be a while until that happens. It's an expensive dream!

Sometimes

Sometimes you just need to accept the fact that you bought a house on a ridiculous hill, sit back, and enjoy the amazing sunsets you can see from the middle of your street.

A new kitchen floor

 The past few weekends we have been focusing on improving our kitchen cosmetically. Last weekend, M started peeling off the old (ugly) stick on tiles, and replacing them with a color scheme I've been dreaming about since I was 12: black and white checkerboard!

 The pattern is coming together!

Getting closer....

Before and after...sort of.

 In a few weeks it will be the one year anniversary of buying our house. It's crazy how fast this year has gone! In the year, we've fixed a lot of things, but mostly non-cosmetic. Last week M and I talked about painting a chalkboard wall in the kitchen. I had a rare Saturday off this weekend, and we decided we would paint the chalkboard wall....only before we headed out the door to Home Depot, M started looking up vintage kitchen color schemes online and picking out wall colors. Before we knew it, we had committed to painting the first room in the house.

 I say 'before and after...sort of' because this is NOT the finished product. We still have to paint the top half of the walls, repaint the white trim, and most importantly: replace those ugly floors.

 We had been waiting to make any cosmetic changes because we figured we would just save up until we could renovate the entire room. I'm glad we decided just to go for it. It will be a while until we can afford to totally re-do the bathroom and kitchen, so until then why not make it at least a little more cosmetically pleasing?

 For the paint and new floor tiles, we've spent less than $250. And our kitchen will look like a completely new kitchen once we are done. Totally worth the money and time.

Just painting this much, it looks so much better already. I can't wait to see how it looks when we're really finished!

scenes from our housewarming party

 M set up our vintage projector and my little owl. I love it!

 Groom and Bride skeletons

 Our bedroom, with our housewarming gift from john and shelly: lighted window faux headboard

 Pumpkin Buttercream candle and a skull

 Our living room with the "Congrats C <3 M" bunting made by Amanda

 Spooky bat to greet our guests.

 Entry way radiator horror scene

Housewarming gift from Amanda and her beau: a bulldog bottle opener!

 Spooky photo hanging over the radiator in the entry way.

Our new coach light and house numbers!

one month in pt. 2

 Miyagi chilling on our futon / couch that we hope to soon replace with something a little smaller.

 The entertainment stand is put together, but we hope to replace this too with a wall mounted flat screen and a smaller cabinet for the components. Someday.

 Our teeny tiny living room.

 My art room is small and desperately needs some organization and art inspiration!

 Our bedroom with the non-functional gas fireplace, crown moldings, and antique chandelier.

We are in desperate need of a trip to IKEA to purchase organizational furniture! But for now, it's home.

one month in

 It's been a month since we've moved into our house. This week we finally got the last of the boxes unpacked nd the kitchen set up...for now.

 It's obviously outdated and in need of some renovations, but until we save up some money to fix things, it's home.

 Our Peanuts shower curtain was one of the first things to be hung up and started to make the place really feel like home.

M had to replace our rusted cast iron pedestal sink with this small vanity for now, but we were able to salvage the vintage mirror and glass shelf!

Tomorrow: living room, bedroom, and my art room!

what a wreck...

 One week after the move and we are still living out of boxes, desperately trying to organize.

 This pile in the bedroom...

 This pile by the front door.

Old houses are bad on closet space, and this place is no exception. We'll work it all out, but right now it seems like it's taking forever.

Meanwhile, Styles and Miyagi have been living exclusively in the kitchen all week because it's the only room that isn't a total wreck. Don't worry guys, we'll get our home situated soon enough!