Our New Digs

Here are some pictures and a video of our first floor. Same stuff, new digs.

Bedroom and bath

Here are some pictures of the rest of our place. I found the midcentury modern dresser set on craigslist for a steal of a deal! I am excited to someday refinish them (they're kind of in rough shape). For those of you living in small apartments, or if you have a small master bedroom, here's an inexpensive and quick way to make night stands: I purchased two shelves from Ikea and had my grandpa saw them in half. Next, I got some brackets for $1 each. Decide where you want your shelves and mark the wall. Get some dry wall screws and screw all the shelves to the wall making sure to use a level. Basically the shelves are only big enough to hold books and other small items, so I had to get some lamps from Ikea that screw directly onto the wall. We have never had night stands until now. I love them!

Here are some pictures of our bathroom. Pretty boring really. I got the shower curtain and towels from Pottery Barn. I love the medicine cabinet with the two lights on either side.

Dining room

Here are some pictures of our dining room slash computer desk area. I found our midcentury modern dining table and chairs on cragslist, along with the computer desk and chair. Have I mentioned how much I love to find second hand stuff?! The side table we got from a PA student who is now doing her rotations in another state. We spray painted it dark grey. I had been looking for a tapestry for awhile and finally found the perfect one from Urban Outfitters. They have a ton of cool ones. If you have a large empty wall that you want to decorate, I highly recommend a tapestry. Chinese lantern? Ikea. Small pots with succulents in them? My dad made them. Milk glass dish? Thrift store find. Table runner? Fabric and bias tape from Jo-ann's.

And just to let you all know... We're accepting visitors anytime! How could you pass up a trip to Maine with a free place to stay and meals included?

Finn's room and the kitchen

Here are some more pictures of our place. I found the cool paper lantern in downtown Portland. Finn really likes it. Looking at these pictures of his toys makes me realize he has plenty. I always feel like he's bored so I want to just buy him more and more. Once again, I love how much natural light we get from the windows!

Some of our place

The place we're renting is extremely close to the ocean. We love it! I can run there in about 5 minutes. Yesterday I decided to take Finn on a run. Start time - 7:30am. Stop time - 9:20am. Why so long you ask? I got lost. Very lost.

I kept running down roads that I thought led to ours, only to have my hopes dashed by a dead end. Then I would turn around and do the same thing again. Finally, when I knew I was really lost (and really tired) I asked a lady walking her dog how to get back to our street. It turns out that I was headed in completely the wrong direction, to the next town, Falmouth. There are no landmarks dag-nab-it! How am I supposed to navigate here?! Next time I'll have to bring our GPS. Anyway, my 40 minute run turned into a 1/2 marathon. Good thing Finn never complained. He's such a good little running buddy!

One of my hobbies is interior design. I love it! I really like collecting meaningful pieces for our home. Here is our living room all finished. Our apartment is super bright with lots of windows. I really like it. I'll take more pictures of the rest of our place when it's all finished. But for now, here are a few pictures. And no. It's not usually this clean.

Reupholstered chair and stained table

I finally did it. I finally reupholstered the $5 chair that I found back in January. Hooray!! I love how it turned out too. For a first reupholster job this one wasn't too difficult. My mom and grandma have reupholstered a lot of furniture in their day and were able to give me quite a few tips. A very handy tool to have when reupholstering? A staple gun hooked up to an air-compressor. That baby shot in the staples like it was butta!!

Before I got to the reupholstering I stripped the old stain, sanded, stained, and varnished the chair. While I was at it I also refinished a side table that I got at DI ages ago so it would match the chair. The wood grain on both pieces looks so pretty refinished!

This is the best before picture I could find of the end table. Kind of hard to tell, but it was painted a light brown color. 

Our abode

I know my grandparents and aunts and uncles would like to probably see where we live so I took some pictures of our place. Most of you will probably never come visit us, so at least this way you can take a gander at our abode.

Just if you were wondering what that green lawn is doing in the photos... it's ours! It is actually pretty cool to have a front lawn with tons of full grown trees shading it (and no, we don't have to mow it).

When we moved into our place the walls were painted a ghastly purple color. My sister Megan came over and helped us paint for a night. I wish I took before and after pictures because it made such a difference. Thanks Megan! Also, the people that lived in our place before us were, how do I say it... less than clean. To put it bluntly our place smelled like butt. A bottle of Febreez later and the smell is gone.

I think one of my favorite aspects of our new place is how many large windows we have that let in soooo much natural light. We love our new place and how close it is to campus!

I'm super proud of that bright blue table in the pictures too. It was a table that I found at D.I. ($10) that was an ugly brown. At first I was covering it with a table cloth, and then thought, what the heck I think I'll paint it bright blue. What do you think? I've always wanted to paint a piece of our furniture bright, but I always thought I'd regret it. Guess what? I don't, I fall in love with it more every day.