sixth floor apartment

happy holidays!

2011-12-26T09:00:00.006-10:00

Hope you all had a very merry christmas!
Just wanted to check in and share a little bit of our christmas!

and i realized i didn't do a post of our christmas decor, so here's a few pics:

and i finally finished re-making our manzanita trees from our wedding just in time to decorate them for the holidays!

hope you all had a great christmas, and thanks for sticking around for my few and far between posts!

desktops & counter tops

2011-11-27T14:01:00.006-10:00

Black Friday was massively-organize-and-clean-the-house-friday over at the sixth floor apartment. seriously, nolan nearly fainted when he came home. ;) we have clean & organized counter tops and desktops, folks!

so now that things are looking pretty decent, and not buried under mounds of things-that-had-no-home...i finally got around to taking a few pictures...so, here are the much requested pics (from probably my only reader) of our parsons tables...

Parson's Desk in my girl cave, doing double duty as a desk & vanity...

the top of my dresser...it rarely ever looks like this:

Parson's mini-desk, serving as a drop off point for all my daily things...

Parsons Console, serving as Ollie-headquarters

our tv console...in the beginning stages of christmas festive decorations...

hopefully there will be a post in the future showcasing more holiday decorations....it is looking a bit sparse! lol.

tables, desks, & consoles...oh my!

2011-10-24T14:34:00.005-10:00

during our apartment renovation, i looked at countless home decor sites, blogs, stores, etc. and the one thing that i found myself constantly drooling over, was the West Elm Parson's Desk. {why, west elm, are you not in hawaii?!?! we all know hawaii homes need help in the interior design department!!!} i looked at furniture stores here for something comparable, i mean it's so basic! but nothing. i even thought of having it made, but was told to just buy it, it would be cheaper. (hmph!) i even drooled over it in the actual west elm store earlier this year:

{hi cece!}

eventually, i just bit the bullet...i was gonna order it online and ship it! and since i was already going to ship the desk, i may as well order other things we needed too! shipping was super fast and was delivered to our front door:

assembly (thanks to nolan & his dad) was pretty fast and easy (although they did send 1 wrong part for the coffee table, but a quick trip to home depot solved the problem).

Here's a pic of our mini parson's desk and coffee table {please excuse the mess...i'm still working on finding homes for many things!}

not pictured are the parsons console table (being used as ollie-central), and the parsons desk (will be doing double duty as my desk and vanity area) stay tuned for more updates!!!

wonderful world of blinds!

2011-10-07T08:31:00.004-10:00

we FINALLY have some new (modern) blinds up in this place! gone are the original blinds that came with the apartment circa late 1980s. heavy, ugly, dusty, dirty, drapes. even with the drapes pulled back, it took up so much of the window space, it really closed off the room:

{construction causes TONS of fine soot. we've vacuumed & mopped about a million times and the soot still appears! }

we couldn't be happier! (except if it were motorized, but that was just much too expensive!) they really help to block out the heat as well, which is another added benefit! and when it's opened, the rooms are so much brighter and feel a lot bigger. what a difference some drapes make! :)

let's get the ball rolling

2011-09-21T15:05:00.003-10:00

one of the most used phrase from nolan throughout the wedding planning process was, "we'll do {insert task here} after the wedding." Said tasks include:

buying a coffee table

buying a nook table for the kitchen nook we demolished

buy a desk

buy an area rug

hang engagement & wedding photos

fully renovate the second bathroom

install blinds

and i can finally say we are checking things off the list!

blinds have been ordered!

coffee table, desk, kitchen nook, & extra table have all been ordered!!! i'm so excited for my west elm parsons collection. i have been lusting after a parsons desk for what seems like forever!!!

{all images from westelm.com}

SO EXCITED!!! it should be here by next week, stay tuned!! now i need to start working on hanging the photos and finding an area rug...i'm giving up on the bathroom reno for now.

guest bathroom fix-up: finished...for now

2011-09-16T12:39:00.003-10:00

WOW! an update! since we had a week-long house guest last month (hi cece!), nolan & i had to get our act together and fix up the guest bathroom so it was as use-able as possible! see, nolan wants to renovate the bathroom, so he didn't want to do any major work (like buy a new toilet) if we are planning on ripping this bathroom to shreds. so our goal: functional & clean.

this meant:

capping the exposed sink pipe...DONE! no more water spilling out all over the floor!

get a new shower curtain to replace that hideous one that the previous tenants left behind....DONE! nice, white, and plain. oh yah, and a tiny bit too short.

new shower head that doesn't spray directly at the wall (seriously, most UNfunctional shower everrrrr!)...after 2 tries, DONE!

clean & get rid of unnecessary stuff....done!

next project: BLINDS! it's time to cover up our windows!!!

workin' on it...

2011-08-18T16:51:00.003-10:00

wow. has it really been over 4 months since i last updated this blog?!?! my apologies. things have gotten crazy in the wedding department, so everything house-related has taken a back seat. BUT wedding means super fantabulous houseguest, CECE is coming in 9 days!!! so that means we had to light a fire under our butts to get things ready.

1. clean clean clean!!!! i went on a 4 hour cleaning spree the other week. vaacuming, dusting, mopping, polishing, scrubbing...the whole shebang. now i just need a quick cleaning and we'll be house guest ready!

2. hang pottery barn hanging organizers: i'm so excited that there's actually a place for keys and mail now.

3. progress in the second bathroom:

shower cleaned

new shower head

shower caddy up

shower curtain up

exposed pipe capped

toilet---in process of being fixed

stay tuned for pics and more updates!!!!

guest bath: shopping

2011-04-05T08:39:00.005-10:00

We headed out to Bed Bath & Beyond because we needed a new bathmat for our master bath...and since we drove all the way out there, we should look for things for the guest bath (a.k.a. cece's bathroom)! YAY! We didn't want to get anything too expensive because it's just a temporary solution until we can actually remodel (which nolan says will be after the wedding. boo)...at first i wanted to go really girly since this is going to be the adjacent bathroom to my future girl-cave. but then i thought of poor male house guests that would need to use a frilly bathroom and i felt bad. (see how nice i am?)

so we went for white. that's pretty gender neutral, right?

we came away with:

shower curtain, bath mat, shower caddie

not a bad start right?

guest bath: progress

2011-03-24T15:03:00.005-10:00

wow. 2 posts in one week?!!? AMAZING! i can't even remember the last time this has happened here on this blog. what can i say, i'm really excited to get back into the swing of things. nolan said he doesn't want to replace anything until we're ready to fully renovate the bathroom because he doesn't want to install something (i.e. a toilet) only to have to un-install later....and all that is going to have to wait until after the wedding (boo).

so, with nolan's foot firmly planted in the land of we-are-not-replacing-anything-until-after-the-wedding land, i can only do minor things to make this bathroom as functioning as possible. (minus a sink) in time for our house guest, CECE!!! (hi cece!)

GUEST BATH IN ALL ITS ORIGINAL GLORY:

POST DEMO MESS:

i can't believe they ripped off the sink/cabinet/wall mirrors.

MOSTLY EMPTY:

ideally this is where i'd say "all clean!"

but it's not. it's still pretty nasty in there. BUT it's mostly cleared out :)

THE PLAN:

clean as much as possible
get toilet working again (it has no water, anyone know why that is?
get a new shower head (i'm sure that doesn't count)
get a new shower curtain
find a shower caddie
bathmat
door hooks

i'm excited!!!
:)

guest bath: the cleanup

2011-03-23T09:06:00.003-10:00

hello all!

anybody still visit this blog? i hope so, because i'm back with an apartment renovation post!!!

i thought i'd never see the day when we would start to tackle the black hole that is our guest bathroom. one of the main reasons we wanted a bigger place was to have a second bathroom. i mean, having overnight guests would prove difficult when they'd have to come into our bedroom to use the bathroom. what if they have to poop in the middle of the night? AWKWARD. right? or what if nolan and i experience a harry & charlotte post-french-dining experience ala sex and the city? that would NOT be good.

nolan's old college roommate stayed over for one night the other month and we were NOT prepared at all for guests. no extra bedding, no guest bathroom..."hi. welcome! you can brush your teeth in the kitchen sink." not good. bad hosts. So with the knowledge that we will be having a week-long house guest later on this year (hi cece!!! i'm so excited!) we have been focused on cleaning out that black hole. it may not get renovated, but at least it'll be clean and almost fully functioning (we have no sink area, as it was accidentally demo-ed).

so without further adieu, i present to you.....

THE BLACK HOLE!!!

so, i thought contractors take stuff to throw away when they're done. i guess not. we were left with buckets of paint, primer, flooring stuff, broken tile, mortar, and things i just can't figure out what they were for. all of this was left around the apartment when we moved in. we didn't know what to do with it all (they must've left it behind for a reason, right? wrong.) so we threw it in the guest bath.

when we realized we didn't need to keep all that junk, we didn't know where to dump it.

our building doesn't let you just throw any ol' thing away...so many rules. AND there was the issue of how would we transport everything? luckily it all fit in the accord. AND we had all the mangled chicken wire from ollie's make-shift barricade on our balcony that we were forced to remove. (damn you, you stupid rules!)

Luckily, my mom needed to have some (a lot of ) paint thrown away too, so she found people to take it all to the dump and said to bring over all our stuff too...so we did!

stay tuned for our more empty bathroom!

happy {belated} new year!!!

2011-01-28T08:51:00.003-10:00

As most of you already may know, something pretty, full of sparkle, and all kinds of wonderful entered the apartment on new years eve....

an engagement ring!

we're engaged!!!

can you believe it?!?!
i can no longer dance around like an idiot waving my hand in the air whenever "single ladies" starts to play. ha.

in addition to the above,
six critters moved in as well...

we are now the reluctant owners of 6 guppies and soon-to-be 1 bottom feeder fish...for feng shui reasons...remember this post? luckily we found a plain grey pot...no crazy chinese designs. phew!

and hopefully in the new year, we will get our second bathroom cleaned out and AT LEAST get the toilet and shower in working order!

seasons greetings!

2010-12-29T00:08:00.002-10:00

Seasons Greetings from all (three) of us at sixth floor apartment!

I hope everyone had a very merry christmas!

{anyone still out there reading this thing?!}

I apologize for the lack of posts...as things have slowed down here in the renovation/decoration area of our lives. i realized that rome wasn't built in a day, and this apartment will not be HGTV ready...well...probably at all. {hello? david bromstad? please come knock on my door!}

I had to learn that i can't afford to buy everything at once. we are still missing many key pieces of furniture, we haven't fixed the things that we needed to fix (bathroom lights and bathroom sink--the "his" sink is still ka-put)

But looking back, a lot was done, it was a great experience and we learned A LOT. i mean, this place looked completely different, and i promise to try to post before & after photos as soon as the holidays are over.

looking forward to 2011, i (we) hope to:

buy a coffee table (so we don't have to eat standing at the kitchen counter)
buy an area rug (hopefully one that ollie won't pee on)
fix the bathroom sink
fix the bathroom lighs
renovate second bathroom
figure out how to get the 2nd room to be more "girl cave" less, "ollie's room"
decorate and make it seem more cozy and like "home"
blog more!

feeling festive...

2010-11-23T08:52:00.003-10:00

i don't know why it is, but i'm feeling very festive this year!
maybe it's the new apartment, maybe it's the kid (and by "kid", i mean ollie...a puppy)...but i'm actually looking forward to the holidays! so much so that i've already started decorating. =)
i was a little disappointed that we won't be getting a real tree this year...as i'm pretty sure ollie will be eating the fallen needles, fallen ornaments, and trying to drink the water out of the tree stand. But we found a cute mini faux fir tree at target for like 18 buckaroos. not bad right?

i'm still looking for a few more decorations...and i'm looking for some sort of candle, plug in, wall flower, potpourri type thing that will give off the christmas tree smell!!! anyone have any ideas?

cables and cords...

2010-11-05T08:52:00.003-10:00

back when we dubbed the second bedroom "erica's girl cave," we also decided it would also function as an office. so that is where the wireless internet stuff is....but with the lack of furniture, there's nothing to hide it behind or under or on...and since the room has now been renamed as "ollie's room"...that's a bad thing. wires and cords everywhere! not a good thing for a dog that likes to chew things. i looked online for options on how to hide cords, and found this bad boy...

{please excuse the bad quality iphone photo as well as ollie's pee pad}

here's a link to their website so you can see nice quality photos and information.
i read mixed reviews....some love it, some think it's a waste of money for a plastic box. but i was desperate, and 30 bucks wasn't really cause to go "cray cray" about the price, so i just bought one. it's fab. i'm still hoping to hide it behind/under something...once i find furniture.

check out the site...there's tons of nifty stuff.

i can't wait to show you the hideous thing nolan wants to display in our living room.
i cringe.

let there be light: part four

2010-11-03T09:26:00.003-10:00

wow. long time no blog!
seriously, i haven't loss momentum....just the funds. hahahaha. but don't worry, more posts will be popping up shortly. I just wanted to share our other floor lamp purchase from inspiration. This was the floor model (bleh) but i was over lamp shopping and didn't care at that point. what's so bad about floor model? well, the lamp that was working on the floor in the store, decided to burn out its bulbs the day we get it. and the funny thing is, it looked brighter in the store...i thought that the other lamps we bought wouldn't be bright enough so we bought two...one was good enough. this one i thought would be perfect....it's a bit dull. It's also not really the look i was going for....but since the room has now been deemed "ollie's room" and not my girl cave....oh well. without further adieu,

a lamp for ollie's room.
i swear that dog has too much stuff. it took over that small room, there's no room for a desk, or vanity or anything of mine.

let there be light: part three

2010-10-05T18:58:00.002-10:00

wow. i've been really slacking with blog posts lately. i guess things have been slowing down now that we've actually moved in....and run out of money. hahaha. i really didn't want to take any pictures of the place until i could do a big "TA-DA!!!" reveal like on all those HGTV shows i obsessed over. but i've come to realize that that is not going to happen for a while. we spent so much money on the major renovations that all the aesthetic stuff like rugs, lights, decorative elements would just have to wait. but don't worry, some new things are afoot...

the first being that we FINALLY got some floor lamps for this place!

i was lusting over these lamps at inspiration for awhile, but wanted to look around for a cheaper/more practical/bigger wattage alternative. i found none. at least none that i liked. so after months of stumbling in the dark we caved and went back for them. we bought 2 thinking one would definitely not be bright enough--we were wrong, one was good. but as with everything on sale at inspiration...it was FINAL SALE. but it's ok...it's more symmetrical this way:

a house is not a home without a...

2010-09-12T13:34:00.003-10:00

COUCH!!!!

our couch we bought months ago from inspiration was FINALLY delivered on Friday, and i've got to say that i'm in loooooove. i will never again take a couch for granted. the color is perfect, it's comfy (but then again, anything would be more comfortable than the plastic chairs we've been using) and it's super light, which makes moving it a breeze!

the couch also came with a super long ottoman, which we will be using as a makeshift couch/daybed in my "girl cave"-now turned-into-ollie's room. i'm actually sitting on it right now as i keep ollie company while he sun bathes next to the window.

anyway, back to the couch. it's smaller than we were imagining (which is good) so we can start looking for things like an area rug, table, and maybe some side tables!!!

MIA...only words

2010-08-24T00:02:00.002-10:00

i haven't been posting lately....there's nothing to post about. STILL unpacking. i think we win the award for world's slowest unpackers/move-in-ers. a lot of it is just that we need to BUY things to put stuff in. and you know...pretty storage is not cheap. i caved and started buying sorta el cheap-o plastic bins. i really really wanted to stay away from them, but seriously...even those are tugging at my purse strings.

in other news....where oh where is our couch?!?!? seriously. nolan called today after we found out that mr. & mrs. lau's (haha!) couch is being delivered THIS SATURDAY. um, hellooo inspiration, our couch was on the same boat/ship/container. where is our couch?!?! so they tell nolan that the couch is on the island, but then proceeded to say "don't get mad now (hmmm....i guess a lot of other people are already mad?) but the next available delivery time for your area is september yadda yadda." WHAT??!?! so....we're waiting till september for our couch.

and....i have a sneaking suspicion that my "girl cave" is going to be more "ollie's room" than girlie lounge. for a little dog, he has so much stuff!

mess

2010-08-12T15:46:00.001-10:00

slowly but surely...

2010-08-02T12:09:00.006-10:00

things are coming together.

slowly but surely,

boxes are dissapearing and more floor is visible!

this past weekend i went on cleaning & organizing mode. the closets are done, and we purchased some nice bins and things to actually have places to put things! as boxes get broken down, the fine soot/dust that came with all that building flies everywhere!

sweep.
dry swiffer.

wet swiffer.

every.single.room.

there has to be an easier way! AND i can still feel that soot on my feet! when will it end?!?!
i curse the floors and all that dust.

so here are some of the latest updates to the abode:

media console...
waiting for the glass door to be put in, and for the mess to be cleaned up.

my girl cave closet:

i get my own closet, because nolan kicked me out of the master bedroom closet...

linen closet:

i think we need more linens!

and my few anthropologie purchases:

sad the E is crooked...

likes & gripes...

2010-07-27T09:58:00.003-10:00

this post is dedicated to lori....because who knows when the next coffee night will really be.

when we started this whole renovation process we were so, so, SO naive. i don't even think that at this point you could consider us "seasoned" re-modelers...but i wish we knew then what we know now....the BIGGEST things i wish we knew (seriously, we knew NOTHING)

oh we were so clueless, yet full of hope....

1. everything takes A LOT longer than you expect.

2. everything costs A LOT more than you expect.

3. there are A LOT more problems than you would expect.

so i thought i would compile a list of the things that i'm super pleased with and things that are not so much.

let's start with the not-so-much:

{rain shower heads} over rated. i don't even use it. it's kind of like all or nothing. you're either fully under the water (water pouring down your face...i feel like i should wear a visor just so i can open my eyes and not get water in them!) or only slightly under water and slightly freezing...i guess there's a reason why people get those body spray things w/those shower heads...it's not a fancy hoity-toity-thing (ok, maybe it is a little) but a keep-warm necessity thing. but if you insist on getting one because it looks super cool (like i did) get a hand held one too for practicality...mount it high so it can double as a regular shower head for you to use when you realize the rain shower head isn't all that great.

see? it would be perfect if the rain shower head was in the area where nolan is standing...

{cabinet upgrades} SO WORTH IT. too bad we didn't get any. seriously, our cabinets have so much dead space it's ridiculous. lazy susans, pantry pull-outs, pull out drawers...worth their weight in gold. too bad they cost more than gold. my advice? find those local people (i don't know why but they all seem to be chinese) that do cabinets for cheap. don't go to home depot/lowes because you're super picky about cabinet color (like we were) so you can afford the upgrades. also....i don't know what they do if you go with those local companies, but if you do go w/home depot or lowes...{TIP for ya:} it is SO much cheaper to buy your hardware from their hardware aisle than it is to order say, thomasville cabinet handles. (HUGE RIP OFF!)

this bag of handles ended up being almost half the price of what it would've cost to order handles w/the cabinets.

{sliding closet doors} i hate that there's always going to be parts of the closet that's not accessible. i hate that. i grew up with bi-fold doors. some may find them old fashion or ugly (nolan) but i love opening them up and seeing the entire length of the closet. that may just be my opinion...."personal preference" (i hate that answer!!!)

{lighting} i hate relying on lamps. invest in ceiling lights.

{medicine cabinets} while i looooove my bathroom. especially my mirror...my pride and joy...the only thing i insisted on....i do miss having a medicine cabinet. easy access.

{dark, wood floors} omg! shows ALLLLL the dust! and so hard to keep nice and clean. you gotta vacuum, sweep, swiffer, then wet swiffer. i'm gonna be the eternal cleaning lady. go with light colored flooring, people! you probably will have to go through the same cleaning steps, but at least the dust doesn't show as much.

sigh....everything my mom was saying is coming back to haunt me. hahaha. she's all about practicality and i was all about looks. moms are always right.

let's move on to the LIKES, shall we?

{shelves} i never thought i could be in love with shelving, but i am. i literally stood in the bathroom staring at the simple shelving we had put in and smiled like an idiot for about 5 min. when we moved in, all the closets all had this type of shelving:
image source: rubbermaid.com

who knows how long they were there but they felt old and sticky. you know that soft sticky rubbery feeling things get when its just....old? i hated it. we kept it in certain small closets, but replaced them in the important areas. i love the linen closet shelves. i love our clothes closet shelves, and i love the entryway shoe "closet" shelves. i love the shelves. so simple, basic, yet i love them so.

{tiled mirror} sometimes you gotta fight for something you want. and although i miss the easy access of a medicine cabinet, i love looking at that mirror.

ollie makes an appearance!

{lighting} i love our kitchen and bathroom lighting. thanks randy! i like the cable track lighting...
nolan approves too...of course he does, he picked those.

{bedding} i LOVE our new bedding. i don't want to get out of bed in the morning. so soft and comfy....cost-per-use really does help justify the investment. ;p spend the extra $$ on the things you'll use everyday. that's what i say at least ;p

{good contractors} we've dealt with both....the kind you love working with...and "the other kind". the-other-kind did our bathroom shower, all the tiles in the unit, and....i'm not sure what else. in terms of quality, the work is good. but i'm not even sure what happened but nolan refuses to talk about it because it makes him super angry. to this day i still don't really know what happened...every time he starts trying to tell me about it he gets super angry and just stops and says nevermind...what's done is done, but we'll never work w/that guy again. the contractor we have now is amazing. so easy to work with. does good work, and you just feel comfortable working with him. you don't always have to worry that you're being ripped off or anything like that. he did all our kitchen cabinets, our shelving, light installation, and a bunch of other things. it's fun to come home to find new things that are installed/works/painted. its great.

i'm sure i'll find more likes & gripes, so stay tuned for more...

let there be light: part two

2010-07-26T13:12:00.003-10:00

if you remember back to the very beginning, we found out that we didn't need to only rely on floor lamps for the entire apartment...you can read about it here. many, many, MANY months later, we finally have lighting installed! hallelujah! no more stumbling around in the dark relying on only the kitchen and bathrooms for light.

as you can see, we're still living in a world of chaos...many things still in boxes, without a home...i also am not entirely thrilled with the placement of the surround sound speakers...damn you sprinkler systems!!! and if you look at the other side of the room---more boxes, rolling racks, and our two super UNcomfy chairs while we wait for our couch to come in. (just got word that it won't reach the shores of hawaii until august 15..or was it 18th?) i think we better invest in more comfy temporary seating....

also in progress are our closets! YAY! i'm sick of the rolling racks!

master bedroom closet

bathroom linen closet

my closet

can't wait to say goodbye to these rolling racks!
honestly, i'm not the neatest person in the world...far from it actually...but the mess is really getting to me! i can't wait for the place to start feeling like a "home" and less like a storage unit!

a communist mess

2010-07-22T15:25:00.002-10:00

no, i'm not going to be getting political. i'm actually talking about our condo. security is ridiculous! i guess in terms of our safety, it's ridiculously good. but in terms of freedom to do what you like, it's ridiculously.....ridiculous. they see all. hear all. know all. Nolan is already known as "the infamous nolan" due to things like our floods, silly amounts of contractors, not knowing the rules about these contractors (must be insured, must come during set days and hours, etc), and even where you dump certain types of trash. sigh.

this morning i left for work and found a huge note on the door from security (why not slip it under the door like all other notices?! why did they have to tape it up to the door for all other sixth floor residents to see?!? i felt like hester prynne with a scarlet parking lot violation sewn to my chest) about guest parking is only till 2am and if you did not sign up for overnight guest parking, your car will be towed next time. so attention nolan's friends: no parking in our building if you plan on staying out past 2am. which is every time...so no parking in the building.

these guys are like the danny mccoys of the building...only much less attractive. wouldn't that be great? danny mccoy looking security gaurds?

and about the mess.....

the place is a mess. still unfinished closets---clothes everywhere. sinks still leak---brushing your teeth in the kitchen sucks. using the bathroom in the middle of then night then having to stumble in the dark to the kitchen to wash your hands (because we also didn't install lighting yet) also sucks.

debby downer posts, also suck.
i apologize.

can't get out of bed...

2010-07-20T10:55:00.004-10:00

with sheets this soft!!!

i've been looking for new bedding for two reasons. the first being the chocolate brown comforter doesn't really go with the color scheme of the new apartment. the second being that nolan decided to wash the comforter cover with the white sheets, which resulted our sheets turning into a weird pinky brown hue. i've been searching online almost everyday, but couldn't seem to find anything pretty enough for me, but manly enough for nolan. sigh. and then there's nolan's affinity for hotel collection bedding (which he learned from kristen...he blames all his brand snobbery on kristen). I had seen this collection online but thought it seemed too boring. too plain. but when i was in the store, the display mixed this collection with pillows from the HC spa collection. the decorative pillow (i bought one) matches our paint color PERFECTLY. and the best part? it was all on sale...AND in addition to the sale price, it was buy one get one 50% off! so i bought 4 things and made 2 separate transactions! the deal was a steal!
i only wish i had bought one more decorative pillow...

but it's seriously SO soft i have trouble getting out of bed in the morning. definitely worth the investment :)

i only wish it didn't wrinkle so much. i'm super tempted to iron the bedding. but i hate ironing. so i most likely will not iron it.

in other news....

still living out of boxes
the place is a mess

moving day!

2010-07-12T15:35:00.003-10:00

We officially moved into our sixth floor apartment, on Saturday--July 10!
that's pretty much 5 months after we closed. who would've thought it would take THIS long?!?!
we stupidly thought we'd be moved in my april! hahahahaha. i laugh just thinking about it. i laugh thinking about how much we thought we were going to spend too! i remind myself about those hgtv/diy shows where people attempt to flip houses and then go into debt. thank god we didn't get that far!

anyhoo...we hired a moving company, they brought a GINORMOUS truck and five guys. they walk into our place, saw the boxes, and were like "THAT'S IT?!?!?!"

needless to say the actual move went pretty quickly. it was the cleaning and unpacking that is proving to be dificult and lengthy...especially since our closets haven't been worked on yet. boo. rolling racks it is!

i hate to be a debbie downer/negative nancy but i miss the old place. i think it's just because i'm getting frustrated living half out of boxes, rolling racks and finding things that just ain't so great...

let me point them out for you in the event that it may steer you away from certain decisions...

1. our bathroom sinks leak. waiting for them to get fixed, and only using the kitchen sink kinda sucks.

2. rain shower head....very nice! BUT make sure you get it mounted either from the ceiling or somehow get it further away from the wall then we did. it's awkward standing so close to the wall. and it's kinda weird to have to be completely under it, as opposed to coming at an angle as w/regular shower head--sometimes you just don't want your head to get wet! thank god for our hand held shower head that's mounted high enough that it acts as a regular shower head too!

3. parking stall....is tight. i miss my huge single stall....

4. dead space....the kitchen is filled w/dead space! it may look like we have a lot of cabinets, but a lot of it, you (I) need a ladder to reach. not very efficient. everything is narrow and deep...again, not very efficient. if only we could splurge on things like a pull-out pantry or lazy susans. but they charge you an arm and a leg! damn you thomasville/home depot!

ok, i'm done with my rant.
more pictures to come!

it has begun...

2010-07-06T15:31:00.002-10:00

our pilgrimage to our new condo has begun...
while everyone was bbq-ing and watching fireworks, i was cleaning, packing, and moving all weekend. thank god it was a 3-day weekend!

Saturday was spent cleaning the new condo--there was just so much fine soot/dust all over the place from all the construction going on. six hours of cleaning and 2 home depot runs later, the condo looked more like a home than a construction zone. thankfully, nolan's parents helped me with the cleaning since nolan was in michigan for his college roommate's wedding. i don't even want to think about how long i would have been there if i had to do it all alone!!

Sunday and Monday were spent packing up our current place....

packing and disassembling things...the place is a mess right now as you can see:

we currently have no tv or internet...we are dying! hahahaha.

new couch!!!

2010-07-02T14:45:00.003-10:00

i cannot tell you how ecstatic i was when nolan decided to sell his black leather couch! it was a super comfy couch, but it just screamed, "bachelor pad!"---have you ever seen the episode of sex & the city where harry brings charlotte to his bachelor pad? i don't know why but that's what his furniture brings to mind.

anyway, through the magic of craigslist, a young engaged couple are now the proud owners of a black leather sectional...thanks guys! the only problem was finding a new couch! i thought we jumped the gun by selling the couch without knowing if we'd find a suitable replacement that met all the requirements (comfy, budget-friendly, nice, etc.). It was a much more difficult task than i expected it to be. we would either disagree, or it would be too expensive (hello $15,000 couch!), or it would be too big.

i had almost lost all hope when we stumbled upon this couch:

he loved it, i loved it...it was a good size, comfortable, great neutral color, and a great price!!! i said "i like it!" nolan said "i really like it" i thought he was joking...did we really just agree on a couch??? but of course the car salesman in him HAD to try to negotiate....which is how we found out about the mega 4th of july sale they were going to have, so we waited.

and today w/my $100-off coupon in hand, went marching in to inspiration, to go purchase our new couch!!!! probably the easiest sale the guy had all day. (side note: our sales guy asked me how to spell "elevator"...yikes.)

happy as a clam w/my receipt & delivery information sheet

what we're going to do w/that ginormous ottoman is beyond me. maybe it'll go in my "girl cave", but nolan kinda likes it right where it is...hmmm...

what are your plans for the 3 day weekend?
i'll be on cleaning lady duty all weekend cleaning up the place to prepare for the big move!!!

hope you all have a fantastic 4th of july weekend!

floored

2010-06-22T13:53:00.003-10:00

the flooring is installed!!!!

aside from a small 3/4 piece that was missing and needs to be ordered, everything is finished!

the past few times we went to the unit was during the early evening and i couldn't get a good feel for the flooring with the paint. so we went on sunday to see it in broad daylight. and it looks much better in the light of day.

the paint looks almost white in this picture!

the one thing i really can't stand though, are the 3/4 rounds all along the walls. i'm totally not a fan of this look, but nolan said it was our only option. oh well. i guess i can live with it.

In Other News...
We've sold the couch, coffee table, chaise lounge...and the tv & tv stand will be leaving us as well.
We found the perfect (for us) couch right when i had given up hope that we'd find something!
Next up is lighting installation (living room) and shelving (shoe closet & all closets)

we have to start packing up our current abode...we'll begin showing it to potential renters this week! i can't believe after all these months, we're finally on our way to actually living in our new place!!!

we have a moving date!!!

2010-06-15T15:17:00.003-10:00

a tentative moving date that is.

the moving company nolan wants to use only takes military family moves...but made some sort of exception for us since our move will be pretty minimal, but the stipulation is that we HAVE TO move on a saturday.

this week? nope. too soon.

next week? nope. i'm in a wedding.

the week after that? nope. nolan's in a wedding.

when will it ever be OUR wedding?....<----...how'd that get in there?!? cece did you hack my blogger?

so it'll be the week after that!!!!

i better start packing and looking for big boxes!

in other news...our flooring should be done tomorrow, and then we begin work on shelving and all the feng shui necessities.

and i'm super excited to say that nolan is getting rid of his bachelor pad furniture!!!

WOOP WOOP!

*happy dance! happy dance! happy dance!*

i can't tell you enough how happy i am. but now we need to scramble to find replacement furniture.

i shall leave you with a picture of us jetting off to las vegas...

granite installed!

2010-06-01T12:31:00.002-10:00

The granite is installed, and looks great :)

This is our bathroom...the countertop is actually marble that we found on sale at Selective Stone.

If you ever go there, ask for Rexie, she's great! Everyone there is so nice and helpful though.

Our lighting is Sonneman tubo lighting that i saw online and fell in love with but when it came to shipping, it was ridiculous to ship to hawaii...with a broken heart we went to local lighting stores, where i found them!!! picked them up at Lighting Concepts (love that place!) one of the fixtures outer glass casing was cracked so they have a replacement for us coming in. this is our kitchen granite. it's called wild sea, verde...or something like that. i can't remember now. AFTER it was installed nolan admitted to me that he didn't like it when i had picked it out, but upon seeing it in our kitchen he really likes it. (thank god!)

Then on friday we went to lowes to pick up some track lighting...which was all sold out.
note to self: buy when you see it because it may not be there when you go back!!!!
we were accompanied by our little monster:

"let me out!"

seriously?!?! EDITED

2010-05-27T21:22:00.003-10:00

so the granite people finished up today...

we went by the unit tonight to make sure there were enough boxes of underlayment for the contractor who will be installing our tile in the kitchen and bath tomorrow...

i walk into the bathroom to check out the countertop that was just installed (it was very nice...pictures to come) and i turn to see that there is murky water just sitting in the shower. not draining. there is a weird noise coming from the toilet. there is also water on the ground in the other bathroom. WTF?!?

first of all...

the granite workers used our new toilet. thank you very much for christening our brand new bathroom. there was a reason we left the plastic wrapping keeping the lid latched down...

all the other contractors had the common courtesy of using the un-remodeled bathroom. thank you for taking off the wrapping and using the bathroom.

AND...maybe before you used the brand new, still wrapped up toilet, maybe you should've checked inside the tank area for other wrapping because now it looks like there's a huge piece of mushy waterlogged cardboard in there.

thanks so much.

SECOND...

as our other contractor assumes that you (granite people) must've tried to empty your murky buckets of watery granite glue (my terminology, of course) down our shower drain...our BRAND NEW unused shower...thanks for that as well.

were you THAT LAZY that you couldn't at least walk it over to the other shower to dump it down? did you really have to use our beautiful brand new, unused shower?!?!?

didja? didja?!?!?

i guess you did.

thanks so much.

Third...

i guess you guys did a not so bad job (as far as i can tell) aside from you trashing our new toilet and shower. maybe it was our fault that we did not specify NOT to use things that look brand new and is still taped up. but i guess we couldn't because we don't speak chinese, and you don't speak english. language barrier aside though...why??? WHY?!?!?!

LF Marble

thanks. maybe i'll be seeing you on yelp.

note to self: create a yelp account.

EDITED!!!

so nolan called to complain and eventually got to talk to the VP of the company who spoke perfect english. she said that they don't use "glue" of any sort but would further investigate the situation. she got back to him and said that the men used the shower to was their hands but as soon as the water started running, water started backing up....

costly kitchen...goodbye window

2010-05-24T15:33:00.004-10:00

notice anything different?

we drywalled over the windows....

what?!?! why would we do that?

well, feng shui reasons that we have to have a something solid behind the stove.

something about the stove cannot have an open back....

strange. i know.
it's all coming together.
granite countertops should be installed soon, then onto the tile then wood floors!
THEN WE CAN MOOOOOOOOOOVE!

costly kitchen...cabinet progress day three

2010-05-18T15:29:00.003-10:00

what a difference a day makes!

the majority of the work is done, and our new lights are up as well!!!

nolan approves

looks so different without flash...

i love the lighting! nolan picked it out at Lighting Concepts

if you're looking for lighting, definitely check this place out!!!

cabinets:thomasville pulls: lowes (i forget the brand) lighting: lighting concepts

costly kitchen...cabinet progress

2010-05-17T14:28:00.003-10:00

Our cabinets finally arrived and installation has begun! (hallelujah!)
This was what everything looked like after day 1 of install:

Day two was much more exciting.
Day two, there was a FLOOD.
yes, another flood. nothing close to the great flood of March 2010, but still....another flood.
another flood that went to the unit below us...they must absolutely detest us.
what happen you ask?
a hole was drilled into the sprinkler system. yikes.
luckily it wasn't as bad as the last flood and none of the cabinets were damaged.

this is what it looked like at the end of day 2:

pardon the crappy iphone photo.

Aside from the kitchen, we've been scrambling to get lighting and fixtures...
more on that soon :)

let's get this show on the road!

2010-05-11T14:31:00.004-10:00

The appliances are here!

The flooring is here!

The cabinets are here!

Now let's get this party started! i want to move in already!

The appliances were delivered yesterday from Lowes....
here's our lovely samsung fridge:
(sorry for the crappy iphone pics)

the flooring has been in since last week, but it's waiting for everything else that needs to be installed first. Our cabinets were delivered today (two hours early! WOW!)

there are boxes everywhere, in every room...one box was so big, they had to remove the door to get it into the apartment!

the cabinets should be up and done by the end of the week....then the granite needs to get installed, and then the flooring...
and then we're done!!!!

the end of the great paint debate

2010-05-04T09:39:00.004-10:00

when nolan called to tell me the rooms were painted and both colors we picked looked "different" than what they had looked like in our wall swatches...i wasn't sure what to expect. he tried to show me what it looked like through the knocking live video app, but there's nothing like seeing it for yourself. He did say that it wasn't shocking or an omg-what-were-we-thinking-it's-hideous situation...but still....i was anxious. would i like it? i came to the decision that as long as i didn't HATE it, it would be ok. hahahaha.

i took a deep breath before walking in, and you know what?!?! i kinda like it! i was pleasantly surprised.

Here's the bathroom :

the color is Benjamin Moore Sea Urchin.
This color is in both bathrooms (well, actually we have to re-do the guest bath because the painters painted it the blue color...no no. redo please.), the kitchen, and my "girl cave"

ollie colors!

and the blue.....
i actually kinda like it!
Benjamin Moore Quiet Moments. This will be in the bedroom & living room.
The trims and ceilings are Benjamin Moore Cloud White.

looks like everything is coming together. the appliances will be delivered this week and now we're just waiting on the cabinets and flooring.
c'mon thomasville...speed it up please we're waiting on you!

color me anxious

2010-04-27T15:36:00.002-10:00

the painters started today.

the two bedrooms should be done by today.

master bedroom=quiet moments

second room=sea urchin

i really hope i don't regret those decisions.

i'm so anxious.

the loo part 4: this frame of mine

2010-04-26T13:35:00.003-10:00

There were two things i fell in love with when looking for ideas for the apartment.

1. a photo of a bathroom mirror framed by mosaic tile

2. brown & black mosaic tile from selective stone.

when i saw the photo in the magazine it was love at first sight. if only i could have a mirror like that, it would be lovely. i clipped it out and stuck it in my apartment binder. then while shopping for flooring tile i found the most beautiful mosaic tile that i just had to have. it had to go somewhere. but where?!? A TILE FRAME!!!
i really wanted it to happen but everyone was telling me it could get pricey so then it became a "if we have $$ in the end we'll do it" then it got bumped down to "maybe we can do it later, when we do the other bathroom" i was pretty bummed. but i kept thinking about it. i started thinking up ways to get the money to make the frame. i even wondered if i could make it myself. hahaha. i think nolan eventually saw just how much i wanted it we worked it in and here it is!!!

(i have to add though, that the pictures don't do the frame justice. it is so much prettier in person!)

it's the colors of ollie!

this was ollie's first visit to his future new home.

he was pretty scared. i don't blame him...it looks nothing like a home at the moment.

don't forget to check out more ollie adventures on his own blog.

quantity thirty-eight

2010-04-20T13:24:00.002-10:00

Guess what's in the bag?

i'll give you some hints:

1. it's from lowes

2. the bag is *kinda* heavy

3. there are 38 of the same items in the bag

if you guessed cabinet pulls, you are correct!!!
since our cabinets have been ordered we went out to lowes to buy the handles because it's so much cheaper than buying it from thomasville or kraftmaid. who wants to pay $15 for ONE handle when you gotta buy thirtysomething?!?! not us, that's for sure! i swear those cabinet buggers just look for ways to rip you off left & right.
we were going to go w/our initial decision of these $4 handles...but then nolan saw a thinner version for about $8....we took a chance on those. AND we had a $100 pre paid credit card as a rebate from all our samsung kitchen appliances that we used towards the cost.
yay for rebates!

the sixthfloorapartment just got a new resident!

2010-04-12T14:15:00.002-10:00

Hi! my name is ollie!

(pronounced oh-lee)ollie was a surprise birthday gift to me from nolan.
he's currently living with his foster family (read their blogs here & here) until we can move in.

i'm debating an ollie-blog.
hmmm....

it's all a waiting game now...

2010-04-08T13:33:00.002-10:00

Yesterday we had our final meeting with our cabinet designer (Steve) at Home Depot.
We discussed the outrageous installation labor quote we recieved, and he told us it's all coming from the company they outsource with...and that he's tried to tell management about the ridiculous prices, but no one listens to the little guy. i really wish i could remember the name of the company they use...

So our cabinets are ordered. we changed the cabinet style to save some money...every little bit helps right? the contractor that comes to verify that the design will work in the kitchen suggested smaller cabinets about the stove, so that saved us a little more. AND it was the last day for a free sink base, so even more money saved!!! then they have some promotion, spend so much, get so much off. save even more money!!!
i'm all about saving money these days. haaha.

so now we wait. wait for the cabinets, wait for the floors.
while we wait we need to find a sink for the kitchen (bye bye kohler cast iron sink, we're giving you up in the name of saving more money---funny thing: the only 2 things we actually loved and agreed on were the cabinet styles and sink, and those two are no longer being picked.), two sinks for the bathroom, and faucets all around.

and again, not wanting a picture-less blog post (because who really likes those?)
here's a picture of us on new years eve.
and a shameless plug:

you like my dress? it's JEWEL NUMKKI.
designed and handmade by my bestie, cece.
Check out her blog, where's she's been posting about her new spring collection.
and her etsy page where you can purchase her cute things.

dear home depot, you must be taking crazy pills!!!

2010-04-06T14:57:00.002-10:00

we wanted to get a quote for cabinet installation from home depot after hearing that they were somewhat reasonable, and your cabinets have a lifetime guarantee if it's installed by their people. We already had another quote from another contractor, but we just wanted to compare...if we can get the lifetime guarantee, that would be best right?

we made the appointment to have someone come look at our kitchen & give us an estimate. we made the appointment the same day we made the appointment for our flooring order & installation estimate. flooring people called, came, measured....everything went pretty smoothly and floors were ordered and everything was all good.

where oh where are the cabinet guys?!?

where oh where can they be???

we wait almost an entire week to finally call to see what was the hold up. they told us to call the guy directly (i guess he's outsourced...sorta). it takes another week for him to come and look at the kitchen, then another week for him to turn in the labor quote.
seriously?!?!

apparently there were 5 other clients also waiting for quotes getting mighty angry as well.

we FINALLY got our quote today.
what.a.waste.of.time!

they quoted us $12,000 to install!!!!!!

heck no! what crazy person would actually pay that?

even the cabinet design guy laughed when he told us the price.

--------

completely unrelated, but we can't have a post without visual interest right?
do you know who also has blue interior walls?
Minnie Mouse!

Here i am in her living room:
i don't think it's quite our style.
:)

easter sunday, easter funday

2010-04-05T13:01:00.003-10:00

just taking a quick break from apartment reno-blogging to share our easter sunday with you all!

Hope you all had a great Easter as well!

we spent the afternoon coloring easter eggs w/my nephew, Chase.

the loo part three: shower area is almost finished!

2010-04-02T10:36:00.003-10:00

it's been one month, two weeks, and one day since we closed on this sixthfloorapartment.

and what do we have to show for it??? a shower and toilet.

woop woop!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Hello toto toilet. i didn't want to take off the protective wrapping in case the workers had to clean up or do last minute stuff in there, but this room is pretty much finished! we just need to add towel bars, toilet paper holders, and paint the room!

i sat on the toilet just to see how cramped the room is.
it still feels like a coffin to me.

oh well. whatcha gonna do?

hello hans grohe showerhead. i think i love you already!

nolan is almost too tall for the showerhead!!!
yikes. he just clears it.

Next up: working on the outer portion of the bathroom area.

-installation of pocket door to separate bathroom from bedroom

-my mirror. i fought for this. i hope it comes out nice.

"you buy now? you pay today?"

2010-04-01T09:51:00.003-10:00

last saturday we went to the marble & granite warehouse to place an order and get installation quotes....we were greeted with a very friendly, "you buy now? you pay today?" talk about straight to the point! hahaha.

turns out we did buy now and pay today.

first up--another feng shui bad boy:

this guy is HUGE! almost as tall as me, and weighs a ton.
he's going to live on our balcony next to my chinese pot thing. He's supposed to protect us from bad chi (qi? <---my favorite scrabble/wordwithfriends word) flowing in from the street below. if nolan refuses to let me have a puppy, i guess this guy will do. i think i'll name him "Long Duck Dong" after my favorite 16 Candles character:

oh yah, by the way, APRIL FOOLS! did i fool any of you? i hope so. i mean, all the feng shui stuff is pretty crazy anyway, i wouldn't put it past people to have those things....
anyway, we did order the granite for the kitchen counters, here's nolan talking to the saleslady/owner (i think?) about buying the slabs to make sure no one else will buy it. she later asked nolan if he was chinese. then she asked me if i was filipino. (really?!?)
ummmm....i can honestly say i've NEVER heard that before!

toasty toes

2010-03-26T14:52:00.004-10:00

Looking through my iphone photo album i found this picture.

i remember taking it because i thought, "what are the odds that we would both get house slippers/booties for christmas?!!?" Nolan got house slippers from his parents...and i got some handmade booties from cece (made by inhee's grandma).

perfect for our new place w/colder hardwood floors.
floors that are going to take 6-8 weeks to arrive!!!!!!
we shouldn't have waited so long to have our placed measured so we could put in an order, but we're new at this. have you ever gone to lowes and home depot and spotted the young couple wandering around looking completely lost and confused?
we're those people.

the loo part two: tile it up!

2010-03-18T14:01:00.002-10:00

our shower is 2 days in the making. i'm super excited to see the outcome.

this is an iphone photo nolan took on day one of the shower install:

Day two: a work in progress
more iphone photos!
boxes & boxes of tile!

cutting the tile

just like i've seen on HGTV!

my built in shelving!
hmm...i wonder where i'm gonna hang my scrubbies and put my clarisonic? i probably should've thought about it before....

alabastrino travertine tile

i wonder why it's all red?

Nolan said it should be done soon. I can't wait till i get to see it in person. I hate being stuck at work.

what should i do: entryway closet

2010-03-18T11:13:00.002-10:00

This is the odd shaped closet that is to your left right when you walk in.there were mirrored closet doors that were taken down so they could rip out the flooring.
we were hoping to put shoes in here...hopefully. it is such an odd shape.
We kind of like the doorless look. it feels more open and easier to reach in and grab stuff. when the door was in place, it was hard to reach into the closet....

my question:
put the door back?

leave it doorless?

other?

let us know!

leave a comment or i'll make a poll on the side again.

the loo part one: goodbye tub, hello shower

2010-03-16T09:38:00.005-10:00

the loo, the thrown room, or as i like to call it, "the coffin." i swear the room is so small and once the door is closed it feels like a jail cell. and why is the toilet so close to the tub? couldn't it shove over a few inches to make things more proportional? no. thank you building codes. and why are the sinks outside and connected to the bedroom? is this an 80's thing?
why isn't it just one room? this unit has so much dead space everywhere it's ridiculous.

so what are our plans for this interesting bathroom?
A SHOWER!
neither of us take actual "baths" so there's no real need for a tub.

and after nolan's ACL surgery last year, i'd much prefer a walk-in shower over anything step-in.
(climbing into a tub w/only one functioning leg is no easy feat)

and i am a happy camper knowing we're getting rid of all that gross tile and nasty tub.
how could people take a bath in there?!? i'd feel dirtier stepping in there than i originally was.

i'm still amazed 3 females lived here before us. it's like they never touched a cleaning product.

all our fixtures...

trying to find a shower door...

demolition derby part tres

2010-03-15T13:19:00.002-10:00

Demo is complete!

now the real stuff begins!

Here's a look at the place after demo...but before installations:

the living room

the kitchen

the bedroom

the bathroom

the shower/toilet area

What's next?
the shower!

i'm super excited about this one.

"um, so...there's a flood in your apartment..."

2010-03-10T12:32:00.003-10:00

that is something you never want to hear coming from your building management office.
that is exactly what we heard from our building management office...on monday.

WHAT?!?!?!!?

talk about a panic attack.

thankfully, it wasn't "that bad" according to the building management--who say they've seen much, much worse. phew.

thankfully, there's only one unit below us...and we won't be known as the unit that flooded 10 other units--which just happened a few months ago. phew.

thankfully, the people working on our unit has insurance. phew!!!!

so what happened?
while doing demo on the kitchen, a cabinet fell and hit the water shut off valve.
it broke. water went EVERYWHERE!
it went in the living room and all the way into the bedroom....
thank god there was no flooring installed yet!

by the time we got there, all the water was sucked out of the unit, and everything was pretty much dry...

the scene of the crime

some wet spots in the living room...

nolan pointed to this mirror and says, "do you want to take a moment to be vain?"
he reads our blog! =)

the magical machine that sucked up all the water.

you like my cute tank?
it's jewel numkki.

demolition derby part deux

2010-03-07T21:38:00.004-10:00

so there are moments of pure happiness that require the usual happy dance, like more demo!!!

goodbye nasty tub and toilet...

goodbye nasty stove that was never cleaned...

goodbye carpet in the room that will one day be my "girl cave"

hello mirror...where did you come from?

let's pause a moment to be vain...

i decided to open the cabinet on the balcony...

whoo hooo are you?!?!

you need to move out sir.

don't we look happy?

hahaha.

this is about oh...3 hours before shock and fear set in when we received our first quote from a contractor about our installation labor cost.

let me revert back to my (our) very first blog title:

WHAT HAVE WE GOTTEN OURSELVES INTO?!?!

i need to strap on a tool belt and channel my inner david bromstad because this is just getting ridiculous! we need to figure out a way to do some of this ourselves because...just because.

have you ever seen 10grand in your hand? people save a ton of $$ just by doing it themselves.

i think we can paint.

don't you?

btw, there may be another paint option in the mix...

stay tuned for that.

demolition derby part one

2010-03-05T13:48:00.004-10:00

demo has begun!!!
*doing my happy dance*

wanna take a look-see?
(all photos courtesy of nolan's iphone)

goodbye icky gross carpet!

sayonara ugly, dirty sinks and cabinets!

ummm....goodbye second bathroom sink and mirrors?!?
WHA????
we weren't planning a demo on the spare bath...but to get to the valves we needed to replace, all that had to come out...my question now is, what's going back in??? dear future guests,
when you go poop/pee, you may need to wash your hands in the shower...
due to lack of sink.
:/
sorry about that,
sixthfloorapartmentownersthatdidn'tplanonrippingoutthesink

****
tomorrow is a mad dash of meeting w/contractors, ordering tile, and who knows what else.
we're kinda behind in the ordering of things department.

need to be two places at once?

2010-03-03T08:46:00.002-10:00

there's an app for that.

One of our biggest hurdles with this renovation so far is trying to get to these stores (paint stores, lighting stores, plumbing stores) that all operate on a monday-friday 9-5pm deal. honestly how do the regular folks pick things if they can never get to the store because they're at work themselves?!? i'm stuck at work, but nolan usually has days off during the week to go to such places...we TRY to go to places together because we usually never agree on anything, it's hard to send one person to pick out something that the both of us will like.

but when we need things by a certain time for contractors, that means nolan will be going alone.
and sometimes that leaves me frightened.

but now, we have discovered our lifesaving app that makes the process easy as pie.
i can feel like i'm there as well...

it's called knocking live.
its pretty much like a web cam on your iphone, AND we just discovered that if you put your current call on speaker, you can talk in sync w/the live feed!!!

AMAZING!!!

thanks itunes.com for the pic.

and you know what makes it even more amazing?!?!
IT'S FREE!!!!!!

go download it!!!!

a tsunami is a'comin

2010-02-27T08:47:00.002-10:00

a tsunami is making it's way here.

canceled drywallers

canceled trip to plumbing store to buy fixtures needed by wednesday....

saw the lines and empty shelves of longs and safeway via facebook and twitter...

note to self: in the future, buy more canned goods.

wishing: i didn't eat a canned tuna last night.

thankful: that we went to costco last week so we at least have bottled water.

hoping: there will be no tsunami.

e ♥ db

2010-02-26T20:50:00.003-10:00

i have the hugest crush on david bromstad.

yes, i know he doesn't like my kind (and by "my kind" i mean females) in that way, but i have a huge crush anyway. how bad is my crush? well, i stop short of posters of him on my wall (nolan would just die), and his face isn't on any heart shaped pillows, but i do dvr all color splash episodes on hgtv and i follow him on twitter--he twitpics from new colorsplash sets ALL the time!

i would die a happy girl if i walked into the apartment and he were standing there w/his color splash team ready to make over our apartment!

he has such fun and clever ideas. i mean, he made a jellyfish lantern lamp out of coffee filters and pink party streamers and it looked ah-ma-zing!

this is him, isn't he adorable?

this picture is from a cb2 blog post they did on him...

you can read it here.

now i know nolan's gonna read this and be like "aw man, why did you write a post about the color splash guy???" WHY? because our apartment renovations have been dragging. (boo) and because i wanted to write another post. and because every time i think about what to do with the new apartment 'WWDBD?' comes to mind. what would david bromstad do? (that along w/"what should i do"---which will be another post entirely, with another totally random & totally irrelevant surprise thrown in, just because it makes me smile...like this david bromstad picture does. hahaha)

let there be light

2010-02-24T14:21:00.002-10:00

We went to the building management office to discuss our renovation plans with them to see if we needed any permits or things of that nature...we brought up putting in track lighting because we didn't want to have to rely on a million (ok, 2) floor lamps all over the place. They informed us that there is wiring ready for light fixtures built into the ceiling, the old owner may not have been aware of...we just would need to cut through the drywall.
yay! more lighting options! i love lighting. i hate dark rooms.

and scott makes another cameo in our bloggity blog.

i think we'll stick w/track lighting here...this is gonna be our TV wall.
or should i say, Nolan's tv wall.

lighting in the master bedroom.

what does this all mean???
more options!

more things to think about!

and...
more trips to lowes...

don't forget to help us decide on a paint color, by voting!

stale popcorn

2010-02-22T13:48:00.002-10:00

hellooooo, welcome to our future home!what's with all the plastic you may ask?
well, it's our first demo of the day!

first job: get rid of the popcorn ceiling!
i don't really care either way. i'd rather not have it but i could live with it. we have it at our current place and i barely notice it. maybe i'm just used to it. but nolan hates it so if we can remove it, he said "get rid of it!!!"

so you wanna see???
follow me!

smooth ceilings!

i do love the new smooth ceilings!
all the plastic reminds me of some kind of creepy sicko crime scene from CSI, no?

don't forget to vote for a paint color!

the color conundrum continues...

2010-02-22T12:22:00.003-10:00

it's a whole different ball game when the paint is dry.
when we went back to the apartment the next day to let the drywallers in (more on that later)

we saw our paint swatches in a whole new light.
or so i thought...but now that i look at these pics next to eachother, i'm not so sure...
either way, we changed our minds...

PAINT DAY:

THE NEXT DAY:

hmmm...maybe it was just our imaginations, but we decided the top color we picked looked too dark, and so we're now going with the middle color!
the winner is....benjamin moore's sea urchin!
(.....i think....)
it's amazing what lighting does. that color looks completely different in the other room.

but the blue...oh the blues.
we still can't make up our minds.
upon seeing the dry paint, nolan thinks he now likes quiet moments...

PAINT DAY:

THE NEXT DAY:

so...because we couldn't decide, what did i do?
i painted even bigger swatches!!!
silver marlin? quiet moments? smoke?
smoke on our walls look nothing like the pictures on the internet...

i put a little polling box on the sidebar --->
help us pick!

color conundrum

2010-02-19T13:08:00.005-10:00

we start demo tomorrow, so we needed to decide on a paint color ASAP.
blue for the walls, brown for the bathroom...how hard could that be?!?

hard at work...

ok, so we pretty much don't like any of them!
but narrowed it down to 4 that we are ok with...
(sorry for the poor lighting, there are no lights and it was cloudy outside)
opinions? suggestions?
PLEASE HELP US!!!!!!!!!!!!
anyone out there???
nolan likes smoke. i wish smoke was a little lighter. i wonder if you could mix white into it?
i really wanted to like quiet moments...maybe it's the way nolan painted it on the wall..

EDITED: so upon some advice from sherry @ younghouselove, she suggested to stick w/silver marlin or quiet moments to avoid the room potentially looking like a little boy's room (kid's nursery room...not the bathroom...i think)

good idea. (thanks sherry!)

now for the bathroom...
we forgot the light worked in the bathroom so we started painting outside...
we liked 3, 4, & 6.

but in the bathroom w/the light on....

we picked 6 (the top color)

PLEASE HELP US DECIDE!

got our keys!!!

2010-02-19T13:02:00.002-10:00

we got our keys and key fobs today!

this is the first time entering as home owners...
please excuse my hobo clothes, we're about to get our paint on, and i didn't want to wear nice clothes...as i did...get paint all over me.

going in!
woo hoo!

now onto the painting....we need help!

it's going down in chinatown

2010-02-17T19:27:00.004-10:00

a quick jaunt to chinatown with my moms to pick up the few things needed to make our new pad feng shui friendly...there are tons of interesting things down there!

don't worry nolan, these multi-colored critters won't be invading the apartment.

here i am picking up some coins needed to be placed under our flooring.

there's the sales lady in the back...probably wondering why i was taking pictures.

you know, for a feng shui store, this place is pretty cluttered...

we're gonna be needing one of these:

but i'm on a search for a nicer, preferably plainer and smaller one.

we'll be needing to go back sometime soon...

my grand total for today's purchases:

$8.88

pretty fortuitous number right???

a valentine's night spent at....

2010-02-15T22:09:00.005-10:00

LOWES

yes folks, that's where we spent our valentines evening together. no fancy dinner, no brian mcknight concert...just a lovely night at lowes with nolan, myself and mary. mary, our very helpful and knowledgeable appliance specialist (go see her if you wanna buy appliances!). we've been back and forth and back and forth about appliances and pricing for about 2 weeks and we finally bit the bullet and bought them.

(note to self: must take cooking lessons.)

don't i look happy with my receipt?

(like my top? it's jewel numkki)

so what did we get?

samsung side by side fridge.

we really wanted the french door, but we had to be practical.

this guy had some great reviews.

ge profile slide in range

honestly, we picked it cause it matched the microwave

samsung microwave

this is what nolan wanted. i have to admit, it's pretty nice.

all appliance images from lowes.com

and don't worry...valentine's day wasn't just about appliances.

there were pretty flowers...

and cute cupcakes too.

and while at lowes i made him buy me pink kitchenaid kitchen shears ;p

what's your style?

2010-02-13T17:09:00.002-10:00

i found this "what's your style" quiz from ethan allen, while perusing one of my favorite sites, young house love. so i thought since we keep bickering about things it would be fun to see what the quiz had to say about our individual styles. Here is the results. Pretty on point.

Nolan

METRO--The verdict is in—your style is Metro. Metro is a great modern space. Chic, comfortable, clean. Do the math. Strong horizontals plus graphic clarity plus a fearless blending of metal, woods, leathers, and wovens; minus the superfluous and the clichéd; equals urban architecture domesticated, a vision for living.A great modern space.

Erica

GLAMOUR---The verdict is in—your style is Glamour. Glamour is the penthouse with a view, the Old Hollywood mansion, the home of the connoisseur. A knowing marriage of fashion with sumptuous comfort. A fearless blending of Art Déco, Chippendale, and Modern. Glamour is shamelessly smart, elegant, and timeless.

what did you get?

our future

2010-02-12T11:35:00.002-10:00

This video isn't renovation-related, but it cracks me up and wanted to share it.

It's a video of our future that gets made for you when you ride the Spaceship Earth ride at Epcot. I knew about the video so i told Nolan to make a silly face when they take your picture at the start of the ride.

what sound does a kitchen make?

2010-02-10T12:23:00.003-10:00

KA-CHING!
KA-CHING!

KA-CHING!

that my dear friends is the sound of each cabinet piece getting added to the total.

we are seriously spending the most $$ in the room we use the least. all these cabinets for our HUGE collection of 4 bowls and 4 plates. i think i'm seriously going to need to get some cooking lessons because after we buy the cabinets and appliances, i'm going to pull my little sleeping bag in there and hole up in the kitchen.

we found the cabinets we liked. color, style, etc. we found it very quickly and actually agreed without any bickering. home depot has a little sticker price on the showroom slab that gives you a rough estimate of what your cabinets would cost for a 10x10 kitchen. so we figured that our kitchen wasn't much bigger, so the cost would be fairly close.

WE.WERE.SO.WRONG.

we decided that when we met w/our cabinet designer, that we'd start with the most basic layout to see the cost, and then add in features if we could afford it. let's just say that our very basic layout ended up costing almost double what we had anticipated!!! DOUBLE!!! it's triple the price given on that little sticker. i thought i was going to faint. so we're going basic. no fancy drawers, no lazy susans, no pantry pull-out.
but i guess that's ok, because like i said, we only have 4 bowls and 4 plates.

here's our cabinet guy w/our life saving realtor. seriously the best realtor EVER. he's helping us every step of the way. i don't even want to imagine what this whole process would've been like without him.

crazy....

here's a look into our future:
behold the room i will now forever live my life in.

stage one: in its original glory

2010-02-09T10:25:00.002-10:00

so i don't think that our unit has been renovated at all since the building was built. everything is old and run down. not to mention this unit was rented out so the last tenants (3 girls--a mother and her 2 teenage daughters) were FILTHY. you should see the showers and the stove. GROSS. you would think with three females, the place would be pretty clean! nope. filthy. gross. disgusting. i don't think they've ever used a cleaning product on the shower or stove ever! i mean, i'm pretty messy myself, but even i was appalled. hahaha.

anyway, on to the tour shall we?
these pictures were taken a few days after the renters moved out and the unit was cleaned.

---the living room---

---the kitchen---

---the master bedroom---

---the masterbath---

the filthy shower!

---the spare bathroom---
such an awkward shape

---the spare room---

---the balcony---

a few hurdles along the way...

2010-02-08T17:24:00.001-10:00

nolan really wanted me to document our renovations, i was rather apprehensive about it. what if it turns out hideous? what if we hate it?

oh well...too late now, we're off and running with this bloggity blog so here it goes. from start to finish, this is the story of our new home...

One of the main reasons i'm skeptical about the final outcome is due to the hurdles we've encountered:

1. clash of the titans

we like different things. nolan likes very modern, sleek, minimalist styles. i like cozy, cute, anthropologie-ish styles on one day, blair waldorf-ish rooms the next. either way, we have a hard time agreeing on anything.

2. bachelor pad furniture

we're keeping nolan's current furniture that scream bachelor pad.

black. modern. boconcept furniture.

it may have been ok, except for hurdle number three.

3. feng shui madness

my mother is a crazy feng shui believer/follower. we told her we would try to accommodate some of the 'practices' to make her feel better....we had a feng shui master come in and told us where to hang certain charms or coins but the kicker was the wall colors. i guess the rooms have to be certain colors so our individual chi will flow harmoniously with the area. so the living room has to be blue. (blue?!?! bleh.) and the bedroom has to be either pink, purple, or blue. you could see the horror on nolan's face when he heard those 3 colors. ahahahaha. so of course we picked blue. (blue again? bleh.)

i guess it could be worse.

4. BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET!

good lord things are so stinkin' expensive! i mean a faucet is $300!?!? you've got to be kidding me! will we ever get an ikea in hawaii? the houses here totally need it. there is a HUGE difference between what we love and what we can afford. and can you believe the room that is costing us the most moolah is the room we spend the least amount of time in. the kitchen. ahahaha. we are professional microwavers and own like four plates, and four bowls...yet we have so much cabinets. maybe i'll be like carrie bradshaw and store clothes and shoes in my stove.

5. why does everything close at 4?!?

seriously, aside from home depot & lowes, everything closes super early. it's become really hard to try and find samples and swatches of things when everyone is closed by the time we get off of work!

tomorrow we're off to look at cabinets.

wish us luck!

what have we gotten ourselves into?!?

2010-02-08T15:31:00.000-10:00

Hello...Erica & Nolan here!
We will soon be moving down the street to a bigger, better apartment!
But before we can move in, we've decided to gut the place and renovate (not by ourselves of course. if you know us you know we are not tool-minded). We decided to keep this blog to chronicle our renovation adventures...we've gotten ourselves WAY over our head.
stay tuned to see if we can pull this off.