guest bath: progress

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

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!!!

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!

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...

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...

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

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.