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

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!

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

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

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...

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

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

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!!!
:)