Slowly, We Are Getting There

While I am not even close to being finished with any room in our condo, I am making progress...so I thought I would share a little. When we were looking at different units to buy and we were looking at the unit that we would soon pick to be our home, my husband looked at me and said, "Are you sure you can make this place feel like us?" My husband is not one to be able to visualize, so I understood it was hard for him to imagine us living in a place that was filled with another families taste and things. I told him I could, and so he had faith and we bought our place. He told me the other day that he is finally starting to feel like this is his home. My son said something similar a few days ago. I am glad, especially because I am not done so it will just feel more and more like ours as I continue to work on it.

Today I am sharing some before and after pictures of Noah's bedroom and the living room.

The way Noah's room looked before we bought the condo.

And here is what Noah's room looks like right now. We still have a lot of work to do here. You can see in the picture all of the posters and pictures on the floor that we still have to hang. We still have shelves to put up, and the curtains he has already picked out that are not up yet. I just still need to find a rod I like for them. Noah picked out the tan, brown, and red color scheme. His favorite color is red, and he wanted a more grown-up looking room.

Here is the way the living room looked before we bought the place.

Here it is empty, vertical blinds and all.

And here it is with the vertical blinds down and curtains up (which I had already showed you pictures of in a previous post) and some furniture in and pictures up on the wall.

This is the side of the living room we are still working on. We eventually want to get a nice entertainment center, but right now we are making do with the pieces we have. I also want to have something above the TV, but I haven't figured out what yet.

And here is a preview of what will be hopefully coming soon. This is the "lovely" dining room lighting that came with the condo. I swear to you the flash on my camera dulled down just how gold this thing is. It has got to go, but we have no money for something like that right now. We have a light fixture still in the box that I bought for our old place that I never ended putting up. In the old house everything was in brushed nickel, so so is that light fixture. Now I am decorating with oil rubbed bronze in this place. I am going to try to spray paint the nickel fixture and see if I can use that. We shall see...to be continued!!

Something Old, Somthing New, Nothing Borrowed, A-Whoo-Hoo!

In our new place we have had to make due a lot with things that we don't love (the greenish carpet in the bedrooms for one). We have also been decorating with most of our stuff from our old place. That can always be a little tricky. When I buy things, I buy them with the place I am going put them already in mind. Here I am having to "make it fit" into a space I didn't plan for. We have been able to buy a few new things (like the curtains from the previous post) here or there, but it has been small things. New flooring will just have to wait, and that's fine.

Here is the thing...when I take one little new item, and mix it with my old items and they work well together in my new space...I get a little rush. It's silly, I know. I care too much about these things, but it makes me happy.

In the picture (above) the only thing that was new was the Q-tip holder (which is really just a tumbler). Like I said we have a greenish carpet in the bedrooms of this place so I wanted to add some green touches in our master bath since the green carpet is right next to it. Every time I go into my bath I see this little combination of things and I like them.



In this picture (above) the couch, pillows and everything on the table is our old stuff. The table and lamp were from Ikea and I paid about $35 for both. On Sunday night I was able to sit on my couch and read by this lamp and it was so nice, and when I see that little table I am happy.

I guess what I am trying to say is that we won't always have money to do every project we want, or to completely remodel our homes all at once, but a small change can bring in that little something to make a place feel fresh, and that might be just what you need to say, "This is my home and I like it!"

What a Difference a Drape Makes!

Here is the first before and after post for our condo. Our condo came with those "beautiful" vertical blinds. I loath them so! It's one way to make any place feel temporary, like you just don't care. It is not a way to make a house feel like a home...not to mention they made my living room so much darker.

Well, I looked and looked for something that would give us privacy when we needed it, but was still beautiful. Something that made the place feel more like "us" and less like the previous owner. And of course I looked for something that was inexpensive. This is what I came up with.

I decided on a double rod I found at Target. That way I could let in lots of light through the sheer panels during the day, but could still pull drapes across when we had our lights on at night and needed more privacy. It was $40...not too bad for a double rod. So I got the matching hooks as well to let as much light in a possible during the day. Then I looked and looked for all the panels. I looked at just about every major store I could think of that carried drapes and was getting pretty frustrated with my choices until I just wandered over to the drapery section at Walmart during a regular shopping trip. I found the sea color faux silk panels for $13.99 a piece, and the sheer panels for $7.99 a piece. That's 6 panels (4 sheer, 2 faux silk) for about $60 bucks!! I never expected to pay so little for all the panels I needed.

I hung them while my husband was at work last week. All our furniture had already been in place, but when he came home that day he said, "Now it feels like we have a living room". Again, it's about making a house a home, and I am so glad we feel more and more like this place is ours.

It's Alright To Be Little Bitty

So, we are now living in our condo in Eagle Mountain, Ut...and LOVING IT! Not that condo living is perfect (the lady next door already flooded my kitchen), it's just perfect for us right now. My husband and I looked at LOTS of places online from 3 story beautiful homes, to mid-range townhouses before we decided on this little place we now call home.

This place was the obvious choice when we asked ourselves which places were most in-line with what our real goals were. Our goals we to not be stressed out by our mortgage payment, to have more money for fun as a family, and to live with as little impact on the environment as possible. So, yes, we are 30 somethings living in a condo complex with a bunch of newly-weds...but that's alright with me. Last night we hopped on a Trax train, got dinner and went to a Utah Jazz game and I wasn't stressed out about how much money it would cost. What a great feeling! We live on the bottom floor and use very little energy to heat our tiny place, it makes me feel good. I can decorate my place with most of my old furniture and by re-doing almost everything that was already here, it makes me feel great. It's our home, it works for us, and I love it. I bet more people would find happiness if they really thought about what they needed to make them truly happy, instead of what they needed to keep up with the latest trend in McMansions. I live small, and that's not only alright...it's happiness.