Apartment Results and some good finds.

Well I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures of the new apartment and it's mini make over. Like I said it was a long long long and tiring process. It literally took us a whole 6 more days to finally have everything settled down and put in it's place. Here's some pictures of the chaos.

The whole livingroom was full of things. You couldn't step anywhere.

The whole apartment had these weird colors and designs. Since we told the landlord we would be painting I guess he didn't bother finishing the painting he was doing. It's okay though cause the color combinations he was using were crazy. He has some crazy designs on the wall, like here in the kitchen and through out the apartment. Some of the stuff we had to leave but others we quickly changed.

Here's my hunny bunny putting up the t.v. He was so helpful!

And here's the first end result picture. It's of our bedroom. I thought I had taken before pics but I guess I didn't. Well basically it was like a taupy, brownish, tanish color with the black trim all around the cealing. We choose to paint it a darkish blueish color. For some reason the hubby wanted red but I said NO WAY! So we agreed on this color, Prussian Blue from Pittsburg Paints Grand Distiction, 53D-5. It's a ceramic flat. We really LOVED IT! The pictures might give it a different look but trust me it looks great on our walls. We left some of the black trim around the cealing and it actually made it look very nice. Now I had seen this beautiful Chicago Skyline picture at Ikea and I had fallen in love with it. I love my city of Chicago and I'm obsessed with anything downtown so I had already visualized it over my bed. When we actually went shopping to Ikea we didn't buy it but then my hunny surprised me the next day with it and this is the result!

I love it. My inspiration was imagining myself seating at a bench downtown at night with the street lamps above me. That's why we bought this bed at Ikea for no more than 250 which I thought was pretty good and it wasn't hard to put together. We also picked up these lights which I had been wanting for awhile because I love to read in bed but I would always have to turn the lights off as to not bother my babe. So I was adiment about setting them up this way and I loved these yellow ones. They had red ones, blue ones, and green ones too but I picked yellow and I'm glad because I think that it makes the yellow in the picture stand out.

Now the only thing left is getting a nice new comforter set and some nice pillow covers cause right now I'm rocking these crazy unmatched ones and this sad looking cover. I haven't found one I like and I'm not sure what color to get it. Any ideas? Now I had to take a picture of my toilet cause a good friend of mine gave me this set of..........., what do you call this anyway?

Well toilet covers maybe? Anyways it was a debate cause my hubby didn't like them and he didn't want me putting them up. I don't like it too much either but I felt bad not using it atleast for awhile. WHat do you guys think? The colors aren't too bad and they match my bathroom because I'm going with a yellowy greenish look. Well he hasn't taken off yet so we're good!

Besides loving my room I'm loving the kitchen. The color is bright and makes me feel happy and makes me want to sit in my kitchen and relax. It looks nothing like those before pictures which actually depressed me! lol. I love how my crazy polka dot chairs look in this space and the light blue place mats give it a nice twist. Minus that crazy wall artsty thingy that is stuck to the wall so I can't get rid of it. I hate it, I'm thinking of covering it up with somthing cool in the future. I was thinking maybe covering it with a piece of something painted with some chalk paint so that we can leave cutesy messages on it. What do you guys think?

We also bought this piece at Ikea to put the microwave and some other thingys. I really liked it and it's very useful.  I got some very nice plates and cups and things for the kitchen at Ikea too. They actually have some great prices and things once you weed out the expensive and poorly made ones.

Here's our little mini mudroom/entryway. The bench was also bought at Ikea and we bought the coat rack at Walmart and the art picture we had from our old house. David was loving this entry tons. He's so funny and sweet, he likes to make his home look as nice as possible!

 This couch and coffee table were two of some of my great Goodwill finds. I had never gone to Goodwill but I had heard great things about it. So when I saw it next to Ikea I decided that we should go there first. The couch is super comfy and clean and was only......................................$35 bucks! The coffee table was $15.

This piece was also $15 at Goodwill. It was perfect because it gave me extra storage, extra seating and I've always wanted a chest looking thingy like this. It was perfect for putting all our movies, they barely fitted in there. It was full to the top! I guess I better start finding more space for future movies! We had a hilarious moment at Goodwill. This little old lady was fighting us to the death for this chest. As we were paying for it she was still trying to snatch it from us! FUNNY!

 The living room main wall ended up looking like this. This isn't exactly how I pictured it looking, it's a little crowded and I sure didn't want all the electronics going on the mantle. BUT, for now it'll do. I came to the conclusion that even though Pinterest and Magazines have pictures full of inspiration and great looking rooms, sometimes they're not very realistic or functional for normal ordinary people. I would love to have a clean sleek look but then I have too much crap that needs storage. I dunno if I'm making any sense. I do dream of one day having my home and decorating it more professionally or more like the inspiration I get on Pinterest. But for now I think this is still pretty good. By the way the color we got is called London Smoke 43D-2. It was suppose to be a more grayish looking color but this is what it turn out to be. Still we like it.

 And last but NOT least, my favorite find of all. This awesome chair. It was Love at First sight! I sat on it and I said this is mine! It was only $15 and worth every penny. It looks like it would be uncomfortable but it's not. I love seating on it, it's comfy and makes you sit comfortably straight. Something I struggle with. :)

All in all I'm very happy with the results. I think we made a dark, creepy looking apartment into a comfy, cool, and inviting home. I still have lots to fix or add, and many projects in my mind that I want to do for my little old apartment and that's exciting for me. I can't wait to finish them and post the results!

Polka Dots

I've always wanted to be a DIY'er type of person but never really was. I've always wanted to decorate my house but never really had the means.

Well I still don't, lol, but now that we recently moved to an apartment we had some funds put away to start fixing up our little place. So I have lots of posts I wanna make because we really did a lot. I'm very happy with the results so far. We still have some stuff left to do or buy but it'll have to be a process because those funds I was talking about went dry!

Okay now to get to the good stuff. I wanted to buy new chairs for the kitchen at Ikea but they were pretty pricey. I did find one that was on sale for 9.99 that I liked, here's a picture of it.

I was almost conviced on getting them when my mom suggested taking her chairs that went with the table she was giving me anyways. She said we could just re-do the seating covers. And after David checked this chair out personally and found it to be too weak and not worthy of leaning back on it (boys!) I decided to take my mom on her offer. We found the material to redo the chairs at Ikea too! Now I have to worn you that they're a little bit out there! Hahahaha we have kind of a quirky taste mixed with a little bit of everything else. So the cloth I choose might not agree with everyone but that's actually what made me like it. David too!

Anyways, since our kitchen was going to be painted a bright yellow we decided to go with a yello with white polka dot material. Here's kind of the process in pictures.

So ofcourse first you unscrew it from the bottom to separate them.

Then the hubby helped take off the really hard to get staples to get that nasty material off.

 Then my mom measured and stenciled the seat cousin to the material.

After cutting it out we then started to staple the material to the cushion with the staple gun. Now unless you're really awesomely handy, I think this is a two person job. I didn't know what a sweat breaking thing this was. It was actually tiring. Now after we stappled the material we also cut out and stappled plastic covers over the cloth material. I know a lot of you don't like that or might think it's tacky, I thought so too, but with two kids I knew it was the best choice. It makes it way easier to wipe clean after any mess.

And Voila! Here are my kitchen chairs. Now I really want to paint the wood part like a white or even a bluish color, but for now they will do.

I'm all for new things but I have to say there's something pretty awesome about re-purposing old things, recycling them and knowing you made them yourself. It makes them more personal. I love my chairs. Yes the color and pattern is a little blinding but I love them. Soon I'll post a picture with them in the finished kitchen.

Subscribe if you want to see the many more posts of the final result of my apartment.

My Chore List

Well I'm on a roll! I actually got my chore list done too. Again I used the Microsoft Publisher to make it.

I hope my list can help you guys out. I got it from a wonderful book I read called Is There Life After Housework? by Don Aslett. I loved it. It made so much sence. I've always wanted to have an emaculate house but I've finally faced reality that with two kids and a hubby that won't be happening soon. BUT I can have a descently clean house. I had already been following a lot of the books tips for a quick and efficent cleaning routine and let me tell you it worked wonders. But I really wanted to make the more detail list it had so that I could really be sure that I was hitting all the points of the house. I'm really excited to try it out. Here's the results:

I put bathroom for twice a week because I know that I will pick it up and sorta clean it everyday, but a real deaper clean will be twice a week. You can understand more of what I'm saying by reading his book. He explains the whole bathroom cleaning dilemma. I did adjust it too my needs. I didn't put all the things he had because obviously living in an apartment is different than in a single family home. So you too can adjust my list to your needs. I know I didn't quite make it too fancy or cutesy but for now that's what I needed. I will laminate it so that I can re use it and maybe then I'll decorate it or make it cute somehow.

I ran into this book after reading another book of his called "How To Have a 48-Hour Day" that a friend lend me. I loved it instantly. Somethings are a little extreme but over all the book left me so motivated and with usesable knowledge. I saw his cleaning book and decided to buy it. After finishing that one up I bought another one titled "Make Your House Do The Housework". Another great book I recommend to anyone who is building a home or thinking of remodeling. Again it does have some extreme ideas but you take what fits you. And I took a lot from it. I really recommend these books.

Well that's if for today. Wow two blogs in one day! Proud of myself.

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Natalie's Chore Chart

I have to say that Natalie gets off pretty easy. I don't really have her help out with much. She does do her bed and pick up here and there but nothing official. It worries me though cause it's made her kind of lazy when we do ask her to help out.



So after awhile of looking at Pinterest for ideas and samples I came to the conclusion that it's better if I tried making my own since no one child is the same. Duh, right. So I'm not very computer savy so I wasn't sure what to do. We do thankfully have a new computer so it came with a lot more programs (which i don't know how to use, lol). So I opened up Microsoft Publisher and got to playing with it. Here is the result.

Yes I know the circles are off and crazy looking but it's okay, it's for my 9 year old. It's still not a lot for her to do but it's enough and what I need for her to help out. I'm hoping this will help us with the struggle to get her to do things she should do without needing us to tell her over and over and having tantrums over not wanting to do them.

I still need to laminate this so that I can re use it over and over instead of printing over and over. Hopefully this will give her some structure and maybe make it fun for her. I'll make sure to let you know how it goes. I'm going to maybe think of rewards or allowance to give her if she does her chores but I don't want to make it an expected thing cause I don't like the thought of her expecting something all the time for doing something she should be doing.

So if I was able to make this anyone can. Just play around with your computer and I'm sure you'll discover something that'll work. I also want to point out that I titled it "Natalie's To Do List" instead of chore list because I thought the word CHORE in itself makes kids (and even adults) cringe. Let me know what you guys think and if you have any ideas of your own.