Dirt Chic

Apartment Before & After: Bedroom

The bedroom, in this apartment, is not very decorated.  But, it's better than this:

 

As well as this hideous mess that was the room in-progress:

Now:

 

 

Due to the small closets, my clothes are in 2 different rooms.  Ah well.  Maybe I will find a solution for it later.  It's only annoying when I have to put stuff away.

Apartment Before & After: My Office

AKA Writing Room. :)

Finally, I get to put up my pink curtains.  And I didn't have to go very far to find "tie-backs":

I couldn't get that many Before pics of this room, either:

But that's ok.  I don't even think the previous tenant used this room.  I do.

 

It's less messy than it looks, believe it or not:

And also FINALLY get to put things up on the wall instead of prop them:

 

More or less like I've had it at my last few places. :)

Up Next: Bedroom.

Apartment Before & After: Dining Room

Ew:

 

Rad:

Clutter:

Woodworking majesty:

Lame lamp:

Peter, Paul & Mary:

Side view:

Next: My Office.

Apartment Before & After: Hubby's Office

I have no picture of how it looked when all our crap was strewn everywhere.  This is a pic when I first saw the apartment and signed the lease (as are all the Before pics, from here on out):

Hubby does a good job decorating. :)

 

I don't have better shots, as it is a smallish space.  Next: Dining Room.

Some New Apartment Before & Afters

I don't want to look at these Before pictures again until 5,000 years from now.

But anywho!  The kitchen, the day after unloading all our crap.

To clean a mess, you have to make a mess.  The Art of Rearranging Crap, AKA Moving In.

After.

The addition of some of our collection of little white shelves made up for the slack in pantry space.  All of our non-food kitchen stuff fit in all the cupboards, though.  Yay!

My favorite area.  Cookbooks and kitchen collectibles on the shelf from Mom & Dad's attic.

This was the living room when I viewed it (after which I promptly signed the lease):

This was the Satanic Mess that had to be cleared out (different view, looking into the dining room):

Mid-way through (one of the easier rooms to deal with - no books):

After.

More After.

The much-longed-for Record Case (IKEA, $90) awaits Order and Stability.

After.

(Lack table, slightly dinged, $6.  BOSE speakers, $10.  Everything else I already had.)

More to come.

Moving: DONE.

We moved in, and the process was not that terrible - at least, until I actually was left to unpack.  Never before have I loathed the task so much.  Part of it was due to the fact that I was sort of depressed.  Not at unpacking, but just overwhelmed by a crazy (and generally good) summer.  I just wanted my stuff to magically jump into its place, a la Spoonful of Sugar.

I got most of the goods in the various rooms, and then left the straggly crap to do over the course of this week.  And it IS getting done, and soon, we will have our place to ourselves - not co-populated with 5,000 rubbermaid bins.

It was important that I just stopped trying to get everything in place, because I had things to do - but also so I could remind myself to stop.  And tell myself, This is your life.  

Of course it's my life.  But for the past 3 years, my life has had the overcast knowledge that everything's in limbo.  Especially this last year - I was very aware of how we wouldn't be staying in Carbondale, and got to know pretty quickly that Springfield would be a better fit for me.

And then we found this apartment.  It seemed perfect.  This last week, Brandon and I were exploring other neighborhoods, and came across a smashingly beautiful area, he asked me (well, more like just said it, rhetorically) why we hadn't looked around more.  I got super-crabby.  But when we got home, and I stopped being crabby somewhat, I thought about all the reasons why I preferred this place, and why it is better.

Then, I thought about the fact that I can FINALLY just settle in.  Granted, we know we have to leave in 3 years.  But that's THREE YEARS FROM NOW.  I haven't lived anywhere for that length of time since I moved out of my parent's house, over a decade ago.

And yesterday, as we were driving (again) through that same great area, Brandon told me he liked our place, better.  For all the reasons (he didn't know this) that I like our place.  It's great.  And I'm sinking my teeth into it, so to speak.  Even before I get everything totally situated!

Packing Double-Duty

A small packing note.  We have a lot of record albums, and they need to be moved easily as my hubby, especially, likes to have them available to him when we are traveling around.  So, we have $3 crates that I have collected over time.

But what to do with them when we're not in transit?

Not the best picture, but they are super-excellent in organizing.  I use them in my closet (for shoes), as well as to hold office items like binders and folders.  

I would hate to relegate my crates to the crawlspace along with the boring rubbermaids.  I live to keep great organizational and storage items around.

In action!

Plastic Creations

I made a new tote this past weekend... not because I needed one, but because once one learns how to fuse plastic bags into a sewing material one needs to sew that new material into something!

Hence, 

a Sturdy Shopping Tote:

a Useful Zip Pouch:

Likewise, I've had a ball of plarn (plastic yarn- instructions here) sitting around for awhile now and I finally got brave enough to attempt making something with it. 

I -- after about a half hour-- remembered how to cast on, and started knitting what I think will turn out to be something resembling this:

 (instructions here)

If you're looking for something to do with all those plastic bags stashed under your sink (or wherever you stash them... I know you stash them somewhere!)  Go grab some and your iron or scissors and try out a new crafting material!

Pantries

Right now we don't have a straight-up pantry - that is, we don't have a food storage space with an actual door.  (We did have one, but it was particleboard and got busted in our move from Chicago.) I keep all our food goods on smaller white particle board shelves in what used to a be a closet.  No doors.  It looks fine, though.

A little messy... but fine. :)

I like this idea for covering cabinets, though.  Perhaps if I was ambitious enough, I could do it to these shelves.

Rolling covers - interesting.  Hard?  Dunno.

This one takes the cake, though.  A canned-good pantry, complete with DOOR!

If I could really build my own, this is what I'd do:

Someday, as always. :)

--Arwen

Work Space

My workspace in this apartment is currently overrun by Etsy items and shipping supplies.  I'll need to take care of that at some point, as I have some crucial mending to do.  And mild upholstering.

I like to think of Victorian homes, though, where they had a separate room for everything.  My space often has to multi-task, which is sometimes fun, and sometimes not.  Someday, I'll have a house, and I won't know what to do with all the space!

I would really like one of these rooms right now, just because I have 5 houseplants in desperate need of re-potting, and nowhere is a good place to do it...

 

A fold-down sewing table.

A gift-wrap and floral-arranging area.

Perhaps this will inspire me to clean that room.  Heh heh

--Arwen