Just Like HGTV

A year ago this week we had just put in an offer on what we have affectionately come to call "The Cottage" or sometimes, when our gaze drifts out toward the trees swaying in our back yard, "Our Little Slice of Americana".  If you asked me to come up with a #hashtag to sum up the past year, it'd have to be #JustLikeHGTV or, perhaps more accurately, #NotQuiteLikeHGTV.

Over the years, Kevin and I had become pretty big HGTV fans. It wasn't unusual for us to spend several hours on a Saturday morning watching episode after episode. And there may have been a few Saturdays (back in the day when I lived alone), that I had HGTV running in the background for the entire day while I set about working on various projects around the house. SO, the opportunity to "live the HGTV dream" with our little fixer upper of a house was pretty exciting.

Fast forward to this year, and we've realized a few things:

1) Fixing up a house is NEVER just like HGTV.  For starters, all of the "projects" that are chronicled on HGTV are tidily wrapped up in 45 minutes or less. They always have all the supplies they need on hand and their designer knows just where to go, or just what to do to create the "perfect look" the homeowner is going for. In real life, everything takes forever and there are a million decisions. Just figuring out what you're going to do and getting the supplies to do it can easily fill up a Saturday afternoon. Never mind actually DOING the project.

2) As a result of #1, watching HGTV shows now just makes me feel anxious. So many decisions! And they finish everything so deceptively quickly - entire house remodels, finished in 6 weeks! [sure, if you hire a contractor to do all the work for you and a designer to decide how everything should look].

3) We have a love-hate relationship with Home Depot. It is simultaneously our #1 destination on the weekend and The Devil. They have everything and yet any contractor will tell you that most of the stuff they sell is crap compared to what is available from distributors.

Of course, there have been many other lessons - too many to chronically here after my delinquency on the blogging front over the last year. I've done a fairly good job of chronicling most of our triumphs on my Instagram account, so I encourage anyone interested to follow me there @dulceadventures.

For now, I'll share some then & now photos to share some of the progress we've made since the photos from my original post (which were pulled from the realtor.com posting).

Power washed concrete, removed ugly gray paint from top step, painted door, added blingy brass hardware, installed storm door (hello light!), tore out ugly box wood and landscaped in front of patio, added flowers to flower box, and set out patio furniture that we already had.

Removed gobs and gobs of ivy (and planted grass from seed in its place), removed one giant tree stump (that was previously covered in ivy), removed dying tree (and planed a big-ish new one nearby), relocated shed to back corner (instead of middle of yard?), planted evergreen shrubs at back fence and along left fence near house for privacy, planted  crepe myrtle for extra shade/privacy.

Paited the walls a less boring greyish beige (greige). Unfortunately this was the only place for Kevin's huge TV. I'm still kinda sad that the cute woodwork details on the stairs are mostly hidden, but overall this is the best use of space for the room. I painted the risers on the first two stairs at one point last winter, but not very happy with how it looks and planning to strip it down to wood again soon.

Basically we just added all our stuff. Pretty happy with how this space is shaping up. Next up: shutters for the front windows to replace the hideous vinyl blinds underneath the bamboo shads.

My favorite before & after pictures. So. In. Love. With. This. Kitchen!

So I think these pictures make the "now" look worse than then "then", but it is actually a huge improvement on the nasty scale. Before, the basement was stinky and just generally sketchy. Now, every surface is clean/freshly painted and all our stuff is well organized. Eventually we want to re-finish this area, but for now it is serving nicely as our workshop for our various projects!

Our "Hobby Home" (Part I: Upstairs)

Also known as That Time We Bought A Seventy-four Year-old House That Had Been a Rental for Forty Years. This has been our life for the past 3.5 weeks. We closed on the house on Aug. 21st and have been spending most of our free time since then working on various projects to turn our 864 sq. ft + basement + yard into our little oasis in the city. Most of those projects have taken longer than expected, and practically none of them have gone as planned. Such are the charms of a "pre-war" home.

I share these photos with some trepidation; there is still much work to be done before I will be satisfied to declare victory on any of the rooms, but we've gotten nearly all the boxes unpacked and things are at a state where we can go about our daily routines without too much inconvenience.

MASTER BEDROOM
The real victory here is that our king-sized bed made it up the narrow staircase and that it actually fits quite nicely in our bedroom. The side tables (Kevin's Craigslist find from a couple years ago) slid neatly into place on either side of the bed and the lamps from my living room provided some nice symmetry and warmth.

The closet is actually a decent size (although definitely smaller that your standard modern closet), so we're still working out how best to use the space. A closet make-over is on the list for future projects (right now, there are just dual level wood rods in place). We did hang a iron rack on the back of the door, which provides a nice place to tuck the iron out of view. A new dresser is also high on the list; despite the best efforts of our movers, Kevin's dresser was just too big to make it up the stairs (unlike the king bed, it didn't bend ;-/).

I love the view out our window here. Makes me happy to see trees and nicely updated homes across the street rather than a glass & steel high rise. It's also MUCH quieter here than at our old place where cars, planes, and other city noises were rattling the windows at all hours of the night.

A Room With A View

NEW REGISTERS THROUGHOUT!...said no real estate listing ever.
Most people don't even know what these things are called; I certainly didn't, until our home inspector mentioned that we should have our vents cleaned and I removed the old ones (which were painted over with multiple layers of paint!) and discovered that all of the vents were coated in (74?) years of dust, pet hair, and various other varieties of nastiness that I'd prefer never to have in my air supply again. It was quite the task to remove all of the old ones (10 total), and a project in and of it self to measure & mount the new ones. After some trial & error and several trips to home depot, I finally got the right sizes ( 6"x 12" vents on some and 6" x 14" on others; most weren't standard sizes) & functionality (each room has an intake  and outflow, each of which fits differently). We also had our ducts cleaned, which may have been the best $200 we've spent yet!

New Vent Registers. Get Excited. 

2ND BEDROOM (A.K.A - THE STORAGE PIT)

This room also gets great natural light (and the newly refinished floors are gleaming in this pic!), but at present this room is just an unorganized mass of things we don't have a place for, but hope to soon. Namely: a desk, some type of storage/low profile bookshelf, and possibly a bed or sofa (I'd like it to be the later, but my old sofa may not make it up the narrow staircase). That new dresser for Kevin (who is currently living out of the box in the middle of the room) and improved closet storage (so I can stop using the plastic storage bins I bought in college) should help with the clutter factor and allow us to turn this into a home office. 

THE BACKYARD (as viewed from our second floor bedroom)
Kevin has put in some major work back here, removing several truckloads of ivy, relocating the shed to the back corner of the yard, and overseeing a tree and stump removal last week while I was out of town (the tree was rotted out in the middle and the stump was leftover from the previous owners). Kevin is currently overseeing a major grass re-growing project and is monitoring the progress carefully. We've got big plans for this yard: Trees! A patio! A new fence! Landscaping! A new shed! Patio furniture...we'll get there (eventually). For now, we're making do with our little stoop and grill that Kevin's parents gave us as a housewarming gift. Barkley is enjoying all the sniffs.

Our backyard on Sep. 13, 2014 (hoping for a big makeover in the next year)

 THE BATHROOM
Nice natural light and recently updated, but certainly nothing fancy. We're focusing on adding functionality and upgrading some of the rental grade hardware. New bath mats purchased this weekend freshened up the look. There is a nicely sized storage closet with shelves, which Kevin recently removed the door to (it was bumping up against the other door and getting pretty annoying), so I'd like to get some nice storage bins to organize the stuff on the shelves and a bright colored curtain that we can close when we don't want to stare at all our bathroom stuff.

Shower curtain pulled back to show window

shower with curtain closed to show other bathroom details

our massive bathroom storage closet; now sans door. 

Under Contract!!!

"After nearly three months of browsing Realtor.com every night, spending Sunday afternoons criss-crossing the DC metro-area visiting open houses, and a lot of emotional ups and downs, we are under contract on a cute little brick 1940's duplex semi-detached/twin home with a yard. Total fixer-upper, but great neighborhood and low-stress commute for us both. Let the adventure begin!"

This was my Facebook post from Tuesday night after we returned from an evening walk in our potential new neighborhood and decided to accept the sellers counter-offer after a drawn-out negotiation period that had started Saturday night. It had been a pretty intense week leading up to this decision. Eight days earlier, Kevin sent me a mid-morning text: "[the house we had our eye on] back on the market for [a lower price]. Buy buy buy!!!". My heart immediately started racing. We originally went to an open house at this place on June 8th, but thought the price was a little high and just weren't quite ready to commit. It went under contract at the beginning of July, at which point we both spent the next week saying "we should have gotten that one".

Now we were getting a second chance to make a move on it. I quickly e-mailed one of the real estate agents we had met at an open house a couple months earlier, followed up with a phone call, and scheduled a showing for later in the evening. 

In the meantime, Kevin talked to the seller's agent and found out that the earlier buyer had backed out after getting the home inspection report back: "it needs a new roof, new water heater, and there is evidence of flooding in the basement" were the highlights. Hmmf. 

Were we in for such a big challenge? Would it be better to just pay a little more and find and place that is already "done". We both agreed the neighborhood and location were ideal, and all the other places we had seen in our price rang were in less convenient or more run-down neighborhoods. This offered a nice neighborhood, with the potential for making it the house we wanted - if we could negotiate the price down enough to comfortably make the necessary repairs and remodel the kitchen. (just like Property Brothers!)

In the end, the sellers made a counter-offer that was within the range we had determined would be acceptable, and we decided to go for it. I'm sure we're in for more than a few surprises along the way, but for now, we're pretty excited about all the possibilities: Cookouts every weekend! Our dream kitchen! We'll add built-ins! A fire pit in the back yard! We'll DIY everything! I'll learn to do all the repairs myself and becoming a handyman on my days off (says Kevin). 

For now, we'll have to content ourselves with exploratory walks in our new neighborhood, Aurora Highlands, which we are absolutely in love with. And I may just become obsessed with Young House Love (thanks, Mailena). Meanwhile, Kevin has committed himself to learning how to build a French drain "I'm going to need to buy a jackhammer", was a key quote from tonight).

And for those of you that have asked...a few pictures ( it doesn't look like much at the moment, but it has potential!!):

If all goes well we close Aug. 21st! Eeeek!

There she is! (all 864 sq ft of her)

Back yard for Barkley (and cookouts, firepits, gardening, and doggie splash pools)

Basement (I'm looking foward to finally getting to tear down some wallls like they do on HGTV

The lack-luster kitchen we're hoping to replace with our mini-dream kitchen 

Living area - love the wood floors and sconces. Actually not too much to complain about here. 

Love the stairs and all the 1940's details.

Wedding Recap

The past eight months I have spent most of my computer-facing free time researching, planning, and coordinating the various aspects of our wedding that took place on March 7th in Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

In some ways, it seems silly that it would be necessary to spend so much time and energy planning for what ended up being a week-long event with 30 of our closest friends and family. But it was a labor of love, and the end result really was everything I had hoped for. My #1 rule for wedding planning was that there would be no rules; we would not feel obliged by tradition/expectations for what we should do, and instead focus on what felt important and authentic to our personalities. I also wanted to make sure we had no regrets; that looking back on our wedding thirty years from now, we would feel like we had checked all the boxes on what would make it truly feel like our wedding day.

What follows is not so much a recap of the entire planning process, but more of a summary of the elements of our wedding that I am most proud of, and the memories that we will cherish the most for years to come. I wanted a place to organize all these things not only for myself, but also for our friends and family who weren't able to attend the wedding, and for all those brides out there who are looking for ideas/planning resources like I was last year.

Not having planned a wedding before, I really didn't know where to start (yes, I know, there are tons of magazines/websites out there, but they are just all so ridiculous and tell you that you need to make twenty list and follow a strict calendar, etc. etc. - basically a bunch of "rules" that I was determined not to follow). So, at the recommendation of one of my friends, I checked out the very awesome and totally my style, A Practical Wedding blog, which let me to the book with the same name, which proved to be a nice introduction on how to approach the whole process. Highly recommended.

After much web searching/contemplating and a few on-site visits to local venues, we thought we had found just the place - 128 South, a nicely done event space in the historical downtown of Wilmington, NC overlooking in the Cape Fear River. However, after tallying up the "bare bones" guest list with "only" our aunts/uncles/cousins/good friends, we realized the guest list was quickly approaching 100+, and the idea of planning an event for that many people (and having all of them looking at us) was just a bit too overwhelming. So, we went back to the idea of a destination wedding. Kevin suggested Vegas, but I quickly veto'ed that idea (I wanted something a little less, - ahem- tacky). In the end, we decided on Isla Mujeres, Mexico due to it (1) being located reasonably close to a "commodity destination" (Cancun), which meant that flight options for our guest would be reasonably priced and easy to come by (most major airports have direct flights into Cancun, and the prices are comparable to what it would have cost for guest to fly to a destination within the U.S. ), and (2) being a quaint fishing village with authentic charm that would be easy for our guest to navigate and less "touristy" than Cancun.

Selecting the actual venue on Isla Mujeres was not as strait forward as I would have hoped - there are lots of great venue options on the island, each with its own pro/cons. We decided that we wanted to have our wedding at the same place our guest were staying to make logistics less complicated (and hopefully take advantage of some volume discounts). Kevin and my Dad both wanted an all-inclusive hotel to allow for easy visiting/socializing without the hassle of pulling out your wallet every time you want a drink. That narrowed down our choices quite a bit since there are really only two all-inclusive hotels on Isla Mujeres: Privilege Aluxes (our venue of choice), and Isla Mujeres Palace (which is quite a bit more spendy and also located on the southern tip of the island away from the town).

I could go on and on about all the decisions that we made leading up to the big day, but what I really set out to do here is to share a few of my favorite details from our wedding day, along with a couple videos that our guest captured that day. Enjoy!

Video of our wedding ceremony: M&K's Wedding 
A little dancing later in the evening: Dance with my Dad


The Dress - HB6622 by Saja

HB6622 by Saja - Photo by Susan Pacek Photography

Our Invitations - "Mexican Wedding Flags (Papel Picado)" by Señor & Señora 

"Mexican Wedding Flags (Papel Picado)" by Señor & Señora 

[our full names are marked out for public internet-posting ;-)]

The Program - designed by Madeline on Zazzle, and you can buy one here

Vintage Mexican-inspired program timeline. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography

[our full names are marked out for public internet-posting ;-)]

Place Cards - tags stamped by Madeline and attached to maracas bought on the island. 

Maraca placecards for vintage mexican-inspired wedding. Photocredit: Susan Pacek Photography

Menus - designed by Madeline on Zazzle, and you can buy a copy here

Vintage Mexican Wedding Menu. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography

Centerpiece & Table Numbers - designed by Madeline on Zazzle, and you can buy a copy here 

Vintage Mexican Wedding - Tablecard & Centerpiece. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography

Bouquets  - our wedding coordinators  Elba Machado & Alejandra Izaguirre did a great job coordinating this element of the wedding with very little instruction from me. 

Bridesmaids Bouquet - Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography

Bridal Bouquet - Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography

Hair & Make-up - by the seriously fabulous Anne-Marie Cote from Make Me Beautiful -  Mi  Secreto Salon. She did a great job and was super easy to work with - just sent her a picture of my dress before and hand we chatted a little bit about what I wanted and she did the rest with very little instruction from me. Made getting ready for the wedding so easy and relaxing! 

Showing off my gorgeous hair and gazing off over Privilege Aluxes grounds. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography 

A rare occassion: me with full make-up on. Love the view of the eyelashes here. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography

Anne-Marie works her magic as I enjoy a mimosa with the girls and look out over the Caribbean Sea.
Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography

Our Mariachi Band - sadly, I don't even know their name(s). It was a bit of a splurge, but totally worth it - all our guest had such a fun time, and so did we!

Posing with our mariachi band! Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography

Papel Picado / Mexican Wedding Flags 

Papel Picado/Mexican Wedding Flags. Photo Credit: Susan Pacek Photography

Summertime Adventures

So, it's been a while since my last post. Potential excuses are numerous, but I'll just suffice to say that I haven't made writing a priority. I've spent many of my weekends over the past few months traveling - to D.C. (several trips), Carolina Beach, Arkansas, Jacksonville, and in a couple weeks - San Francisco. I love being in a new places and getting out of the routine, but it has left little time for catching up on things at home.

We spent Memorial Day weekend at Carolina Beach in another great VRBO find - a 4th floor one bedroom condo just one row back from the beach, with dual balconies looking out on the town lake and ocean (read my review here).

View looking west: Carolina Beach Lake

Our beach-themed condo

View looking east: The Ocean! 

The summer solstice weekend was spent visiting my hometown in Arkansas, where we toured some of the local attractions such as the Wal-Mart Visitors Center and fabulous Crystal Bridges Art Museum, spent an evening shooting off fireworks on my parent's farmland, took a road trip to the Victorian era Ozark mountain resort town of Eureka Springs, went for a swim at Hogscald on Beaver Lake, enjoyed a fun-filled night on Dickson Street catching up with old friends, and even got in an engagement shoot with a very talented local photographer, Novo Studios. Really a quintessential Arkansas summer weekend.

Wal-Mart Visitors Center - Bentoville, Arkansas

Farmland near Winslow, Arkansas

One of our engagement photos! (photo credit: Philip Thomas of Novo Studios) 

On my weekend trips to D.C., we always make a point to try a new restaurant and explore a bit of the city on foot; definitely one of my favorite things to do in any city. July 4th was an extra fun weekend to be in Our Nation's Capital, with special (free) events going on all over the city, including a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence - quite good, and not as cheesy as I thought it would be!

Amazing Savory Waffles from Locolat Cafe in Adams Morgan

Fresh seafood & crabs at The Wharf @ Southeast Waterfront (en route to Nationals Game)

Two weeks ago, I made the trip down I-95 to Jacksonville to visit one of my dearest friends who recently gave birth to her first child  - an adorable baby girl. She is the first of my close friends to have a baby, and it was such a special experience to spend the entire the weekend getting to know the newest member of their family. 

Next up - a long weekend in San Francisco to visit another one of my dear friends! Looking forward to sampling the amazing food, drink, and scenery in and around the Bay Area. Not so much looking forward to my flight that departs at 5:50 A.M. But hey, on the bright side, I'll be arriving at SFO before 10:00 A.M. :).

House Warming Party, Tapas Style

With  Operation Decorate complete and the condo looking presentable, I was happy to be able to spend most of the last month showing it off to both local and out-of-town guest.

I had been waiting to host a party for while (even at my old place, I had contemplated throwing a Halloween or Christmas party), but other events always seemed to get in the way and I would ultimately end up chickening out for one reason or another. Throwing a party is a lot of work! But that is true with most things worth doing and parties can also be a lot of fun. And really, what else is going on the last weekend of February?  All the more reason the throw a party.

The end result was an intimate gathering of ten-or-so friends on a chilly Saturday evening enjoying tapas, wine, beer, and Latin pop music (what can I say, one of the perks of throwing a party is controlling the play list :). And while a number of folks ended up not being able to make it, it was great opportunity to visit with old friends and meet a few new ones, which is really my favorite things about parties. 

Throwing a party was also a great excuse to try out new recipes with exotic ingredients that aren't typically on my weekly shopping list. According to Pinterest, all great parties these days have a theme, so I felt a certain amount of obligation to conform. This also proved quite useful in providing some direction to party-planning since there are so many options to choose from on the outset. I settled on Spanish tapas, or more specifically, pintxos (some times called "pinchos"), which are the types of tapas served in the bars of San Sebastian in the Basque region of Northern Spain (see corresponding Pinterest board here: Pinchos Party).

I could really go on and on about all the amazing pintxos I tried during my visit to San Sebastian. It is a unique type of eating that combines the casual setting of standing up at a bar, with a heightened attention to detail and complexity of taste. It has been exciting to see all the new tapas bars popping up in the U.S., but I have yet to see the pintxos concept duplicated. With that spirit in mind, I attempted to duplicate the "specialness" of the pintxos bars in San Sebastian, with a variety of tapas, each offering a different taste combination. 

Olives Marinated in Orange & Thyme Infused Olive Oil 

From one of my favorite cookbooks, Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America by Jose Andres, which I displayed in a fancy OLIVE DISH (they make those?) that I snagged for a song a TJ Max the week before. Pictures found here:  http://trissalicious.com/2011/01/10/olives-marinated-in-orange-and-thyme-infused-olive-oil/

Pintxo de Chorizo y Manchengo

From a great story on NPR's "The Kitchen Window" - Pintxos: The Flavors Of Spain, On A Toothpick (with recipes included!). These were really a great hit, and so simple to make! 

Datiles Con Beicon (Dates With Bacon)

Also from Pintxos: The Flavors Of Spain, On A Toothpick. 

Ok, I admit it. I love dates, and I love bacon, so there was really no way that I was not going to love this. And from my perspective, it was my pièce de résistance, if based on nothing other than the fact that it took me a solid two hours (on a dreary rainy Saturday when I literally had nothing better to do) to pack the little dates with blue cheese & an almond and then laboriously wrap each little sucker in a slippery piece of bacon.  Anyways, I thought they were pretty good, but I may have been the main one eating them :). 

White Tuna in Piquillo Pepper

From tapasbonitas.com, I simplified it a bit by just placing a piece of piquillo pepper on top of the tuna instead of attempting to stuff (most of the peppers from the jar weren't as nicely shaped as they appear to have come when tapasbonitas attempted it). 

Tichi's Gazpacho

Also from Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America by Jose Andres

Recipe is here, although admittedly my gazpacho doesn't look the same as it does on that website; mainly because I skip the garnish and just go with the blended mix of fresh tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, garlic, vinegar, olive oil (lots of it), and salt. The appearance is somewhat creamy and many people who taste it guess that the recipes includes onions (it doesn't). The zip comes from the garlic & vinegar, and the creaminess comes from the olive oil. This didn't actually fit into my pintxos theme, but this is one of my favorite recipes from Jose Andres and I wanted to share it. Since we weren't sitting down to any type of formal dinner, I served the soup in little plastic cups; several people thought they were shots. Nope! 

Tortilla de Patatas

...not the "tortilla" you're used to! This is Spain's version of the tortilla, which has very little in common with the Mexican tortilla. As the name suggests, it is made of Patatas (Potatoes), along with egg, onions and a touch of salt; all cooked in a generous amount of olive oil. This is another dish that often fools people into thinking there is an extra ingredient - cheese. But alas, no; it is a simpler dish than it first appears. The trick is in the preparation. The recipe I used (from Jose Andres' Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America), called for the dish to be cooked in a frying pan and FLIPPED, which is quite difficult to do (I've done it a few times, with varying results). This time, I decided to simplify things a bit by BAKING it in the oven. The alternative method worked out quite well. I couldn't taste much of a difference and it was much less stressful (and fool-proof) than the flipping method. Recipe can be found here.

The Spread!

Operation Decorate

I've been a busy bee this past month decorating my new condo. In many respects, it has felt like my very own version of The High Low Project on HGTV. The premise is simple: get that "designer look" without breaking the bank. But with a full time job, it is much more time-consuming than it looks! I have literally spent nearly every free moment during the past month working on some task related to decorating: searching the internet for design ideas, visiting various retail establishments, or hanging/putting together/painting/organizing the various objects I already had in my possession.

Exhausting, but also lots of fun! Even though I told myself I wasn't going to set aside any budget for decorating, I ended up spending about $1000 to make the place feel like home (because really, what good is owning your own place if it doesn't feel like home?). About $500 of that was spent during multiple trips to Target buying things like drawer organizers  recycling containers, and various other things I didn't know I needed until I absolutely couldn't do without them (evil  Target). The other $500 was spent on *real* furniture that I can now sit around and adore on a daily basis. I'm definitely not "done" yet (probably won't ever be), but I feel like I've gotten to a place where it feels like home and I can tackle future projects as time and money allow.

So, without further ado... THE NEW PLACE:

Living Room. /// Accent wall was already painted when I moved in. Loving the punch of color, high ceilings, big windows & crown molding. Most of this furniture I already had, but in case you are curious, here are the DETAILS: Lamps: Marshalls (my favorite store for lamps); Couch & Ottoman: Roomstore (my first *real* pieces of furniture purchase for my old apt.); POÄNG Chair: IKEA (it's a classic, right?); blue side table: thrift store find (for $15 - total score!); butterscotch Mimic cube: Crate & Barrel (found this when the Crate & Barrel store at my local mall was closing and everything was 1/2 off. The style is no longer available, but the Ditto cube is similar); 

Dining Room // Accent wall was already painted when I moved in; all lighting came with the condo. DETAILS:  BJURSTA dining room table: IKEA (an *extendable* table in birch veneer - makes up in versatility what it lacks in style; it works for now); VILMAR dining room chairs: IKEA (...or a similar style they used to make - in birch veneer. Really serendipitous Craiglist find a couple summers ago whereby I scored all 4 chairs for $40, just as I had almost  convinced myself to spring for these very similar  (but twice as expensive) chairs from Crate & Barrel: Felix Walnut Side Chair; Twist Swivel Bar Stools: World Market (quite possibly my favorite new apartment purchase to date); Peacock Quincy Chair: World Market (totally in love, especially after I spotted this almost-identical-chair (Modesto Chair from Arhaus) while browsing at a super fancy furniture store in the mall for - get this - $1200...seriously? I WIN). 

Kitchen // All major elements came with the condo. Love the hardwoods & stainless steel fridge. Would love granite counter tops eventually, but that won't be in the cards anytime soon. I do love my magnetic spice jars on the fridge (really great way to organize your spices to make them visible and accessible at the same time = just $2.99/each at Bed, Bath & Beyond) 

Master Bedroom // Some of you may recognize this bedroom setup from a previous post. New this year are the side tables (thrift store find w/ paint & updated hardware), along with the Adair Sconces from Pottery Barn (with nickle finish  which were my splurge item for this project. I  scoured the internet for a "knock-off" version, but couldn't find anything I liked nearly as much. Also, these were on sale and pretty much the cheapest sconces that PB sells, so I will suffice to say it was a justified purchase.  This is is the first time in my life I have had matching bed side lamps; really makes me feel like an adult! 

Thrift Store Dresser // Thrift store find + updated hardware from Amazon (definitely the best place to buy drawer pulls if you have a certain style in mind. I got these for a fraction of a cost of what they were going for a Lowes/Home Depot)

Office/Guest Bedroom // Crate & Barrel Knock-off desk from Amazon + thrift store chair + antique lamp from my parents house (one of the few items that made the trip across country with me when I moved out here in 2006) + bike that I need to ride more especially now that I live so close to the Greenway.

Office/Guest Bedroom /// OK, bare with me people. I debated whether to post this pick, because I'm not particularly proud of  how this portion of the room is styled, but maybe y'all can give me some tips :). For now, I'm just happy it's organized and I haven't spent any money on this room yet. This is basically just all my furniture that was leftover after I decorated the other rooms (my B-team items, if you will). The couch/love seat is actually a fold-out HAGALUND  bed from IKEA (in Idemo Beige; doesn't exactly pop off the gray walls...), along with some orange Crate & Barrel pillows (if you're going to buy anything from C&B, I suggest the pillows...the fabric/texture/design is simply unrivaled in my opinion, and its a relatively cheap way to upgrade any room). OH and don't you love the Schnauzer pillow? That was a Christmas gift this year; even though its kinda cheesy, it just makes happy. The chair to the left is a thrift store find, the white bedside table is one of the other remaining elements brought out to NC from my childhood (along with the desk lamp). The foot stool (which looks kinda awkward here, and everywhere, actually) is the matching foot stool for your classic Papasan chair sold at World Market (and no, I never owned the actual chair; this just happened to be the only ottoman that I could transport back to my apartment (by foot) while I was living in Chicago without a car. And that rug....that rug is an original purchase from my "moving the dorms" pre-college shopping trip to BB&B with my Mom over a decade ago. Don't you love how every piece of furniture has a story?