Story's Room {First Look}

I've finally taken the time to get Story's room in working order. We've been in our new apartment for about two months now, and in the state for seven?! months. It's about time I got on it. I will admit, her room intimidates me. There is so much I want to cram in there, that the sheer volume of toys overwhelms me. She's a borderline hoarder. Since we don't have a playroom, her room has to serve as a bedroom and playroom.

previous post

She still has a lot of the same toys, but we did decide to get rid of a few things. The biggest being her Princess Play Kitchen. She hasn't really used it since we moved, even though it was easy to access in her new/old room.

you can view our first apartment here

The new apartment has the same layout. But since the arrangement I had before wasn't working very well, I decided to try it a different way. I wanted to focus on the important things, things that she played with most, and tried to make getting a few other things more difficult. 

What started the whole redo was a new bedspread. She's really into everything blue, and as you can tell in the above photos, her quilt was pink. Once we picked out the new comforter, things just kind of went off from there.

The other big thing we added were proper curtains. I had added some in the old apartment, and there were some in our old house, but she decided to tear down the rod this last time. After a very sad discussion I have her word that she will not tear these down. See that only one of the shades are drawn? Yeah, I broke the other one not more than a week after we moved in... SO! Now she has curtains. I've had a set of these panels for a while now. We had them in our first living room and then again in our first apartment. This time around I felt like they matched Story's style better. I picked up the second set the last time we went to Ikea. 

Story helped me make the bed and decided which pillows should go where. The white and black pillow has the same pattern as the reverse side of the comforter. I like how it all ties in together. The lamp was a recent find at Target. The nighstand is one that we've had for a while now, but haven't had a place to put. It is far away from the bed on purpose. This way a certain little miss can't play with it during her nap ;)

Her new favorite thing is the bookcase. Her old one was broken in the move so I "loaned" her this one until we could find her a big enough one. She loves to read and is so excited to have all of her books unpacked finally. 

This corner is my least favorite area. I don't know what to do with her stuffed animals. I wanted to put them in her closet but there just wasn't enough room. She plays with almost all of them. 

Speaking of her closet.

Almost all of her toys fit nicely behind those doors. I would show you photos of it, but it's not ready. Not that her room is ready, but it's less ready than her room. Make sense?

Which brings me to my next topic : List of things left to do.

1. hang shelves

2. hang gallery wall

3. get a new book case/ paint old book case

4. hang mirror in dress up area

5. paint stripes or polka dots on one wall

I'm sure there is more, but that's the list as of now. I really want to get the shelves up so we can display all of her cute little treasures.

I hope to show you some progress soon.

In the meantime, have a Happy Thanksgiving!!


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New Couch, New Space

I've been holding out on you. Before we moved we bought a new sectional couch! We didn't really need a new couch. But the price was right and we jumped on it. The couch is bigger than our old one. Since we've had it it's been kind of a pain. We really like it, but it was just too big.

(instagram photo)

You can't tell very clearly from this photo, but the length made it a tight fit to get past the chair on the left. It also made the passage between the book cases into the dining room difficult unless you we're going single file.

Once we knew for sure we were moving I started getting all sorts of ideas on how I would do the rooms differently. Turns out, the layout we had really does work best. But I was determined to make the sectional work for us. I mean, it's four separate pieces! Who says it has to be just like that?! (my husband) But, I came up with a solution for most of our seating needs. And, there is room to walk around :)

 I took one of the middle pieces and just added it it the end. I know it doesn't have an arm rest, but I figured it would be okay. Especially because the sides come up so far anyway. The middle is now centered with the entertainment center. In an ideal house, we would have a living room and then a family room. Giving me space to entertain without the TV being the center of attention. But, that's a few years away. Realistically, the TV is the center of attention in our house. Jordan and I work opposite schedules, so what little bit of quality time we get is usually spent vegging out in front of the TV.

We really like the new sectional. Each seat has it's own storage underneath. Living in a tiny apartment, every little bit of storage we can get our hands on is like the greatest thing ever.

I shopped around the house a bit to come up with another end table. I felt like that end of the couch needed it's own table. That was the ottoman didn't get too crowded.

I switched out the chairs as well. This floral monster was (covered) in the bedroom. I traded it with the rocking chair that was out here before. I've had this chair for about four years now and I've loved it the whole time. It is super comfortable but so massive that I haven't had a spot to put it. It's always ended up in the bedroom, pretty much as a catch all.

I turned the chair to face the couch instead of towards the bookcases. They are more included with my office.

I really like the feel of the living room now. It's like it's all connected now. That we could have people over and they could all sit down and have a nice conversation. There is still so much that needs to be done, just in this corner. I'm not even going to think about the rest of the house for a moment. But, it's all decoration now. The "bones" are placed.


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I Have A Thing For Shelves

Hello. My name is Faith, and I am a shelf-aholic. I have to put a shelf on every available wall in any house I'm in. Here are a few examples ::

seen here

seen here

seen here

And on several other walls I never got a chance to take pictures of. 

I knew when we moved in to our new apartment that we would have storage issues. Though the house is technically bigger, meaning it has more livable space, we lost several square footage of storage. Remember our attic?

seen here

It did get a little bit cleaner. A little bit. The attic wasn't huge by any means but it gave us a place to put things we didn't want out. Things like seasonal items, furniture we didn't want anymore, boxes we saved for our move (we saved some boxes for 2 years) luggage, toys, seasonal clothes, etc... You get the idea. It gave us a great spot to put all of those things. Because, out of site, out of mind. When we moved we had to decide what to do with all of that junk. Most of it we got rid of it, but some of it we had to keep.

Which brings be back to my shelf addiction. We did a bit of a closet switch-aroo (which I will show soon, but it is no where photo ready) We have a decent sized hallway closet and an extremely small built in pantry. 

I should also mention, in the old house we had a screened in front porch. We are not ones to use an outdoor space, so it didn't really effect us that much, but it did give us a place to put the cat litter box. Since we don't have a screened in outdoor space at the new house we had to put the litter box somewhere. So, half of the hallway closet is a cat room. The other half is a storage closet. We only have Christmas items in there now. The tiny built in pantry is now a weird linen closet. But will only stay weird until I can work out some storage for the 2 :) bathrooms we have. The pantry items have all been moved into our own standing pantry.

(old house)

The pantry is in the dining nook next to the coffee bar. 

Okay, back to the shelves. We put some shelves up in the kitchen!

The shelves are the sames one in our old kitchen. We have 3 more, but I don't know where I'm going to put them yet.  The cork globe and canvas are gifts from my Step Mom. Magazine vase is from Home Goods. Everything else is thrifted. 

Because nothing stays the same. The plate was from my Mother in Law's antique shop. if you're ever in Cambridge City, Indiana check out Hole In The Wall antiques. It's on historic Highway 40 and has some of the coolest stuff :)

Adding those shelves have started a snowball effect in other places of the house. I've started painting the rest of the kitchen, styled the book cases, and even started on a gallery wall.

I have a lot to get done this week. I hope I can get several other rooms at least photo ready. Of course nothing is completed. We've only been here for less than 3 weeks.

Lets Add A {Coffee} Bar

Jordan and I are really big coffee drinkers. When we had a standard coffee pot I think we would go through close to two pots between the two of us. He would get some at work (the joys of working in a Target with a Starbucks...) and I would most always have some more at my job. When I moved into my first house in Indiana I had a coffee themed kitchen. Taking care of the most active child in the history of the world, alone, meant a tired Mom who required a lot of caffeine to keep going. Any way, we really like coffee. For Christmas we were gifted with enough money to get one of these lovely machines.

It is a Keurig Elite. We were originally going to go with the Keurig Mini Brewer but decided the bigger version would be more bang for the buck. When I first heard about Keurigs I was skeptical. I mean, it didn't take us that long to make a pot of coffee. The Great Value brand coffee wasn't that bad. Jordan really wanted one. He had heard stories and read review on how awesome they are. He said it would be a lot easier on him in the mornings. Poor guy has to be at work at 4:30 a.m. So we got one. And I must say, I'm in love. It's beautiful to look at, has almost instant results, and the coffee selection is amazing. Gourmet coffee, in under 90 seconds, in my pajamas. Uh, YEAH! For real though, go get one.

The only down side is that it requires a grounded outlet. Not a big deal. Unless you live in a place that hasn't been updated since the '70's and doesn't have grounded outlets. Yup. We were left with a dilemma. Like I've mentioned before, we have two counter tops. To give us a little extra room we got a Forhoja island. We use this thing all the time. And now the Keurig was going to have to take up half the thing.

I really just wanted to put it here. Where the old one was. It was a perfect setup. The cups were right above. I had the coffee, sugar, and filters all next to it. And I didn't want to give up a huge space that we used.

For the time being it stayed there. But I wasn't happy about it. I started browsing Pinterest to find inspiration. I didn't have to browse long before I found this amazing idea.

via

There is no reason why I can't come up with something similar to this. I even have some extra space. You see, a while back our dryer broke. We tried fixing it, and then replacing it. To then have to try and fix the "new" one. It was a huge bummer. And then our washer broke. We were able to replace the washer, thanks to Jordan's wonderful family. But the dryer, not so much. Luckily we have a pretty nice laundromat across the street. That left us with a fairly nice sized spot in the kitchen. I had had some of my craft items there, but after purging the linen closet I was able to put it all in there. 

Doesn't look like much space. Oh, Story's kitchen was moved into her room, so that's out of the way too. So this is what we were left with.

Just last week we changed out our old entertainment center for this. It's actually all put together now, and even partially styled. I just haven't gotten around to taking pictures. Before the new system we were using an array of furniture. I decided to take one of the pieces and see if I could fit it into the coffee bar design. As luck would have it, it's a perfect fit. I haven't really spent a whole lot of time on the piece itself, but I have plans.

Everything is sort of thrown on there. I taped down two placemats. I don't know if I want it to have a fabric top. It looks nice, but is harder to clean.

I'm not sure if I want to keep the piece in natural wood or if I should paint it something fun, or even just white.

* Add shelf to hold mugs, saucers, etc. I would really like to have a shelf like the one in the inspiration photo. Haven't been able to find one yet, but I haven't looked too hard yet. Right now I have a plain shelf and a bar that I could attach to the bottom of it. I have several S hooks that I could use to hold mugs. I'll have to think on that more. My most favorite mugs do not have a handle that can be hung. They stack nicely though...

* Figure out what to do with the piece of furniture. I don't think I will keep it as is. Maybe once it warms up a bit I can take it outside and sand it. What color do you think I should do?

* I need to think of the best way to use it as a storage center. There used to be a shelf in the middle but we had to take it out to make the speaker system fit. It's a pretty good size on the inside. I think if I got a few stacking bins from Target I could put a lot of items in there.

* Now that we have the Keurig we have several different beverage options. I would like to come up with a fun and creative way to store and display the K-Cups.


So, there isn't a whole lot that I need to do regarding the coffee bar. Seems to me, I need to make up my mind about a few things first. But that's the fun part of it :) We've has this setup for a few days now. And I must say I like it. Really looking forward to having the mugs nearby.

The next area in the kitchen I need to tackle is my desk and area. Oh, and I have tomorrow off. So Story and I will be off to Home Depot to check out some paint colors :)


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The Kitchen Redesign {list} 2012

I don't know about you, but I'm real sick of talking about the living room. I know it's our most used space -as a family- but there is only so much small tweaking I can do before it starts to get boring and tedious -from a blogging standpoint-. I would have to say my most used area is the kitchen. It's where my desk is, where my craft area was, and where the coffee is made. I would include cooking, but I don't do a whole lot of that, and I'm not very good at it either. I've always said if I had a nice kitchen I would feel more inspired to cook. What I honestly think would happen is that I would get overwhelmed with the thought of making a huge mess all over a big kitchen and then not want to clean it up. I kind of feel that way now, and we only have 2 counter tops. And we don't have a dishwasher. Dishes are such a bummer.

I am excited to try and maximize our kitchen. There is a lot I think we can do to make it a more enjoyable space. I'm going to break it down into three parts. The actual kitchen, my area, and the coffee bar. Remember, we are in a rental, so there will be no major construction. Even though I would love to do this...

via

I know that it would be way too much money, time, energy, and money, wasted in a place that isn't ours and isn't some place we plan on staying for very long. It would be absolutely amazing if the landlord would pay us back. I would totally do it then :)

But since that would probably never happen we are left with what we have. 

[absolutely none of these pictures are recent. There have been several updates and tweaks. Just wanted to refresh you on the layout]

Here is a list of things I would like to take on in the actual kitchen, biggest project to smallest tweak. 

* Repaint the cabinets. - I haven't decided if I want them to stay white, or something more dramatic. Even if they are white, it will have to be a different shade of white because we don't have the matching paint. Matching paint, that's funny. In the kitchen alone, 3 different shades of white are used. And not in an intentional way. So, either way we go we'll have to pick out and purchase paint. I'm starting to like the idea of the top cabinets being white and the bottom ones being a fun, bold color. Sort of like this, but maybe not this color.

via

Our counter tops are light wood. As is the added island (?)

I think adding a dark color on bottom could possibly hide all of the weird things about the cabinets. Like the random grate, and the fact that none of the cabinets close. What do you think about painting the window to match the bottom cabinets? Would that be too matchy matchy?

I also want to paint the cabinets across the room. There is a wall of them.

I would like them to be the dark color as well. That way they pop. They are the first thing you see when you walk in the front door.

* Jordan pointed out that if we paint the cabinet we will need to spruce up the trim. I completely agree. Even  just to get it all to match. Like one side of a door frame is a different color. It's so weird in here.

We should probably just go ahead and paint the entire room, but I doubt Jordan will want to. I would do it myself but I'm not a very neat painter.

* Paint the interior door. I'm not sure about this one. The door is a pretty, dark wood. It's been stained and could possibly be the original color. Our house isn't that old, but it has some old features. (like the bathroom colors and the hardwood floors)

See? It's a pretty color. But no one seemed to care if they got random paint splashes on it. I don't know anything about staining, and it doesn't seem like a project I could, or would want to, take on. I also don't like the mixed color of the counter tops and the door. I'm all for mixing wood tones, I just don't think these two go together. I'll probably paint it. I have no idea what color, but we'll get there.

*Add drop- leaf table to create a flowing workspace. Something wall mounted that folds down would be perfect. That way it's out of the way when we need to get into the drawer or bottom cabinet. I was thinking something like this from Ikea would work well.

via

They all measure a bit too big for the space. But I think I can move things over a bit to make it fit. The stove and refrigerator can be moved further down the wall if need be. It would just cut into the coffee bar space. And in a tiny space, 2in can be a big deal. Again, we'll just have to see. 

I would like it to be right between the stove and counter. That way we could raise it when we're cooking. I think it would make things a lot easier. 

* Hang shelf in window above sink.  Our window sill is not very big and it is the best window for natural lighting. Right now all of our plants are shoved in that one place. I think adding a shelf there would give me more room. 

* Organize all the cabinets. When we get the coffee bar functioning it will open up an entire shelf. The only good thing about our cabinets next to the sink is that they are huge. They are very tall and pretty deep. We can fit a lot of stuff in there. One of my favorite things are coffee mugs. There is just something about them that makes me really happy. I'm not into strange ones, or anything eclectic. I just like a matching, possibly stacking, mug in pretty colors. So, now I will be able to show them off. But back to the cabinets. The ones that really need to be organized are the ones across the room, over the washer. They are wood and flaky. I really don't like using them. Maybe if I covered all of them in contact paper it would help. But it is a lot of wasted space.

* Add more laundry space in said cabinets. This one is fairly easy. I just need to set up a designated laundry space in one cabinet. Somewhere that is easily accessible. Our new washer is bigger than the old one. And believe it or not, I have a hard time getting to the cabinets above it.

* New curtains for door and small window. They are the curtains I had in my little house in Indiana. The ones on the door are too small.

sorry for the terrible picture. it's all I could find...

I'm sure there are more things I could think of to improve. But honestly speaking, this list is probably more than we will be able to take on this year. I am very inspired to get started. I can't wait to paint the cabinets. I hope next week to start picking out paint. Do you have any suggestions? What do you think of the listed improvements? Think we can handle it? :)

I will be back next week with the coffee bar list. And hopefully the finished project! We had a pretty busy day yesterday. Oh, and I have to show you some improvements in the living room. It's going to be a busy blogging week. :) :)


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2012 Home Goals (Living Room)

So.... I lied..... We decided not to move after all. After looking at houses and apartments for about a month we decided on a few crucial things. 1) We don't want to live in North Carolina forever, or for less than a few years realistically. I know our family here is probably crying while reading, but this just isn't the place for us. We love having family nearby, we really like the area, and we both have good jobs. But it doesn't fit us. 2) This isn't the best place for Jordan's career to really take off. We need to be somewhere near the music. 3) We don't want to waste all of the money it would take to move somewhere around here, to then turn around and move again in a year or so. It makes more sense to stay where we are, tough it out, and save up for our real move.

Nah, we don't know where we want to go yet. We've talked about Florida, Portland, back to Indiana, and even Texas. We're all over the place. It will be very exciting when we seriously start considering it.


Having said that : There is so much that needs to be done in our house! I have a lot of ideas! I've been thinking a lot of the big, and little, projects I would like to take on.


Living Room


The living room is the area I've worked on the most. It is the most used room (of course) and has to have several different functions.

I really like all of the progress I've made in the space.

Today we took another trip to Ikea and found the items needed to update our entertainment center. I can't wait for JP to put it together! We'll be able to get rid of all the mis-matched furniture. And have a few shelves to add some pretty things. We will probably have to box up some of the DVD's, but we don't watch very many of them anyway.

I'm not sure how it will effect the gallery wall.

 We purchased the Laiva  system.

It's going to be so awesome. We have 2 of these, the attaching shelf, and the TV stand. We plan on mounting the TV. Our only concern is the TV fitting between them. We can always not use the attaching shelf.... We'll have to see how it turns out. Other than that I still have the list I've made, and then updated ( 1,  2, 3 ) 

I've also been thinking about painting the interior door. I know that's a bit random, just on my mind. What color do you think would work in our space?

I have several more posts lined up for the rest of the house. Big plans for the kitchen, involving a lot of color, and a lot of coffee..... :) :)

Stay tuned!

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