Bit 'n Pieces

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I'm now at the stage where I don't have another completed room to share with you.

It's that odd limbo that happens between appliance deliveries, cable hookups, uHaul rentals and finishing up with a spackle and paint job.

I've spent the last two days supervising a carpet install, making lists, scheduling services and bringing lightweight bits and pieces out of storage, while waiting on my stronger-than-me helpers who are coming to my rescue later in the week.

All while nursing a pulled hip. (Don't ask! It's a non-juicy story whose setting can be found at Ikea.)

I've got carpet! (And, way too frizzy of hair to be posing for this...)
Carpet by Home Depot. They were incredible!

While I keep you waiting on the next room, here's some favorites of my "bits 'n pieces" that have made their way home, so far:

Hepburn graffiti print:

Canvas print purchased at Veramar Arts at ebay.com

I always thought that Holly Golightly could have been alot nicer to Cat, so this revenge piece has me completely enamored with it! 

The best part is, I hung it just so that when you stand facing my hallway, it looks like she's being dragged away to her doom.

Disclaimer: I absolutely love Audrey Hepburn.

I've got my towels back! 

Most towels from Target. T.P. too, if you're interested!

This is definitely the stage of the "little things". I've been using the same three borrowed towels for the past year, while mine set sat buried in storage. They're not new. They're the same ones I'd been using, wearing out, and replacing for the last decade or so. But, they're back! And, they're mine!!!

Living Room Curtains:

Patterned curtains from jcp.com
Sheer curtains from Kmart
Double curtain rod from Bed Bath Beyond
Cubed storage (that's not staying there) from Target
Chair from allmodern.com

I've been dying to add some privacy to my doorwall all week, but was waiting on the carpet to hang the curtains.

The day finally came to hang these pretty teal things up and whoops! As you can tell, I only had half as many panels needed to fill this 125 inch-wide space. Total user error on my part when ordering. And, they sat, undiscovered, in their shipping packaging for over a month before I bothered taking them out and having a look. The other half is on its way! (Thankfully, they still had this color and pattern in stock!)

Today, I also spent way too many hours running around town trying to find the perfect pair of plain white sheer panels for the curtain rod's second layer. Every store in town was super fancy with their patterned sheers, textured sheers, colored sheers, pre-crinkled sheers (why?!). But, I could not find a plain white pair in the entire metro area to save my life!

Finally, I just happened to drive past a Kmart store. (Yes. There's still at least one left in existence!) I thought, "Well, I'll kick myself if I don't stop in and later find out they had them." Sure enough, there they were. I got two 60 X 84" panels for $5.99 apiece. Score! 

New chairs:

Both chairs found at allmodern.com

Both purchased to be used at a desk (one in the bedroom, one in the living room.) But, I'm tempted to just place them in the epicenter of the joint to be stared at like the pieces of art that they are.

My favorite!

Disney wall:

Replications of vintage Disney posters
found at ebay.com

I hang prints of vintage Disney World and Disneyland advertising in my cubicle at work. I love them so much that I've always planned on buying more and having a feature wall in whatever place I ended up buying. (And, they're beyond inexpensive. We're talking $5-10 each! Then, I just used basic frames purchased at Michael's to hang them in.*)

These are in my dining room. Now that I've temporarily placed my favorite chair in there and snapped a photo, though, I'm tempted to turn the room into a library/office instead!

Alas, I already have a hand-me-down dining set that I'm committed to (and frightful of) refinishing. But, I will do the deed! The deed will be done!

And, I'll be sure to blog it once I've made a mess of things.

*If you're planning your own feature wall, be careful to check the poster sizes before piecing together your collection. Several different vendors sell these and I almost ended up with a couple that were and inch or two smaller than the rest of my set!

The First Two Days

Keys! Keys! I've FINALLY got keys!!!

The keys came on Thursday night. One hour later...

...and I'm already tearing up carpet! 

"I" obviously meaning my dad and brother. The real I "supervised". (Totally accurate use of quotation marks on both accounts.)

Three hours later...

...and, new carpet was ordered by midnight. Kimmy don't play.

The past two days have been devoted to shop vacs, tape measures, scrubbing bubbles and shopping trips. (Not the fun kind.)

Of course, that also means the fine cuisine of Home Depot.

And, way too much takeout pizza for a woman of my age and metabolism.

Some things I've learned so far:

• Always be born into a family of strapping men.
• Hoarding furniture piece by piece while paying for a storage unit paid off. It's so much better to spread those expenses out over time then to take one big stressful and bank-busting shopping trip at crunch time.
• Those dated dining room mirrors I once hated, I now realize I'll miss once the furniture is moved in and I'll have to discontinue the one woman dance-offs.
• Heavy lifting up several flights of stairs is about as much fun as I anticipated.

STAIRS!!!

MORE STAIRS!!!

Bonus: I fully expect calves of steel by the end of next week!

Extra tidbit for my regular readers: The drunk guy that fell into a bush and starred in one of my prior house hunting posts lives directly across the parking lot from my Florida room. This ought to warrant a binoculars purchase in the near future.

Top window, abode of the entertainingly drunk home owner.
You're welcome.

Now, You Shall Wait... And Shop!

Today is exactly one month 'til my closing date.  Tick tock, tick tock...

My bid was accepted. My inspection and appraisal have been completed. My loan documents are all in order. I'm now at the stage where a team of underwriters, whom I have never met, sift through my personal business and scrutinize every financial decision I have made as of late. But, I am assured by my mortgage officer that my situation is a no-brainer of one and I have nothing to worry about.

Basically, this means that I have now reached the point where it's finally safe to go shopping!

I've had my whole design plan in my head for months. I had mentally committed to colors, layouts and furniture design before even setting foot in a store.

It's been both exhilarating and overwhelming. Especially once I've come to realize that not everything I am looking for actually exists. (I may soon be found Googling "how to forge your own curtain rod".)

This was the mood swing I encountered after today's trip to Home Depot:

Carpet stress aside; I did manage to procure two ceiling fans, a spray paint nozzle (but not the actual spray paint) and some face masks intended equally for assistance in said spray-painting and for looking hilariously creepy in future blog posts.

I'm also learning alot about myself during these trips.

First off, for being someone who has always thought of herself as a "planner", I'm awfully impulsive!

I almost snatched up this TV console solely on the grounds that it's the same shade of yellow as two pieces of artwork I own and because it was shiny. (Am I part pigeon now? What is up?!) 

Is anything else I own shiny? No. Is it the right size for the space I'm filling? No. Was I even looking for a TV console today? No. But, oooh, it has customized DVD storage!

Ikea fever. That's the only explanation.

Of course, most of the furniture pieces I fall in love (lust?) with in stores are the pieces that I'm not even shopping for. I have a running mental dialogue that sounds something like, "You already have three bookcases! Step away from the headboards! You're refinishing your dining set, don't even look at those tables!" on a constant loop.

I may have found a couch, though, which actually was on the mission list. I just can't purchase it yet, due to lack of storage space and lack of keys to my future home.

It looks like this:

And, speaking as someone who's 25% Swedish... I can't say I understand if this is some strange Nordic stereotype pictured in the ad. I am equally offended for my kind and jealous that I'm lacking in the Swedish sex appeal of the hot momma pictured on the right.

Either way, it's fun to finally allow myself to touch the savings I'd been hoarding all these years. And, no matter how exhausting home shopping can be... 

...at least there will always be a home-cooked meal waiting for me at Ikea.