I Ache!

Spoiler alert! The living room is partially done.

There's not an inch of my body that hasn't been aching in the past week!

I creak, I pop and I grunt like an 80-year-old man with every movement. I moan every time I rise from a chair and my joints mimic rust each time I sit back down. My skin feels like sandpaper and looks even worse!

Good news is, it's because moving day happened 8 days ago. Yay!!!

Bad news, my pale skin managed to bump into every box, piece of furniture and appliance that made its way up those three flights of stairs.

Lest ye forget...

I've got cuts in places I don't remember scraping and so many bruises that, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the shower, I look like a breathing Rorschach test! I was worried, for a split second, that the veins in my hands were showing signs of cardio distress... only to realize it was remnants of teal paint.

Then there was all the squatting, bending and reaching involved with painting the bedroom as well as various pieces of old furniture that just didn't look up to snuff in the new place.

Oh well. I ache, therefore I mortgage.

In other moving news... I sleep like a baby in the new place!

I credit it to the open door wall, providing a pleasant summer's breeze. The calming shade of Salzburg Blue (Benjamin Moore #755. Two thumbs up!). The luxe caress of brand new bedding.

The only time I haven't slept like a baby here is when the neighbor's infant decides to change the definition of that phrase.

I should count my blessings, though. If you must share a bedroom wall with a crying baby, thank my lucky stars this one's not a screamer. His (Her?) cry is more of the "Coo... coo... wa-ah.. [sigh]" variety. The real entertainment starts when its Middle-Eastern father appears to sing it back to sleep.

I may learn a foreign tongue, if for no other reason than to decipher the soothing phrases that lull the little one back to slumberland. Is it an immigrant's lullaby, passed down through his ancestors? Or, is he just gently threatening the babe with sweetly sung consequences of being awake at such an hour? (♫"Little one, don't you know, I wake in four hours to earn you food to eat? ♪ Shush your mouth, close your eyes, and just...)

Reason Two to become bilingual: To get a better grasp on what he and his wife are bickering about at equally late hours. If I must hear it, at least grant me the ability to pick sides!

After a good night's sleep, on the weekends, I always enjoy my breakfast in (one of the few completely finished rooms) my Florida Room. A routine I pictured even back in the house-hunting phase.

I woke up like this. Sorry you had to find out!

A toasted Eggo tastes extra filling out there while I spy on the neighbors and watch birds commit unintentional suicide one-by-one as they fly into my floor-to-ceiling windows. (I swear, its like the Hale Bopp cult of sparrows around here!)

Then, it's always back to the boxes and their reciprocal paper cuts. It may ache for a short while, but it's no death-by-plexiglass!

Slowly but surely, this condo is becoming a home. [Insert smiley emoticon that Blogger's template doesn't support.]

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.