Category: Apartment Living

2-Second Tip: Add a Plant

What a difference a [silk] plant can make in a cold corner comprised of hard angles! An immediate injection of organic shape and life.

Grab a real plant at your local nursery, or Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc. Check out HomeGoods, Wal-Mart, Thrift Stores, or your mom’s garage for your silk plant needs.

Note: While live plants are great for purifying indoor air, this area of my home gets little to no sunlight. Kudos to you if you decide to get a real one!

Life on the 3rd Floor

Back when I was making a wish list for my apartment hunt, I really wanted a ground-level unit (or a two-level unit with the entrance on the front). Naturally, with only three days to search for and get approved for an apartment, some priorities had to fall by the wayside. When I found the complex we are in, it had everything we “needed” (and by that I mean adequate square footage, a dishwasher, and a hot tub) except for an available first-floor unit. Now I find myself walking up the stairs multiple times daily to our third floor apartment.

So, it’s time to make a fun little pro- and con- list in regards to living on the third floor. I prefer to list “cons” first so that the list ends on a few positive notes ;)

Cons:

  • Walking up the stairs, especially carrying things, or taking the dog outside at midnight, is kind of a pain. A few weeks ago I scraped the back of my ankle on the stone and concrete and it continues to heal very slowly…
  • Having neighbors below us makes me a bit self-conscious since Mosey can get very rambunctious  So far, no complaints though. A lot of apartments this age have concrete between levels: if this one does, then the neighbors below us really won’t be able to hear our 20-pound tornado.
  • Moving in was the worst. And moving out, when that day comes, will be too. That’s a given. Thank goodness for the elevator; without it I never would have signed the lease for up here!

Pros:

  • More privacy: I can imagine if we were on the first level and our patio opened up onto the common area, I wouldn’t leave the blinds open all the time like I do now. Sound does carry up from the pool, but I imagine it’s worse if the pool is right outside the patio.
  • The view really is lovely from up here. I can see the grilling area, the pool, and take a peek to make sure the hot tub is empty before heading down there.
  • One great thing is that being on the top level affords more natural sunlight. In the morning, the sun pours into the bedroom and in the evening the patio gets a little bit. Lower units don’t get any of it. It will be interesting to see how this changes as the seasons change. It would be nice for the sun to come in the living room through the sliding doors.
  • Before, when letting Mosey out was as easy as opening the back door, he understood that the backyard was just one simple obstacle away. Now that going out/downstairs involves more of a trek, he really asks to go out less. Which leads to less “false alarms” and is much less annoying.

Carpet falls into both categories. With our current financial situation (still starting out, I am working part time, not raking in the dough) we can’t afford to splurge on plush rugs yet, so I’m actually not hating having wall-to-wall carpet. It’s comfortable! There, I said it! Yes, it’s a little shabby, and yes, there is the hygiene issue (especially with a pooch, dust and other particles love carpet. So we do make efforts to vacuum regularly), but, the soft padding absorbs sound well and Mosey actually really seems to like it (he rolls around on it and it gives him great traction for running around).

So, while a detached home with a yard is ideal, and a ground-level unit would be nice, so far living up on the third floor is not bad!

Our Gallery Wall

So,our apartment is long and narrow. It has one long wall that extends all the way from the front door to the end of the unit. With no walls, doors, windows or other architectural details on it to make it more interesting, this wall has the potential to be a major snooze-fest.

Luckily, we had a variety of pictures (that already had black frames) leaning against the wall in the bedroom waiting to be hung. With the addition of our 70-year old magazine prints from Paris, the collection was shaping up rather nicely. I decided that a gallery wall (which is when frames are clumped together in an interesting and balanced way) would be the best way to add interest to the loooong wall. So I cleared a space in the living room and laid the photos out on the floor until I found an arrangement that, to me, felt balanced by way of shape, mass, and color. Then I snapped a photo of it on my iPhone to reference when it came time to hang them.

The People For Peace framed poster is both a lively dose of color and an idea that Doug and I both believe in, however the process of hanging said poster does not lend itself to peaceful cooperation between spouses. Luckily for us, this is the fourth time we’ve had to hang it and knew what we were getting into. Since the nails on the wall have to go into two little triangle hooks on the back of the frame just so, we know that careful measuring (the hooks are 14 inches apart) and use of the level is key. Luckily, this time the poster went up smoothly without calling to mind a warlike atmosphere.

Here is a tip for those hanging their first gallery wall: start with the largest frame first because this is the foundation you will build out from. Since it carries the most visual mass, it will probably be close to the center of your arrangement. The second frame to go up on our gallery wall was the square one with our wedding photos in it–not coincidentally, it is the second largest. This is important because the smaller ones are easier to “tweak” if you hang them up and find yourself needing to nudge them one way or the other. Speaking of nudging one way or the other, I am currently debating about moving the dresser sideboard about six inches to the right. But it’s heavy. Le sigh.

Notice the way that the gallery is balanced without being symmetrical. The teal Lennon poster is balanced out by the dark photograph at the top right and the more densely-colored Renault ad at the bottom-right. The wedding pictures and white bicycle frame are balanced by the black-and-white Morocco ad on the left. Imagine if the Renault ad and Morocco ad had been swapped–the whole thing would seem a little heavy on the left side, don’t you think?

Here’s what the apartment looks like, now, from the entryway. Behind the couch is another area where we are planning on hanging art, but haven’t decided what to put yet.

Now that the gallery is up, I can really envision it continuing at least four feet in both directions. What can I say? The wall is long. It would be cool for the gallery to take up a full third of the wall’s total length. I have a few pieces of art I could use… but need to save up a bit to buy about three more frames. If I do end up adding to this grouping, you can be sure I’ll update about it here!

Here’s one more shot because Mosey was sitting for me so nicely.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone! I’m off to go exercise. Yes, you read that right. For the past week I’ve been working out 30-60 minutes a day! Whew!