Category: Apartment Living

The Patio

Back in Kansas, our friends had an awesome backyard that everybody simply referred to as, “The Patio.” Café lights were strung up at the beginning of March and it became the go-to spot for all gatherings throughout the spring and summer.

When living in a small space, taking advantage of every square inch is totally important. This applies to any and all outdoor spaces at your disposal, as well. We are lucky enough to have a decently-sized (9-ish x 5-ish feet) balcony that overlooks the courtyard and pool. It was important to me that we create a comfortable, livable, fabulous “outdoor room” here, and I feel like that goal has been met! Read on for details…

In an effort to bring a little bit of “The Patio” to our new balcony, we strung up café lights the day we arrived (I was extremely proud of myself for being able to swiftly locate them in the jungle of to-be-unpacked boxes) and put our folding chairs up outside. The chairs are not the greatest in quality, in fact we picked them up around this time last year at Target, clearanced for $4 each. I am not a fan of those ubiquitous plastic backyard chairs nor have I ever been a fan of the fold-up camping chair (comfortable, sure, but they look ugly to me). So, although our chairs might threaten to fold up with you still seated inside, they look iconic and remind me of childhood summers. Perhaps later this fall as summer items continue to get clearanced, we may upgrade. But for now, I like these little guys.

The World Market rug that has followed me from place to place since 2006 may have found its final resting place here on the patio. We will see how the (admittedly mild) weather treats it. While we have an awning over the balcony, the rug did get rained on for the first time ever last week.

The day I put my reservation deposit in on this apartment, I set foot in West Elm for the first time (after spending countless hours poring over their catalog and website) and grabbed the blue dipped pot on sale. I am still trying to think of the perfect plant to put in it. The pot has no drainage hole in the bottom, so recommendations are much-appreciated.

Additionally, we hung up the nautical souvenir we got on our honeymoon in Maine, a Moroccan-inspired lantern (full disclosure: purchased in Dallas) and the Tibetan prayer flags Doug picked up for me at a flea market in London. These little bits and baubles were secured using zip-ties, much like the chicken wire that eases my neurotic mind (in regards to Mosey poking his head out underneath the rails). Looking up from a distance (usually from the hot tub) and seeing these efforts at personalizing our space makes me smile.

Although the company is different, at night, with the lights on, it does bring to mind The Patio back in Kansas. And the memories are good.

EXPEDIT-ing the Unpacking Process

Yesterday marked ONE MONTH since we moved in here! I’m happy to report that everything has been unpacked and stored away save for 4 pesky boxes still taking up residence underneath our new china cabinet.

One HUGE obstacle in our unpacking process came in the form of 6-10 boxes full of books. We had nowhere to put our books since in the first place we had built-ins, and before moving we sold the bookshelf from Target.

Sidebar: Truthfully, they weren’t FULL of books–here’s a moving protip for you: When packing something heavy like books, fill the box 50% full of books and 50% full of something light like linens. By splitting the difference, the boxes are lighter and more manageable and you might even prevent yourself from injury.

Once I realized that our bar stools were totally NOT going to work under the breakfast bar I began envisioning an area of shelving spanning the whole length of the counter. Someday I will do a custom shelving installation–really, I will– but for the sake of our rental deposit I measured the area and started thinking prefab. EXPEDIT immediately came to mind because I just love the geometric pattern of the squares. The nice thing about these (as opposed to other assemble-it-yourself shelving) is that they are very deep and can accommodate two layers of books.

My original plan was to get two 8-hole EXPEDITS (two squares tall by four squares wide) but my space was four inches too short. So glad I took the time to measure the space before we headed to the store. So we decided to get some of the smaller ones, two squares both wide and tall. After some brainstorming involving pseudo-installing our huge speakers and hooking them up to a (yet-to-be-purchased) turntable, I bargained with Doug that once we save up our pennies for the dreamed-of turntable, then the speakers would come out of hiding and get put to use. So they got sneaked behind the couch into another project I’ll share later this week–and EXPEDIT was able to take up the whole space.

We’d decided to save up for the units but when we saw two white ones in the as-is section for $25 each we nabbed them up. Isn’t that always how it goes.

Then, my mom came down for the weekend and generously insisted on buying us the third one (really, we did protest), so now the space is taken up much more nicely:

I love the geometric look and how the crisp white anchors the chaos of books and nick-knacks. Organized chaos seems to be the name of the game with this apartment so far. I’m really happy to have these now because these units can be used in countless ways–console table, desk base, or even at the foot of the bed someday?

Right now there are gaps between the three units and sometime I may see what it looks like all shoved close together. For now, though, the gaps provide a safe place to tuck framed pictures so they’re out of the way until we decide where to hang what. Maybe I’ll organize the books by color or by subject? I don’t know. They are all just thrown in there, sort of grouped by size. The GREAT news is that the boxes holding them happily made their way to the recycle bin!

Rain, and Confidence

So, the original plan for today was to take pictures of our small balcony to share on the blog, because it is really cute. However, it’s really cloudy and chilly (in the 60s) and won’t even get into the 70s today. Just doesn’t feel like the right time to capture the summery happiness of our little terrace.

Then, as I was catching up on reading the design blogs I’m subscribed to on Bloglovin (follow this blog here), I heard really, really heavy raindrops on the roof. And you know what? For the first time since 2010 I did not wince in nervousness. I didn’t worry about a roof leak at all!

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For those of you who might not be in the know, my first apartment in Kansas (shared with Lisa, then with Doug) had two glorious, magnificent, huge, and leaky skylights. Every Kansas thunderstorm that rolled through had the potential to become a lake in the dining room. Lisa and I got really good at remembering where the drips went and had an elaborate system of towels and kitchenware that we’d employ during those months. Added onto this was the absentee landlord who never really repaired anything. Although he was well aware of the leak, he employed our construction-savvy neighbor to do “band aid” fixes on it that never solved the problem one-hundred percent.

Our second place never actually leaked on us, but next door neighbors had clued us into its leaky history. Luckily, I think the person who my in-laws bought it from had ultimately fixed the leaks once and for all. However, the mystery behind the history of the run-down house always left me a little uneasy, not to mention the shadow I would have felt on my heart if my in-laws had ended up needing to shell out the big bucks for roof repair.

Today, however, was totally different. Not only did the heavy rain pass through in less than five minutes, but I had the confidence in the knowledge that if something had happened, there are two full-time maintenance guys that I could alert to the situation. It is their job to fix things out of control in the complex. My rent helps pay their salary to do that!! What a concept, right?

That, my friends, is why I’m currently A-OK with living in a cookie cutter complex.