Well, we are in! It’s been exactly a month since we moved everything in and we LOVE. IT. It’s definitely a different type of space in here than our last place, but it’s a welcome change! The last place, boy what a mess it was. I’m so glad to be finished with that! We have some minor storage issues here, since we don’t have an attic or extra room anymore to store things in – but we are making due just fine! Obviously the first part of the home to really get settled into was the living room, so I thought I’d share some photos from that area. I can’t seem to find my camera cord, so iPhone photos’ll have to do for now!

We definitely have a ways to go, but we finally have a dining area! No more sitting in front of the tv on the couch to eat dinner!

From the kitchen, the dining area and the living area are seen. I need to stop calling them living room and dining room, because, well.. it’s one big room. :)

We went with the Meltorp dining table from Ikea, and metal chairs from Overstock. Love the combo. The photo wall has made it’s debut – the idea is to continue it over the tv as we gather more frames. The red table was in my dressing room at the last place, and I’m thinking I’ll cover it with contact paper in either white, or wood grain to take the harsh red out of the room. I’ve never been a big red fan and it clashes with the tv stand right now.

We have a serious bird problem. Now that all our art is basically in one room instead of spread out, it’s kinda ridiculous. Counting all those orange birds, I think I counted 26 in this space (including the salt and pepper shakers and the art on the photo wall). Crazy. We still need to figure out what to do with that space above the couch. I’m thinking the placement of this art may change here soon. Not loving the placement of the vertical bird prints.

And from the couch you can get a better view of the dining area. I really love the chairs and table. But that red really needs to go. :(

Kira is adjusting fairly well. We are on the first floor and the street is fairly busy, so the reflections from the cars throws lights all over the apartment and keeps her running around. Maybe she’ll lose a pound or two, hehe.

We are currently working on the den/office and the bedroom is getting there as well. I think we are planning to keep the walls the color they are. They aren’t dirty looking, but are a slight off-white color that doesn’t bother me. Gasp, I know.

Can’t wait to share more as we continue to turn this little white box into our home. I’ve already been told it ‘looks like Laura lives there’. Good! :)

We neglected to take any actual photos of the space, but a video was taken, so here is a semi-blurry shot of our new kitchen. Well, not OURS, but one very similar to it. I love the triangle it’s creating and the open feel. Over there to the left is our den/studio space with a kick-ass shoji door that slides shut. So. Freaking. Cool. Here’s a blurry close up:

When you turn around, the living room seems small – but we think it’ll be great for our awesome sectional and perhaps a small round table with four chairs (Eames-style with dowel bases?). Ignore me, I was busy space planning. Oh! This space has 9 foot ceilings (I’m 5’3″) but the one we are renting is on the first floor with TWELVE FOOT CEILINGS and finished concrete floors. I’ll have to think of some interesting way to paint, eep!

There are only two large windows in the space – well, actually the one we will get has Juliette balconies in the living room and bedroom, so they will be taller and have a door in the middle – so the den at the back of the apartment where you enter is a bit dark (there’s no ceiling light!) but hopefully we’ll be able to remedy it (perhaps with the pendant we have in our current living room?). The view out this living room’s window on the third floor wasn’t too bad and is similar to the one we will have, save that we’ll be street level.

I used to live around here for almost three years, and this street, while a main artery between pockets of the city, wasn’t too bad – the windows are double paned so the noise will hopefully be not too bad.

You may remember my last apartment, before the boyfriend and I moved in together, I had a huge problem with my upstairs neighbor.. While that’s always a possibility here, I’m really, really, REALLY hoping that the twelve foot ceilings will allow for a bit of a space buffer. Right now I’m more worried about where we’re going to store a ladder to get that high to clean. Oy.

We move in at the end of June, which is a busy work month all together for me: Company retreat to Annapolis, a company trip to Philadelphia, and a friend’s wedding the weekend before we move… It will be a busy month indeed! Until then, we’ll be cleaning and packing and I’ll be daydreaming of fun stuff to do with the new apartment. Can’t wait!!

Before you say anything, look at those lines. She’s real wood, baby — from the 1950′s. One owner. Cigarette burns, water marks, smoke residue and marker swirls — but she is a beaut. I promise. Because right now, she’s sitting in the boyfriend’s garage with 3 hours of sanding, 2 coats of stain and the first coat of polyurethane behind her, and later this week, she will be debuting in my apartment, taking center stage. I have been staring at the gorgeous walnut that is under those 50 years of grime, and I gotta be honest ladies and gentlemen, I love her. And once you see the finished product, I hope you will too.

So here it comes — I LOVE MY NEW SPACE. :) The bedroom is a bit smaller, but it’s cozy; the kitchen opens up into the living space, which I love; and the bathroom — holy crap I took my first bath in ages and it’s going to be a normal occurrence! At my old space, my apartment faced a parking lot and a run-down apartment complex where loud, foreign music and screaming children were an all too normal, and annoying occurrence. Here, though I am literally steps from a major highway, my balcony faces a courtyard that is super peaceful. I’m excited, super, super excited. After I get settled a bit more, I’ll be taking some photos for ‘before’ reference and I will share a few with you all!

With this new apartment comes new projects — and my to do list is already piling up with more projects than I can take on in the next month. They include:

• Pick paint colors and paint accent walls in living room and bedroom (attempt to put the free Glidden paint to use that I got a month or so ago in their free giveaway.)
• Take an as-is Ikea Malm headboard (scored for only $8!) and attempt to upholster it with linen fabric and a nail head trim
• Buy a desk (was considering the Bond desk from West Elm, but am thinking that in the spirit of saving, I may go with the Mikael from Ikea.)
• Refinish coffee table from pine to an undecided color
• Oh, and yanno — UNPACK!

So with that, I sign off and will be back in a few days, once I get settled a bit more. How was your weekend, any fun projects you are working on? I’d love to hear!

(Also, when you move into a new space — check for silly people who didn’t secure their internets for free wifi while you unpack — saves you from having to deal with internet install during the hustle and bustle of unpacking! ;) Silly people!)

Hold your horses! Moving day has come! Kira has this covered from her perch, that is, until I shove her in her carrier and toss her in the moving truck. I joke, I joke — she just gets thrown in the back of the moving truck, no carrier. After all, someone has to watch the fragile boxes! ;)

With moving day comes lack of connectivity. What will I do!? Oh right, I have 15 boxes to unpack, walls to paint, things to organize and furniture to rearrange 20 times in 6 hours. Anyway, Just a Little Bit will be experiencing a bit of a hiatus for the next week or so, and I promise, once I get set up at the new place, I’m going to go back to actually posting more than once a week.

A question for all of you out there — what challenges do you face with moving? Organizing? Those mystery boxes at the end? Perhaps all of the things you have to juggle? Me for example, I have yet to confirm my rental truck and I move on Saturday. Eeep! So, what’s on your moving-mind?

See you in September!

Coverage
While my Glidden Shakespeare Green covered one large wall and another medium sized wall with ease, we were not as fortunate with the Duron brand. Because the green wasn’t super dark, I assumed I could forgo using a primer. But at the rate we’re going, it would’ve benefited me greatly to have used a primer and saved myself some time, money and stress. We have put two coats on most of the green, and there are still variations in the look of the paint, meaning it’s going to need a third coat. I just do not understand why a light wall color, covered with white paint, would need three coats. Two, I could handle — you know, cover those spots you missed, but three is just crazy, in my opinion.

Quality
To be honest, I was surprised at the quality. Based on the price, I figured this had to be some good paint! But the latex paint dried too quickly and left the bottom of the pan a mess, so that when the rolled when through the paint, then to the wall, we ended up with wonderful little latex globs on the wall.. Talk about a pain!

Smell
It’s been a week since we painted the first two coats of paint. I’ve cooked, I’ve cleaned, I’ve had the balcony door open — the smell is just now starting to diminish a bit.

Price
I can handle bad paint — when it’s cheap. This stuff isn’t sold in Home Depot (at least, not around me) so I had to find a specific store in the industrial district that is mostly used by contractors. Their hours are inconvenient — I could not get a gallon during the week because they are only open from 9-5 and only on Saturday from 8-12. No Sundays. Which is why the walls still aren’t finished.. So what was the damage? $40. Fourty dollars for one gallon of white paint.

–

When it comes down to it, I give Duron Paint a 1 out of 5. It was inconvenient to locate a store, it had a high odor, and quality and coverage were poor.

I want to make a disclaimer that I am writing this review not out of disrespect for the Duron brand, but so that other’s might know what they are going into before painting a rental’s walls. Had I known it was going to cost me over $100, supplies included, to paint my walls back to white, I probably would have forgone the green paint in favor of other decorative accessories.

Have you had any products lately that you’ve been disappointed in? Have you had different results with Duron paint?

Anyway, my apartment is an utter mess, smells like paint still from painting my green walls ugly ‘Bone White’ last weekend (and we have more to do…) and I’m just frazzled. All I’ve had the energy to do is sit in front of the television and veg, and sleep, sleep, sleep! I am also tending wounds from a spaz-attack from Kira, leaving the palm of my right hand tore open and my chest with a deep wound. Ow!

Enough blabbing — I have a question for you all out there on the interwebs. Where is a good place to get a certificate in Interior Design? I am interested in pursuing it on the side to see if it’s a fit for me, but because I was screwed out of so much money at my last school for a dinky degree in Web Design, I am being careful with my funds. I am located in Northern Virginia, and am probably going to look at some of the local schools in the area — but do you know of any online programs that are creditable?

I’d love to hear what you think of this. I feel like I want to pursue something that I’m passionate about, and honestly, I was sort of pushed into web design by my advisor at my last school.. What are your thoughts?

Check back later this week/weekend, and I’ll have a post worth reading up here. ;)

When I submitted my lamp DIY to YoungHouseLove a couple months back, I just wanted to share a cool thing I did with a larger audience. Having forgot about it, I continued blogging, taking my blog from a personal blog to a more design focused blog. But when I signed in today to check stats and work on another post, I was suprised when I saw 800.. wait, refresh.. 900… refresh… 1200?! Refresh 2200?!?!! Twenty two hundred hits while I was in a work meeting. Wowzers!

Last week I won an iMac and thought that having 300+ hits on the site in one day was a lot. Pfft. That ain’t nothin’! So a thank you to John and Sherry over at YoungHouseLove — I absolutely love your site and you are truly an inspiration! Keep it up, and thanks for sharing the love!

I just wish I was a little bit more prepared.. This site is lacking in style, and please, anyone who reads this, take it from my own apartment, where I am packing and painting, sorting and purging — it has no style either right now. Keep with me, because I am moving at the end of August and will have a new, much better space to share with you and work on. I’ll be starting from scratch — no more green paint, better lighting, BIGGER kitchen. (Seriously, there’s a reason I have not shown anyone that, it’s horribly tiny.) To give you an impression, here is my old floorplan vs. my soon to be new floorplan:

In turn, I am getting a better laid out kitchen that actually has storage space, and a nice big bathroom! I have less closets, but I think I can make it work. The kitchen and bathroom alone (plus the washer and dryer!) are worth the price hike I had to take to move to a new, better location.