Okay so I’m broke which has put a hold on any home design projects. I have been cooking a lot though. I had a suggestion last night from Agnes Miles, the owner of Love Lulu Mae to chronicle some of my culinary adventures. hmmmmm I’ll think about it! In the meantime I’ve been living vicariously through this little guy.
Her name is squirt. And she’s my monster on Petville, an application on facebook. I know…I know…LAME. But my mom kept inviting me so I finally joined. So, I’m kind of hooked now. Again…I know…I know….LAME. BUT I get to decorate her little house and I’m obsessed with the little house I’ve created for her!
I love the robin egg blue walls and the bright red couch. I’ve wanted a red couch as long as I can remember. I also love the bright blue door.
I love the pink stove! AND!!!! Do you see it!??! I know it’s small, but there’s a pink Kitchen Aid mixer on the shelf! MY DREAM! Also I love the table, chocolate curtains, and crystal chandelier!
What a lovely bedroom squirt has! I love the bed and the light fixture, the fireplace, and the blue couch that squirt wouldn’t get out of the way so I could take a picture of it. I think my next couch really needs to be a bright color. I’m so drawn to colorful couches!
And finally her little bathroom! I love the mosaic tiles on the floor, the pink dresser, and the black chandelier!
Yeah…soooooo….ummmm….I’ll retreat back into my corner now that I’ve outed myself as a complete geek.
There have been some changes around here. I updated the blog to the new Wordpress Version and it deleted all of the custom design HTML that I had before. So to keep things simple I’ve been trying out various Wordpress themes since then. This one is called BlueSky. Do you like it? I kind of love it. I just wish I could figure out how to get Harmony’s Nook into the cloudy header. I’ll probably stick to this one for a while and I’ll bug my roommate to fix the header. HE’s the computer genius…not me.
The other changes are pretty minor. I’ve added a search window, I’m in the process of adding links to the blogs that I visit everyday. I’ve also added some pictures from my old apartment to the sidebar and finally…I’ve added a “What I’m reading now” area. I always think it’s fascinating to know what people are reading!
P.S. That gecko has nothing to do with anything. I googled “under construction cartoon” and this came up. It’s a bit nonsensical, but I love him and want to call him George.
Today was a really hard day. Eric’s cat died. The same cat that I have bitched about time and time again. I even bitched about him on this blog. The same cat that for a period of time I wished he would get rid of it. The one I called Manjster. His name was Manji. Get it? Anyway, he’s gone now and today I was heartbroken. I miss him and I feel so awful for Eric. Manji was his baby. And truth be told I had grown pretty fond of the little guy. He was really happy in the new apartment. He had a great weekend full of turkey and head scratches and people adoring him. He was very happy here. So I’m glad that he died happy. He was our little snow leopard and he will be sorely missed.
Okay. There is a reason I haven’t posted pictures of my apartment yet. Well…TWO reasons I suppose…well maybe three. Four? First off, I have been busy. Really busy. I’m working on multiple projects right now and my precious time off is just that: Time Off.
Second of all, I’ve been a little low. Not depressed…but slightly low nevertheless. I blame it on the lack of SUN! There is no sun. It can be cold. That’s fine. BUT GIVE ME SOME DARN SUN.
Speaking of sun, I have wanted to take natural light pictures of the rooms I have completed (more on this later) and it has proven impossible due to the aforementioned LACK OF SUN.
Okay fourth. This is fourth, right?
Sigh.
Okay….here goes…rip the band-aid off Harmony.
1….
2….
3….
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip….
OUCH! Yeah….so….ummmm….that’s my closet right now. I know. I know. I’m so ashamed. And I know the picture is sideways. I thought that was appropriate.
Second Band-aid coming up:
1…
2…
3…
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip…
OUUUUUCH! (These band-aids hurt!) This is my room. The room that I dreamed about for years, that I waxed poetic about, that I yearned for……ummmm…this is it. I cover my head in shame.
So, how did this happen? I ran out of steam. I worked my tail feathers off getting the rest of the apartment ready for the housewarming party that we had. My room became the catchall for anything we didn’t know what to do with. I could have been deceitful and shown you pictures of the parts of the apartment that are finished and lovely instead of the one spot that isn’t finished, but alas, I’ve always been a bit of a masochist. And I have to be brutally honest with you guys or how could I possibly offer advice on other topics?
It happens. We fall behind. We lose steam. We get discouraged. We take things for granted. It’s not the end of the world. Just don’t let it go on too long. Don’t let it become habit. My family is coming up in a week so I KNOW I will take care of my room. It’s the last obstacle really.
You know what? There’s a fifth reason I haven’t posted pictures. I have been enjoying my apartment.. Instead of worrying if I have styled everything satisfactorily enough to put on this blog, I have been making bread and stews, having people over, taking baths in my own private bathroom, reading books in my MESSY ASS bedroom, and enjoying the fruition of a dream come true.
I WILL post pictures. I promise. Just please be patient with me. Let me live a little first. Enjoy it first. Then I’ll share. I’m selfish. Right now I want it all to myself. In the meantime here is a picture of me making bloody mary’s at my housewarming/ birthday party. My face says it all. I’m happy here.
This is how I feel. Have you ever seen this movie? It’s one of my favorites from back when Tom Hanks was known for his comedies and not his Oscar-winning dramas. It’s called the Money Pit. Basically these two well-meaning individuals enter into a house deal for what looks like their dream home. Soon after closing, however, everything starts to fall apart. The stairs collapse, the kitchen blows up, Tom sinks into a hole in the middle of one of the floors, etc. It’s hilarious. And every time the carpenter/plumber/electrician comes to assess the damage, when asked how long it will take to fix said damage the carpenter/plumber/electrician chirps, “two weeks!”
Now of course it doesn’t take two weeks to fix their house. It takes…hmmmm…if I remember correctly, I think it takes about a year. Do you see the parallel yet? Do you know where I’m going with this?
Welcome to my kitchen! Please take a….ummmm wait a minute. Can I offer you a….hmmmmm that’s not going to work either.
Have you guessed yet?
Alright I’ll relieve the suspense. Our move date has been changed AGAIN. It is now September 1st. For those of you following this saga, we’ve been trying to move since June 1st. Luckily we have an amazingly generous current landlord who has been letting us pay month-to-month without much hassle. He even offered to let us stay if we want, since even HE thinks all of this is ridiculous. While we appreciate his kind offer, ummm no, we’re not staying. But thanks anyway!
These pictures were taken by me yesterday. Can you see the apartment in there? Can you see the cute apartment that will eventually be there? There are lovely cherry floors under that tarp. Do you see the exposed brick? Nice, huh? Recessed lighting. This is the main living area. That bright room ahead is my bedroom. The darker room is going to be Eric’s office. If you went into the right corridor you’d see our main bathroom and the WASHER/DRYER. Behind us is Eric’s bedroom, the kitchen, and breakfast nook. sigh. I’m trying so hard to be patient. It’s completely against my nature. Thank God for Eric, I wouldn’t have made it this far without him.
I know I’m being dramatic, especially comparing our situation to the Money Pit. You’ll have to excuse me, I’m an actress and a Libra. I’m dramatic. It’s in my nature. It’s just…hearing one more month, one more month, two more weeks, two more weeks, is stripping my soul. I can’t take this moving limbo anymore. I’m okay with September 1st. I’ve accepted it. Well….I’ve accepted it after a mini-breakdown, but I’ve STILL accepted it!
So in the meantime, I’m just trying to think about the big picture. It will get done eventually. I will have a new apartment soon.
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All of these feelings of uncertainty will be a thing of the past and I will laugh about it and make fun of my present emotional state.
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Even the house in Money Pit got finished eventually, and guess what? It turned out beautifully.
So I think after my show tonight, I’m going to sit back and watch Money Pit and LAUGH.. I need to laugh. I may cry too, but MOSTLY laugh!
Hanging on by a thread (but a happy thread),
Harmony
*All photos are from Desire to Inspire. It’s a GORGEOUS website and one of my daily reads. Please check them out. Also I’ll do a post soon on my favorite home design blogs that I visit everyday. Cheers!
I have always been drawn to big clunky metal pieces of furniture. No one ever gets it.
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“Why do you like these things?” That’s what my mother always asks me. I don’t know the reason! I like my Industrial Chic furniture like I like my men: Strong, timeless, and a little rough around the edges.
Ummmm….anyway, back to furniture.
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Or doors! Look at those amazing doors! I like industrial pieces because it adds something that is unexpected. It’s the easiest way to break up a room that looks too cookie cutter. I also LOVE stainless steel. It’s strong and powerful and like a MAN. Oops…sorry.
Furniture…we’re talking about furniture.
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Now THIS is the promised land. I love this vintage supply cart to a ridiculous degree and if I had $950 that I could be rash and wild with, I would purchase it this very instant. This is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go have a glass of wine….
…and maybe a cold shower.
Forever Yours,
Harmony
EDIT: My roommate took one look at this post and said, and I quote, “You know usually I think you have flawless taste, but that is the most hideous thing I’ve ever seen.” Sigh. It’s alright. I know no one gets it. That’s alright I’m proud of my clunky metal fetish. To understand my aesthetic you have to understand my quirks too. SO THERE ERIC!!!!
Sometimes we own furniture that we don’t just think of as a…ummm…a table for example. We don’t just think of said table as a functional piece. We think of it as the table we fell in love at, or the table where we served that unforgettable Thanksgiving at, the one we laughed at, cried at, completed jigsaw puzzles with a sibling at, etc. The item stops being a piece of furniture and becomes a testament to our youth, our success, our life.
I certainly don’t feel this way about every piece of furniture I’ve ever owned, I’m not COMPLETELY crazy, but there are a couple of special pieces that do tug at my heart strings. I parted with a vanity that meant a lot to me about a year and a half ago. This year I decided to sell my vintage stainless steel medical cabinet. I have been waxing poetic about this gorgeous piece of furniture since the moment I set eyes on it.
When I was in the Navy I was responsible for doing a lot of inventory. One day I was inventorying a warehouse that was full of items that were going to be sent to auction. That’s when I laid my eyes on my gorgeous cabinet and it’s sister, a stainless steel hutch. I HAD TO HAVE THEM! After a month of negotiating, greasing some wheels, and calling in some favors…they were mine for free! It was arranged that they would be “thrown out” and I would “just happen to drive by” with a pick up truck and two beefy Navy men and collect them. The plan went effortlessly and I had my first items of adult furniture. I didn’t own a bed yet, or a couch, but I had two vintage stainless steel medical cabinets by golly!
Everyone thought I was crazy and continued to think so when I wouldn’t part with them when I went overseas ( I put them in storage instead), I wouldn’t part with them when I moved across the country, I wouldn’t part with them when offered huge amounts of cash for them. My mother especially has thought that I’ve been nuts and is rejoicing that as of two days ago I sold one of the cabinets on Ebay.
I was very sad at first. I have such amazing memories and associations with this piece of furniture. I was young when I got it. I had it when I fell in love for the first time. I had it in 1999. We won’t speak of 1999. What a horrible year. I imagined using this piece at my “grown up” home. I also dreamed of re-purposing it to use as kitchen cabinets or an installation in the wall.
These are the hardest things to give away, the things you treasure. But I think it’s also the most rewarding. There is of course the monetary profit I made, but besides that, giving it up is very freeing. It made me feel light. It makes the stainless steel hutch that I still have more special. I get to pass it on to someone else who will hopefully love it as much as I do. I won’t have TOO MUCH furniture in my new place. And if the day comes where I absolutely have to have it back and I can afford it, I’ll buy another one.
The lesson is:Don’t be afraid to get rid of things even if you treasure them! They are just THINGS after all. Memories last forever and will with or without the stuff you associate them with!
So like I told you HERE and then HERE…once again our move date has been moved. It is now August 15th. The good news is that the inspection has passed, they started dry-walling yesterday, and they’re giving us half of the month of August free because of all the hassle. I feel like all I’ve done is complain and talk about this apartment lately, so instead….you can hear it from my roommate Eric. Eric take it away:
So we finally have a set move date! At first we were supposed to move June 1st (and lost that apartment to another couple), then this apartment (which is being built) was supposed to be finished and ready by July 1st. Well, our leasing agent contacted us and told us that we couldn’t move in until August 1st – which was extremely frustrating because we had already started the packing process! When we went in mid-July to see the apartment, all the plumbing and electrical wires were installed, but they had to wait for their final inspection before they could close up the walls, and that hadn’t happened yet. SIGH. So, he called us the other day and let us know that they passed their final inspection (yay!) and they have started the drywalling. SO, our new move date is August 15th, absolutely, for-sure. Huzzah!! The apartment is so beautiful (we saw other, completed units when we signed onto it) and is going to allow me to emulate my dream bedroom! We have exposed brick, European-style cabinets, a dishwasher, laundry in-unit, 2 bathrooms, 2 bedroom, and an office. I can finally have my own office!
Anyway, here’s the colors we picked (will be with exposed-brick accent walls):
(Office, Living Room, My Bedroom, Harmony’s Bedroom)
I’m also going to do a Marilyn Monroe themed bathroom, with my Vanity Fair collector’s edition framed!
This is the kind of feel I want my new living room to have. Light, Airy, Comfortable, Welcoming, Interesting, Beautiful, and Peaceful.
This is the kind of room that makes any unpleasant task that much easier. This is the the kind of room that you actually enjoy cleaning. This is the kind of room that makes heartache easier, sicknesses seem less dire. It might even make uncomfortable situations less uncomfortable.
It might make calling your leasing agent and getting some real answers a little less annoying. (Now this is COMPLETELY hypothetical)
Actually, I don’t know if this room would do it.
Ahhhhhh that’s better. I could call anyone from here. Annoying leasing agents, inspectors, contractors. BRING IT ON!
If you are completely confused as to what this post is about, first join the club, then read about it HERE.
*Both photos are from a profile of a gorgeous home on the blog Desire to Inspire. Check it out!
Well we went for a walk-through of the apartment yesterday. The purpose was to sign the lease, drop of the paint for the contractors, measure for furniture, and honestly to see how far the progress had come on the construction.
We walked in and there are no walls yet. Sigh. The electrical wiring is done, the plumbing is done, the wood floors are laid, the bracing for the walls are up, but that is it. Supposedly they are still waiting for the inspectors before they’re allowed to drywall. Has anyone else gone through this with a new construction? This is the same excuse they gave us for pushing our move date from July 1st to August 1st. Now I know inspectors, and contractors to some extent, kind of do whatever the heck they want, but an entire MONTH has passed with little progress. Can they really just come whenever they want? It sounds so bizarre to me.
I’m trying not to think the worst…that they’ve run out of money or something, but it really seems like they are using every stalling technique they can think of. Also he had the lease there for us to sign, but it WASN’T signed by the owner! So what good does that do us? He said that he’d get it signed and then give it to us. Why didn’t he have it signed when we showed up? Is this common practice? I’m trying really hard not to think anything shady is going on. Hopefully it’s just incompetence and poor planning and not anything worse.
Honestly, I’m just excited for the day that I don’t have to deal with this leasing agent any longer. The good news is that the bones of the apartment are gorgeous. I see the hook-ups for everything that was promised such as washer/dryer…etc. There is plenty of light which was a concern for me since it’s technically a garden unit. Also, all the furniture I had planned on keeping fits! So if we can just get this mythical inspector beast to approve the damn apartment we’ll be in the clear. I’m tempted to have them give ME the inspector’s phone number. I would make sure it was inspected…you KNOW I would. I’d give him/her a little of the “New York shuffle.” That’s what my dad calls it when him or I get involved in problem solving and get EXACTLY what we want where others have failed. We’re both a little hot-headed. Anyway, my roommate told the agent that we’re moving in August 1st, walls or no walls. So please cross your fingers for me that I’ll have walls!
