Welcome Home (Part II)

When we found out that we would soon be joined by a new little friend (we're assuming the baby will be friendly), we began considering our options:

1. Allow the baby the middle portion of our walk-in closet. Babies are small and can't possibly take up that much space.
2. Put padding in the bathtub to double as a crib and use that for the baby's room.
3. Move to a bigger apartment.

After I pointed out to Justin that there is a lot of paraphernalia associated with having a baby, and I reminded him of his tendency to not be able to handle clutter, we decided that option 3 was probably the best choice. To ease our transition, we thought it best not to move too far. So we have moved downstairs in the exact same building.

It only took four of us about 8 hours to paint the whole place (thanks Jen and Matt!!!!), and since we realized the hellish nature of painting apartments back to white, we have decided we will stay here for the rest of our lives (or until we are rich enough to pay someone else to paint it back). Here's your virtual tour:

This is the view when you first walk in. It's a very LONG apartment. The baby's room/bathroom is immediately to the left from where I'm standing.

The laundry room was just to the right. I had to include this so you could see what a great job we've done of maximizing storage space in here. Justin added two extra rows of shelves. He's so tough and manly.

One feature we really like is that there's a built in desk with a big vent right next to it. The vent actually works perfectly as a bulletin board. Aren't we so clever?

And here is our kitchen. Yes, it looks exactly the same as the old kitchen, although that is not surfer blue. It's something like bayside. It is quite lovely.

This is the view from the kitchen into the dining/family room. Note the orange flowers on the table. Justin got those for me just for fun.

Here's a closer shot of the dining room.

And here is our cute new media stand! Actually, we already had the two side pieces, so we just added something to put the TV on. My favorite part, if you look closely, is the apple we have sitting on top of two books about Eve.

Here is our bedroom. We finally decided to break out the new duvet cover we got for our wedding. Again, you make think the bedroom is the same color as before, but it is clearly a much different shade of green.

More orange flowers! Justin is so sweet. (Okay, so they're the same flowers, but matched the orange on the bed, so I brought them in for the picture.)

Here is our closet. The average human being would not be able to reach a row of shirts hung up so high, but fortunately, I am no average human being. Which is really good because otherwise I don't know how we would have fit the dress AND my shirts in the closet. Justin also added another row of shelves in here.

Here's the view looking back from the bedroom into the family/dining area.

And last, but not least our garden. Justin just received a packet of seeds in the mail, so hopefully we will get enough sun down in our little corner of the courtyard to actually grow something!

As you can see, we have a comfy little place, with lots of room for friends to come and visit!!!

Welcome Home!

I must say that one of the best things about being married is having our own home. Not that we own the apartment that we are currently living in, but at least we know that everything in the refrigerator belongs to us. (I can't tell you how many groceries I let go bad because I wasn't sure if it was mine or my roommates, so we both just let it sit there until it was rotten to a point that we knew no matter who had originally purchased it, neither of us would want it at that point.)

Before we flew out to Utah to get married, we spent the week painting, moving and unpacking (moving and unpacking were actually squeezed into the Saturday before we flew out for the wedding) so that we could return to a beautiful home. Now, a month later, with the TV securely mounted on the wall, I decided that we are officially settled in, and it was time for me to invite you all on a virtual tour of our new abode.

The first thing you will see when you come to our house (everyone is invited to visit!!) is the door. Actually, you will see the gate outside, and you'll have to call us to buzz you up. Ha! No missionaries will be trackting at our house. (Did anyone else hate those door buzzer things on their mission?) Anyway, I included this picture mostly because I wanted everyone to see our doormat. Apparently at this complex it is customary to have a doormat, so we have obliged.


When you walk in the door, this is the view you will see:


If you were to look to your right, you would find our laundry room, which I didn't actually take a picture of because I figured that nobody really wants to see our laundry room. But I'm sure you're all excited to see our bathroom...it is quite spacious, featuring dual vanities and a linen closet, two things that I did not have in my previous apartment. And I didn't even clean it up for the pictures. We are actually that tidy!!


Once you get over the excitement of our lovely bathroom, your eye will probably be caught by the bright red couches in the living room. These couches were my best purchase of 2006. They are comfy, and yet oh so stylish.


This is the perfect place to sit and watch our new sweet TV that Justin mounted all by himself. (We're pretty pleased with the fact that instead of buying a $500 mount and paying an extra $500 for someone to install it, Justin found a similar mount online for $160 and installed himself with no problem...HGTV here we come!) We haven't decided what to do with the cords yet, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. At least we can enjoy the architectural beauty of our fireplace and watch TV at the same time.


When we were choosing paint colors, we actually chose the whole color scheme based on a dishcloth we saw at Crate & Barrel. We really went out on a limb when we decided to paint the kitchen and dining areas Surfer Blue. It's definitely a bold statement. I like to think of it as an ode to our family members in Hawaii, and in the dead of Winter it reminds me of a swimming pool. Overall, I think it actually turned out really well. I especially like the contrast between the surfer blue in the dining area and the grasscloth green of the bedroom.


I also have to say that I married into some pretty sweet bedroom furniture!! (And Justin made the frames above the bed...mucho impressivo!)


You're probably thinking by now, what other amazing features can this apartment have? Well, the answer is a huge walk-in closet! I was particularly excited about this feature since my previous bedroom did not actually have a closet. I had to fit all of my clothes and shoes into a tiny armoire from IKEA. I don't know if you can tell by the picture, but we really maximized this space.


And last, but not least, we have a cute little balcony where Justin keeps his garden, and from which you can get a preview of the beautiful cherry blossoms below.



So that is our home!! We're excited for everyone to come see it in person! :)