Bedbegone

As nice (or not) as our old bed was, it was just too big for our tiny 8x10 bedroom. Witness, like magic before your eyes, that which is the bedroom transformation. Poof! Amazing.

< Before.


Lily's Zen vision is finally coming to fruition. (Below) It will likely be ready in time for us to move out.


After >


Bedroom makeover, $405.00
The trendy low platform beds we were looking for averaged $600 to $1200. It seemed like a lot, but we figured that it would be a good piece of furniture for the ages. Then we realized that we could just purchase the Ikea MALM bed for $159 (and MALM Nightstands, $49 each) and if it falls apart when we move, buy another one, and so on. And still save money. Hm. We danced the room up with some funky art we'd bought from a local artist for $35. Curtains and rod also from Ikea, $20. Duvet cover from Bed Bath & Beyond, $80.

TV girl, we miss you!

Strange as it may sound, Lily and I have named many of the people that live across the street from us, since we can see into perhaps two dozen apartments from our place. Our favorite two neighbors, Shirtless Man and TV Girl lived directly across from us, one above the other. They were both home very often and never had guests over, so we assumed they were single and thought perhaps we should hook them up. We think Shirtless Man is gay, actually.

Two months ago, the muscular, V-shaped Shirtless Man moved out, to Lily's shagrin... the Browns moved into his place, and are quite boring by comparison. At least we still had TV Girl. Poor TV Girl, she just sits at home every day after work with the TV on, long into the evening. We could actually see what she was watching. Never anything good, just lots of surfing. We really bonded with TV girl, we felt bad for her. She seemed like a nice person, if not a little shy. I think we could have all been friends. Strangely, we really felt like we knew her.

But last week as I was getting ready for work, I discovered -- TV girl's apartment was bare!! Not even a goodbye! No big packing day... just... empty. Like she had to get away from us in a hurry. Perhaps everyone moves out because of the freakish couple across the street spying on them from the Ghetto Penthouse...

Ghetto suburb

As a Christmas gift for Lily's parents, we did a little deco work at their place (since our place is in such limbo). Last year we re-did a bathroom, so this year we re-did the living room.

Sean's mom and Lily sewed curtains from some bolts of fabric, Sean and Lily's mom painted the room, and Sean & Lily rearranged the furniture and redecorated the room with trinkets from elsewhere in the house.

Clothes line bungee

Doing laundry, Lily likes to air-dry a lot of clothes, but we don't have a place to hang anything. So for the past 9 months, we've criscrossed twine around our bedroom and the hall to our bathroom.

We really wanted to get one of those cool retracting clotheslines that you see in European hotels... A string comes out of the main device and hooks on an opposite wall. We finally got one yesterday. I was wary at the low cost ($10), but it was the only option at the mega home store, and I suppose they're not very complex doohickys anyway.

Well, after drillling four holes in our plaster and hanging this baby up, we pulled out the string, tightened it til it plucked like a Cello, and then hung our fresh laundry. And, of course, the string stretched all out and the clothes lumped together in the middle.



It's not my week for home stuff. :(

Assisting those in need, when they feel like it

Well, I'll start off with a photo: our apartment still has charitable donations piled all over that we can't get rid of. 10 boxes and three pieces of furniture (including a bed). You'd think the charities would be happy to get so much wonderful free stuff from giving people. We've got clothes, kitchen stuff, blankets, towels, even suits and toys for families trying to get a fresh start.



No, they couldn't care less. Salvation Army was the only one willing to come by and pick the stuff up. They gave us a window of time for the pickup (8am to 4pm, great) so I had to sit around the house waiting for them all day... and of course they never showed up. A call to their main office at 4pm: "Oh, they came by this morning but couldn't find a place to park so they left." What?? Why? I'd have paid a $50 parking ticket to get a $3000 tax deduction. I asked them what I could do. Their answer: "Want to try again Thursday?" There will still be a bus lane in front of my house on Thursday. "Hey, we gotta keep the trucks moving, there are millions of people." Millions of people what? Living here? What's that supposed to mean?

I told them I'd might just throw everything out, and they said "OK."

Happy anniversary to us!

It was two years ago that Sean began our vow exchange with "I'll try not to cheat" and we celebrated our "I do"s. Happy anniversary to us!








Two years later, thanks to Apple technology, Lily has morphed into Syndrom from Incredibles and Sean is wondering what he got himself into :)