Matt Elected to Board

I wanted to give a shout out to Matt on his election as Secretary to the Board of Directors during the condo association's annual meeting. He quickly became a valued member of the community after we moved in, and I know he will thrive in his new capacity. Congratulations!!

The Final Reveal

Well, this is it! Welcome to the new and improved unit 104. It has been a while since the last post but I don't like inviting people over unless the place is spotless, and apparently the same rule applies to Internet posts. We’re mostly done, just some final decorating things to buy but that of course takes time to find just the right thing.

I suppose I could run through the things that have changed since we got the place, but I figure it’s easier to mention the things that have stayed the same:

• The floor.
• The wall studs.
• The windows.

Other than that, all that you see in the following after pictures is new.

Kitchen

The kitchen was a big transformation. Simply replacing the appliances and lighting has made a huge difference.

Before (Wide-Angle)

During (Wide-Angle)

After (Wide-Angle)

Before

After

The plates in the window sill are AWESOME! They were after all the inspiration behind the color on the walls, so what better way to display them and maximize our storage space than to keep them in the window?! I got this great shelf on eBay, and I plan to keep a small herb garden and spices in pretty glass jars on it.

Bathroom

The bathroom was our biggest challenge. Between the toilet breaking, the mirror that we couldn’t get off the wall, and not being able to move the location of the light fixture, there were definitely times we wanted to just give up. But, the final product is a very warm and beautiful oasis. The medicine cabinet is definitely the focal point.

Before (From Inside)

During (From Inside)

After (From Inside)

Before (From Doorway)

During (From Doorway)

After (From Doorway)

Living/Bedroom Area

The night we bought the place, we sold the Murphy Bed for a rather pretty penny (I already had a buyer lined up). Our bedroom furniture has never looked more amazing, as I’ve always wanted to display it against walls with some color on them, neutral as it may be.

Before

During

After

Before

After

We went shopping this weekend and picked up this Mercury glass apothecary jar on top of the dresser and the topiary in the window.

Dining Area

We swapped out the half-table for a real table and the other half-table for the media cabinet. Since we don’t have a VCR anymore the tapes got the old heave-ho. We now use the media cabinet as a catch-all for our things. The television is awesome because it swivels, so we can see it from almost anywhere in the apartment.

Before

During

After

TV / Media Cabinet

Hallway

Do you know that I painted 180 panels on the doors (6 panels on each side of five doors, three times)?! Not that I was counting. One thing that we really love is the shoe cabinet, because we’ve never had a designated spot for our shoes other than a particular place on the floor. It’s one of our best buys, for sure.

Before

After

We finally have somewhere to hang our awesome map of Spain/Portugal. This thing makes a fantastic statement when you walk in the door--and hides some folding chairs we've stored behind it. Every inch counts in this small space!