Archive for December, 2007
Blast From The Past: Part 2
Is it painfully obvious that we’re trying to keep everyone entertained while holiday celebrations are distracting us from working on the house? We thought so.
Now that you’ve seen my little space in the big city, it’s time to show John’s Apartment on New York City’s Upper West Side. It’s second in the series of videos I shot for Kitty, my BFF who lived in Iowa at the time.
John actually edited this one down a little bit so you don’t get to see the living room. That’s because it was only a living room for a few days before they had walls built to create a third bedroom in order to accommodate a third roommate – a classic NYC trick for lowering your rent. It also doesn’t show the five flights of stairs you had to walk up to get there. We don’t miss them.
Here are some of the fun things you will get to see:
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More free or cheap furniture finds
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Another small kitchen that we were very proud of at the time
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A lot of brown and blue (I finally made him tone down the masculine color scheme when we moved in together)
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A cool, accent wall mural that we painted together based on our favorite album cover by The Shins
Now enjoy the tour HERE on YouTube.
Blast From The Past: Part 1
First things first – Merry Christmas everyone! We’re busy enjoying some quality family time in WV, so here’s a pre-prepared post for everyone to enjoy in the meantime:
The other day we set out to clean up our poor little iBook’s overloaded hard-drive. It quickly turned from a mass-file-deleting to a mass-let’s-reminisce-about-this-and- then-keep-it-for-the-memories. So, the bad news is that the hard-drive didn’t get much relief. The good news is that we found fun things to share.
The best of our re-discoveries was a series of video clips. Between the many clips of puppy-sized Burger we actually found a few home-related ones. Our favorites being video tours of some of our old NYC apartments that Sherry had shot to send to her best friend who lived in Iowa. Now they’re here for your viewing pleasure.
The first of our three Pre-Young House videos is Sherry’s Studio Apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City. Keep your eyes and ears peeled (ears peeled??) for these fun things:
- How Sherry got some color on her walls without giving the landlord a heart attack
- Her first taste of defining spaces with different flooring
- Sherry already talking like a bargain-hunter
- Her former impression of what “a lot of storage” in a kitchen means (hysterical)
View the tour HERE on YouTube.
Spreading Holiday Cheer
As mentioned in our “acceptance speech,” we planned to give a portion of our prize money from RemodelingMySpace.com’s contest to a local housing charity. So when our check arrived on Saturday it was finally time to spread the love. And this time the love went to Richmond’s Better Housing Coalition.
The Better Housing Coalition has been working in Richmond for 20 years to revitalize communities in our area, primarily by taking neglected homes in historic neighborhoods and turning them into affordable housing for low-income families. For instance, they do work in Union Hill, the neighborhood featured in the TLC special “Flip It Back” we reported on a few weeks ago.
We’re still learning about the BHC, but they were recommended to us by two reliable people. USA Today also vouches for them in this article written last year about revitalizing old cities. We’re also impressed by their beautiful renovations and the fact that lately they’ve even been building their homes to meet strict green construction standards.
If you’re interested in donating to BHC yourself, click here. It feels pretty darn good. Promise.
Image courtesy of the Better Housing Coalition
All Up In My Area Rug
I am rarely excited by anything from JC Penney, but we just got the most amazing area rug for the living room. It has this great pattern (they call it “honeycomb”) and it’s real wool, which makes me feel like such a grown up.
It was a steal for around $200 (the detail, the quality, and the coloring is totally reminiscent of a thousand dollar version I saw a while back- yessss). Plus since I ordered it online, I was able to use a promo code to score an additional 20% off AND free shipping (tip: google the name of the store along with the words “promo code” to save a bundle of cashola- in this case I searched “JC Penney promo code”).
Here’s a close up of Burger getting to know his new play surface:
And a wide shot of the whole living area:
Sleepover Party!
We got our second guest bedroom ready for its close up just in the nick of time (we’re hosting some family tonight). A few days ago we showed you the new daybed and reading corner, but now we get to share some pics with more personality thanks to a bunch of punchy accessories.
Much to my surprise, John okayed two fuzzy leopard pillows (he’s not really crazy about animal prints in general… now that’s love). The addition of a woven basket of books, some furry leopard slippers, and a splash of turquoise (in the form of a throw on the chair and a book on the ottoman) made the room practically scream “be our guest” in that funny French accent, like from Beauty & The Beast.
Me-ow.
