denver apartment tour

I’ve been really bad about my blogging lately, mainly because I’m having fun spending all my time doing projects around here. I have some very, very terrible photos to share of our place.

Our new apartment is a challenge for me and I LOVE it! It’s really small, probably the smallest place we’ve lived in, but there are four, FOUR closets…the most we’ve ever had in any place we’ve lived in. Strange, huh? Smallest place but most closets. It’s also the smallest kitchen we’ve ever had – could be smallest kitchen ever, period – but has the most cabinet space. Smart space planners in Colorado I guess.

However, since it’s so small I’ve had to make the best use of literally every square inch of this place.

Can you say camping stove under my bed, Christmas decor with my dresses and Al’s underwear in the TV stand. Was that TMI?

We’ve had to think really creatively about:

a) what we’ve kept and has been worth the precious space that we have

b) how we use the space – vertical space – always think up!

c) how to incorporate more storage outside of the closets

d) how to not throw pots and pans against the wall from frustration that they’re stacked three or more high

We’ve spent a lot of time working on all of these things and I can successfully say that after three months of living here it’s all working perfectly. Well, OK, the pots and pans are absurd. Al just declared that a weekend project, not a it’s 8:30 at night and you’re getting mad at the skillet and this isn’t going to end well right now project.

We’ve found a lot of great furniture to aid in the storage space and I can’t wait to share it all with you guys. We’ve been working like dogs sanding, painting, (re-sanding, re-painting). What? It looked like 12-year-old boy red color so I needed a do-over!

For now though, these are the terrible photos of our apartment before we barely had any furniture, our stuff was everywhere and it looked like a moving truck threw up. You can see how I set up a “picnic blanket” in the middle of the living room. Don’t be fooled it was really a place to eat, work and sit.

Stay tuned for lots more new (simple!) ideas and fun projects!

finally, a house tour!

We’ve been in our new place for about 4 months now and we’re still slowly getting settled and getting things done around the house. My marathon training set us back quite a bit with house related things since our time was focused on making sure I was running and eating and sleeping, not painting and sewing and decorating.

Now that the marathon is behind us we’ve been trying to get things in order and figure out what works best for us within the space. I realized that I’ve barely shown photos of the house, so here they are. Most of these were taken right when we moved in or while we were painting, so try to see past the massive piles of stuff.

The layout is pretty basic. From the front door the living room is on your right, the kitchen on your left. The bathroom is at the back end of the kitchen next to the entrance to the basement.

This is the living room. Where Al is standing in the photo above is the entrance and you can see where the front door is too. The photo below is the other end of the living room. Look really closely above the TV that’s covered in plastic. Yes, that’s a random door in the living room. More on that in a later post and why it makes me want to rip my hair out.

Below is the kitchen. I’m standing in the doorway to the kitchen so this is the left side of it. It was a hot mess when these photos were taken.

This is the right side. You can see the basement door in the back left and that ridiculous green and brown cabinet. It houses the laundry. So weird.

On the right, behind the fridge and next to that terrible cabinet is the bathroom.

Lastly for the kitchen, this is a photo of the actual kitchen. The entire usable space. So nice of the landlord to redo the kitchen for us. All new cabinets and counters. And so nice of him to NOT put a cabinet at the end there, where there used to be one. It wasn’t a mistake either, or a “oh that, they forgot it in the shipment.” It was legit a, “nope not planning on putting one there.” Cool.

Literally, right in front of you when you enter the house is the staircase. Pretty, huh? We’ve managed to be blessed with pale versions of all the primary colors in just one, very small space.

At the top, our bedroom is on the left, and the office/spare bedroom/workout room/shoe closet/storage room/craft room/coat closet is on the right. How’s that for a multipurpose room?

Al’s side, my side and a whole lot of clutter.

I completely forgot to take a before photo of the bedroom. I’m sure I got distracted or tripped on something or fell down the stairs or remembered I was supposed to be out running. All of those things have happened in the last four months. But, it’s the exact same as the photos above of the multi-purpose room. Same size, same windows, same floors.

All of the rooms (except the bathroom) are very narrow and long which presents a challenge when decorating and furnishing. It’s an old mill house so it has it’s amazing perks of being an old house: beautiful floors, claw foot tub, lots of character. And it’s not so amazing perks: poor insulation, bad windows, claw foot tub.

It’s perfect for us right now. It gives us the space we need; a basement for storage, an extra room for Al to work and me to craft, a small yard for a garden and a grill and of course the normal necessities, a place to sleep, eat and pee. Not always in that order.

Since we’re renting we’re trying not to dump a whole lot of money into it, but we’re still trying to make it our space and as comfortable as possible for us. We’ve already made a lot of changes so stay tuned to see what we’ve done, how we’ve saved money doing it and where we’re spending versus saving.