Progress

OK, so...

1. Application to new apartment accepted, lease SIGNED!! Woot woot!

2. Apartment is ours as of March 28.

3. Both shower curtains bought!

4. Bathroom rugs and toothbrush holder & wastebasket for Claire's bathroom bought!

5. Duvet cover/shams bought!


What's left...

1. Sofa, which will be bought closer to move so it can be delivered right to new place.

2. TV for living room...same reason as above.

3. Slipcover for sofa...located but not bought yet

4. Throw pillows for above sofa...possibly bought today on my trip to IKEA

5. Comforter insert for duvet cover...see number 4

6. TV stand...want to measure first

7. Counter stools for kitchen...hopefully picking up today!

Yep, can you tell I'm getting excited? I've got some friends who've volunteered for painting and so many visions dancing around in this old head that it's spinning! Yay for new place to call home!

Moving in Style

So the application for my new apartment is in; I should know sometime this week if it has been accepted. After researching, asking friends who live here, etc., I applied for an apartment at Cascades Overlook in the New Town section of Owings Mills. It is extremely close to Claire's daycare and had most, but not all, of the amenities I had wanted.

I originally wanted a ground floor apartment. Claire does go up and down the stairs usually, but it's still difficult when I have groceries and am trying to coax her up. At the last minute I opted for the second floor again, because a co-worker mentioned that she'd worry about someone breaking in since it's much more accessible. Yikes, sad to say, I do have to think of those things. So we are scheduled to be on the second floor of a building on the "pet friendly" side of the complex. I have no pets, but they don't bother me, and we have plenty in our current complex. And I've heard that this is the side that ends up being quieter anyway.

The one thing I noticed pretty fast was that the parking looks crappy. That is very disappointing, because that is one of the very main things I was looking for. Unfortunately, there aren't really any complexes with assigned parking. There were two who had individual garages, but I didn't like the one and the other I was advised by a former resident isn't great.

Other than that, it does have the other stuff I wanted. Two bedrooms, and they are right beside each other. I really wanted that because right now we're at opposite ends of the apartment, and I'm always nervous when I go to bed that I won't hear her if she calls.

Second, we now will have a full-sized side-by-side washer and dryer....oh thank goodness. I'm grateful for the stackable because at least I have something, but it doesn't hold much. This new set is actually in its own small closeted section and even has a shelf for laundry products.

Two bathrooms...woot woot! The master bath has a shower stall, and the main bathroom has the shower/tub. Two vanities, so two places to store stuff.

There is a full-sized living room and a small room right off the kitchen they call a family room. This will be used as Claire's playroom. Even better that it's close to the kitchen. The kitchen has a breakfast bar, and I just located some gently used counter stools on Craigslist...going to buy two of them from a couple in White Marsh.

And finally, I have a fireplace :-) I've really wanted one for a long time, and I decided that was an amenity I was going to treat myself with.

So to get the rent special, the lease will be starting around March 28. I'll have a nice two week overlap where I'll have the old and new apartment, so I'm hoping to get some smaller stuff moved during that time so I don't have to do it all in one day.

I've been driving myself crazy with my redecorating project. I DID find bedding...a really nice Pottery Barn duvet cover and shams I found on ebay. I had gotten myself so fixated on finding "the one" that I was actually making myself almost sick. I said enough for heaven's sake. That's when I decided to just pick something not too trendy and that I'd be happy with. And I did :-) The living room I've just accepted won't be my ultimate dream, because I can't bring myself to buy new chairs and tables when I have perfectly good ones here. I was going to cover my current wing chairs with slipcovers, but all the wing chair slipcovers I'm finding are made for T cushions, and mine are not. So for now, I'm just going to get my new sofa and keep the rest the same. I am still getting a slipcover for my current sofa, to be used in Claire's play room. I am hoping that by trying to confine Claire's stuff to that room, the apartment will stay a little neater, because right now my place is a disaster with all of her stuff all over the small living room.

I'm hoping this will be a good move. I will finally be in the area I want to be, and it will be a faster commute to the daycare in the morning. I'm excited to make the place our own.

On that note, anyone who likes to paint, I would love some help, because I plan on paiting a few rooms, hopefully before the furniture has to be moved in.

Looking forward to moving out and up!

1-2-3-4 Pressure!

(Note: For the younger readership, the blog title hails from a classic Billy Joel song. If you are too young to know who Billy Joel is, I officially don't like you.)

I put too much pressure on myself. Simple statement, not so simple reality. And often, the pressure I put on myself is for the DUMBEST reasons ever. And there lies the theme of this blog.

I search for perfection. That is HARD. (I'm too stubborn to say impossible.) As noted in my last blog, I am moving when this lease is up...HALLELUJAH!!! I am going today to the new apartment complex to complete paperwork and hopefully make it official.

So for this new place of mine, I wanted to treat myself and get a few new things. A lot of my stuff is pretty old, much at the very least ten years old, some even more. So I've decided on a new couch for the living room, new shower curtains (the new place will have two bathrooms), a new quilt for me, and a new play room for Claire (the den will be used for this).

I have found the couch....yay! I have decided to use the old couch in the living room for Claire's play room and to purchase a slip cover to freshen it up. I have found the slip cover. I have found toss pillows for the couch. I have decided on a color theme. I have envisioned the layout and the "accessories." Do you know how many Web sites were viewed to get this vision completed? Do you remember that I looked at over 1,000 dresses before I chose Claire's Christmas dress? I mean really people, I am out of control.

When I search for something...let's use the shower curtain for an example...I don't just look and say hmm, this looks cute, OK, done. Nooooooooooooooo. I must find one that literally makes me suck my breath in. It has to be "THE ONE." Seriously. I have found a shower curtain for Claire's bathroom but not for mine. I've looked at hundreds. I can't believe I just admitted that. First of all, I have personally banned myself from anything paisley, because I am full blown addicted to paisley. I LOVE paisley and always have. I am drawn to it, and I find that most things I pick involve it somehow. So I said, no, I'm going outside of the box, no paisley.

The new quilt? Ha. There are quilts that make me swoon at Anthropologie, but I can even find something not quite right about those. I'm finding a lot of "yeah, this is nice," but no, "OMG, I MUST have this!" The problem is, I've had those moments in life before. My bedroom suite (still love it). My Eddie Bauer quilt (RIP, bad doggies ruined it!). My daughter's christening gown. Green reptile peep toe wedges. Claire's spring jacket this past year. I see it, the need to have that exact thing will grip me until I get it, and I know in my heart that what I found is the most perfect thing out there and meant for me.

Are you tired yet? Yeah, I'm so high maintenance that I get on my own dang nerves.

Oh well. I guess I should get back to my Web search for the perfect shower curtain. I mean, how will life go on without it?

Slipcovers

Maybe this should go on my Style Times Two blog I haven't updated since October (whoops), but I'm putting it here because I'm lazy.

Claire and I are moving in less than two months...YAY!!!!!!!!! I had really hoped to rent a townhouse, but I wanted to remain in Owings Mills, specifically moving to the New Town area, and all the townhouses to rent are over $1600 a month, which are a bit too expensive for me. So after searching around, I have settled on an apartment complex and am just hoping they have the model/floorplan I want for the move-in date I need. Fingers crossed!

With that being said, my plans are for a two bedroom plus den, so that I can give Claire her own play room. I already had the whole layout mapped in my head, cause that's what I do! I would like to have a sofa but no other furniture. So I found something at IKEA that I loved.

I also am going to be getting a new sofa for my living room. My poor sofa has seen better days. She is 14 years old and has been through four dogs, a cat, and a toddler.

Two people suggested that instead of getting the new (albeit cheap!) sofa from IKEA for the play room, I should use my old sofa and just get a slipcover. They're right. I have to be practical. (Oh, and just to note, practicality sucks.)

After that lengthy exposition, there is the true "meat" of the blog. Slipcovers are SO BORING. Why doesn't anyone have cool slipcovers??? IKEA does, but they are made to fit their own furniture. BLAH.

I wish I could find a site/store that carries super fun slipcovers in bright colors. Instead i'm left with beige, blue, burgundy, cream. Are you dozing off yet?

So with some annoyance, my two finalists are solid red or solid blue denim. I tried desperately to find hot pink. Yes, I wanted a hot pink slipcover. It's for her play room for heaven's sake! Anyhoo, now I have to readjust my WHOLE decorating plan and color scheme. Can I do it? Of COURSE. I'm FABULOUS. But for any of my talented crafty friends reading this, know that there's an untapped market out there for fun slipcovers!

Well, I actually can see some new plans oozing into my brain based on this new color scheme, so I'm going to run with it. In a few months hopefully I'll be able to show you the finished results. While wearing a t-shirt that says slipcovers suck.

Hell on Earth

OK, so in the traditional fables, hell is always fire and brimstone. I beg to differ. I am now convinced that hell is 35 inches of snow in less than two weeks.

I have issues with being trapped. I have issues with not being able to leave an establishment for four days. I have a history that I'd rather not talk about, and this past week was a little too close to that scenario. Consequently, I've been having anxiety attacks for about a week.

I think it may have been my aunt on my Facebook who suggested I take Claire out in the snow. Ha, she lives in Johnstown. In a house. With a yard. I live in Owings Mills. In an apartment. With parking lots. Not exactly your cute little family scene, eh? I know everyone is working as hard as they can, but my apartment complex is inexcusable. People are "marking" their parking spots with chairs and other things once they dig themselves out. That's fine, except there IS no assigned parking, I have ALSO dug myself out, and when I come home from work tonight at 6:30 and there is nowhere to park, what would one suggest I do with my car and my two-year-old? The drifts are so high and only one car width of driving space is open, so people are coming around curves and pulling out of places on to the street and hitting other people. It's terrifying. I was terrified driving to the train station this morning, but if I had to sit in that apartment one more day I would have seriously had a nervous breakdown.

This should give you an idea. I told Claire she was going to "school" this morning (what we call daycare). She gave me NO problems getting dressed, RAN into the building, and was smiling from ear to ear. This is so my child...neither of us deals well when we get out of our routine. Neither of us deals well with being trapped.

So after an extremely challenging commute to work...car to train station..train not running above ground so had to take shuttle bus to Mondawin station and then train to Charles Center, end result getting to work at 10:30 am...I am now here and trying to catch up on three days of work. But I tell you...it feels SO good. It feels like my brain is doing calisthenics (at least my brain exercises!) I'm pretty bummed that we're going into a three-day weekend to be honest. I'm going to try to drive up to my brother's house in Carlisle, PA so we have some company.

It's going to take so long for life to return to any semblance of normalcy, and quite frankly I dread it. I still have until April to move from my current place, so I will have to deal with this parking lot situation until it can get cleared up. It's just very stressful to be the one driving, shoveling out, doing the chores, paying the bills, taking care of the household, and trying to navigate my way around this fiasco. I think it's a lot for one person, and I think the blizzard on the ground is only equaled by the one in my little world.

"It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!" ~Mark Twain