Cribs: NYC apartment edition.

I was looking back over old blog posts, mainly the ones from when I was moving in and setting up at my apartment. I realized I never posted any pictures of my room. That was the last thing to come together for me because E and I both put the emphasis on the common areas first. I still have some finishing touches to do on my room, specifically in the decoration department. You have to excuse the mess. I am in general a super clean person, but sometimes that has to fall to the side. Cleaning is at the top of the list of "get your shit together Sunday" as soon as my Policy paper is finished. Anyways here we go:

This is what my room looks like if you're standing over by the door. Now, let the tour REALLY begin....


"...and here's where the magic happens..." You know how everyone says that on Cribs?? whatever. My bed fits perfectly in this one corner of the room. My bed frame itself is a platform bed with 4 drawers and a cabinet for extra space. I haven't figured out a nightstand yet. I'm thinking of a corner shelf thing that would just fit into the wall on the side of the bed that meets the wall. We'll see.


Since floor space is hard to come by and NYC apartments are awesome about the tall ceilings and doors, I made it a point to build up. Behind my room door is where all my shoes are (seasonal, of course. The others are stored in a bin in the cabinet under my bed) That amazing shoe rack came from Bed Bath and Beyond. Such a clutch buy.
I have 3 windows in my room. only 1 us used for actual light. The other 2 make for great storage for some of my boots.
See those silly snow boots there? I bought those when I was still living in NC. a complete impulse buy because, obviously I didn't need them there. Apparently they are going to save my life up here when the snow ans slush take over the roads and sidewalks. Pretty happy to have them now, not sure how to wear them though....

My desk area. I adore it. Something about desk space is important. I go to the library a lot, but it's also good to have a work area at home that's conducive to getting it done. I used a set of plastic drawers to make for extra drawer space and it fits nicely under the desk.

And I got this little light weight metal and glass book shelf to hold the overflow desk and bookshelf stuff.

The living room set I bought when I was living in Durham came with E and I, but the arm chair didn't fit in out living room properly, so it found a home in my room. Unfortunately it ends up looking like that, covered in my school bag, purse, clothes I decided against wearing, etc. But I'm working on making a habit of NOT dumping everything there!


The closet is at the back of the room (across from the bookshelf) My hanging cothes go in there, and the jeans are folded at the top, along with hand bags and my luggage. I fold a good portion of my clothes, so all tees, tanks, gym stuff, undergarments, sock, tights, are either in the drawers under my bed, or in the wooden cabinet (seen in 1st picture)


The top shelf in the cabinet holds my jewelery. it's funny I have so much stuff because I pretty much only wear the same few pieces. At some point I stopped wearing dangle earrings (when my hair was at its shortest) but I think they will make a comeback sometime soon.



So, thats the room! I love it, and I can't wait to finish decorating and getting all the pictures in frames/art from home on the wall.

116th street stairs.

These are the massive set of stairs I climb to get onto campus. Honestly, there are like 4 sets of a million steps. The 3rd picture is the last set of stairs, and the other 3 pictures are pictures of the other 5 sets (one is missing) It's intense, but it's so gorgeous in the park, so I can't complain. There is a way to get to campus without cutting through the park, which I would do if there was terrible weather, or the sun has set. other than that, welcome to my mandatory twice daily stair workout. My ass and thighs will thank them one day. Although today? I'm sore.

Bedroom Plans.

I've posted pictures of my New York Kitchen, Living room and Bathroom, but have omitted the bedrooms because they are not complete. We only spent 1 week in the city, and with my mom there with us we spent the time focused on the common areas of the apartment. For my room, I have been struggling to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with it. The challenges I am faced with are, 1) I like things very simple. clean and neutral. That doesn't leave a lot of space for anything too out-of-the-box. and 2) my room is has a peculiar shape, which allows for numerous windows and natural light (a plus) but not much space for a whole lot of furniture, which is fine, since I opted out of downsizing my bed.

Each of these hurdles seemed to solve themselves, however, which is nice. Being a minimalist, I don't care for much bedroom furniture, I don't fold much of my clothes, so adequate/efficient use of the closet is paramount (my clothes and closet will be a post all their own....). The pictures are all pulled from the

"apartment ideas" folder on my desktop. These are things I've seen on this blog that caught my eye, and are more or less the direction I am going with my room. I have decided against a for

mal bed, I'm going for a platform base with storage cabinets and drawers (in lieu of a dresser or nightstand). I love picture frame collage as an alternative to a headboard. Also, My room had this perfect window nook at the south end, which would house a little simple desk. It outlooks the fire escape, which E and I will use for outdoor plants/flowers, making for the perfect view.

My next big task is figuring out what to put on my walls. The apartment has huge tall walls and seemingly endless wall space. E and I combined our art from our previous apartments and it filled out the common areas pretty nicely. More on my wall space later.

Pictures: the bathroom

more pictures

kitchen bar-- stool side, sink side, cabinets, bottom of pantry

Pictures of the New York apartment.

The pictures are of the kitchen, pantry, and living room. We haven't hung any pictures yet (thats for tomorrow) Niether E nor I have touch our rooms yet, so those will come later. I also finished the bathroom yesterday, and will post those pictures a little later. Enjoy these, they are pretty barebones. I can't wait to get back and have the time to really complete it.

Mini updater and recent purchases

It really is 3:21am, don't be deceived. We worked through the evening to finish up the living room, bathroom and kitchen. Everything is amazing so far. I absolutely love the apartment and all of our things are wonderful. E and I will worry about our rooms tomorrow and Thursday. Tomorrow our cable and internet will be installed. However, I'm picking up some sweet ass wireless from someone else, so I'm pretty sure we're gonna cancel the internet and just keep renegading it. More importantly, our air conditioner is being installed tomorrow. It is hellishly hot in NYC and in the apt. We brought 2 fans with us, luckily and they have held up down more or less the past couple days, but this AC is going to change my life. Alright, tomorrow I will publish a more legit post tomorrow, with pictures of the apartment thus far. this is some stuff I ordered for our spot today. A hook for our keys, 2 runners for the hallways, these cute branch looking hooks to hold the curtains back, and the jewelry organizer for E's room. All found here.

Moving Day.

Well, It's 7:45am and I am moving TODAY. Scary. I have butterflies in my stomach mainly because this is my first big move. My mom flew up to DC yesterday, my buddy Karl and I are picking up the Uhaul at 9:30am, loading it up and driving to DC. This afternoon our professional movers are loading up, and we leave for NYC at 9am, Monday morning. I'm over the phrase "it's bittersweet, really" What does that mean? Like, bittersweet chocolate is effing nasty so I'm gonna go ahead and boycott that little saying. The truth? It is what it is. I am very sad when I think about not living here in Durham anymore, but I am thrilled about New York. Obviously I'm not going to change my mind and not go to grad school, so I think this is one of those situations where you've got to suck it up, be alright with feeling a little sad, and roll with it.

In other news: While our power will be turned on when we get there, TWC doesn't come until Wednesday, so unless some selfless person has their wireless connection unlocked, I'll be Internet-less (gasp!) for a couple days. However, knowing how my family, and especially because this moving trip is just the girls, I'm sure there Will be plenty of debacles to share.

And on a slightly more sentimental note: I really have had the best times living in Durham. I say that specifically because I said goodbye to Raleigh after graduation, and for this last year, I feel like I really adopted south-western Bull City as home. Last night before Sarah and I left for Grace's birthday party in Raleigh it hit me; "this is the last time we will get ready and ride out from my house." And while I'm not huge on tears, in theory, I could have shed a couple-- and I have a funny feeling that I just might today when Karl and I pull off.

Things for the apartment

Here are a few of the things i've recently ordered to have shipped to my apartment. I loved both rugs, E and I thought it would be nice to have some consistent decor through the apartment, so we've got the same rugs, and we have streamlined the curtains. I have ordered the set of frames because I plan to use them to make a headboard of sorts, as opposed to a fully structured bed. I sure hope everything turns out as I'd like it.... Rugs and frames are found here

Apartment Ideas: E's Room

So my sister's room at our apartment is a bit smaller than mine. It is a perfect square shape with a nice window, but no closet. She's already pretty comfortable with being creative with space, as she has been living in an amazingly decorated and utilized studio in DC for the past year. I have been thinking of different ways to maximize space and function of her room and have found some really neat stuff. I am a complete minimalist when it comes to most things, and so decorating our beautiful pre-war apartment will be interesting. I saw this clothing rack at Bed Bath and Beyond and liked the idea of an exposed closet, as opposed to a dresser. Like me, she's more inclined to hang her things. So that may take care of the closet. The other needs were: Bed, desk, Storage. I saw the model room on sweethomestyle, and loved it. After digging around I found some pretty neat versions of this. My favorite was the wooden bed with the drawers, shelves and desk. I love that it only takes up the floor space that a bed would, but in addition you'd get all the storage and functions of 4 pieces of furniture. Another plus is that it's not so high up off the ground, so after removing the guardrail, I think it makes for a pretty awesome space saver.

My new full time job.

This is pretty much how my day goes. Pack box, label it, stack it. It's a little OCD, and probably totally retarded using the file boxes, but it make sense. This Right now I just have the bare minimum in the kitchen, and nothing in my office. Packing my clothes is gonna be a terror... I'll begin that mind-eff tomorrow.

The Packing begins....

My Kitchen Table is gone, and has now become the place where I am stacking box after box. More pictures to come. Days until Move: 11