A Work ......

...... in progress.

Otherwise titled, "How to Furnish a NY Apartment Without Losing You Shirt ...... Or Your Lunch".

I have worked my tail off this week to get my apartment put together.  I have put way too many pieces of furniture together.  If I don't see another bolt needing to put into a piece of wood ..... I'll be content.  :)

So here's what's been going on around here, for the last 3 months.
Enjoy.
Or just brace yourself for a very, very boring post.
I know that it's very much like showing you my vacation pictures.
I'm sorry.
But some have asked.
So, to please some, I may bore the rest of you to tears.
You might want to go and catch up with the shows on your DVR now.

For those of you who've asked .... I hope you enjoy yourselves.  :)
And as always, if you have any questions, ask away.
:)

Here's the apartment the first time I saw it:



     It was the end of December.  This is my entry way at Christmas time.

     And the beautiful chandelier.

     Doormen on the right, elevators in the middle.

     This was the view that morning from the living room.

     And so is this.  Across the street and on the right?  Lincoln Center.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

     This is the master bedroom (and that is my real estate agent/friend).

     This is my tiny, but cute, kitchen.

                                               
     This is the living room. It's pretty roomy.

     This is the dining area, as seen from the kitchen.  I decided to use it as                                                another living/sleeping area.  I'll show you how a bit later.

     This is what you see as you enter the living room, and look to the right.  Straight ahead is a large,   and I mean large, storage closet.  On the left is the 2nd bathroom.  Across from the bathroom, on the left, is the second bedroom.

     This is the second bedroom.

     Second bathroom.

     The following views are from the exercise area, coffee room, pool/hot tub area, social room, game room and saunas on the top floor.  I absolutely fell in love with this apartment when we went to this floor and I looked out the widows.  Central Park is right there, with the trees still in their fall colors.

     Putting green.  Which I'm sure I'll never use.

     These are a few pictures of Columbus Circle ...... 2 blocks from the building.

Next, you'll see pictures from moving in week and starting to set things up.

     My bedroom.  Like my bed?

     Second bedroom.  More comfy beds.

     Son #1, putting together a TV stand.

     At now we have light!

     And a shower curtain in the bathroom (Home Goods - $15).

     We started building a wall of cardboard.

     Son #3, building a night stand (IKEA, $20)

     Daughter #1's sleeping area.

     The living room is slowly being furnished (recliner, IKEA.  Can't remember how much, but it was on sale.)

     All the important stuff is present: sofa, recliner, TV, and cardboard coffee table (sofa, IKEA, TV, Best Buy (huge after Christmas sale), TV stand (ditto ... Best Buy).  Cardboard coffee table, also from Best Buy.)

     The wall continued to grow, becoming a great room divider.

     My room.  Son #1 put the bed together.  I did the night stand and the bed linens.
                                (bed, IKEA; linens, IKEA; lamp, Home Goods.)

     I think we may have lost Daughter #1 in there somewhere.

     Evidence of the work he did.  Bless him.

     The elevator landing on my floor.  They are very fast.  And very, very quiet.  Sometimes I can't even tell that we've moved ...... and then we're there.  Spooky!

     This was the weekend of the dreaded storm"Nemo".

     The kitchen is pretty functional now.  It doesn't have much room, but it has the essentials.

     Like a toaster and a coffee maker.  Must have coffee.

                                     

     These are the room dividers that help make this a sleeping area now.
(screens, Overstock.com - on sale: floor lamp, Home Goods)

     And my bedroom, with more lighting.  Yes, the bed is on the opposite wall now.  That's because I switched apartments during "Nemo" and moved into the same apartment that I looked at back in December.  I liked it better than the first one I sort of moved into.

     My bathroom.  Or most of it anyway. (shower curtain and rings, Home Goods, $15 & $8)            

     One of the end tables I put together.  Son #1 helped. (lamp, Home Goods; table, Overstock.com - on sale; they have free shipping)

     The living room.  Mostly done. (curtains, Company Store-$20, on sale; carpet, bought from a neighbor in the bldg (it's from Turkey!)

     It's hard to tell, but these red curtain have flowers outlined in black on them (Company Store, $30)

     The finished entryway and sleeping area (futon, IKEA; table, another building neighbor (we have a great on line site for the building - we can buy and sell items or services like cleaning, babysitting, etc.)

     Guest room.  Curtains - Company Store, $30.00; Bedding - IKEA; rug - same couple who bought it in Turkey (both rugs had never been used).

     My finished bedroom.  I built that honkin' head board ALL BY MYSELF yesterday!  It's huge and heavy.  And from IKEA.  (floor lamp - Overstock.com, on sale; night stand, IKEA, $20;  chaise - Overstock.com, on sale; side table-bldg neighbor; wall art - Home Goods, $10)

     wall art- Home Goods, $10; red cubby-Home Goods, $25; silhouettes - mine, of my children ages of about 4-2 years; red tray-West Elm, $20.

     chest/desk-building neighbor.  See next pic for coolness.

     See?  It slides open to become a desk.  One of the drawer pulls was off because I was going to replace them with silver pulls.  Which I did, yesterday.

     Dining chair-Overstock.com; side table (which I put together!)-ditto;  art-brought back from Kenya; white frame-on clearance at West Elm.

     We finally replaced the cardboard with a red leather ottoman (Overstock).

Son #3, making recycling bins (from canvas totes purchased at Home Goods, $15).

    Small area leading to my bathroom.  Shelves-yet anotherbldg resident; jewelry hanger-Home Goods, $8.00.

     Desk with new silver pulls (Ace Hardware, $3.99).  Floor lamp-Overstock.com; full length mirror-Ace, $19.99.

     Shelves-IKEA, $15

There you go.  I'm currently putting more art up.  I have a set of photographs of gorgeously painted doors from Greece.  Hanging those up tomorrow.  Still waiting on the small dining room table to be re-delivered from Overstock (first one was damaged).

Almost every single piece of furniture that was purchased new, was bought on sale.  It was my first time to use Overstock.com.  Love the free shipping, and the speed with which they deliver.  I found that if you are patient, and check frequently, you can get most things on sale (although sometimes they sell out quickly, that's why you need to check back frequently if you're looking for something specific); Home Goods is one of my very favorite stores for bedding, furniture, pretty much anything for the home.  They get new stuff in all of the time (a lot of designer items) and it's always marked down drastically.  It's fun to go in there once every couple of weeks or so because their inventory changes weekly.  Which also means that stuff that hasn't sold in a few weeks is marked down to clearance prices.
I love everything that I bought second hand .... it's all in great shape and every neighbor was very generous in pricing their items.  I think that in NY is more about being able to get something out of your home easily than it is about making money.

When I started looking at IKEA (I bought it all on line), I picked out stuff that was on sale.  If I found something that wasn't, I put it in my cart (same with Overstock) and left it there ..... almost every single item went on sale within a couple of weeks or so.  But I also lost two items by doing that .... I had them in my cart, they went on sale, and then sold out before I went back on line.  But you have to know that can happen when you play the waiting game.

I love my apartment.  A lot.
I wish that I could stay here, and not go back to Texas.
But it's not time.  Yet.
Which is OK.  I'm going to enjoy the time I have left there ...... and the rest of Son #3's senior year.
And try to visit up here as often as I can.

Next I'll write about our week, and what all we did.
And who we saw.
Oh. My. Goodness, did we see some really neat people.
And shows!!!

Happy Friday/Saturday, Peeps.
:)