Apartment Love: Living Area

Hello, everyone! I hope you all are staying warm because, just in case you didn't hear, it's crazy cold outside!! My apartment is very old and runs on a boiler system, which doesn't turn on until the early evening, so I tend to be an ice cube all day until then. Luckily, I do have one lonely mini heater which manages to keep my feet nice and warm, but otherwise ya just gotta bundle up! 

Speaking of apartments, I wanted to share a little of my world with all of you.

Sean and I are currently in the second year of our second apartment together. When we decided to move back to Kansas City after two years in Maryville, we knew we wanted a place in the city and something that was close to our school. The search was very stressful but eventually, Sean's mom found us this place. 

It was built in the 1930s and has hardwood floors throughout, many large windows, original doorknobs and crown-molding and door bell. It's a one bedroom, one bathroom and the location is amazing. We live one block south of the Country Club Plaza (for non-Kansas Citians, that's the biggest, best shopping area in KC. Nay! Missouri! And possibly the Midwest, not including Chicago.) and one block west of our school. We can pretty much walk anywhere, everything is pretty safe and getting safer as the construction of million-dollar condos and new offices and businesses finish up this spring. The look and the feel of this place is wonderful and every time we have friends over, they always say something sweet about our apartment. (Most likely because people don't expect college students to decorate their home like we do. Hey, we still put up unframed posters!) But Sean and I are getting to a point now where we are considering getting a new place at the end of our lease.

The truth is, this place is expensive, most entirely because of where it's located. And while we want to rent a house and have roommates to help us out, and this apartment is out of our price range, we kind of can't help but to want to stay. I have a love/hate thing with this place. It's beautiful and old and it has awesome character and details and is in the most perfect location. But it's small and expensive and as a I write this out now, I realize that those are really the only things about it that I don't like. 

It's still something that's being discussed, but Sean agrees that he would love to stay. And it looks like that could be a possibility if he ends up getting a raise and a promotion. We won't know until January so for right now, we are enjoying our tiny apartment while we can.

I wanted to share the love that I have for this place with you guys and I plan on doing so in increments. So without further adieu, here it it! Our living room:

 Never mind the handsome boy reading poetry there (that chair is his seat). This is our living room. A lot (pretty much all) of our furniture was either handed down to us or bought on Craigslist.

The couch is a favorite of mine and belonged to my great-great grandmother. (That's my seat. Sean won't sit there because he says it's too uncomfortable. No worries! More lounging for me!) Sadly, I had to cover it up because it's been beat up over time and it doesn't help that the rabbits think it tastes good. The two brown chairs we bought on Craigslist for $15 each, while the desk was Sean's when we was a child, and the shelf...well, we'll get to the shelf.
Like I said, I love the large windows and door locks and hardwood floors. We did have a rug there but the rabbits took to eating that too. And our coffee table is currently being used as a Christmas tree table.

This is our media area. We don't have cable (or local channels) so we watch a lot of Netflix and play video games. As you can see, I already have my Christmas tree up as well. The shelves are obviously not family heirlooms or anything, but the dresser was found and restored by my Grandpa. We don't have a lot of furniture that I would hold on to forever but the dresser is definitely one of them.

 This is silly but I wanted to highlight my DVD collection. And nope, they're not Bluray, it's all DVDs. Sean makes fun of me, "We live in the 21st century, Kaleigh. You could easily just sell all of these movies and download them online."

Yeah, but...then I'd have to start over. And look how hard I have worked to get this many movies! Sean is right, I could totally just sell all these and save room. But I won't. Because there is something comforting to me about having a hard copy of my favorite movie (or in this case, movies).

And just in case you were wondering, the first seven movies after Back to the Future are my favorites. In order.

I've had this thing since the fourth grade when my friend Carlie down the street had one in her room and then I just had to have one. 

This is still a work in progress. I'd rather not share more until we are completely engulfed in the holiday season. It's classified, you know. 

So, this shelf. Let me tell you about this shelf. If you live in Kansas City, then you know that a couple months ago, something beautiful happened. And no, it's not that the Royals went to the playoffs.

IKEA opened. Yes, just like all of you, I was dying to get my hands on their magical merch. And lucky for us, when you get married around the time that IKEA opens, you receive IKEA gift cards. So we skipped our way on over there, many times. And one day Sean and I decided that I should go by while he was at work and get what we need for the apartment. So I get there and of course I get tons of stuff and it's great and then I realized, hey! We need shelves and you can design your own! So I went full-throttle and ended up with a pretty great design idea and all the pieces necessary.
I was very proud that I made it that far on my own, and even more so that I got it home and built it without any help. But if you notice in the picture, it looks like the tall side is kind of slanted...

That's because it is. Actually, more bent than anything really.

See, what happened was...you have to get these things home somehow. And we drive a Chevy Cobalt. So. It looked like this:

Getting those pieces in and out of the car was a struggle to say the least. And it was embarrassing.

Also, how annoying is that poster on the right, laughing at me, "Getting your shopping home couldn't be easier." Oh, really poster? Is that really true? Because it doesn't seem like it!

And that's why our shelves look slanted but are really just bent.

Our set-up is great though, I'm not gonna lie. I love our records and having everything right there, out of the reach of bunnies, is perfect.

Well I hope you all enjoyed my tour and that everyone's week is going well. I've been putting off some papers for class that need to be written so chances are, I'll be spending my time finding ways to continue avoiding them.

Ha! Just kidding, education is important...

Anyway, best wishes, y'all and happy Wednesday!