Before - Bathroom

SOME people like vintage tile.  I am not one of those people...unless those vintage tiles are:

• white subway tiles
• clean
• not crooked
• not unevenly caulked
• don't have random paint drippings on them

What?  So, I'm kind of picky about it.  You would understand if you saw it in person.  The tiles and the floor in Apt. 20-i's bathroom are...well let's just say I feel like I'm walking into a gas station restroom without shoes (I heart you Britney Spears) everytime I go in there.  It feels like I'm cleaning it endlessly and IT DOESN"T MATTER.  It's...

UGH.  I'm almost positive this can't be fixed.  I shall have to put my thinking hat on for this.

Before & Currently - Living Area

When we moved into Apt. 20-i, we dumped anything, anywhere.  E's Our only plan was to get everything out of the moving truck and into the apartment quickly.  When I finally started to get things organized, I went with the Lazy Girl's Guide to Furniture Placement and pretty much left everything wherever we dumped it originally--give or take a foot or two.  That is how the living area came to look like this:

And this:



Well, I wasn't really into the design we had going, but I couldn't quite put my finger on how to make it more to my liking.  If there's one thing I've learned, it's: if you don't like where you put the television; and you don't like where you put the chaise lounge you're using as a couch...switch 'em.

Here's the chaise lounge couch on the OTHER wall (in the spot where the treadmill and television used to reside):

And the televison in the spot where the chaise lounge couch was:

I THINK it's better, but we'll see. 

Before & After - Kitchen

Our apartment kitchen is a bit horrible.  Well, it's not that bad, but it's kind of like a half galley kitchen and has a total of 1 square foot of counter space...and an ELF fridge (I swear it was designed for little people)...and the washer/dryer is right out in the open too (I feel like they could have put the w/d in the pantry and then added more cabinet storage)...but whatev, it is what it is.  Anyway, here is the solution I we came up with when we moved in:

This worked as a storage solution, but it kinda, sorta made me want to punch myself in the face whenever I looked at it.

Then...it looked like this:

A giant improvement, but...the dark PB inspired work bench (built using directions from ana-white.com) and the birch effect Ikea shelves combination gave me a nervous tick. 

So, here is what we've got currently:

I threw together a couple of, what I like to call, shelf duvets to cover the birch effect on the shelves.  It did the trick...my nervous tick is "gone like a freight train, gone like yesterday."

Oh...and here's what the half galley looks like now:

Meh.  Not much can be done with that amazingness.

Before & After - Bedroom

Here is our bedroom a couple of months after we moved to Dirty Jersey:

As you can see we fully embraced the "Dirty" part of Jersey.  Well, it wasn't so much dirty...just a glorious mess.  Anyway, I tired of the "We Just Moved In & Put Anything Anywhere" decor style we'd been displaying so effortlessly, so I changed things up a bit:

Much. Better.

Here's a Helpful Sign

E:  They must have put that there just for you.

Me:  I doubt it.