couch!

We don't have a lot of the furniture we need for our new house because we're moving from about the same square footage. We do need a few things though so we've been looking for:
- a small couch/pull out sofa bed. (we have a vintage one but it's orange and really dominates a room. i think we'll put it in the garage for our band space, if we have the room out there- if not, it was only $25 from a thrift store so giving it away won't be too painful)
- a small bench for the entry way
- a kid's table for daph (for the family room i hope)
- a chair for her table (I'm really hoping to work a chair like this or this into the budget)

So, we were so excited when our friends Ali & Blake called us this weekend to let us know that the couch we had been eying at urban outfitters was on sale from $329 (on the website- plus $75 for shipping) to $200.
It's super tiny but it does fold out to be a bed that maybe 2 people (if they really liked each other) could sleep on- but definitely one person!
We thought just the floor model was on sale but when we went in they said they had a new one in the box for $200 as well. SO YAY! $200 for a couch!


What we got:
a new (we rarely buy anything new- so that must be mentioned) charcoal love seat from Urban Outfitters
What we spent:
$215
Budget remaining:
$1254

the hood

well thankfully, it's not the hood- and that's why we picked Stapleton.
We couldn't really afford to live in (let alone BUY a house) in the neighborhoods we love in Denver. So one day we decided to check out a row home for sale in Stapleton & Nic thought it was kind of pointless to look there because he wasn't interested in living there... 3 days later we signed the contract on our new place :)
Having a kid has definitely changed our perspective about living in downtown Denver. Though we weren't ready for complete suburbia yet (i don't think ever, actually) we wanted somewhere safe, family friendly and with great schools. Stapleton just fit us. here are a few things I love about our slice of Denver:

- movie nights at the park in the summer.
- 3 community pools, one of which is .10 of a mile away from our house
- tons of shopping & restaurants.
- focus on sustainability
- lots of biking trails (well... only 80 miles)
- families!
-front porches. all of Stapleton has ally-load garages so you see porches when you drive around, not garage doors. it's so friendly.
-TONS of beautiful parks and places to play.

I like this link to view stapleton by the numbers.

When my sister Julie went there she said it looked like disneyland housing- all different styles, cute colors & very close together :)

dresser day one

nic & i needed a dresser (or chest of drawers as I call it, though everyone else seems to think that's weird) for our master bedroom. we spotted this one in December at Savers (Littleton, CO) and fell in love! This was before we had plans to buy a house or picked one- so I didn't include the money spent on it into our $1500 budget, because it was really before the budget was even invented!
But... let me brag. It was $20.
my dad knows a lot about wood furniture and was so impressed by it's craftsmanship. The drawers are dove tailed and made of mahogany & all around, it was just a really beautiful piece. But, it did have some surface imperfections and we have really dark "wood" (it's from ikea so i use the term wood loosely) bedroom furniture, which we didn't want it to compete with- so, we decided to paint it. At first we were planning on this lovely shade of red, but in the end- yellow just seemed to fit better in our sunny bedroom.


I've never painted a piece of furniture before. In fact, the only thing I've ever painted is some frames (with spray paint) and that was only a couple of months ago. So, I was a bit weary of this project and rightfully so; painting can be intimidating! I followed the instructions from Young House Love with some of my own tweaks (which i may regret once it's done!)

I went to home depot this morning and bought behr paint & primer in 1 (eliminating both the primer and the gloss step- or so the old man in Paint told me) the shade: golden chalice.
I wanted mustard but definitely not bright & crazy- more muted and subdued. It's not looking very subdued in the pictures but it is in person, I'm really liking it.

The paint was $14 (i bought a quart) and then I bought a mini sponge roller, 2 roller refills & a 4 pack of 100 grit sand paper. Total: $31

I would totally recommend the post from Young House Love- but here's what I did:

sanded each piece with 100 grit sandpaper. (i used an electric hand sander for most of it, and just by hand for the edges)
dusted it completely (use an air compressor if you have access to one)
painted the first coat

(The blue is painter's tape- don't worry. we're leaving the rattan drawer inserts in their natural, woody color- you'll see :)

and now i patiently wait till tomorrow where I'll sand it gently and then paint the 2nd coat. Still debating about adding pulls. I'm excited to see what nic thinks about that when he gets home from work.
more photos to come of the finished project!
What we got:
a 1960's 9 drawer modern dresser with rattan drawer inserts.
paint & supplies to make-it over.
What we spent:
$31
Budget remaining:
$1469

why i'm here; why you're here

So here we are. Nic and I just bought our first house (the picture above is the model- our unit will be done in July/Aug). It's tiny & perfect and we love it. 1,100 SF spread over 3, narrow floors. a front porch, a 1.5 garage, a laundry closet, a coat closet, 2 sets of stairs, a kitchen/great room, a balcony, a powder room, a linen closet, a full bath, a teeny desk nook, a kid's room (daphne's) and a master bedroom (that's me and Nic's) the space we love, the finishings- not so much.

But buying from the builder presents it's own challenges- first of all, we can't because of this program & secondly- we know we can get exactly what we want at a better price by doing it ourselves. This is helpful because we are both poor and picky.

So now we're trying to scrape together an amazing house without going over what is proving to be a very small budget ($1500) Another problem? We really don't know what we're doing. I feel like years of watching HGTV has given me some false sense of security but really, I'm a novice. That's really why I wanted to start this blog though, I wanted to help people as I learned. I will make mistakes and I'll tell you all about them. No secrets. I'll also give a detailed account of where the $1500 is going.

I can't wait to show you our house!