A Desk! FINALLY!

So, my bookcase desk is FINALLY wall mounted and functional.

And my residents have room keys, that are strewn about my desk.

I shall take you on a photo tour of my new space.

My Hair Confession

So, I'll be honest.  It took me the better part of 23 years to figure out how to make my hair look good.  My hair can be really frizzy, especially in times of high humidity or when I sweat a lot.  This has caused some embarrassing hairstyles

My New Room

I've been majorly slacking in the Blog department.  For some reason I just really haven't had the motivation.

This past weekend was Homecoming at GT as well as the House Dedication ceremony, which kept me plenty busy in the days leading up to this weekend.  Both days went really well.  I gave lots of house tours and had so many people tell me "You look so young to be a house mother."

But the main purpose of this post is to show off my room!

Alison vs Ikea

So, in the past 2-3 weeks I've had many battles with Ikea furniture.

I remember going to the showroom and everything looked so awesome.  HA President went and ordered everything and it was delivered to the house.  I think the fact that I didn't play a part in the ordering aided in the shock that occurred when I saw the 13 boxes in the TV room, outside my suite.  However, I forgot to take a picture of it all before I moved things around.  I was also under the impression that everything you needed to assemble the furniture was included in the box.  Boy, was I wrong.

Everything was delivered on Friday.  An alumna and I decided to tackle my headboard first.

Headboard?

This is as far as we got before we realized that we needed screwdrivers.  This is also when I realized that the headboard had to be mounted to the wall.  Not a pleasant surprise.

I tried assembling some chairs, but one of the holes wasn't drilled all the way through.  Thats when I gave up and decided to go to bed (back at WestMar).

The walls are actually tan, not lime green.

Saturday was a new day, and I was determined to get more of my furniture assembled.  After I got the chapter tool box the chairs were the first order of business.

My first Ikea success!

I tried to do some more work on the headboard, but I thought I had put it together backwards, since the unfinished edges were facing upwards.  Little did I know that I had, indeed, done it correctly, but I was just looking at the wall side of the headboard.  I also found out that taking apart Ikea furniture is extremely difficult.

The unfinished edge that cause a panic!

After some more work on the headboard, I got to the point where I couldn't do any more before it was wall mounted.  So, I decided to work on my table, thinking "Its a table.  How hard can it be?"

How can a table be this complicated?

I found that it was fairly difficult.  Especially when the pieces are dark wood, which makes it hard to see all the holes.

Lesson: If you do not notice every little detail in their instructions you will end up putting your table together wrong.

How far I got before I had to take it all apart ant start over.

Notice those little cut outs on the unfinished wood?  Yeah, those are supposed to be on the bottom, not the top.  So, I pretty much had to start completely over.  But, I finally got it all put together!

Success!

My bed took the longest, by far.  HA President's husband helped me.  It wasn't very difficult, just very tedious.

Mid-assembly

Bed fully assembled

Bed and headboard

Monday I tackled the dresser, all on my own.  Other than completely destroying one of the holes with a tiny screw and putting the drawer tracks on upside down, I did a pretty good job.

I thought I did everything right...

But then the drawers wouldn't go in.  Took a while to realize that the tracks were upside down.

Finished product

My bookcase was one of the most frustrating only because of the insanely tiny nails.

Before the cardboard backing, when I thought everything was going ok.

1.  Levitating nails?  2.  27 of them?  Really?

To put the nails in perspective.

I could barely hold the nails in my fingers to hammer them into place.  And I have pretty small hands.

Successful bookcase

Somewhere in those days I also assembled a couch.

Half assembled couch with the de-assembled table in the background.

Thats not right...

There we go.

Some of my next posts will include "Decorating my Room" and "My Desk Adventure"

The Chaos of a New House

So, I've fallen off the blogging train for a while.  But I have good reasoning for it.  We finally moved into the house!  And then I went to Michigan for 5 days.

I thought that move-in weekend was going to be hectic and chaotic.  But it sort of just ran itself.  I assembled Ikea furniture all weekend and everything was fine.  Well, no, assembling Ikea furniture was not fine, but thats for another post.

The Friday night of move-in weekend the girls brought small things over and also had their big-little reveal!  The littles get one end of a string and have to follow it through the house to find their bigs.  Its adorable and crazy.  My furniture was also delivered that day, and I found out that you do need your own tools to assemble everything.

Standing in the front doorway, the house tangled in string!

Saturday of move-in weekend the PODS were unloaded and officers brought over their things.  It was a lot of organizing by alumnae and Exec officers.  I was just happy to get a toolbox so I could start assembling furniture.  I also got checked out of the hell-hole that is WestMar Student Lofts.  One of the best moments of my time here so far.  Saturday night was my first night in the house, but I didn't get to sleep until the furniture delivery people left at 11 pm.  What they were doing still assembling furniture at 11 pm is beyond me.  All I had was a mattress on the floor and windows with no curtains.  Needless to say, it was NOT my best nights sleep.

Sunday the architects brought us bagels and orange juice.  Honey Almond Cream Cheese from Einstein Brothers is the BEST thing ever.  I'm seriously considering going and buying some this weekend.  We ate breakfast and then I resumed assembling furniture.  HA President's husband helped me assemble my bed and headboard.  Having an actual bed for my second night was wonderful.

Monday was the first real day in the house.  It was also the first day of Meal Plan.  Casey, our chef is wonderful and everything he cooks has been delicious so far.  My first 4 days of "work" basically consisted of trying to assemble more furniture and getting interrupted by maintenance people who needed to be escorted through the house.  It was busy but worth it when Friday rolled around.

Friday morning I got to go to Michigan!  I left at 6 to head to the MARTA station to take the rail/train/subway thing to the airport.  I ended up being about 2 hours early to the airport.  After some delays I finally landed in Flint where Jim picked me up.  I got to see a ton of AGD sisters, Zeta brothers and sisters, the Kiltie Marching Band, Kim, Kyle and Bambi, Matt, Jim's parents and of course Jim.  The worst part of the trip was catching the "Alma Plague" that everyone in Alma seemed to be sick with.  I got the worst of it on Tuesday when I was about to travel back to Atlanta.  Traveling while having a cold is horrible, but at least the two seats next to me on the plane were empty and I could spread out a bit.

The past two days I've just been recovering from my cold.  My parents and Emily also visited me yesterday, after they were done in Charleston, SC.  It was great to see them and they absolutely loved the house.

Today I got my "desk" mounted to the wall as well as 1 of my 2 sets of curtains hung.  I spent the afternoon just organizing and decorating my room.  Lovely.

Initiations is tonight!  YAY to the 44 new members of Alpha Gamma Delta.

The Best News Ever!

So, I had a meeting with house people yesterday and we get to move into the house this weekend!!!!

Home sweet home!

Frustrations

So, the house is still making good progress.  The fire inspection happens today, HVAC was yesterday and today, health inspection tomorrow.  I would feel a lot better about the progress if we knew when the elevator inspection was happening.

Tomorrow the chapter gets to see the house in its 99.9% finished state (minus the furniture).  I'm glad they're getting to see it.  Hopefully it will make them feel better.  I feel like they felt that the house wasn't close to being finished, when in reality it was just inspections that we are waiting on.

I can't wait to move in and start organizing and decorating my room.  The past 6 days I've literally done nothing.  I have zero motivation to do anything.  I have found that I am more motivated when I have other people around me.  A variety in food is also something that I am looking forward to.  I also really miss cooking and baking, something I don't have the money or tools to do in this sorry excuse for an apartment.

In nicer news: Less than 2 weeks until I'm going back to Michigan!

The Biggest Disappointment of the Past 3 Months

So, I had a meeting on Wednesday, when we thought we were going to be getting the Certificate of Occupancy (C.O.).  What we got instead was news that we can not move in this weekend and that the exact move-in date is still up in the air.

T-minus 1 Week!

We have less than one week until my residents and I move into the house!  I was at the house on Thursday for the weekly walkthrough.  I didn't take as many pictures as I had planned, but heres what I have.

The resident kitchen has the backsplash and countertops.

The library, with all the molding and trim in place.

Carpeting in the bedrooms and hallways

Countertop in my kitchenette

There was so much that had been done sine I was there for the Atlanta Alumnae Chapter tour!  Now we're to the point where major changes are taking place every day.

The hardwood floor was supposed to be put in over the weekend, as well as the remainder of the carpet and floorboards in the residents rooms.  The resident kitchen is going to be getting appliances and the flooring!

I had my first meeting with my residents last night, with much help from the Property Coordinator and Property Advisor.  Everyone is so excited, even if moving day is going to be crazy hectic.  I get to meet with the new member class sometime this week as well.


The weekend that GT has their Fall Break (October 12-16) I found super cheap plane tickets to go back to Michigan!!!  I am so excited to be home with Jim and to see everyone at Alma.  By then the Zeta Nus will have their new members, and I might have a great grandkiddo!


I've also been crafting.  I was given these wooden letters a few years ago.  They had been hot glued together and had fallen apart.  I was given them because I could fix them.  But I knew they wouldn't stay together.  I had originally started covering them in fabric, but then I decided I didn't like it.

What I started with.

I had pink paint leftover from my personalized cooler.

After the pink.

White paint pen around the edges makes it extra adorable

I adore these letters and can't wait to put them in my room!  I have so many plans for my room, I just can't wait to get in there and start setting everything up!!!


I'll have more pictures of the (finally) finalized house on Wednesday or Thursday.  We get the Certificate of Occupancy on Wednesday which means that my stuff can start going in on Wednesday night!  So, today and tomorrow are going to be spent packing and strategizing how I'm going to move everything over there.

My Future Bedroom Furniture. AKA: My Ikea Obsession

So, I've posted about what things I've crafted, or want to craft, for my new room.  I've also posted about the house.  Now, I'm going to post about the furniture that will be going in my room.

Before Labor Day, the House Association President and I went to Ikea!  I had never been to an Ikea before, and the fact that I only had two hours in there made me very sad.  I seriously want an Ikea furnished house.

Anyways, we were looking for a bed, dresser, table, chairs and loveseat.  A desk was on the list, but due to the budget we are forgoing that for now.

HA Pres had suggested a bed that had a padded headboard that you could lean up against.  I thought that was a pretty cool idea.  But I had also been thinking about the limited space that is in my sleeping area.  I knew that we potentially had to fit a full size bed, dresser, end table(s) and in the future, a desk.  Granted, the closets are a decent size and I was planning on putting my dresser in there, thats still a lot of furniture for such a small space.  I ended up finding the perfect solution.

 This bed has 2 drawers on each side.  The headboard also has bookshelves and a mantle-like shelf as well.  Perfect for a small space.  It also means that we wouldn't need to get a very large dresser.

This is the dresser that is in the same "series" as the bed.  Perfect size.

Sine my room will have a kitchenette I will have a small table and two chairs to go in there.

The ends of the table slide under the middle to save space.  Its fantastic.

In my living area they also wanted to have a loveseat for me.  While in the store I had to go lay down on all of the couches to test their potential "nap-ability."  HA Pres thought that was hilarious.

This is the loveseat we ended up picking out.  HA Pres also talked about wanting to have a bookshelf or some other storage for the living area.  Only we knew we were running low on floor space.

I present to you, our solution to the problem.

I absolutely LOVE this bookshelf and the fact that it utilizes wall space and not floor space.  My loveseat will fit perfectly underneath this.


I promise that there will be a blog post about my adventures in assembling all of this wonderful furniture.

When Jim came to visit me we spent almost an entire day at Ikea.  We looked at furniture that we would like to have in a future house together.  We both decided that we would be ok with a small house as long as it could be like the model "houses" in the Ikea showroom.

I ended up getting some dishes, glasses, dish towels, a dust pan and brush, toilet brush and some other things.  All for under $40.  Winning.

A Return to Crafting and Pictures of my Future Home

So, since I've moved I have fallen into a crafting slump.  But I did manage to get back into it yesterday. I took the idea from the blog Lemon Jitters and jazzed up my makeup brushes.  Here is what hers look like.

Her tutorial uses a brush that easily comes apart.  Mine, however, did not.  I only had one that came apart and I had a horrible time trying to get it put back together.

Here is how mine turned out.

They're not as finished on the tops.  And its hard to see it in these pictures, but the brushes were black and it sort of shows through the white flowers.  Now that I think about it, I should have used coordinating fabric to my magnetic makeup board that I had previously blogged about.  The black wouldn't have shown through as much.  Nonetheless, I still love these brushes.  I've thought about finishing the tops of them more, but right now, they're pretty good.

Yesterday I also went and saw the house!  I've been going to the house at least once a week for the weekly construction meeting.  I also stopped by on Tuesday (my birthday!) for a meeting with the potential maids.  But yesterday I took a ton of pictures, for this blog and to share on the House Association Facebook page.

 These are the closet organizers in the residents bedroom.  They can move the shelves around as they wish.  The rooms on the 4th floor are the biggest, with 8 girls living on that floor.  The 3rd and 2nd floors have 20 residents each.  All of the rooms are double rooms with two rooms sharing a bathroom.  The bedrooms are supposed to be getting their final coats of paint and carpet in the next few days.

 This is the view of the Grad Staircase from the 4th floor.  The wood on the railings and stairs is unfinished now and will be getting stained this weekend.  The spindles are staying white.

 This is the 3rd floor study room.  The pink is just primer.  The room is actually going to be red.

 This is the 3rd floor laundry room, which looks identical to the 2nd floor laundry room.

 This is the 3rd floor porch, which looks the same as the 2nd floor porch.

 This is the 2nd floor study room.  I absolutely love the color of this room.

 This is the Grand Staircase from the entryway of the house.  On the wall to the left will be the wall of donors who made the house possible.  There is paneling on the bottom of the walls that will be painted white.

 These cabinets are in the parlor and the Great Room.  There are little beads around the trim that sort of look like pearls.

 The fireplace and shelves in the Parlor have been installed!

 Next thing is the mantle.  A large copy of the Purpose is going to hang above the fireplace.  The bookshelves are going to be filled with books that are donated by the collegians and alumnae.  The donor of the parlor wants them to be books that have inspired the reader.  I'm still trying to figure out what book I'm donating.

 This is the Resident Kitchen.  Since we don't have meal plan on the weekends, this is where we can whip up a batch of mac and cheese or bake cookies.  The cabinets are done and the appliances, countertops and flooring get installed this upcoming week.

 The Great Room still needs the most work, by far.  The fireplace, shelves and cupboards are in and look great.  However, the concrete floors have not "cured" enough.  Meaning that there is still too much moisture in the floors to install the hardwood floors.

 The meal plan kitchen is coming along.  The sinks, grill, stove and serving buffets have been delivered.  Meal Plan is scheduled to start the monday after we move in.

This is the sign on the front of the house.  Its elegant but not super flashy.

Where is the picture of my room you ask?  Well, currently my room has been the primary entry to the house and has also been used to store a lot of boxes.  So, it really doesn't look as finished as the rest of the house.  The basement rooms are going to be the last to be finished.  We just have to keep reminding the workers that my room needs to be as finished as the residents rooms.

The Atlanta Alumnae Chapter is doing a tour of the house on Sunday.  I'll probably get to lead tours since I've been at the house so much in the past few weeks.

We are scheduled to get the Certificate of Occupancy on September 26 and then we can start moving chapter items, resident furniture and my belongings into the house.  The girls move in on September 30th.  I will move in soon after we get the C.O to start assembling my Ikea furniture.  All the pictures of my furniture will be another post itself.