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Keeping good on my promises you guys!  I really wanted to start back writing on my blog somewhat regularly, and sharing some of the exciting updates we've made to our place!  First up, our living room. Since moving back into our new/old apartment in February, I've been working slowly but steadily to attack each room with updates. I actually used to live in this apartment with my best friend Kira, but when Kris and I moved in together, he and I found a new apartment, and Kira stayed in this one that we shared. Fast forward almost two years later, she decided to move cross-country to Chicago, so Kris and I moved back in. It has a great layout, lots of natural light, and so much more space than we had in our first place together. The only problem was that after 5 years of wear and tear, things were looking a little worn. I've got to say, it was somewhat of a surreal experience to be living back in an apartment that used to be mine - it wasn't the normal process of getting ...

Hey guys!!  Just wanted to check in with you - we've been making some real progress on the house which I swear I'm working on photographing and posting.  The deck is well on it's way, the dining room is in a good place (for now) and our kitchen nook has officially become Kris' office (and my little DIY spot for sanding, painting, building, and re-vamping).  It's been a huge mess for the most part over the last few weeks, but I have a few photos in a cleaned up state.  I hope to share with you later this week! In the meantime I wanted to check in with you all on our living room.   Last time I posted about it , I'd talked about the new sofa we bought, along with the new coffee table.  Neither have arrived - actually the coffee table was supposed to be here this week but the delivery date has been pushed back.  SO FRUSTRATING. Anyway, in anticipation of these two key pieces arriving, I put together a final inspiration board for how I see this room coming ...

Soooo... there hasn't been much news on here about what's going on in the living room... and that's because not a ton has been going on in there since our fireplace update . I need to take some "before" photos, even though they're more "during" photos - while the rug from the living room of our last apartment has made itself a new home in our bedroom, the furniture currently in there is the same as before for the most part.  Here's a little refresher from before we moved: Two love seats... lots of dark fake wood furniture...  I did the best that I could with what we each brought to the apartment together, and we made it work for two years.  I actually kind of liked it once I distracted from all the things I wasn't loving (black man couch... super duper modern everything...) Well, things are about to change... and SOON! We just bought THIS sofa from Pottery Barn a few weeks ago. It looks a bit dwarfed in this photo, but it's big.  Really ...

Happy Wednesday guys!  I wanted to share a project that I worked on over the weekend... Our fireplace got a fairly substantial makeover! We are so lucky to have a fireplace in our apartment, but as the focal point of the room, it had been looking a little sad... Here's the evidence: It wasn't terrible - but it had certainly seen better days. From far away it doesn't look SO bad, but up close the stone was really dirty (and this is after about 45 minutes of scrubbing).  It also had several deep cracks running through it.  Nothing non-livable, but I'd been scheming about a fireplace update for a while. See - up close you can really see the permanent grime and the cracks. The stone was also really yellowed, and wasn't very pretty to begin with so I was confident that I could improve upon it's facade.  I had seen several DIY projects that got the wheels spinning. On SMP Living they did a hack on an Ikea table that turned out amazing ... On A Thoughtful Place she tac...