Apartment fantabulizing - The Telling, Part 1: gory details

okay. holey smokes. what a weekend. eric's apartment is done. done! well, almost. i have to go over tonight to hang a picture, mount a shelf, and deliver a cabinet. but...

jeezums. i worked my *ass* off, i'm sore, tired, smashed up a bit in places, melty-feeling in the head... but exhilarated too. it was a wonderful challenge, and require quick and creative thinking and wiley use of the wallet. but i got so much accomplished with a limited budget. it's odd to think $500 is a small budget. but it is! especially when applying that $500 to what amounts to 3 rooms/areas of someone's living space. especially when that someone has hardly any storage. but shelves cost money, especially when you are trying not to make the space look exactly like an IKEA catalog. it's easy to see something and say, "gee, that's only $79.99!" - but do that a couple of times and suddenly half your money is gone and you've only got a few things to show for it. it's shocking. but here's how the costs break down:

Terrapin Traders: $ 32.14
Home Depot: $ 29.38
IKEA: $ 406.57

Total: $ 468.09

I have to buy a few more anchors to hang stuff, and I'll ask eric if there is something that he wishes i would have gotten... then i'm done, man, done.

An itemized breakdown (i realize you probably don't care, but i am trying to preserve all this info in one place in case i want to come back to it future-wise):

Terrapin Traders: $32.14
One steel media cabinet on wheels
One solid wood bookshelf
One industrial magazine rack

Home Depot: $29.38
1 quart of black enamel
1 quart of Killz paint
3 foamy paintbrushes
sandpaper
carpet cleaner
1 small sheet of thin MDF, cut to specs

IKEA: $406.57
1 TV unit
1 tall skinny bookcase
1 tall wardrobe unit
2 kitchen shelves repurposed for closet racks
1 compact computer desk in a jazzy green/blue color
2 huge floating wall shelves
2 floating CD/DVD shelves in a froggy green
2 other CD/DVD shelves
2 metal rods for various reasons
3 magnetic strips
1 bathmat
2 packs of lightbulbs
1 metal shelving unit
2 roman shades
1 pack of screws
1 pack of hooks
1 pack of anchors
i think there is more, but i can't remember what...

Free from work:
Neat steel filing thingie that was being thrown out from the library. Perfect size for wii games, and other games, controllers, remotes
Plain cardboard magazine boxes that were being tossed by the Physics Today magazine peeps

Items from my own stash:
Fabric remnant from old curtains

no to shabby eh? now the tricky part. the time spent. I worked pretty much non-stop from 9:30am on Saturday until 9:30pm. that includes 2.5 hours spent buying stuff. and 9:00am until 9:00pm on sunday. and oddly enough, the time just whizzed by. courtney helped for a few hours on saturday (and i couldn't have done it without her. she and i carried 18 gazillion heavy-ass boxes to and from stores and cars and apartments. plus she has a big enough vehicle that i didn't need to rent a truck. and she helped me put together some of the trickier IKEA pieces) and ashby and courtney helped for a couple of hours on sunday. ashby was key in dealing with piles of clutter while i tackled big stuff. and she helped with artsy stuff like choosing things for walls and shelves. so about 20 hours of solid work. i did all the leg-work ahead of time - design plan, shopping plan, picked everything out from IKEA ahead of time, shopped at various stores for ideas.

it was the most fun. and hard work. but i can't wait to do it again! i've been taking notes, and keeping track of "holy shit! i didn't think of that!" moments. it should get easier.

Next up, Apartment fantabulizing - The Telling, Part 2: the fun stuff, explained.