Make the best of if...by Millie

A while ago (I think at the beginning of the summer) my friend Noelle wrote a blog post about making her apartment the best they could.  Her and her husband had made the decision to go to Law School here at the U, which meant that they would be here in the married housing for another three years.  They've painted some walls, rearranged and refinished some of their furniture. 

Well around the same time Robert and I were seriously thinking about leaving the Village. (the married housing)  We had found a basement apartment and the situation seemed pretty good.  We almost left, but then I just couldn't do it.  I couldn't face leaving our friends, the court or our ward.  I felt like we could do so much good in our ward, whereas in a regular family ward we could just get lost.  Well I felt good about the decision to stay, but Robert was pretty upset.  Understandably, Robert doesn't love our apartment.  He doesn't love how small it is, how we really don't have a kitchen, and how we are soo close to all of our neighbors.  He was really looking forward to a back yard, a garage and a bigger apartment.  And his social life (me and Aurora) wouldn't be hindered at all. 

Robert is a good man though and realized my concerns were legitimate and he let me make the final decision...and we stayed.  I wasn't 100% happy about staying, believe me I had looked forward to a backyard, nice kitchen and hard wood floors, but I knew I would be so lonely there.  Luckily Noelle's blog post came at the perfect time.  I decided that we should do the same thing.  We were going to stay in our apartment, but we were going to make it the best we could.  So we deeply cleaned and began a series of projects. 

Our first project was a dresser for Aurora.  One of our friends were getting rid of a dresser as they were moving out and we took it.   It had been painted different colors several times, and when we got it it was black with stickers that had been ripped off.  It wasn't a pretty picture and you could see why they were giving it away for free.  We sanded it down and painted it up cute for Aurora's room and now we love it, it's such a cute touch to her room.

The next two projects we're working on is our dresser and desk.  We're in the sanding process right now so we only have before pictures. 

The dresser is the same one I had as a child and the veneer on the top has bubbled up and peeled off from years of suckers being set on it.  It has been passed around the family for years and now it's made it's way back to me.   The desk we got from next to the dumpster.  People in the court set things they don't want outside of the dumpster and usually within an hour someone has taken it.  We're all pretty desperate for furniture around here.  We didn't know who the desk came from until yesterday, when the very same Noelle said they had it before us!  They had it for a while and never refinished it so they decided to get rid of it.  They had picked it up from the dumpster too.   We're going to paint these a stormy blueish color and hopefully they'll look awesome in our navy blue bedroom. 

Of course our bedroom is currently in shambles as the contents of our desk and dresser are piled on the ground, but I'm excited for the new furniture. 

Our last project for our apartment is to repaint the red wall we have in our front room.  We had mold over the winter and when the maintenance people came to fix the problem the paint they used dripped all down our wall.  So for months we've had white streaks down our red wall.  People always ask us if it's on purpose, and no it's not.  We have the paint, we're just waiting for the time!

Thanks Noelle for helping me see the bright side of the apartments, I hope our furniture turns out as great as yours.  And everyone else, you might not be exactly where you want to be, but make the best of it!
Have a great Monday!

-Millie