New Things

I haven't been able to shop in so long. Every time I've wanted to buy something in the last year, I had to remind myself that we couldn't fit it in the car. Now I've gone a little shopping crazy. The Goodwills and vintage stores are worlds better than anything I have ever seen in Virginia. Think of the best things you have ever found at a thrift store and imagine a store filled with only items of that awesomeness. That is how Portland does thrift stores!

Portland also knows how to do a yard sale, I tell you what. In Virginia, yard sales run from 8am-noon on Saturdays and Sundays. And for those of us who like sleeping in and slowly crawling out of bed, these hours just do not work. In Portland, most yard sales run from about 10am-5pm on any day from Friday to Sunday. And just like the thrift stores they are filled with treasures and not other peoples trash.

Apart from our record shelf and our bed, we have furnished our entire apartment with second hand goods. Most of it has come from Craigslist, while the rest has come from thrift stores, antique stores, and yardsales. A lot of it has needed a bit of retouching and a little sprucing up, but nothing that we can not handle.

Here are just a few of my favorite pieces that we have so far. I'll post more projects as I go. Enjoy!

Our living room full of awesome furniture.

This little retro end table was $4 at a yard sale.

These two adorable oil lamps were a couple of dollars. Though I can't seem to find any oil for them in stores.

Really great gold firewood holder for $2.50. Now to get some firewood. I wish I had my chainsaw.

Small antique chest purchased for $35 at Stars Antique Mall.

Handmade lamp base purchased at yard sale for $2.

Floral lampshade purchased at a yard sale for $2.

Together they make a lamp! Total lamp cost $4.

Open box TV at Bestbuy. LED Samsung 36" for $350. Much better than our old TV :)

We bought a new TV, so we needed a TV stand. Bought this for $4 at a yardsale. The lady threw in the
 matching green paint for retouching it. Purchased the new hardware for 50cents at Ikea. Total cost $4.50.

Video game storage. We have added an additional shelf to the inside.

$10 porcelain lamp base. It needs a good shade, I'm just not sure what shape or color.

Our great little round coffee table. Listed for $50 on Craigslist, but talked the guy down to $40 because the top
isn't real wood. This is also our dining table for now. 

Our green floral couch. Tim picked it out, surprisingly. I plan on covering the six cushions with a nice
brown linen or tweed fabric. Purchased for $139 at Vintage Pink on Hawthorne.

Our New Apartment

We gave ourselves six days to find a place to live once we arrived in Portland. Until we did, we stayed in a hotel with three animals and all of our junk piled high around. As determined as we were to find someplace quickly, we also had to figure out where we wanted to live, how much we were comfortable paying in case we didn't find jobs, and how long of a lease we wanted to commit to at first.

After just three days we had viewed several places and decided on this lovely house way out in northwest Portland. We got so excited that we would be living in a house and not an apartment, that we were ready to blindly sign any lease the owner would give us. Upon meeting the landlord, we realized that while this was a dream house, renting from her would have been a nightmare. She actually wanted us to have anyone that ever knew our pets call her and give her references. She said she would have to meet the pets first before she decided if they were approved. All I could imagine was Julian clawing the woman's eyes out the moment they met and Persie peeing on her. She gave us the sense that she would be one of those landlords that popped in just to see how her property was doing. She told me I was required to weed, but not allowed to change the landscaping with my own plants.

And with all of this craziness we were still ready to rent it. Until she wanted us to sign at least a year long lease. Now to be honest, we have grown quite accustomed to being noncommittal. While a couple of years ago we probably would enter into a long contract, recently all we want to do is have options; the more the better. The ability to up and go at anytime is so appealing to us. What if we change our minds?


With this new found mindset, we decided to rent from a complex that gave us a four month lease with a month to month option after that. The place is kind of smelly and very off white. It gets practically no natural light and is not in our dream neighborhood. But it has flexibility, and right now that is more important than the homey feel that one day we would love to have. Hopefully in a few months, once we have jobs and have a positive cash flow, we can move on up to something better.

For now this place will do just fine.

It does have a really cute wood burning stove and super high ceilings.

The first furniture we bought was an Expedit from Ikea for shelving all of our records once they are shipped from Virginia.

One of our two "windows" facing east overlooking a sort of woodsy area. At least we get two balconies.

Making our bed frame.

Our other "window." We let Julian go out on the high balcony and watch the birds.

It's nice to have our own bed again.

Iggy of course loves the loft. He throws things off of the high ledge. He is a bad kittay.

Cross Country Day 1: In the morning

On our first day we woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Wait, there was no bed.

We were a couple of hours behind schedule when we finally got going. It was drizzling, which meant we had to use the tarp. We had already loaded up our car with our last few possessions the night before, so all we had to do was sweep, put on the root top cargo thing, and pack up the animals. It's a good thing our friend Steve showed up, otherwise I don't know how we would have gotten the 150+ pound cargo carrier onto the roof. We dropped off our keys and, just like that, we were on the road.

Oh wait, but first we had to swing by Comcast to drop off our modem. Luckily for us, it was the first time ever that we didn't have to wait in an hour long line. Stupid Comcast. And then it was off to Can Can for coffee and cakes for the road. My sister Angie and our friends Steve, Matt, and Joe saw us off there. Glory Bee came too. In my last moments with Glory, she bit me. Real nice. I guess it was her way of saying, "Hey just so you don't forget about me, I'm gonna take a wee piece of your knuckle for safe keeping until you get back."

And then we were really off.

What's this? A blog you say?

Hey, I said I'd start a blog and I actually did. Now let's see of I can keep up with it.


I'll post things about our awesome road trip we took last month to get here. I'll tell you about road trips we are planning on taking. I'll share things about our house and what's going on with us recently. I'll show you all of the projects that I've been doing. Maybe I'll even update you on Tim, Julian, Persie, and Iggy, if I can remember to do all of that.


And you gotta know that there will be many pictures. Probably too many. 
Well, let's see how this works out. Good luck everyone!


~Amber


And here is a picture just for funsies of the day we started our road trip across the country.                       

Persie saying goodbye to Glory by taking her for a ride around Carytown