CLT Apartment Tour

You've been waiting for this day and it's finally here! A little over a month after we arrived on Plymouth Rock in Charlotte, the magical day is finally upon us. I hesitated a bit before actually going through with this - pictures of the inside of our apartment for all the world to see??? But it's all part of being a blogger. So, sit tight, grab some cookie butter from Trader Joe's -- have you tried that stuff? There are no words. It is probably the most delicious thing I have EVER eaten.... and watch the show!

Also - this is my first time blogging from Jake's new Macbook Pro (actual photo below taken as I was writing this blog. Wait for it. Mind blow right? Matrix/Inception style.... a blog within a blog within a blog). 

Do you ever pay attention to airport codes? I seriously love them! I refer to Portland as PDX, Detroit as DTW and now... Charlotte as CLT. I also like CLE (Cleveland) and ATL (Atlanta). Anyway, I was talking to my dad the other day and he was asking me what the airport code is for Charlotte and I had to laugh.  Like father, like daughter, right?!?!

OK, OK... without further ado - I present to you our CLT Pad!

Kitchen (it's a one butt kitchen)

Island - yes, I was having some lighting problems...ignore that.

Living room view from bedroom door

Close up of my first real grown up collage. As put together by my lovely husby. 

Close up of our new ottoman via Crate & Barrel

View of living room from TV Stand (porch door to the left)

Close up on my infamous bookshelf decor. 

AND Now.... onto the BEDROOM.... 

The Master (and only) Bedroom!!!!!

A close up of the details

Loving my new full length mirror!

Jake's desk for school (as styled by me) in our bedroom

Who doesn't have a full size front loading washer and dryer in their bedroom???? 

Bathroom off of bedroom  

Storage shelves 

I'm digging the dark wood

Can you spot the Target knock off? 

The end! ... Wait...no, I forgot the walk in closet! How could I forget? It's my favorite part of the whole place... well, aside from the pool, that is. 

Don't worry... Jake's clothes are off to the left

The sunset tonight was a beauty (photo taken from porch)

There you have it! Now you have seen it all... well, except the pool, and the gym and the mailboxes but you get the picture right? 

My Thoughts on Charlotte

I just got back from my trip to Charlotte and it was amazing! I couldn't have picked a better city for us to move to. The city seems to be pretty similar in size to Seattle so it's nice to feel like I'm in a small/big city if that makes sense. If you have been following me on instagram @thevintagemodern, then you will know that I posted a million pictures like a madwoman. Go check out my instagram if you missed those. I feel like I never have any new pictures to blog cause I have instagrammed them all. I will try to get better at that. I promise.  


View of Hyatt House from the pool

  

EpiCenter at night

 As you can imagine preparing for a cross county move has not been easy.  Emotionally or physically. I have done so much research on the topic that I feel like I could write a book about it now. But I digress. These past few weeks have been packed with finishing up projects at work, spending as much time with friends as possible... And yes, of course packing. Although I'm not sure I've actually packed a single thing (thanks hubby). Only recently have I started to feel pangs of sadness. Before this week, I was all go-go-go applying for jobs, looking at apartments online and just trying to prepare in every way I thought possible. It is hard to prepare yourself emotionally for something like this - honestly I think it's the hardest for those you leave behind. It's kind of like when your spouse goes on a trip and you stay home. You are just going through your regular day to day motions while your spouse is somewhere new having adventures without you. But honestly I think it will get easier as time goes on. That had been my experience so far living far away from my immediate family.

 



View from our new apartment balcony

  

From the front entrance

 

Our actual apartment: island in the kitchen, looking out into the living room  



Our actual apartment: Living Room with window and door to balcony

  

The Clubhouse with pool (not pictured)



Another shot of the Clubhouse, I loved the styling and
want to use it for inspiration while decorating our apartment 



 While I was in Charlotte this weekend, I signed a lease on a brand new apartment and got a job! So I am considering this a productive and successful weekend trip. While I'm not crazy about the 5 hour flight to Seattle, it is a necessary evil. Jake and I often get asked the question of when and how often will we visit. The answer is of course, we don't know yet. We have to figure out our savings budget, coordinate vacation time and  figure out how much is a "good deal" for that particular flight. I do have a fare watcher set up so I can monitor the best round trip flight and so far, it's been consistent at $332 for several months now. I am sure the prices will be much higher around the holidays and we will have to be sensitive to that too.

I do have to warn you that we ended up with a brand new 1 bedroom/1 bathroom apartment, so if you want to come visit, you will have to either sleep on our (1) couch or (2) blow up mattress. We decided that we would rather get a smaller, nicer place that we would use everyday rather than a bigger place that would only benefit us when guests were in town. Not to discourage guests, we want you to come visit us! Maybe wait a few months so we can figure the city out, but after that, we're game!



View from my hotel room on the 13th floor

   

View to the other side



The Chiquita Banana HQ! Who knew?!!

There are a lot of unknowns for us right now but I can honestly say that I am super excited to start this new chapter in my our lives and can't wait to see what it brings. It will be a nice transition to have a couple weeks off and be a tourist in our own city. So far we were thinking about doing the following: underground tour, ride the ducks, check out some happy hours around the city, have a jcrew shopping spree (just kidding - I was checking to see if you were paying attention), take a trip down to Portland to see friends and family, have dinner at Canlis (our first time!!), and spend our last night in the marqueen hotel in Queen Anne.

Sometimes I feel like blogging is so one sided and I just talk about myself so much. Do you feel like that sometimes too???

Sailor Stripes

Guess who's shower curtain was in terrible need of a makeover??? Mine, mine! 

Somehow a little bathroom cleaner stained our old shower curtain and I couldn't handle it anymore! 

BEFORE

Can you see that tiny little white spot? Would it bother you to no end, too? A couple weeks ago, I decided to upgrade to this West Elm shower curtain:

AFTER

So much better right?

THE SECRET

Have you guys read the book or seen the movie called The Secret? Ironically, we started watching the movie adaptation of the book but didn't finish it. I think the book is probably better.  The movie was not what we expected and seemed more of like a documentary. But, I digress. The point of The Secret is that you can make anything you want to happen with positive thinking. Wikipedia says that The Secret is based on the law of attraction and claims that positive thinking can create life-changing results such as increased wealth, health and happiness. It might sound kooky or weird to some of you, but I totally agree with the author.  Maybe it doesn't work for everything... but it does work for some things. 

Via wikipedia

I really think that whether you tell yourself you can or can't do something, you are right. I remember after I graduated from college, I didn't think I could pass the CPA exam. I told myself it was just too hard - and why bother because I wouldn't pass anyway, so I took another path in life, but quickly realized that wasn't what I wanted to do long term. Fast forward a couple years, and I passed all (4) parts of the CPA exam on my first try {thanks to Becker, a lot of hard work on my part and probably The Secret}. I totally proved myself wrong! It's amazing what we can accomplish when we try.   

Imagine what we could do if we got rid of all self doubt. 

On a kind of side note that is partially related: remember here how I was all upset and sad that we thought we had to move because the owners of our apartment building wanted to move into our unit. Well, the owners decided to stay overseas for at least another year {which means we can keep our apartment}! The best part is that we hadn't signed a lease on the new apartment because the guy never sent it to us yet. I also only packed one box so far. So we unpacked that yesterday, cancelled our UHaul reservation and breathed a sigh of relief.

Sometimes weird things happen that are unexplainable. I'm just glad we don't have to move.

New diggs

As you may recall, we found out last Friday that we will have to move out of our adorable amazing apartment at the end of January. Were you worried we would be homeless or have to scrape by and end up in a crappy place we found on Craigslist? Well, fear not! I am an ultimate Type A personality and I like to think of myself as a "do-er" which means I. get. things. done.

Well, we found our solution less than a week later!

NOVA Apartments

It's the NOVA apartments in West Seattle! It's brand new construction, as in, we will be the first ones living in the apartments. It's walking distance to Trader Joe's grocery store and a bunch of other cool things in West Seattle. So we will have to deal with the West Seattle Bridge which I've heard can be a REAL pain at times. Anyway, I am trying to look on the bright side because moving into a new place is kind of fun. We get to organize, de-clutter and simplify our lives. And all of that sounds amazing to me.

And now for some photos of the inside {not our exact unit, but it looks pretty similar} - drumroll, please....

Kitchen

It's called the urban 1 bedroom

The only thing I don't like is the bathroom tile... but that's it!

Pretty sweet, right? We are certainly excited!

... And yes that is a washer and dryer in our bathroom{!!}, not our bedroom, like we have had for the past 3 years!

Life Happens

We got the news on Friday night via a voicemail that our Property Management company left me at 2:30 in the afternoon.   Somehow my iPhone didn't register it until 10:00 pm that night. The owners of our apartment building want to move into our unit and we have to vacate at the end of January.  Of course I burst into tears {I have been very emotional lately}.

I will miss you, my lovely apartment!

After we got over the initial shock, we looked up Seattle landlord tenant law and sure enough, this is a good enough reason to terminate a month to month lease.  We are supposed to be getting the paperwork in the mail today. 

One of my favorite things was the mix of the different materials on the outside

I loved our modern apartment so much - it was the perfect fit for us and we had lived there for almost 3 years. It was the first place we officially lived together.  It's where we lived when we got engaged. When we got married. When we took our trip to Italy.  As you can see I am still in mourning.  

If you want to see pictures of the inside, a few months back I did an art tour of our apartment here. 

I hate moving so much. But I am trying to stay positive... and maybe we can get into a really cool new area like South Lake Union or West Seattle... I have been looking at some new construction in West Seattle, so stay tuned to see where we end up living!

Artsy.

While antiquing with Megan last weekend, I was on the hunt for a vintage map.  I didn't find one, but I have been scouring Etsy and I have a feeling that I will be purchasing one in the very near future.  Anyway, it got me thinking about all the art we have in our apartment. So, I thought I would do an art tour of our apartment today. I guess it would make more sense if you could see our apartment, decorated, but it was too messy to take pictures this week, so you will have to use your imagination.

Open kitchen

View from kitchen to living room

View from living room to deck

My favorite piece of art we own.
It's a reprint of a vintage postcard
{highways of western washington}

Wedding gift from my friend, Nicole.
She hand painted it just for us!
Love this!

A poster we scored in Italy for 8 euros at our favorite spot on Capri,
Villa San Michele.
You. have. to. go.

We picked up this beauty, hand drawn in Florence!
We still have to frame it. But, I love it!

This poor bookshelf needs a makeover.
Can you spot David on the top?

 ...and then there's the wedding photos.

We have these black & white lovelies in our room.

These colored photos are on the wall across from the kitchen.

Not to be selfish {I can't think of the word. What's the opposite of modest?}, but I am kind of obsessed with our wedding photos. Can you tell? ;) I think you kind of have to be to come to grips with how much they cost. But, I will say it now, and I'll say it again - Totally worth it! If I can give you one piece of advice for your wedding day photos, it's invest in them. They will last forever and it's how you will remember the whirlwind of the day.

Ciao, Kim