We unpacked a bit after we moved, of course, but after the initial phase of unpacking of what we needed immediately (seasonal clothes, pots and pans, textbooks for work), our unboxing efforts kind of...stalled out. Sure, there were many moments where we would kick feebly at the moving boxes that still continued to line every wall, occasionally stopping to unpack an item or two before pronouncing ourselves way too tired from work, or (more often) willing the items to unpack themselves, but after a while, we started to get used to living in a shantytown, which is perhaps the most dangerous position of all. However, it was starting to get embarrassing, so these past few weekends, we've been making a little more serious effort at home improvement. Our bedroom and closets are still a disaster, but the first floor is starting to look almost like reasonable adult people live there.
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(Click here to read notes on this photo.)
It is still decorating on the cheap, though. The bookcases are from Ikea (ah, the Billy bookcase--what medical student doesn't have you in some corner of their apartment?), as is most of our new furniture, with the exception of the 3-piece couch set, which is from Jennifer Convertibles. I am very happy about the posters though, which were designed by Amy Martin and which I ordered some time ago. They are supposed to be time travel agency posters, and I think they are just adorable. I would eat them if I could. And no, I'm not shilling per se, but since they are being sold as a fundraising item for 826LA, a non-profit engaged in efforts to support the creative and expository writing of grade-school-aged children (as well as their teachers)--so what if I'm shilling?
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I suppose I could have gotten these professionally framed, but that would have cost a bundle, so what I did instead was go to my local art supply store and get a cheap set of poster frames that were a couple of inches too large in either direction. Then I bought some matting board and had the scruffy art student who worked there (and who was questionably sober) cut the matting board to size to fit into the frames. I stuck the posters on the matting with My Friend double-sided tape, quickly sandwiched the whole thing into the frames before they fell apart, and voila! A touch of class! Sure, they're crappy frames, and a sadly amateur job at mounting the posters (especially the dog hair behind the clear plastic that I could not for the life of me remove before I just gave up), but stand a safe distance away and they don't look half bad.
I have a bunch of photos that I want to get up as well, but that's a job for another weekend and a second wind.