The first to-do on my list is to was to find new chairs for cheap – and I mean cheap. In the heat of the moment at our garage sale, I sold part of our “collection” of hand-me-down dining chairs. After that we were stuck using half folding chairs, half wooden chairs. After the garage sale, we took a trip to IKEA, where I picked up these two white slipcovered chairs. I highly recommend them if you are in the market for a basic Parsons style chair. That solved part of our problem, but I still wanted to replace the mismatched chairs and go back to using the folding chairs for their real purpose – extra seating.

{author’s personal collection}

My dream chairs are the Thonet Bentwood Chairs, featured below in the now-defunct domino. Growing up my grandmother had a version of these chairs with caning seats and I have always wanted a set. I found a source for them at a reasonable price ($99 per chair), but they are not in the decor budget just yet – other pieces of furniture are higher on my want list. (Like a new sofa to replace the plaid one and provide us with an extra bed for guests.)

{left: from domino, photographer unknown; right: from domino May 2007, photographer Dittie Isager}

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When we first decided to move to Nicaragua, I had a vision of what our home would be like. That vision was filled with dark wood, open courtyards, hammocks gently waving in the breeze. I.e. a Gringo house, not a Nica house.

Shortly before we moved we received an email from our program director. He described a couple (Nicaraguan) who needed roommates. The monthly charge was only $200 including utilities, and they were happy for us to have our dog live with them. We happily agreed to a three month term, feeling relieved that we didn’t have to immediately start searching for a home.

I knew I was in trouble the minute I walked into the house. The lights were fluorescent. Geckos were on the walls. And oh the paint. It can only be described as sickly green. I was immediately homesick. I won’t go any further, to do so would be insulting to our roommates.

We spent the next week pondering reasons to move (prettier digs), but realized that nice cushy budget wouldn’t exist anymore if we did move. We decided to stay, but started making plans to paint and update the house just slightly. Not enough to lose money, but enough to be comfortable. I’ve lost the before pictures, so you’ll have to make do with the after.

First up, the living room. The HUGE living room. We have two front doors, double sized. Two huge windows and so much space it’s hard to fill up. Our life of dodging furniture is over. I can’t get over the space. These pictures only cover half of the space, it’s that huge.

We only painted and hung curtains in this room. Our roommates have been living in the house for seven months, and I don’t feel comfortable rearranging or buying furniture that we won’t bring back to the States.

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As I mentioned in my first post, my husband and I purchased a new home in Las Vegas. Shortly before our move, Nick and I decided we would look into buying a home. I wasn’t originally on board because of the housing market crash and insisted that we look at rentals as well. However, the housing market in Las Vegas at the beginning of the year was insane and homes were foreclosing at record rates causing tenants to be shutout of their rental homes with no warning. The thought of being kicked out of our home with a few days to find another was not appealing. We did the math and discovered we could afford a mortgage because it was much less than the current rental rates. (Even including home owner’s insurance, which was just a bit more than we had paid for renter’s insurance in Mississippi.) I never dreamed Nick and I would have the opportunity to own a home together this early in our marriage, but with the market right now and the slashed prices we were able to do it a lot sooner.

After a month and a half of searching, we found a great house in a smaller subdivision. The house isn’t perfect, but it is in a great neighborhood and a good start for us. Some day I will get my dream home – a mid-century ranch house or a more traditional house with a wrap-around porch and lots of architectural details – but for now I’m delighted to have this newer home to call my own.

Below are photos from the realty website. Clockwise, from left. The front of the house: The biggest thing that drew us to the neighborhood was the many different floor plans and house fronts available. So many subdivisions were flooded with cookie cutter house after cookie cutter house. I’m not thrilled with the tile and the carpet needed to be cleaned, but the entry has so much potential! Entry from formal living/dining room. Family room: Niche that is perfect for the flat screen Nick is dying to purchase. Formal living/dining from entry: There is so much natural light in this room because of the patio doors. We are looking into replacing those eventually, they are so nondescript. We’d like a more secure door with a bit of character.

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Over the past year I have purchased frames of varying sizes and shapes. Originally I planned on using these frames to make a photo collage of our wedding photos. However, after I mentioned this idea to some of my friends and co-workers most said that it was tacky and showed a lack of personal humility. Most suggested buying one photo from our big day instead. We were torn. We still wanted to display our beautiful wedding photos, but we also did not want it to seem like a shrine to Mr. and Mrs. Mojito.

So, fellow bloggers, what do you think? Is it tacky to have a large display of wedding photos? If you were to walk into someone’s home that has a wall filled with memories from their special day would you think it was overkill?

I’d love to know what you think.

Here was our solution to this conundrum:

We mixed some of our wedding photos with our family’s wedding photos. The remaining empty frames will eventually be filled with photos from our day-to-day life.

Much like fellow EAD Living contributor Erin, Evs and I currently reside in a home built nearly a century ago.  Our little cottage, constructed in the 1920s, is our dream first-home – one story, hardwood floors throughout, with modern updates but still maintaining that “vintage home” feel. As of now we rent, but are hoping to convince our landlord to sell in the next year or two so this gem will really be ours!

A home tour post is definitely in order (after we put the finishing decor touches on the cottage) because I freakin’ love this house!  But this post is about the one downside of our home – storage.

Thank goodness I am lucky enough to have married a man who willingly donated 3 of the 4 closets in the house to my vast clothing collection (don’t worry – my shoes and I thank Evs daily for his sacrifice!).  But (shockingly!) there are other items that require space besides J. Crew’s fall and spring lines – and that’s where the challenge presents itself.

We were lucky enough to have landlords who actually lived in and remodeled our adorable cottage themselves – thus providing solutions for many of the tight squeeze conundrums that face dwellers of older homes.  But, for you DIYers out there, any of these brilliant little space-makers can be recreated with the help of retailers such as Restoration Hardware, Ikea, Pottery Barn, Container Store, and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Kitchen / Laundry Room

While we do have some great cabinets for the area provided, our kitchen space is not expansive.  These 3 shelves allow us to store (and display!) some of our prettier entertaining pieces, as well as a photo and a few decorative pieces.

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We have lived in our current apartment for a little over a year now and it has been a work in progress the entire time. According to my husband, I move the furniture on a weekly basis. Now that nearly everything has finally found a place in our cramped quarters, we are moving. I thought I would give you a mini tour before everything begins to be taken down, boxed up, and sent across the country. The decor isn’t anything too special but it has many personal touches which have really turned our little place into a home.

Welcome! Come on in.

The living room is filled with many little garage sale and thrift store finds collected during my bargain hunting.  The corner cabinet is by far our favorite piece of furniture with its Danish look and hidden, rolling doors. The brown leather chair was picked up on the side of the road for free. It was in pretty bad shape but we repainted and upholstered it so it looks brand new. The large green rug is from Crate & Barrel. I have had houseplants since I was in high school and they have travelled with me and continued to multiply in each new place I call home.

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Let’s talk about home improvement projects for a moment, shall we?

Now Mr. Mojito is great at many things…math, buying me flowers, teaching his students, mowing the lawn, cracking hilarious jokes, being a wonderfully caring husband, cleaning the bathroom.

One thing he is not so good at is ANY home improvement project.

For example, take this Restoration Hardware mirror:

Looks pretty nice hanging on our wall right?

Want to guess how many hours, different attempts, and phone calls to various dry wall companies it took to get this mirror hanging on the wall? TOO DARN MANY!

I realize not everyone is great at fixing things around the house, but seriously I did not expect this mirror to be that difficult. You put two level holes in the wall and hang it up. Wrong.

AND it is not just hanging your basic mirror…caulking the shower, installing shelves, replacing the half-bath faucet, putting together IKEA furniture (ok, maybe I can let this one slide because the instructions were in Swedish)…the list could go on and on.

Over the past year I have come to understand that there are just some things best left to professionals…in our household, home improvement projects fall into that category.

I am just sad it took us this long to figure it out! We should have just saved ourselves the time, money, and energy and went out for mojitos instead.

Thank goodness he makes me laugh everyday.

Love you honey! [waves hi to Mr. M]

image credit: Real Estalker

I have a new favorite blog. It’s called Real Estalker. They blog about real estate listings from the rich and famous.  If you can ignore the creative spelling and sometimes annoying voice, it’s a great blog to read. You get to see pictures of homes you probably can’t afford, and then comment on the taste of the A, B, C and D list celebrities.

Hello readers!  We have our first hour tour from the lovely Rachel.  Without further fanfare…Rachel’s home tour, in her own words.

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My decorating style is probably pretty traditional and classic, comfortable and relaxed. I love mixing antiques with new things, and I do like color – although usually more subdued tones, unless it’s in smaller punches. I tend to gravitate towards things that aren’t perfect, and may have a little wear or patina to them. I think this adds character, plus it tends to look better longer!

Our bedroom is a work in progress! You can see before pics (with the old linen headboard and duvet) and after with the new headboard. I am still searching for a duvet, need to make the bedskirt, and want to make a table skirt for the ugly entertainment unit/table that we have the TV on. Oh, and curtains. Work in progress!

The living room is a large open area, which we love to entertain in. With the architecture being pretty traditional, along with my hubby’s taste, I’ve gone more in that style. The green color you see on the walls was there when we moved in – we just couldn’t find another color that we both liked better! We have sisal rugs, slip covered furniture, and a big comfy green recliner that was a hand-me-down from my parents. One of my next projects is to hang a gallery wall behind the couch between the two sconces, which Chris put in last year.

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