Just About Finished

Right off the bat, I can't get these pictures to line up the way I want, so I'll have to start here. Here is the view from Mindy's new condo. This one is from the right side of her living room. She has a corner unit on the 10th floor, so has windows on two walls. That made it a little difficult for furniture placement.

 This is the same view. She overlooks a place called the "Tin Roof" which is a bar/music venue. In the summer, they have concerts on the roof which she'll be able to enjoy from the comfort of her own balcony. This road is the entrance to Music Row and is a "hoppin' " place. The buildings you see are shops, bars and food places. Convenient for Mindy. Her place is in a perfect location for all the "night life" stuff that she and her friends do.

 This view is from the other side. Downtown is to the left (out of view).

Here's the nude sculpture of flying people at the entrance to Music Row. You can barely tell that they are adorned with red Solo cups in honor of the current Toby Keith song. I took some better pictures of it that I'll post later.

The view from Mindy's balcony.

This is another "hoppin' " place called "The Gulch" and is just across the highway. This view is from her balcony too.

 More views from the 10th floor.

 

This view is looking straight down at the pool. I think it's on the 6th floor. This picture doesn't do it justice. There's a whole cabana, lounge, barbecue area for entertaining. What's nice about this is that Mindy can see if any "hot"guys are at the pool and then dash down there.

Now here's the beginning of the post:

As with any move, there are snafus---late deliveries, no deliveries, pick-ups, appointments, missing items, damaged items---to name a few. Mindy's move was no different. Butch and I manned it all with our busy schedules and somehow made it all work for the past two weeks. If he wasn't retired, I don't know what we would have done. Most days we had the timing down to the minute with very little wiggle room.

Friday was the "big" day. The movers met me at Stephanie's to pick up the chair/lounger. They were late which threw my schedule off. I was to be at the condo by 9 to receive the delivery of mom's room divider that I had painted black. I took off while the movers met up with Butch at the apartment.

I also needed to go to Target, but planned to do that after the furniture delivery and between the time the movers arrived. The furniture delivery did not come when it was supposed to. Finally, I got a call from Christy (my friend and old nail girl turned decorator) who had arranged for the painting---that there was a problem. The "guy" had no one to help him move the room divider. By this time, the movers were just about finished. I told Christy to send him right away and I could get our movers to do it. Her "guy" arrived just in time---the movers were literally writing out the bill. I never did make it to Target.

Christy arrived---she was doing the window treatments---another story, but let's just say that even though I started that process the first of December, they are still not done. Christy was to put the new hardware on the room divider, but the screws were too short, so that couldn't get done. And she forgot the little plastic things that hold the one adjustable shelf up. Not the end of the world, but frustrating for someone like me who is such an organized planner and wanted everything done by move in time.

I wanted everything finished by the time Mindy came home from work. We had already planned to have "happy hour" at her place. I had brought everything for that.

Anyway, Butch and I started in on the unpacking. Mindy has so many clothes, that I really expected to spend just about the whole day in her bedroom. Luckily, the new "closet" was installed the day before---sort of like California closets. I did spend a good deal of time in there.

About 2:30, I was starving so Butch went out for food. That was our one and only break. Carson dropped Morgan off after school. She is a hard worker and helped me finish the clothes. Butch hung everything on the walls and was just finishing up with the piece over the bed when Mindy called that she needed for someone to let her in. What??? She got off early and didn't call. I wasn't ready for her. My favorite thing when I help anybody move/decorate is letting them have the "wow" factor. Now she was early and we still had boxes everywhere, the bed wasn't made up (I did have the sheets washed and ready) and the empty boxes hadn't been hauled away yet. We weren't expecting her, Steph and Nicky until 5:30---it was only 4. We let her in and put her to work---which with Mindy is like no work.

At 5, it was time to "wrap it up" so Steph, Nicky and Merrill (who was picking Morgan up for babysitting) could have the "wow" factor. They did. And here it is (I forgot to take "before" pictures---I always do):

The living room: grey concrete floors, 10ft. ceilings, windows on both sides, rug, cubes and pillows saved from my recent redecorating. The only thing "new" is the tv stand.
                             
Here's the chair/lounger. It's really too big for the room, but Mindy is going to live with it for awhile and decide whether she would rather have a chair. Of course, we've already donated her living room chairs (our old ones). Luckily, the chair/lounger is growing on us.

Here's the room divider---painted black. It turned out awesome. You have to imagine the chrome handles on the doors. Mindy loves it too. I'm so glad that she has something of her grandmothers. She also has her everyday silverware. She bought the standing clock at the flea market. We found the big "m" there too which we also painted black. The rug came from our family room. 

Mindy's favorite color is red. I saved everything from our bedroom and bath. This rug came from our bath room and it has flee de lis. She has a lot of New Orleans style decor. Her bathroom is really big. Steph had a fit when she thought I had gotten Mindy personalized towels already. But really, I just gave her a couple of ours---after all it is the same name!

She has tons of cabinet space, but only 4 little drawers---8"---not even big enough to hold the smallest utensil divider. All of her appliances are new. She couldn't use her washer and dryer as the condo complex requires a particular model. I should have taken a close-up photo of the concrete floors. Just imagine a basement floor with a shiny, clear sealer put on top.

Mindy had one wall painted red. The only thing new is the tone on tone black rug. Her nightstand is a jewelry armoir that we found at Target when she moved in to her new apartment.

On the left of the dresser is the door to her balcony. On the wall here is an old, chipped up frame that I hung her needlework in. She has a couple other little things that will go in it too, but I hadn't come across them yet. There are still 2 laundry baskets full of little stuff and a tub of bathroom stuff that needs unpacking.

The closet. The space with the hangers is for skirts---I need to get some skirt hangers. I've organized everything by color---like my own closet. She says she's going to keep it this way. We'll see---doubtful.
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The closet looks at least 4 times bigger now---and looks pretty big in these pictures, but it's not that big.

When we got home Friday night---7:30---I told Butch that my legs and feet were absolutely throbbing. His back was hurting from hauling stuff from Mindy's third floor apartment with no elevator---long outside steps. That's what happens when you stand on concrete all day long with only a 15 minute lunch break. I'm a work-a-holic for sure. I do work hard and fast. Even Butch couldn't believe we got it ALL done in one day!

As for unpacking and organizing, everything is done with the exception of those two baskets and tub in the bathroom. I had told Mindy that after Friday I couldn't do anything else. I have too much going on this week---something every day and just about every evening---classes, AYM, shopping and cooking for Morgan's Winter Formal dinner and getting ready for St. Louis.

As it turns out, I have to squeeze in the cable guy on Monday from 2-5. He came on Saturday while Mindy was there, but needed to get in a room that the building manager was a real jerk about and refused to open. Told Mindy he needed to come M-F, so here we are---squeezing something else in to the schedule. I don't know how all you working people did it. Luckily, Butch had me to handle everything on the home front.

Anyway, I can't say, I'm unhappy about this turn of events. This will give me the opportunity to finish up those last baskets. I'll be happy to head to St. Louis for a much needed vacation! I plan to kick back and just have fun---and maybe win a little money from the fam!!!

Later...