Two Greyhound Town : We Have A New Place!

Merry Christmas! We haven't been around lately because we have been really busy. We are now official condo owners! We closed on our place on December 11th and we have been busy. We have been painting and putting furniture together. Grandma and Grandpa arrived on the 15th. They left this morning. They didn't stay with us because we are living in a "tiny condo". Our condo is the size of our 45' motorhome. It is 338' square feet, I think. It is a studio which means there is not a separate living room and bedroom. It is all one room. We went with this option for a number of reasons. The main reason is cost. We could have afforded a one bedroom, but the HOA dues are $150 more a month for it. Dad wants to retire soon and we plan to have this one paid off in three years. The one bedroom would have taken us probably five years to pay off. The taxes and utilities are lower in ours too. We like living small, so it works for us.

We are still working on the condo, but we will show you some photos. There is still a lot of work to do before it is complete though, so you need to keep an open mind.

Here are the before pictures.

It came complete furnished.

I immediately claimed this chair.

Mom said we can't keep it because it is too big.

We then started painting. We chose blues for the living area and the bathroom. The kitchen will be white and the cabinets will be blue.

We ordered our closets and bed from Ikea. Unfortunately, one box did not arrive. The box was box 1 of our bed We don't know if it was Ikea's fault or the delivery drivers. We were not given anything to sign accepting our order and saying it was all there. We called Ikea and Dad spent nearly an hour trying to get it fixed. They said they could send us the box in a week or we could drive to Houston to pick it up. We needed a bed, so the folks drove to Houston and spent three hours with the drive and waiting in line to get the correct box. We paid $199 for the delivery and $40 for Ikea to "pick" the order and they refused to refund any of the money because we didn't sign anything when the delivery happened. Yep, it was our fault even though the delivery person practically ran out of the condo and told us to call Ikea if anything was missing. 19 boxes were delivered, so it wasn't like it was easy to tell something was missing especially when some things had more than one box. Mom expected only 13 boxes, so it was very confusing. We are not sure how that is our fault, but they rudely told us it was. Today, Mom received a call from Ikea because they are confused as to whether we received the order that they had scheduled for the since our order was messed up. They left a message for Mom to call, so she did. The person answering the phone refused to connect the call to the extension given in the message because Mom only knew the extension number and not the name of the person. Customer service does not seem to be important to Ikea.

The boxes contain our furniture.

Here Dad is putting the bed together:

We bought this bed because it has storage under it.

Here is our Sleep Number mattress being assembled.

Here is the bed. Mom orderd the comforter online and it is so nice. I love the bed.

The bathroom is painted a lighter shade of blue and it is a work in progress. We had the tub refinished last week. It looks brand new.

We went back to Ikea over the weekend and spent more $$$ with them. We like their products, just not the people.

This is our table/desk. It has a glass top. It is narrow, but it is what we need. It has a drawer for "junk".

The table is a TV stand until the TV is put on the wall. The table also has room for "junk" under it.

Dad purchased shelves for the hallway from Ikea.

The hall has the shelves and two coat racks. One rack has my collar, leashes and beach walking items.

Today, our recliners arrived. We had planned on getting a loveseat and recliner but decided the loveseat would make it too crowded. We really wanted white or blue recliners, but after searching several stores, we chose these. We could have special ordered, but the wait time was four months and the folks needed chairs.

The white cube "shelves" you see will not be stayng there. They will be hung over the bed. Dad ran out of time.

The recliners match my bed. Have you noticed that I don't have a couch? What greyhound doesn't have a couch?

Here are the closets and dresser from Ikea. A TV will hang on the wall in the middle.

The kitchen still needs to be painted. Mom is searching for rugs for the entire place. There is still a lot to do. We will give you another tour when we have more things completed.