Our condo neighbors on the top floor went on a trip to Italy a couple months ago and I got the mail for them and watered their plants. Since they’re the only ones in our building who can access the deck that is on our building’s roof, I spent some time up there as well.

We can see the Sears Willis Tower from our building!

Some houses on our block.

Back in the alley.

Some houses across the back alley.

I never knew a back neighbor of ours had a junkyard until I saw it from the roof.

We can see the Blue line trains from our building.

This is the deck on our garage roof.

Oh, and for condo-sitting, my neighbors gave me some fancy Italian soaps. Score. I love them. Nicely scented, not too strong, lather easily.

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We have a room downstairs that’s like a second living room. Our upstairs living room is nicer and more formal and where we do more entertaining. Downstairs has our games and books and reject furniture. When we moved in we put some stuff in there and never really touched it again. Someday when I win the lottery I’m going to totally redo this room, but for now, I decided to tackle just one wall.

Here’s a before photo.

I had the big print of New York City that I bought at IKEA when I moved to Chicago from New York 6+ years ago. When we moved into our condo I thought “big wall, big print” and stuck it up. Time for a change.

I got a bunch of prints made of photos of our families and friends. Top row: Bowden family at my dad’s 60th birthday party, Dallas and I at our condo housewarming party, with friends at Rob & Colleen’s wedding in Maine. Bottom row: Jessica and Tessa at Palmer Square, a ton of our Chicago friends at my Summer of Rachelle ending and birthday party, Crowell family at our Memorial Day barbecue at our old apartment.

I bought the frames at IKEA when I was out there for jury duty. Frames at IKEA are cheap, but there’s some assembly required and you have to get creative when you get the prints because they’re not standard US sizes.

As seen above, I arranged the photos on the floor in the pattern I wanted on the wall. Getting the top row on the wall and lined up was pretty easy.

The second row was harder. Dallas was out of town and I couldn’t use our laser level by myself, so there are quite a few more nail holes than there need to be.

But I think it turned out ok. I think the white mattes would pop more if the wall wasn’t cream colored, but painting is a whole nother project.

We have honeycomb cellular blinds in the den. They do a good job of giving privacy, but allowing light in, which is important since our second floor is partially below ground level. We don’t want it to feel like a basement down there. Then again, the television is opposite the window, so we could sometimes use the darkness. For that reason, and just to soften the room, I’d like to get some drapery. Also? I got this white hand-me-down couch for free 6 years ago and always thought I’d get a new one and never have. The chair is ok, but we could do better. As I mentioned earlier, I think this room could also benefit from a new paint job.

See all the stains on the couch? Gross! I’d like to use the same style frames I used in the photo project, but maybe smaller, and hang them in the little nook by the chair. Then again, if we get drapes they may not be needed.

Opposite the photo wall is the stairway. I like this area fine. I love the pew and pillows. The only thing I’d want to change is to incorporate the same style frames into the area above the pew. Bye bye vintage Hawaiian post cards.

Finally, something has got to be done about this mess. The television is really nice, but the stand is some crap stand Dallas has had for a decade. And we use a chair to hold some stuff that doesn’t fit in the stand. A chair that cost me $15 at IKEA 10 years ago. A chair that’s too uncomfortable to sit on has been demoted to Play Station holder. Not acceptable! And maybe if we do get a new entertainment stand it can have opaque doors to hide all that junk!

Some day. Some day when we win the lottery! For now, we have a nice photo wall.

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