Throwback Thursday!

Last week you guys got to see what my house looked like when I moved in in 2004.  This week I have one more old photo for you:

This was my very first apartment, in 1999.  Not the first I'd ever lived in, to be sure; but the first one I kept all to myself, without sharing with roomates or boyfriends or anybody at all, just me.

They told me I could paint, and so I did - two walls in the living room, and the entire bedroom.  I had begun gardening two years before in the old duplex I used to share with a group of friends; my "garden" in this apartment consisted of a dozen or so potted plants that I'd salvaged when I moved away from the duplex.

And yes, I had inflatable furniture, LOL.  I had almost no furniture (only a nightstand and a rocking chair) at this point in my life, and few posessions, and even less money; so the most expedient option when I got this place was a boxed set of three living room pieces  and a 99-c Barbie air pump, LOL.  The bookshelf in the picture I got for free from a department store that was throwing it away.

I even had a cat, for a while.  I left my sliding glass door open to the breeze most afternoons when I got home from work (I didn't drive back then, so my apartment was literally across the street from my office).  One day, a young black cat waltzed in like he owned the place.  He didn't stay inside with me, but he came over to hang out every day for a few months, until one day he passed my place by and didn't come inside.  Oh, well.

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I love living on my own.  I love it now, and I loved it in 1999, even though I only lived at this apartment for six months before moving in with a guy I was dating (sigh).  Is it scary sometimes?  Yes.  But I love it, I really do.

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The Wayback Machine

Whatever you may think of the various things I've done to my living room over the years since I started this blog, you can't deny that it changes frequently.  I'm still plugging away on my light fixtures and a couple other projects I'll have to show you in March; but for now, I dug out some old photos of the living room from 2004 that I thought I'd share:

Guys, this is the original almost-everything.   I hung the ceiling fan I wanted immediately, and moved the [really ugly] one that came with the house into a spare bedroom.

But the paint, doors, hardware, fireplace mantel and tile - even the original carpet is still in these pics.

No, the houseplants thing is not new, hehe.   And no, I don't know why there are pillows on top of the entertainment center.

Looking the other direction.    LOOK at that awful pendant lamp.   The original floorplan of the house had this area under the light designated as a "dining room", and was supposed to be tiled.  Thankfully, I had the option to just carpet the entire thing.  I've never wanted to do the whole dining room/living room thing.  

The area that I use as my dining room was originally tagged as a "breakfast nook."  I've never understood the idea of eating different meals in different rooms.  That's for people in Jane Austen novels.  I pretty much eat in front of the tv on the couch, because I'm a 37-year-old frat boy. 

All the king's arches and all the king's beige.  

The original kitchen and dining room light fixtures.  Actually, the dining room light is still the same, I just painted it black, long ago.  It was one of the first projects in the house, aside from the ceiling fan in the living room - painting everything  that was shiny brass, to black.  

(And because someone asked, that's a dog harness on the bar in the foreground, not something naughty).  

And that's that, folks.  Crazy, yeah?  I found these pics while looking for some others, and I was like  whoa.  And my BFF was like whoa.  And the cat was like,  are you eating that pizza crust?  

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