On the sliders – if the door that opens is the inner door of the two, you can use a tension shower curtain rod at the top (over the boys’ heads) to prevent the door from opening. Easy for grownups to put in and take out, but makes it impossible to open when in place.

The chandelier – would the whole thing fit inside a big paper globe, like the kind they have at Ikea and Pier 1? Or a big drum lampshade – a variation of this:

http://www.lumens.com/Walker-5-Arm-Drum-Chandelier-by-Lights-Up/uu328680/product

I’ve done the toothpaste thing! I had a rather large whole that I had hung a very heavy mirror from a nail that could not hold it’s weight…I could fit my pinky in it…so I put the puffy part of the QTip in the wall and spackled it with toothpaste. You couldn’t even tell :)

Hi Dana! Have you decided on flooring? Im so excited for you to start decorating/shopping for your new house.

First of all, let me say I love your renovations and DIY projects. We purchased slider locks from a baby store or a hardware store. I believe it was Babies R US b/c our sliders led out to a big 4 ft deep pool off the deck. My 2 yr old just found out how much fun the water was and it scared me to death. The brand is Safety 1st and the pkg says that is can be operated from either side of the door, disengages for periods of non-use, and it blends inot the door frame. Stops sliding doors from opening wider than 3″

Good luck!
Katie

I like the drum lampshade. If you can’t find something that works, why don’t you swap it out temporarily?

The tension rod is a great solution, better than the piece of wood we had wedged in at the bottom when I was growing up.

As for the all white apartment, I say embrace it. Although I understand how difficult that can be with two little boys! Before our two boys were born we had a temporary apartment that was all white and I just made the most of it with a much more contemporary feel and Ribba frames as gallery art for pictures my husband took and we enlarged for framing. We already had a white slipcovered sofa and a few inexpensive white purchases from Ikea completed the look.

I have painted *every* house/apartment I’ve ever lived in but it was kind of fun to see what I could do with white for a change. I’m glad it wasn’t permanent but it was a lesson none the less.

Can’t wait to see what you do with the chandelier!

totally have to agree on the tension rod, at my old apartment, I lived on the lower and I would always put a metal rod in the windows, to be extra safe, so no one could get in or attempt to :)

Maybe a big round paper lantern in place of (or over?) the chandy, to mimic the globe lights in the kitchen?

And do what makes you happy, but if it were me living there for only three months, I’d just leave the walls white and bring in color via pictures/art/etc. But mostly because I’m lazy.

Ha ha! Yes, I’ve used the toothpaste trick!

Caro – Oooh, your tension rod idea and the paper globe/drum light idea are great!!! Thanks for sharing.

I lived in an apartment that had sliding glass doors to the backyard. After a scare with someone tugging on the door early in the morning I got one of these & installed it: http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1295041&CAWELAID=109382810

Doesn’t take much & you can place it high enough that you kids can’t get to it.

Hope that helps out!

When you described the apartment before – 3rd floor with vaulted ceilings – I immediately thought of my apt while I was on the Walt Disney World College Program. Then you post this and oh my goodness it is so similar! The living room kitchen layout is identical! The only difference is the bedrooms and baths are together in yours instead of on seperate sides of the living area and ours had double sinks one in the bath and one in the room in a vanity area and the slider in ours was a huge arch topped window – the balcony was outside the front door and the laundry was behind where the dining area was, but we didn’t use that room we had a laundry downstairs in an open air hallway between the apartments – it was covered but open on the ends – it was Florida!

Great apartment! PS I can neither confirm nor deny any toothpaste spackling in the apartment I had.

PS – Before I changed out the fixture in my dining room, I bought cheap little lamp shades for each bulb and it looked way nicer. I just stored the glass shades away. Christmas Tree Shop was the cheapest place I found them if you have one near you.

another option for the slider doors is a thick dowel cut to length. You can lay it in the channel when the door is closed but before too long, the kids will learn how to lift that out. Buy two plastic rod holders that you attach to the frame of the sliders – you can put it high enough that it will be out of the kids’ reach. Slip the dowel in and that slider is not going anywhere!

I agree on the light swap out. I did that in my old apartment- cheap Ikea light and it hung a little lower so it made more a dining area. Then just put it bach when done. As for the walls- I painted my old apartment top to bottom but I was there for nearly 2 years. Have you thought about large canvases painted colors instead of doing the walls? Can hang with 3m strips and no real damage. Or even fabric in large frames to bering in texture/design without the work of painting?

Your apartment is almost exactly like ours! I’ve had the same issues with wanting to paint and make it home-y even though it’s temporary… I’m thinking about doing panels of fabric on the walls instead of painting since we’re in the same situation with nail holes. I can’t wait to see what you do!!!

PS I’m totally guilty as charged with the toothpaste thing. In fact when I mentioned doing that at our apartment my husband (who works in construction) about died.

My siblings and I, currently aged 31, 27, and 25 years, are all ridiculously close. I shared a room with my sister when she was born (and I was 5ish). But then, when we moved to a new state and were waiting for our house to be built – we moved into a 2BR apartment very similar to your current apartment. The three of us, ages 7, 3.5, and 1.5 all shared a room and a BED! We have some adorable pics of the three of us reading at night. My parents gave us the master bedroom and we all slept in a queen size bed. I think we lived in that apartment for around 4 months. Great memories, great pictures! Enjoy!

Love your blog and your style! Would love to know if you are ever selling any items again as I’m in your area, I assume. I actually just checked out the reuse store you posted about way back when! I live in Northern Kentucky.

You and handy hubby are a great inspiration. I bought my first house last April and it has been an adventure to say the least. Your trenching post has convinced me to do some DIY work and rent a trencher myself to bury some drain lines. Wish me luck :)

I shared a room with my sister for my entire life, same room for 17 years. Sometimes we hated it and wanted separate rooms, but when I moved off to college I realized how much I missed my sister. I always had someone to say goodnight to. If I was scared there was someone there. If we couldn’t sleep she’d talk to me, or if I wanted to read late she’d yell at me to turn the lights off. It became a comfortable companionship that I missed. Although I’m sure they’ll occasionally be at each others throats, as all siblings are one time or another, it’ll be good for them. My parents always said we’d be each others best friend one day, we adamantly refused to believe it. But they were right. Have fun!

I can’t imagine putting any money or time into decorating an apartment you will stay at for such a short time. Instead enjoy the rest of the summer and the time before school starts with your boys and save your energy for the underdog.

I have totally done the toothpaste spackle thing. Good luck in your temporary digs. The carpeting looks decent.

My boys share a pretty small bedroom they are 6 & 4. They fight, they scream, they laugh & they play together in their little room. We have an extra bedroom but they so far have chosen to share their room. My sister & I had our own rooms growing up & I still slept in the same bed with her till she moved out of the house. & we are best friends! : )

Thank you, Kat! Finally, a voice of reason ;)

I am in the camp of putting all your energy and cash into the new house, not the apartment. You won’t want to spend one second of time or money putting the apartment back to white walls etc when you are ready to move into your home. I once moved into an apartment for 3 months, since our house sold much sooner than we expected. This is what I did and I never regretted it! Put a few things out to make the house functional and fun for all of you, and work on your new home only.

[…] Dana at House Tweaking is in the process of selling her current home, moving to an apartment for three months while they finish revamping their new downsized home loveingly known as The Underdog.  Her goal?  To stop working in five years and not have a mortgage payment.  For more read here. […]

The place looks great for that in between housing you need. Nothing fancy, but like you said…at least it’s clean and bright…:)
I’m currently in DAY 5 of our move…*sigh*…I’m beginning to think I’m in hell and the punishment for my crimes is to move…forever…lol. But I can’t for the life of me think of WHAT I could have done that was so bad to banish me to moving hell…:( Anyways, on top of that…I broke my foot…moving…a bowling ball bag…with. 3. balls…NONE of which have seen the smooth wood of a lane in OVER 2 years. *ripping my hair out*. But the MAN…will NOT get rid of them. Just between you and me…*I’m glad the ball rolled down the driveway and slammed into his car*…shhhh…don’t tell…;)

I completely understand wanting to paint the apartment to add color and bring in little things to make it more “you”….but I agree with Kat. You’re only going to be there for a few short months, and the time is going to pass by so quickly, that it hardly seems worth it to put in a lot of effort on the place. A couple small things here and there (like changing the chandelier out) make sense, but I personally wouldn’t go too crazy with it. You’ll be changing everything back before you even realize it! I would put my time and energy into the new house.

Dawn – I think I’m in moving hell also! I can’t believe you’ve broken your foot during your move. That’s awful! Here’s to both of us hopefully being completely moved in a week or so???….

It NEVER fails that I’ll take a load of “haven’t been played with in months” toys to Goodwill and within one week my boys are asking for said toys. I just don’t get it!

You could think of it as being Zen. Actually when my life was hectic I had a undecorated bedroom – nothing on the walls at all! – and it was kinda nice to have one thing that was not complicated.
But did you know that you can use starch to stick fabric things to the walls? They’ll stick as long as you want, but peel off with no wall damage when you’re done. (yep, learned it in college)

It seems unbelievably wasteful to put money and energy into beautifying an interim apartment you’ll be staying in for only a short time. The more I read your blog, the more your excess has begun to bother me and I think this is my last visit to your blog.

Really? It’s necessary to improve a “too-high” light fixture that’s literally hung so high you wont even be able to see it when you’re sitting at the table? You find it important to waste money, time, and paint just to have a little color on your walls–even though you’ll be busy working and renovating a second home? Do you know how oil-soaked the product of latex paints is? We’ve hit peak oil, our economy is mired beyond redemption, and we have no way out, but you’re such a spendthrift you must be completely oblivious to those problems. It’s attitudes like this that drive the sins of consumerism–you’re downsizing and cutting costs with one hand and unabashedly wasting with the other. It’s all so very disgusting and irresponsible.

Good luck with your new home, I can see that you and I have too little in common for me to continue following your blog.

Dana,
Have recently moved from the temporary apartment. Definitely use paint to make place “feel” like home. We did have to re-prime, so with that I have a few tips…

Dont paint all the way to the baseboard, it will save time later of having to tape (again its temporary and you never really notice with furniture etc..Trust me when you have to move its so easy to not have to tape the bottom off. Find the smallest wall spaces and paint those to give the place color. Just painting those small areas first, you will see a huge difference!! End of hallway, below barstool area, one stripe across center for the kids rooms. I would use chalkboard paint in any of these places. It looks great against the “stark” white. (designer like) Add B/W family photos… $10.00 for a poster size at Costco Photo Center online. Ready the same day…
I used a single 12″ stripe of chalkboard paint in my sons room and was free to use chalk and large stencils to sketch their names, I changed it up for the holidays…HO HO HO at Christmas etc…it was FUN.. Mirrors with a great frame help give the plain apt a little “bling” and style.
Just take down the verticals and get a nice rod from WALMART…they have the best for the money…(Restoration Hardware like.. I used to work there)…but for a lot less. They have FAB drapes as well..doing this in the main area, really made the apt seem like a home because its where you spend ALL day living..))

Enjoy reading your blog…))

those globe lights make it all worth it! after a long hard day, just look up! :)
– {darlene}
fieldstone hill design {stop by anytime! oh, and new followers make me giddy. just sayin}

HA! Just saw the pics of your new, temporary apartment, and the layout is EXACTLY how my condo was laid out– the one we just sold, prior to moving into our “new” older house:

http://rehab2fab.blogspot.com

Kate – Wow. Sorry to disappoint you. I was simply pointing out easily fixable/budget-friendly ideas for making the apartment look a little less apartment-ish. Not that I will actually do all or any of them. Time will tell. I guess that’s just my Type A eye nit-picking at all the little flaws. The apartment will suit our needs for the next few months..whether I paint or re-hang lighting…and we are very grateful for that.

A home is a place of love, warmth, and security. With young children, this is even more true. During times of transition and unfamiliarity I feel that it is even of more importance to make those small but meaningful adjustments to one’s home whether it be temporary or not. We often have such little control on occurrences outside of our cozy nests it can do wonders to the spirit to see pieces of our creative selves reflected in the intimate surroundings of home. -K

I thought I was the only one that used the toothpaste…Love it!!!