(That post title is more relevant than you think…our first apartment actually was in an old school!)
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Recently our laptop broke, and as I was transferring all our photos over to the new computer I noticed I had a bunch of pictures of our apartment in NY. I thought ya’ll might be interested to see, so here we go! This is the outside of our building. It’s an old converted schoolhouse in a tiiiiny village a few miles outside of Fort Drum.
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Wait a second, that picture is totally inaccurate – here is a different one…..
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That’s better.
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This wasn’t actually our first apartment, we lived in one in San Antonio for a few months (where we are both from) right after we were married and before Adam joined the Army. I don’t have any pictures of that one though, not that you would want to see any. It was empty and white and looked like a bachelor (or two newlyweds with no money) lived there.
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Anyway, each classroom in this schoolhouse was turned into an apartment. I know what your thinking right now, your thinking that a classroom is pretty small. That’s right it is – 350 square feet to be exact. It was also cheap…$350 a month including utilities. Score! We lived there for three years (05-08).
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Enough with the talk…let’s see some pictures!
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I really really wish I had before pictures, but I don’t. Just picture white nothingness :)
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Here is the view when you first walked in…
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The walls look really bare, this was taken right after I finished painting and got our stuff in there. I know this because that TV broke and got thrown away about 4 seconds after we moved in. Eventually I hung some stuff on the walls, like this horseshoe cross made by my mom and brother….
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and this painting I did (now in my laundry room)….
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Here are some more pics of the living room…
BTW, It was totally against the rules to paint this apartment. I know cause I asked….and then painted anyway. No way was I going to live in a white apartment – especially when it was white outside eight months out of the year!
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Here is the dining room nook wall. The whole apartment was basically one room, but I painted the dining area a different color to make it feel separate.
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Across from the dining “area” was the kitchen…which I have no pictures of. The best I can do is this picture of me holding up some gifts for a friends baby shower (circa 2008)….
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Gotta love manila laminate cabinets!
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Next up we have the bathroom. If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time then you will know that this bathroom if sooo not me. I avoid red and black in my home like the plague. I just wanted to have some fun with it – the door was always closed anyway. And I didn’t want to paint it.
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Brace yourself.
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I lovingly called it my “Hooker Bathroom”.
My husband is a good sport.
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This takes us to the final room, our bedroom. The tiniest bedroom ever created.
I went beachy in this room…
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Yup, that’s basically the whole room – the bed stuffed in the corner and 2-3 feet on either side. My husband always said the it “kept the love in”, haha.
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Since the room was so small, I tried to make it feel larger by accentuating the fact that it had tall ceilings (well, half the room did anyway).
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And here’s the foot of the bed. That, my friends, is a sweet 12 inch TV. That’s is the only TV we had the whole time we lived there. It didn’t get any channels actually, but we could watch movies.
Wanna hear something crazier than that? Adam and I were talking the other day and realized that we didn’t even own a computer for the first two years of our marriage. I couldn’t even imagine that now….what did we do in our spare time? Wait, don’t answer that.
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And that’s the whole apartment. No garage, no balcony, no nothing.
I forgot to tell you my favorite part of this apartment though (that is dripping with sarcasm, by the way)…
taking the dang dog out to pee! It went a little something like this…
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Pretzel would whine at the door. I’d ignore her to make sure she was serious. Thirty minutes later Pretzel would really whine at the door and I’d start putting on my layers. We’d walk out the the building entrance and this is what I would see….
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The snow was too deep for her to walk in, so I would pick her up and hurl her out into the whiteness while yelling “go potty Pretzel!”
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She would frolic around for about ten seconds then stand there looking pathetic while my teeth chattered.
“Dang it Pretzel, GO POTTY! It’s freakin 18 below out here…HURRY UP!”
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*More pathetic looks*
Then I would continue on with stuff I probably shouldn’t put on a blog, and she would start to whine because her feet were cold….
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Then we would go inside and sure enough, thirty minutes later…
At least she was good company during deployments!
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Anyway, hope you enjoyed my little blast from the past!
Melissa F says
November 2, 2011 at 9:43 pmIt's very charming! It looks like you made the most of the small space!
Rachel W K says
November 2, 2011 at 9:56 pmlol!! I love this post! I am always so intrigued by what people do with their super small spaces, it looks like a very cozy space! I have to be honest, living in a school house sounds so awesome, but my first thought seeing your picture was of “The Shining”… I hope no ax murderers lived there haha. And poor Pretzel!!!
-rachel w k
rwkrafts.blogspot.com
Cottonwood Tales says
November 3, 2011 at 2:42 pmLove this post and love love your blog….you made me giggle on a bad day of work !
Have a great day,
Karen in Texas
~The Bargain Babe says
November 6, 2011 at 12:33 amYou did a great job fixing up that apartment. And I love your story about hurling pretzel into the snow. ha. We had a dacshund when I was a kid and my dad always had to shovel her a little path or she'd get lost in the snow (not like she went out without a path. Dog was stubborn and sassy)
Ellie says
March 5, 2013 at 10:23 pmMy son has that very VW sign that is hanging above your stove in your apartment!
Hilary says
April 15, 2013 at 2:10 pmOh goodness that is a small apartment :) you definitely made the most of the space. I could never imagine living somewhere with so much snow. The most I have ever seen is about an inch, maybe two.
Ashley says
April 15, 2013 at 11:11 pmYes, It was crazy tiny. Moving from Texas to Northern New York was a HUGE change and I can’t say I miss the snow. Well, if it would snow for like a week at Christmas that would be great, but nearly 8 months of it was torture.
Jacque @theDIYvillage says
April 15, 2013 at 2:33 pmHoly cow I thought that was a tween neighbor! You look SO young!
Ashley says
April 15, 2013 at 11:09 pmHaha…thank you! Thank you? It really wasn’t that long ago, that was 2008. You know what it is..I hadn’t had kids yet. Being well rested and having time to shower will do wonders, haha. BTW, your pantry….awesome. Seriously awesome.
Leanne H. says
April 15, 2013 at 3:06 pmI remember reading this post when you first wrote it, haha. Those Pretzle pics are so cute! And I love that you just hurled her into the snow. Pretty funny.
KateP says
April 15, 2013 at 11:09 pmLove it! Brought back so many good memories! -Kate Phillips :)
Fatcatpaulanne says
July 22, 2013 at 11:07 amI laughed so hard at the pictures of Pretzel in the snow.
:-)
catherine m. says
September 9, 2013 at 11:17 amThis makes me laugh so hard. We just left Fort Drum and I didn’t believe that they really would get that much snow with us coming from Texas, but my eyes were opened. lol
Ashley says
September 10, 2013 at 8:17 pmSeriously, the amount of snow was insane! I don’t miss it at all…well, maybe a little around Christmas :)
erika says
October 28, 2013 at 10:25 pmThis is a blast from the past!! my husband was stationed at Drum too! 07-10 and our first apartment was an old school that had been converted into apartments in Natural Bridge. i used lose my dogs in the snow too! my beagle loved it but my chihuahua was just too much of a Florida dog :)
Ashley says
October 31, 2013 at 9:07 pmYes, I know Natural Bridge! I’d never seen a school converted into apartments until we moved up to Drum.
Jamie says
March 13, 2015 at 3:47 amI honestly laughed out loud when I read your description of taking your dog to the toilet in the snow. My husband had to come and see what I was laughing about. :)
Kelly says
April 21, 2015 at 10:36 pmLove this. Im in Syracuse, Ft Drum is about an hour away. I know all that snow well with my two dogs! Ha ha. This winter was brutal! I found your blog through your penny counter top and been here an hour now! LOL
CaroleM says
February 13, 2016 at 12:35 pmI love what you did with the REALLY small apartment! Awesome job! I think I would have broken some rules, too, with painting it some COLORS ~ LoL Hubby and I have always made our homes “US”, too . . . working on a total re-do at this time (maybe our final home??), total square feet 784! :>D You’ve given me incentive to go back to my old blog and start posting our remodeling of this little project! (I would have gone stir-crazy with a total PEACHY colored house! But LOVE what you and your hubby did with your house so far!)
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