Fabric Wallpaper

If I had my way, I would purchase rolls of temporary wallpaper from domesticate's shop on Spoonflower and go crazy with color and design.  Alas, those rolls are $60 each and . . . I really in no way have that kind of money.  There are, however, alternatives for renters in search of ways to put temporary color and pattern on the walls.  Sometimes those options can be pretty affordable.  

I decided to go with hanging fabric on the walls.  I was especially intrigued by the idea of using fabric starch to adhere fabric to the walls.  Starch is supposed to work as wallpaper paste, but release cleanly.  

That is totally not what I did in my test case-our hallway linen closet.

I have no idea whether liquid starch is easy to come by in Savannah or not.  I didn't even look for any.  As I may have mentioned before, our apartment is painted with flat paint.  I can't clean the walls without leaving marks so I was not willing to take any chances with liquid anything.  Plus, that was way too many steps.

I decided to go with tools and materials I had on hand--some batik from my fabric stash and my handy staple gun.  I can not remember why or when I bought this batik but I am 90% certain it came from JoAnn's.

It took maybe a yard and a half to do the closet interior.  I washed and pressed the fabric first, then measured my walls and cut pieces to fit.  Why yes that is Bushido Brown.

I removed each shelf and stapled as close to the edge of the fabric as possible.  I was worried that the staples would show at first, but the print does a great job distracting the eye.

On a side note, removing the shelves (they aren't attached to anything-they just rest on these supports) uncovered all kinds of gross goodies from previous tenants.  As you can see, this spray paint job they did in this apartment is . . . . not that thorough at all.

Measuring and trimming before stapling was by far the easiest way to do the whole project.  If you look up the process on the web, you'll probably see pictures of a straight edge and a box cutter or something to trim the excess edges.

That . . .  is utter bullshit.  The razor blade trim method worked-but not at all well.  Just measure, trim, and staple.  Then stand up and decide it looks good enough from your regular point of view.

Overall, I was pleased with how my fabric wallpaper test run turned out.  This was essentially a zero dollar upgrade since I used stuff I already had and did not purchase anything especially for the project.

So pleased, in fact, that I got really ambitious.  More on that later.

Feathering the Nest: Ephemera Walls

I have been working really hard at living in Savannah and trying to like it.  

Sometimes this feels impossible in an apartment covered in flat paint (!) in what looks like a custom shade of dingy white that has been aging ungracefully since the seventies.  I'm making peace with living in Savannah and I am making peace with living in our apartment by slowly, very slowly, living in it.  (Groundbreaking!)  

Seriously-in many ways, our apartment is just a place we sleep in, briefly, before getting back on the road to somewhere and something else.  It isn't a place we draw any particular joy or comfort from.  It isn't a place we want to spend much time in.  These are ideal attributes for places that discourage loiterers.  It's not what you want from your home.

Focusing more time and attention on feathering the nest is slowly starting to change that.

My favorite inexpensive decoration in our place is the ephemera wall.  The calendar I use to keep track of our various work schedules was looking a little lonely.  Leftover pushpins, a $3 box of small binder clips from Target, and various photos, postcards, art work, and paper ephemera has made for an interesting, colorful, and ever-growing display.  It is also relatively low damage-all of this stuff is hung with pushpins.  (Cause I just don't give a f&*$@)  You could just as easily use poster putty or sticky tak-the less gangsta and more rental-friendly option.  (Fun fact: I actually have an unopened package of sticky tak in the same drawer I got the pushpins from.  I am HARDCORE)

My favorite pieces are my stepson's watercolor drawing of a bat, the Arkansas sticker which I loved so much I included it twice, and the card from an old school library card catalog.  It's from a Ted Dekker book.  Never read him.  From the details on the card, probably won't.  I just love the nostalgia factor.

I also love the Fannie Lou Hamer print and quote.  It's not really visible in this image, but this print is just a color copy of a pin from Pinterest.  11x17 posters are available for purchase from the original website and I am going to replace my bootleg version with the real deal.  It's just too good.  The quote says, ""Sometimes it seem like to tell the truth today is to run the risk of being killed. But if I fall, I'll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom. I'm not backing off."

"I'm not backing off."  Damn right.

Relocation Files: The Saga Continues

What is up with the Savannah rental market?  

We have been actively looking for an apartment in this city since August.  We did, in fact, find a location that was convenient to Wes' job in our price range.  We were not able to tour a model or set foot in an actual apartment.  The leasing agent did email pictures.  After a month of (expensive) weekend trips to the city for the purpose of apartment hunting, we were willing to take the risk.  We put in an application (and paid a fee) that was approved.  

That apartment never materialized.  We were eventually offered the model, an apartment that was not even available for touring until November.  A move in date was never offered.  I recently received a call from the leasing agent that another apartment-not the one we were originally promised, and not the one we toured-would be available soon.  Again, no move in date was offered.   

Due to a series of unfortunate events, Wes and I were not able to continue playing this particular waiting game.  Despite numerous red flags, we stubbornly clung to this one not-so-great prospect.  Why?  Well, there's this.

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That is a rental posting for a camper in someone's yard-for the very reasonable price of $600.00 a month.

Now, I'm not hating on the living in a camper scenario per se.  Just a few days ago Wes and I were giving real consideration to the possibility of living in our car.  What I am hating on is the fact that there is a very real market for capitalizing on people's fear of living on the East Side of this city.  No one is paying $600.00 a month to live in a camper.  They are paying $600.00 a month to live on the South Side, specifically because it is not the East Side.

So what's wrong with the East Side?

As far as I can tell, as a recent transplant to the area, the East Side is where you live if you don't intend or want to live long.  Basically, people act as if you will be instantaneously murdered if you live on the East Side. 

I bet you know where this is going.  

Wes and I are moving to the East Side.

We found a decent two bedroom in a quiet complex that we qualified for, with courtesy officers living on site, an efficient leasing office, and immediate availability.  We toured it  applied, were approved, forked over the security deposit, arranged our utilities, and set a move in date-all within 48 hours.

I really hope we won't be murdered.

I'm being facetious.  While we weren't quite as diligent in our background research, we did take precautions before moving forward with the application.  First, we only found this place through a referral from a former tenant.  We scoped out the neighborhood at varying times.  We also hunted up apartment ratings and reviews. 

This weekend I decided to go further and check out the real estate market in the neighborhood and stumbled upon a nice feature on Trulia.  Crime overlays!

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This is an overview of the entire city of Savannah.  The green areas are low crime areas and the red areas are . . . uh, not.  This view incorporates all crime while this view . . . 

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. . .  shows only violent crime.  Menacing, right?  Again, red=get the fuck out of dodge.

Shall we take a gander at the coveted South Side?

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Looks pretty good-but of course, there are still some areas of concern.

Now, the East Side neighborhood Wes and I are moving to is barely included on this image-don't worry, it's mostly green.

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Looks a lot more alarming than the South Side right.  Now take a closer look at this. . . . 

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This is a closeup of that bloody area on the left with listing prices of available real estate.  How much does it cost to live in crime infested East Side Savannah also known as the Historic District?  You could buy a place for 1.5 mil.  

Seriously-what is up with this housing market?

Relocation Files: Dreaming Medium

Today Wes and I toured what I sincerely hope will be our home before Thanksgiving.  It is a two bedroom town home with a horrible paint job, minuscule "patio", and tiny kitchen in a "mixed-income apartment community." But, the rent is affordable, it is in the right neighborhood, no one has been murdered there for at least a couple of years, and it has a dishwasher which would mean our marriage could actually survive.  

Beyond that. . . . I just really need this to happen.  As it is, we both spend a little over two hours on the road on days that we work and most of that driving is done in the unrelenting darkness of South Carolina.  It also goes without saying that living with parents who are not one's own is a very special variety of hell wherein strangers become much too familiar with one's bathroom habits.

I'm not saying this place is "the one," but I am cautiously optimistic. 

Actually what I'm saying is that there would have to be an actual, decomposing body for me to pass on another place in our price range.  And this close to Halloween, my psyche might let me get away with passing even that off as an elaborate Halloween hoax. 

So . . . .