Well, it's December. We even have a tree, which has only fallen over and destroyed ornaments once (#rookies), so I guess we're embracing the season. Which is pretty much how I do it, once I've resigned myself to winter's inevitability. But more on seasonal prep later in the week, once we put the tree back up (#betyouthinkI'mjoking). For now, let's take a little peak into our "progress" since we moved into this joint 28 days ago.

Ed Note: I planned to do the whole apartment today, but since I was my usual wordy, photo-heavy self, I ended up doing just the FOH (that's front of the house for any non-food service alums) today. Look for BOH/bedrooms tomorrow or Wednesday.

As a refresher, here's the floor plan I whipped up when we first moved in.

Feeling oriented? Great. Then let's start right where it makes sense - when you first enter our apartment.

You're forgiven if you don't at first see the progress here, but trust me, it's there. We've cleared out all the boxes and made the entry way a bit functional by using one of the two closets here as a coat closet of sorts. That closet is also being used for storage, so both for space reasons and to streamline the exit/entry process, we're going to keep some stuff out in the open. What you see in the progress shot is a foreshadow of what's to come. That's our stroller (the super compact Maclaran Mark II that I'm happy to wax poetic about if anyone wants), my yoga mat (admittedly more for show these days) and an umbrella sitting there against that little wall sliver. I should be known for my outsized plans by now, so here're my plans for that little sliver of wall:

1. Paint it. I'm thinking chalkboard paint because I have a problem, but who knows? I could go crazy and use a color.

2. Hang storage. I'm thinking a  small shelf and some type of key hooks for immediate drop off zone for mail and - you guessed it - keys.

3. Lay down entry rug and rug pad.

4. Figure out a shoe dropping point. We're a pretty strict shoe-taker-off family, as would be any sane individual who ever walked down the streets of Brooklyn/any city. I don't have a ton of space to work with here, so we're mostly keeping our shoes in our closets and carting them out when we leave, but we need a place to store them when we come in.

Okay, so that's the view from the front door. If you continue straight down the hall way, you pass another closet and a little nook that I was really excited about early in our tenure here.

When we first got here, I thought that nook would be the perfect little planning zone/chalkboard nook for Lou to hang in while I cooked. The storage space in this kitchen seemed so luxurious that I thought the nook would be free for doodling. It's not. We need it, especially for counter-space hogging items like toaster ovens. We bought two cheap Ikea shelves and stacked them, depth-wise, and stationed our small appliances there. We call it appliance purgatory. It's hideous right now, of course, but it'll get better. You may see the super exciting Vitamix box up top; that's our Christmas present from basically everyone we ever met (those puppies are expensive, if worth it), which I cannot wait to actually use. We'll get a microwave to add to it eventually; the tiny fridge you might spot at the bottom is a wine cooler. Do I have plans for this space? Sure.

1. Make it make sense. Get rid of the packaging, position appliances appropriately (like maybe move the toaster oven up from perfect-Lou height) and add microwave. Figure out storage for platters that are currently there because they're too big to fit anywhere else.

2. Consider space above the shelves. These shelves aren't that tall, so there's still some untapped wall space leading up to the ceiling.

3. I don't know. Paint? Add some sort of topper to the shelves to make them look less temporary/cheap/industrial? I have nothing against industrial though. I don't know. Something. Maybe nothing. I'm all ears if you have any thoughts.

Keep going past this nook and you're in the kitchen proper. It hasn't changed much since I posted about the dresser-come-kitchen island, but it has come along way since Day 1.

We finally made a big grocery shopping trip (at a discount store in New Jersey over Thanksgiving to save about one million dollars) and then discovered that we don't have quite that much food storage. Here are my plans to remedy that, and otherwise make the kitchen fantastic:

1. Hang a fruit basket. Those little fruit baskets that hang from the ceiling are so darn useful. They get the food off the counters and still keep it visible and accessible. And they're charming. I have one; I just need to hang it up correctly.

2. Consider some sort of temporary back splash. I have no pics of the actual working side of the kitchen, but as most have, there's a stretch for something interesting and protective on the wall between the counters and the cabinets. The paint is super flat, and so not conducive to wiping down, so I feel pretty free to experiment and see if we can find something cool and renter-friendly.

3. Source decent storage baskets for below the dresser island. The dresser sits pretty high up - 8 inches - so I want to maximize that underneath space in a neat way that provides some protection from floor grime. I've looked at some basked options and am on the hunt for bargain solutions. Will let you know what I find.

4. Hang a semi-private shade and a valance box. Our apartment looks out onto the roof of the building (it's weird) and there are people out there working more often than you might expect. We need some way to maintain privacy, and curtains aren't an option so close to the stove.

From the kitchen, you enter the family room.

Consider the kitchen "before" pic a family room "before" as well. We've made some pretty decent progress in here. I'm really happy with the main pieces; I think we've hewed pretty closely to the vision I laid out in our mood board. Of course, we are nowhere near done. Here's the to do list:

1. Curtains. See kitchen #4, above. We need a way to preserve privacy but still let the light shine in.

2. Art. Obviously. We have what appears to be an entire catalog of art, mostly made up of framed torn-out magazine pages, leaning against the walls in our hallway. The dearth in here isn't for lack of material to work with; it's just that art comes after furniture placement and all that jazz. So we'll get there.

3. Book placement. You can't quite tell in this picture, but we are being eaten alive by books in this room. Okay, I jest. But the books are double-deep in the bookshelves and the coffee table (which is an Ikea Kallax bookshelf on its side). We moved two bookcases into the dining room and I'm going to even out the book placement and maybe add in some non-book items to break up the shelves a bit.

4. Rug. We have chosen two final contenders (surprise! neither from our rug post!), and they should be here this week. Unfortunately, we stuck our ENORMOUS tree up right after I took these photos, so I'm not sure when the battle for final rug domination will take place. But stay tuned because we will need your votes.

5. Lamps. I love our little thrifted lamps, with (I think) lovely teal and blue flowers painted on them. They look comically small here, so I plan to replace them with some bigger lamps I loaned to my mom as soon as she's done with them.

And that, ladies and gent, is where we stand 28 days after moving in. It's really nice to start to feel like this place is home. Let me know what you think and we'll see you tomorrow!