So David (and I) are moving up in the world now and we have a whopping 200 sq ft office with $1k to FAB this place out! TINYhr is a fledgling company with still many biz goals to achieve, so I couldn’t really complain about our $1k budget.

This is it!

This is the place, and we’ve never been so eggcited! It’s like renting your very first place when you graduated from college and found that studio apartment for $500 bucks! Ahhh…how it brings back memories…

After a 2 year hiatus from design projects, it’s all coming back to me. I was running around King County like a chicken with my head cut off to look at the latest furniture designs for sofas, lighting, flooring, accessories, and after two days of pounding the pavement I finally came to one conclusion – I don’t have enough money. But conquer this enemy, I must. So here we go…

Craigslist, eBay and the AS-IS section at Ikea is my friend.

I’ve been shamelessly lowballing offers on Craigslist and got some awesome $40 chairs for $13.30 each and found a Boconcept sofa for $450. I also picked up this table from IKEAs AS-IS section. Man, this is a lot of manual labor… the staging is all coming back to me now.

Free is the best price

In a city full of startups and changing companies (for better or for worse), there’s always office furniture people want to get rid of. We got a few hand-me-downs desks and chairs from some friends.

I ordered some lighting today off eBay and have to bid on some posters in a few days.

lunch table – $109
6 chairs – $80
sofa – $450
bookcase storage – $70
lighting sconces – $80
lighting chandelier – $160
desks and chairs – Free
coffee table – free
labor and design – priceless

subtotal is $949 and I didn’t even pay tax on most of this 2nd hand stuff.

I have yet to buy art and small accessories… I’ll be searching through goodwill and grabbing things from our home. aiya!

When I was on my careercation, my friend, Joe Heitzeberg, knew I liked to do races (1/2 marathons, marathons, and Olympic distance triathlons), and hit me up to sign up for the Seattle Tough Mudder. I believe I was in Sydney at the time and shrugged, “why not?” I thought it would be a good goal to train for and to get back in shape after six-months of traveling.

Unfortunately, I got really sick on my trip and then just let myself go eating yummy food and not exercising. But when I saw the videos for Tough Mudder – I was shocked (knowing that I would be literally shocked)! I knew I had to get my butt in gear. I didn’t know what a burpee was and those monkey bars that kids fly by…I felt like my shoulder was going to get wrenched out! Not to mention the even more challenging rings. Continue reading →