spring cleaning to the extreme

On Friday we mentioned we were anxiously awaiting MDW in order to get a lot done around the apartment. Our apartment "ghosts" promptly responded by allowing the apartment to fall apart, and our list get longer. In case you missed it, we moved into this unit in our building 2 months ago, and waited until finals time to get done all the super fun stuff to make it more like home. If you want to see some of our apartment look at this post from our Favorite Things week.

Today we'll chat about what we got done around the house, and tomorrow we'll let you know how we took advantage of our first long NYC weekend!

On Thursday we went to Ikea. We'll admit this is one of the not-so-fun things about NYC. There are no big box stores close by. So we walked 10 minutes to the subway, took two subways for 20 minutes, then a 20 minute bus to Ikea of Brooklyn.

These are the strong feet of a man who carried a coffee table from Brooklyn

Once there, we purchased this awesome Hemnes coffee table. It really brought the room together. Because our apartment is black, white, grey and beige tones and very modern, Ikea was our best bet for an affordable coffee table. Who knew how necessary a coffee table was?!

The perfect size rug is tricky. We had a 6X9 area to fill, which is pretty large. We were expecting to have to spend a lot. But Law Student's mom recommended an outdoor rug. They are much cheaper and easier to clean (for example, when Havi threw up on the rug 5 hours after we laid it down). We also found this awesome Web site, Home Decorator's which had 20% off outdoor rugs and free shipping.

While at Ikea I could not resist, and picked up this corkboard for the kitchen. I recognize we have a magnetic fridge, but it holds our collection of magnets (we collect a magnet from every place we go together). So this corkboard is perfect for invitations and bills.

I also insisted on 2 flower pots and a watering can. Ill actually blame this on Two Pitties in the City and Love and a Six-Foot Leash, because they gave us ideas we couldn't resist to spruce up our balcony. We visited the Union Square Farmer's Greenmarket (more about that tomorrow) and purchased bright orange lillies and hot pink pentunias as well as compost soil for this awesome look.

This table and chair set were inherited from our last apartment via Target.

While we're on the balcony...Dental Student purchased a George Foreman grill on Amazon. Our old roomie had this in our old unit and we LOVED using it every night of summer. We're even hosting our first BBQ today! The only difference is this time we purchased a cover. We're really close to a major NYC highway and we don't want the grill getting yucky. We tend to eat in 6 meals a week, so this will be abused!

We bought these great Ikea lights that we mentioned during our Favorite Things Week. Unfortunately, because we hung them vertical, the lights burnt out super fast. While we were at Ikea we bought the halogen replacements and see a major difference!

On Saturday we painted the apartment. Havi insisted on holding the drop cloth...

We painted the wall behind our couch a deep grey and a smaller, adjacent wall with chalkboard paint. We headed with the pup over to Home Depot and bought Behr's Deep Granite in flat finish and Rust-Oleum chalkboard paint. Although paint chips are helpful, nothing beats seeing the actual color. We recommend spending the most time on the taping - its really the hardest part! Make sure to buy tarp. The chalkboard paint splatters easily and is very hard to get off all surfaces.

Havi wanted to model the before picture:

We kept Havi lounging on the balcony most of the day, because we were scared she'd get sick from the paint. We thought she had pretty sweet digs...

But she seemed to want to come in and help paint!

We still need to buy a few items around the house, but our next big project is hanging up our picture collage above the couch and our blinds - but that's for next week!

What's you spring cleaning routine?

peeps on parade!

We decided on a special Saturday post, to celebrate Peeps on Parade with Sarge over at Sarge Speaks Out, one of our favorite readers! We had to answer specific question to participate:

So here we go...

- Havi lives with the Dental and Law Student, just Two Grad Students and a Pittie living in NYC.

- Dental Student's special talent is playing the guitar, he even wrote a song for Law Student.

- Law Student makes scrapbooks of their fun adventures, and gave Dental Student his first one all about their fun times two years ago.

- Havi's favorite thing to do is lay on the bed and cuddle. She is a remarkably happier dog when all three of us are together.

- Something serious about the Dental and Law Student is they hope to be debt free one day! We both worked before this; Law Student for Publicis, a communications firm, and Dental Student for a UConn research lab. So this whole debt thing is new and scary!

- Something funny about the Dental and Law Student is that they met on Valentine's Day. They were at a mutual friend's birthday that they had both known for 5 years! When they met in a bar they were both applying to graduate schools outside of NYC and were both living in the suburbs. As fate would have it, 6 months later they both attended NYC schools and moved into apartments 2 Avenues apart. We like to say our relationship is "beshert" - the Hebrew word for fate.

And here's our very first threepeasinapod pic, the day we adtopted Havi! Thanks for the fun, Sarge!

MDW kickoff

Well Memorial Day Weekend is here! We were always pretty psyched for this weekend to finish up the little things around the apartment we never got to when we moved in. We planned to paint, hang up some more pictures, and switch around some furniture.

Well, apparently our apartment knew of our plans because over the past week...

Our floor buckled:

Our bedroom picture fell off the wall:

Our blinds broke:

So we get to add these items to the list!

We plan to do a lot of fun stuff with the apartment and a lot of fun NYC stuff with Havi and cannot wait to update you on Monday! As excited as we get about NYC weekends in the summer, we forgot to mention one small thing. We love NYC weekends because were the only New Yorkers who actually stay in the city. "True" New Yorkers head to Fire Island, the Shore, and the Hamptons and escape the concrete jungle. This is actually our favorite part of a NYC summer! As "true" New Yorkers, we get the city all to ourselves...just threepeasinapod and cant wait to share our adventures!

all leashed up

Oops! Forgot to publish this yesterday!

A few weeks ago Dental Student relayed this story to me:

He was walking Havi by the park attached to our building when he ran into a dog walker with two little pups. Havi played briefly with the pups and then Dental Student walked away. Then Havi heard the dog walker yell "please, stop." Dental Student turned around to see a man trying to take the small pups from the dogwalker! He went over and asked what was going on. The man starting exclaiming that these were his wife's pups. The dogwalker shook her head wide-eyed. Dental Student and the dogwalker stood inside the park and called the dog owner and the police. The police took the man and Dental Students statement and walked away. This week, the District Attorney's office called Dental Student to state they were most likely pressing charged for attempted grand larceny! At first we thought this was silly, but then we realized how upsetting this must have been for the woman - we were certainly disturbed by it!

Dental Student and I started talking about all the pups around the city who are tied up outside restaurants and stores and how easy it is to steal them. As dog friendly as most of NYC is, sometimes they do prohibit dogs. Recently, our laundry room and local CVS placed "no pets allowed" signs outside their doors. While we certainly understand that not all people are pup lovers, we would much rather just not take Havi on these errands than leave her outside. In the course of a mere 2 minute errand, your pup could be taken, a lose dog could attack your leashed up pup, or a little kid may taunt her.

Additional pit bull food for thought: this event made us realize Havi would make the WORST guard dog, as she happily licked the man trying to steal the little pups. Yes, pit bulls are oh so scary!

walking gear

Continuing on our theme of how great it is to live with a big dog in a small apartment on a budget...

We love reading other blogs and getting great ideas about pup products. We got to use some of our favorite ones on our walk this weekend!

When we first rescued Havi she was well-trained in some areas and not so much in others. After a full month of my arm almost falling off, and Havi's unaffected nature regarding the choke collars, we tried the Gentle Leader. Havi was immediately a better walker, but there was a negative result. Havi was in extreme pain from the leash around her nose, her fur started rubbing away, she would plop down pawing at her nose, and run when we took her leash out. Some friends in the building with another awesome pit recommended the Easy Walk Pet Harness. Havi loves it! She walks like a perfect angel, and is no longer in pain. The major difference is the Easy Walk Pet Harness is that it pulls more from the chest, as opposed to the nose/snout area. Our persistence with making Havi walk on our left side and sit at corners/when she meets new friends in addition to the Harness has made her the ultimate walking companion!

We bought this water bottle on a recommendation from SIL, and love it! The Pet Crew Handi Drink is a water bottle we clip onto our belt and fill with water at any restaurant. The blue part acts as a bowl to capture the water.

We originally wanted the Ruff Wear Palisades Backpack after two different bloggers chatted about it. But we settled for the cheaper Stansport Saddlebag for Dogs. It makes Havi more approachable, gives her a job, tires her out, and she carries her OWN food and ball!

What fun walking gear do you have?!

bath time!

Since we started off the week with a post of fun things to do in NYC with a pup, we thought we'd continue that routine. We ran into our old neighbors this weekend, three great guys who said they really wanted a dog, but they would feel bad about her being cramped in the apartment all day. This made us a little sad, because we think of how many great dogs need to be rescued and how many great owners are out there who are hindered by this false impression that pups are cramped in the apartment. Besides the fact that Havi lives in our small 1-bedroom with us, she gets plenty of exercise and socialization. We have the added factor of being on a tight budget. We started this blog to let people know its easy to have a big dog in a small apartment on a budget!

In order to tire Havi out even more after a long day of NYC walking on Saturday, we gave her a bath! Havi is not a big fan of the bath, but she doesnt complain. She kind of just, gives in.

To save money we wash her in our own bathtub using our detachable showerhead. It makes giving a bath pretty easy; Dental Student usually sits on the end of the tub while washing her down with Medicated Oatmeal & Tea Tree Tropiclean Shampoo.

While we dry her off we moisturize her paws with Musher's Secret All-Season Paw Protection and squirt some prescription ear wash in her ear (she HATES that).

Lastly, we use the Kong Zoom Groom to pick up any fur.

What's your bath routine like, anything we're missing?

As far as our budget goes, were Amazon junkies. You can get almost anything on Amazon, cheaper! We signed up for Amazon Prime, a membership program that gives your account FREE two-day shipping and $3.99 for one-day shipping on all eligible purchases for a yearly fee of $79. The best part is, if you have a student email address you get a year free, the $79 is waived! We are using Dental Students account this year, then will sign mine up for next year so we get two free years! As we understand it, this works for teachers as well - as long as you have an email address that ends in .edu! ENJOY!

hester street fair, random parades, and yummy food

The Grad Students couldn't wait to take advantage of our first free weekend in our favorite city! Havi was especially excited for the adventure! There was a dual purpose to our Saturday: have fun and tire the pup out! There were three options for fun this weekend. The NYC Pet Show, Madison Square Park hosted the Delta Dugout Fair, and the Hester Street Fair.

We decided to walk on down to the Hester Street Fair. From where we live, it is about an hour walk to NYC's East Village. Street Fairs are Dental Student's favorite part of any summer and we couldn't wait to check this one out with its gourmet eateries.

The walk downtown in the 70 degree heat was exhausting for our puppy, it was her first time experiencing our long city walks. We had to stop many times to hydrate her...

She even plopped down a few times midwalk in her famous pig on a stick formation,

The best part of a NYC walk are the fun things you pass.

Like this mural dedicated to a beloved pup...

An outdoor radio station...

And squirrels running around...

Once we got to the fair, Law Student had a Shrimp Roll from Luke's Lobster and Dental Student had a Pulled Pork Sandwich. The best part was the homemade lemonade and eating in the grassy area with the pup.

When we had enough we decided to walk back home, and found some pretty awesome NYC sites.

This well-trained pup is obviously a sales associate at this shop.

We found an improptu fashion show hosted by the LES Business Owners.

And the old tenament district in NYC . (Law Student is a history buff, so this was fun for her).

On our walk back uptown we ran into a parade of nations on St. Marks! Havi seemed to like Brazil!

Then we found another fabulous street fair where we got mozarella sticks and sausage.

We sat down in Union Square Park for some shade and to enjoy our food find when we ran into some friends! (NYC isn't as big as it seems) Havi took this opportunity to find some shade and rest.

There, they told us that Ralph's, a famous New York Ices shop opened up, so we had to check it out!

We were tired and very full. We chatted about how the best part of NYC isn't the thing you planned to see, but the things you see along the way! On Sunday Havi visited M, a fellow Dental Schooler while the Grad Students headed to Long Island for a graduation party. She was tired and happy to visit a new, fun place! How was your weekend? Any suggestions for us to do next weekend?!

P.S. A special thanks to Patty over at Life With Sophie for the Versatile Blogger Award...Havi's blushing!

eek!

We didn't realize two whole days had gone by since our last post! Dental Student finishes up his last final today at 4:00PM. We are celebrating with dinner at one of my favorite sushi restaurants, Amber, by using a deal site coupon via LivingSocial. There are three locations across New York City, so we definitely recommend it!

To make up for missing two whole posts this week, we will spend the weekend updating our blog with inspiration from A & A Friese, Twenty-Six to Life, and Maisie and Me.

Wednesday I went to a great restaurant with my family, Rare, which serves superb hamburgers and fun dipping sauces for french fries. We then headed into the Theater District to see Billy Elliot - the dancing was outrageous! At night I went with Havi's Favorite Babysitter to see Bridesmaids, def worth the movie ticket. Thursday the cleaning continued and then I saw Something Borrowed, which was just as cute - love Kate Hudson!

We love reading, and especially love GoodReads. GoodReads is a social media site for book lovers, you can list books you've read, want to read, and recommend and comment on other's picks. I just finished up Book of Joe, by Jonathan Tropper. He's a fun easy to read author, I would definitely recommend. He explores the normal idiosyncrasies of everyday families. I just started Augusten Borrow's Running With Scissors. Dental Student is dedicated to reading the classics. Have fun recommendations? Friend us on GoodReads, or check it out, or leave some ideas in the comments!

Have a great weekend and hope you look forward to Monday's post, where we may have an updated blog, and find out why Dental Student had a voicemail from the District Attorney's office today!

rainy tuesday!

Just in time for us to finish up finals...there will be a full week of rain in NYC. This was not what Havi had in mind, but she probably didn't have in mind what happened last night, either.

Both Dental and Law Student usually spend about 14 hours a day studying during finals. When I get home I usually spend an hour unwinding by reading and writing this blog before I go to bed. So after Dental Student and I had celebratory margaritas with Favorite Study Partner, at Caliente Cab Co. last night, we came back home to do laundry. That may seem like a weird thing to do when you're finally free, but after 6 weeks of nothing but 14 hours straight of studying, a lot of laundry piles up. We did 7 loads of laundry until we finally had clean underwear. While the laundry was in the machine we finally got a chance to organize our 2 dressers and 2 closets from when we first moved in. We moved in 7 weeks ago, and as we mentioned our 10 family members were SO helpful. But for the last 7 weeks nothing was exactly where we wanted it to be (ie the bathing suits were in front of the jeans, not that conducive to getting dressed).

While we were cleaning we remembered how much Havi LOVES to help out around the house...

Hope she can help out today when I clean out the kitchen (Im scared of the expired food Ill find), the pantry closets, and her trunk (she may like that best)!

In other news we have 51 followers, thanks everyone, super cool!

Lastly, we'll bug you everyday this week. We're not big contesters, we never win anything, but we've been needing a new collar/leash for Havi for quite some time and have been shopping on Etsy and Sirius Republic. Sirius Republic (a brand that makes leashes, collars, and dog tags and has an awesome blog and Facebook) is having a contest about Togetherness, and we obviously entered! If you feel like helping us out, hop over to Sirius Republic's Facebook Page. "Like" it, then "Like" the picture of the the Three Peas in A Pod (aka Two Grad Students and a Pittie) so that we can win a coveted collar and dog tag from this great company. If we win, you get to vote to help us pick the one we want!