Tour of the Apartment

So Tanner's friend Jon and his new wife Rae spent the night last night. We had dinner at Perly's, across the street, drank scotch and chatted. Tanner made pancakes this morning from scratch. It was a short, but really nice visit.

To get ready I finally dusted, and generally decided the house was as unpacked and clean as it was going to get. So I took photos for a photo tour.

Front door, the ghosts are not up anymore, we were the only house decorated for Halloween. Our neighbor left us a little card, wishing us a happy Halloween and letting me know she liked our decorations, it was really sweet.

First thing you see when walking in. The whole layout is a little strange. To the left is the kitchen

This drives me nuts. The door meets the floor so firmly, we can't actually have the gun sitting where you walk in, so it sits just beyond the door. 

Tanner's awesome 2001 poster, his parents gave us. It doesn't sit flat on the wall, which is annoying. Also, we realized most of our art is black, weird. 

There is a big column, behind the crab tank, so dead space next to the door. Right now we have a chair acting as a little table for keys, grocery bags and things. 

The rest of the living room. Tanner put up the fabric wall hangings, the proportion is wrong, they are too far apart. Drives me nuts. I need to fix them. We don't have room for a coffee table or anything else. 

Fewer books and toys, but still some

Family photos are up above the TV

The stuff under the TV is so organized, good job  Callista. The left basket is full of Craig's toys and paper bags and things already 

 The other side of the front door, the closet has the water heater, and very little storage. It is a weird triangle shape. We have our camping stuff in there, so shoes in front.

Kitchen ceiling is lower and the light is so annoying. I've got it all organized and we barely fit. 

Apartment sized stove, very tiny. The dishwasher is also tiny, and doesn't work very well, I have been doing all the dishes by hand. 

The wall between the kitchen and bathroom has a little bar thing. It's like table height. Super awkward. We made it work. 

Tanner's office is in the living room. Which really is not ideal. But there wasn't anywhere else to put the table, for when he decides to study at home while I work in the bedroom, since I have to be on the phones. 

Photos above the office and in the walls between the bedroom and living room. 

I covered the boxes in fabric, we needed the storage, somehow under the cupboard is full of cleaning stuff, the extra cat littler, I guess we have a ton of bathroom stuff, weird. 

For now the windows between the bedroom and living room have fabric tacked up. That was mostly so our guests could have some privacy, they slept in the living room. I don't know what we want long term. When Tanner is up late studying, I like the little bit of darkness it provides. But the plain blue is boring. 

Scotch, towels and the one box of stuff we just can not find room for. 

Cat tower! It used to reach up to the ledge between the living room and bedroom. There are holes cut inside, so he climbs up the inside.  Craig liked it up there, but would only jump down, not climb down the tower. I worried that was too big a jump and bad for his joints. So it is short fat tower now, he does like it and climbs all the way to the top. 

Our new bedframe! The old box spring is still hanging out. We need to get rid of it. But now Craig climbs up it and sleeps above us, which is so cute, I am having a hard time getting rid of it, even though it is really ugly. There are also boxes we kept behind the headboard. We pretty much decided we won't renew the lease next summer. 

The new bed has drawers all the way underneath, and headboard to foot board, there is a drawer past this one not open. They pull all the way out. So it gave us a lot of storage. Obviously this stuff needs organized. But we really like the bed!

My office. I work at what used to by my sewing table, which sucks. But the height is best, so I sit with good posture, etc. And I get to look out the window. 

The big alcove, behind the closet, it is a like a mini bedroom off the bedroom. I have all my craft stuff where I can use it. But obviously it could look better. 

Closet, yes that is all dirty. We have to buy quarters to do laundry. When I went to the bank  on Saturday they told me they were out of quarters!!! I am still so mad. You had one job bank!! To let me buy money!

And now out from the bedroom back to the front door. 

Bonus photos of the view!

 So we have been watching them install windows in the giant, creepy, art deco building. It used to be all plywood. You can see the top five floors still are. They have gotten a ton of brick work done as well as the windows. We read that is has been empty for more than 10 years. It used to be a bank headquarters. They are turning it into apartments. There are still vacancies in this building. I have no idea how they are going to fill up this giant building in this neighborhood. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

I am going to grow cute grasses that Craig can eat, but I need to go get some dirt. This window has a screen, so we leave it open a lot, the other does not. When the sun sets the light shines off of these buildings, so they are pink and golden.