in the beginning...

The end is a good beginning, or so they say in melodramatic movies.  In my case, it is the only place I can think to start so starting there is the only option.

Our previous apartment was itty-bitty.  Like 800 square feet and over a garage, little.  I know it isn't the smallest place anyone has ever lived.  I've seen episodes of Lockup, I know there is smaller.  But it still presented some spacial challenges that we had to work through in order to make it comfortable.  We lived there for three years and when we decided to move I was just beginning to feel like it was almost the home I'd envisioned it could be when we first saw it in the nude.

The problem with rentals -or one of the problems, anyway- is that the owners don't generally like you mucking about with their property.  Understandable, I guess, but kind of sucky when you really want to change something.  Our previous landlady didn't want us painting.  This was pretty ok as she generally had pretty good taste in interior design but I would have loved to paint the fireplace a different color.  Never happened and so it stayed that blue-grey during our tenure.

Most of the stuff in the living room we bought at thrift stores or flea markets and refinished ourselves.  Except for the couch and the plant.  The couch is the Brown Beast and the plant is Plelvis, The Plant Elvis, for future reference.  Love Plelvis but hate The Beast.  The only things The Beast has going for it are that its relatively impervious to stains and that it is incredibly comfortable to sleep on.  Two things that has saved it on numerous occasions.

Grandma's teak wall-unit.  My love.  They say you can't take material things with you when you die but this is coming with me.  I swear it.  The Beast can stay.

Our admittedly boring bedroom.  I made up for it in the kitchen though.  Did you see the felt pot-holder squirrels on the wall?  Who's kitschy?  Me, that's who.

Cloffice.  The Closet-Office.  Too small for an office, too big for a closet.  An in-between freak of a room, which made it nearly unusable for anything but storing random nonsense.

Rarely does a shower ever get as adorable and full of cuteness as one with an arch.  I miss that shower. Come back to me shower, come back.

Off-brand dandruff shampoo not so cute.