Our new place

 

I've included photos of our new place here, and then at the end, I talk about how we flipped a coin and ended up in this apartment, rather than the originally-planned townhome.  You can feel free to skip that part, but I wanted to record it.  :-)

I snapped some photos last night after my mom came over and hung more things on the wall.  

They'd been leaning against the wall since we moved two weeks ago, and I'd kind of gotten used to them.  But if they're just sitting there, wouldn't they be better up on the wall?  I think so!

We have a storage unit and are using our second bedroom as a place for storage as well, so that we don't have to unpack everything, only to re-pack it in 7 months.  I'm slowly going through those packed boxes, though, because I don't want to move more than we really need.  It's a very, very long process.  We just loaded the fifth load of giveaway stuff into my car last night.  I'm sure it won't be the last.  

When you walk into our apartment, the kitchen's on the left and our bedroom is on the right.  If you keep walking, you move towards the big living area.  It's a dining/living/desk area, all connected.  

This is the dining area, with my mantle and decorative logs.  We actually have a real (gas-burning) fireplace across from the couch, which has been really fun to use!  I'm all about flipping a switch to have a warm fire!

This is where we do all of our hanging out.  Adam studies at the kitchen table (not pictured...it had study materials all over it!), and we sit in here and play with Rye, talk and watch football. 

This is a really similar angle, I realize, but I wanted to show you where Rye's crate is and the canvas photo my mom had framed for Adam's birthday last year, over in the far right.  She hung Rye's photo right over his little home, which we thought was pretty cute and clever.  :-)  The funny thing is, though, that Rye doesn't really care for his crate, unless he can see us.  And he much prefers sitting on our furniture when we are gone.  What a great habit.  We're working on breaking him of it, but it's really hard to resist those big brown eyes!  (Pretty sure my Dad still says the same thing about me!)

 

Directly across from the dining table are the two black bookcases.  I got these in college at Haverty's for $60 each, and they have been some of my best purchases ever.  I took things out of boxes that were the most meaningful to me/us, and every time I look over there, it just makes me smile.  There's definitely something to be said about having things out that you really love!

  

The lighting in this photo is really bright, but you get the idea.  This is our bedroom, and that's pretty much all that's in there.  We have two side tables and an empty bookcase.  And can you spot Rye in the bottom right corner?  He's still getting used to not being able to slide under our bed.  When I put the risers underneath the bed, though, it looked like The Princess and the Pea, so I opted to take them out.  

 

And this is at the very back of the apartment, past the dining and living areas.  In other floors, it's a patio, but ours is directly above some stores, so it's extra living space for us.  This has really worked out well, and I love sitting in the big red chair in the mornings with the sunlight streaming through.  Adam said I would make a great cat.  Ha.  

And yes, that BU sign is leaning precariously (but not really) against the wall.  I cut it off of our 2008 Tri-Delta float, because I was on the float committee, and Mom and I painstakingly painted that logo and glittered it.  We won for that float, too.  :-)  Since OUR BEARS ARE UNDEFEATED, 9-0 (!!).  I thought it was only fitting to have it up there.  It makes me smile.  

Across from the red chair is our desk, and Adam spent a lot of time studying there in our house, but had yet to set up shop since we moved in here.  I asked him why, and he said it was too loud.  

The Coin Flipping Story

You see, we were originally renting a town home, but when I went to see it, it was super choppy and small looking.  It had a two car garage, but the whole thing was on three different levels.  I was also shown this apartment, and it was much more spacious and open, and also on sale.  We discussed it on the way to Baylor Homecoming, but someone was going to lose out.  (Adam: a garage, Shay: spaciousness), so we decided to flip a coin.  Yes, you read that right.  We flipped a coin, and ended up in the apartment.

What I didn't account for was the noise level, or that we were facing a rather busy street.  I saw the openness and was sold.  Adam didn't see the apartment 'til he picked up the keys while I was in Nashville.  Let's just say I got a phone call saying he wasn't sure he could live there.  I felt really horrible, because the noise wasn't something I even considered.  (I'm a city girl, after all, and he is no city boy.)   After getting our furniture in there, and agreeing to make the smaller bedroom (up front, away from the street) our bedroom, I think we reached a compromise.  It's not as loud as we thought, but there is definitely noise.  Oh well.  It's only for 7 months, right?!  Live and learn.  And never agree to an apartment that's street-facing unless your husband sees it in real life.  Lesson learned.  

I should also add that Adam's been really great about it, not giving me too hard of a time.  :-)  We're making it work!