The Apartment Hunt...IS OVER!!! We moved!

I know it's been about three weeks since I've written, but I had a good reason. Guys, we moved! The apartment hunt is over!

We ended up in Brighton, the town adjacent to Allston, the other of the juxtaposed neighborhoods of Boston. After 24 years, we are no longer proud longtime denizens of 02134, but proud new denizens of 02135. The two towns are always paired when talked about, as in  "Allston-Brighton," so we didn't go far. We moved about three weeks go, and we are unpacking, beginning to settle in and make this our new home.

We love the new place. It's so great, you guys. 

I went back and forth about writing a detailed update, because it's boring, I'm sure. But I decided I'm going to, so stop here if you get bored with this shit!

First, the drawbacks. 

• Well, for one thing, I don't have my own studio anymore. In the old place my studio was the bonus sun room. It was chock-a-block with modeling clay and sculpting supplies, sewing machine and thread, yarn, beads and vintage jewelry parts, dolls to upcycle, my dolls I made, my dolls half-built, lots of fabric, piles of sketchbooks and pastel pencils...all gone. I gave it all away. All I kept is the sketchbooks and pencils, because I hope to learn to draw again with my left hand. So no studio, but then again, upside? I don't need it. I only need my desk and laptop, which fit well into the bedroom. 

• Another drawback is an electric stove instead of gas. But again, upside--as we've gotten used to it, we're finding it has lots of features. It's not bad at all!  

• Another drawback is the one single washer and dryer for two apartments. But even that is gonna be fine. We only have like one load of laundry per week. We can easily fit that in between the laundry loads of the family upstairs.

Now for the list of advantages! And may I add, woo-hoo! We really love it here. Get this:

• Both bedrooms are bigger--that's Joe's studio and our actual bedroom. Both rooms have two windows. My desk fits in the bedroom, and we might even have room for a comfy chair. I have always wanted a bedroom with room for a comfy chair!

• Speaking of comfy chairs, when we looked at the place there was a lot of furniture here. Jack said we could keep whatever we wanted. We picked out some cool stuff, including a sweet big gray comfy chair. I can't wait to put a reading lamp behind it and curl up in it with a book. 

• There's a stained glass window, whaaat! Beautiful, the way the sun comes through it in the morning.

• The foyer, dining room (for us, used as the piano room and game room) and living room are all finished in this rich, dark wood. When Joe first came to see the place, he sent me pictures, and I thought, "Oh no, paneling, yuck." But it's totally not paneling. It's beautiful. And you know what else? I think it keeps the rooms cool. Yesterday was like 95 degrees and it was barely warm in there. I bet it keeps the rooms warm in winter, too.

• Bigger kitchen, room for both my kitchen island in the middle (as soon as we unpack the boxes that are currently in the middle) and baker's rack. Lot more cabinet space. And? The pantry is bigger too.

• Bigger bathroom, and what's most important post-stroke—I have no problem getting in and out of the shower. And our shower curtain (which I love) matches the tile! There's a medicine cabinet, which we didn't have before, and an over-the-bowl shelf, which there wasn't room for in our old bathroom, and one of those corner shelves in the shower. There's room for the scale!

• Front porch instead of our old, very private back porch, which I was a little worried about, but it's so quiet. Great, quiet neighborhood.

• Cool, liberal upstairs neighbors. Like-minded. That's very important.

There's more, like the fact that we put the sofa in front of the big set of windows in the living room, with our former TV table behind it. It IS a sofa table after all! And I loooove a sofa table. It has one of our pretty lamps on it, which looks awesome from the outside. Joe said that we should get a leg lamp, a la A Christmas Story, for the holidays! lol. OH! And we put one of our bookshelves, which was in Joe's studio closet with a bunch of junk on it, in the living room. More space for books!

I'll stop now. Suffice it to say, the place is great. We are so lucky.😼