Check it out......!

We got word today that the apartment we fell in love with is ours! As soon as the former owners get everything cleared out, the place is ours to have. We did ask for a pair of keys for today to take "measurements":


The apartment is on the second and third floors of a house. The house used to belong to an elderly art collector who passed away a few years ago, and in the meantime, her children have divided up the house into two apartments. Many of her belongings still remain, but they are one-by-one getting sold off. Definitely staying? These antique fireplace grills that she collected, hung over the stairway entrance to the apartment.


Just to the right of the entry, these crazy little mushroom statues! I love the floors in this house; it seems like they may have been painted burgundy at some point but have been pretty well distressed since then. The house was built in the 1870s.


So much light comes in the windows! Here is the living room and dining room. The giant stained glass window is not staying-- apparently they got $3000 for it. Hayyy!



A peep at the kitchen, and the patio that adjoins it.




... because this isn't 1950s TV ya'll! This is where I'll do some of my best thinking. And also some of my worst. And while I'm thinking, I'd like to express how freaking ridiculous it is that we found this place for such a good deal. I've never lived in a place this nice, childhood included. I'm feeling so very lucky right now, especially because this window is on the front of the house, which overlooks a large, city park. Sigh!



Bestill my heart! This is the master bedroom, with stained glass windows that also overlook the park. Bonus: the stained glass is on a little door with hinges, so you can choose to let in unfettered light if you wish. Here's a closeup of the glass:


Dionysian baby...



Mushroom-hatted, potion-making youth.

Because I might as well: Nautical stripey sweater: thrifted. Coat: Macy's. Wide-leg jeans: Express. Red lizardy pointy flats: thrifted.

The closets, oh! the closets! Huge-normous with extra giant storage things on top, and a separate shoe closet that holds no less than 84 pairs. I have about 79 (oh, the shame!). A match made in heaven? Yes, I think so.



A second room off the bedroom might be the reading room. I dunno, the bookcases kinda made our minds up for us. The staircase leads to the third floor loft. Check out what else is in this room:



Even though it's a little crumbling, I love this Chinese dynasty decoupage thing the former owner did with the working, wood fireplace!



Here is the loft. In the bottom right corner, you can see that you can peer down into the living room! Hope no one gets drunk and falls through there to their death, but you know, it's all for the look. Check out the skylights! And the drawers in the walls (they're on other walls behind this vantage point, too)! And, there's another full bathroom up here.


And the coup de gras, our backyard, complete with a lot of trees (blocked by the giant ivy-covered tree) and, in the middle of the picture, to the left of the fence, is a koi pond. The presence of koi remains to be seen with the thaw (I heard that they hibernate beneath the ice).

I can't wait to have parties and dinners and all the wonderful things you can do when your place is big enough! But... the thing that I love best about this apartment is that it'll go down in the books as the first place my (soon-to-be) husband and I spent our first couple of years together. Mist! Tear! All right, enough, back to fashion drooling soon enough. Thanks all for reading, hope you all have a little bit of magic in your weekends!

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