Mansion, Sweet Mansion

I've been meaning to post this for, oh, I don't know, 14 days and 3 hours, but when I remembered to take pictures it was too dark or the hurricane of life had left a mark that only real live visitors are allowed to see. But this morning, while everyone else enjoyed a Memorial Day holiday, I decided to cut the crap and finally, FINALLY write about our new apartment.

Which is about a third of what we paid for our shack in Venice and about 300 times nicer and bigger. I mean, I have two! closets, one of them that has a special little nook that I've claimed as my "office." Where I do important "work." Like check account balances and email recipes to my mom.
At first I suggested Mack use it as an office, but he was all, "I'll feel too claustrophobic, cramped and alienated." Apparently those feelings turn into "jealous" when you see just how good of an idea it really was. Mack has been relegated to a corner in the "study," but in reality, he sort of gets the entire study as long as no one is spending the night. He's got his piano in there, thanks to Mike, and all of his guitars and his computer.
Speaking of Mack, where is he at 12pm on a weekday? In our bedroom of course. Because he sleeps so late and I wake up so early (10 am), we NEVER make our bed, even though our bedding is cute and our room looks way better made up. Just trust me on that.
Probably my favorite room in the whole house is our living room. It has a built in bookcase that makes the weird junk I've accumulated and really like having around feel like it belongs. It also has a non-working fireplace that is perfect for that candelabra I got at the Salvation Army as a Halloween decoration last year.

The kitchen is the worst of the rooms, but it has a washer and dryer which is a luxury we've lived without for two years. When we very first saw the place, this was the room we walked into, dripping wet and having not slept for two days. We hadn't officially leased the place, but I was so tired of being in limbo and hauling a moving truck full of our junk around, I probably would have moved into a cardboard box at that point. That this place had miniature appliances and zero counter space is something I decided to look at as charming. And thanks to my parents and Ikea, we got a much needed kitchen cart which drastically improved our cooking quality of life.
We're a couple doors down from a delicious coffee shop, two blocks from my favorite boutique and one of my favorite restaurants, three blocks from an enormous park, and a 10-minute walk to the public library. The only thing we don't have is the beach, but since we are now eligible for stop by visits from people we love, we're coping alright.