Photos of Home

Although we STILL don't have internet access at home, we've managed to post some photos from work.  Here are a few we've taken over the past two weeks of new home ownership!

We've already had one picnic with friends on the Salem Common and have spent many days & early evenings out there.  The common is a 30 second walk from our home and can be seen from our dining room window.  As our friend Jimmy said, it's like a huge back yard we don't have to mow!

You can see our building in the background (it's the brick one in the middle).

Upstairs lounge where the office and tv are also located.

Entrance leading into the dining room area (you can see a poster from our friend Daniel's band, Ill Lit, and you can see my friend Eric's painting in the background).

New, comfy, awesome bed. 

Will installed some shelves in the kitchen.  He's amazing with power tools.

One view of our dining room with our very solid dining table.  The bench arrives in August.

Another view of our dining room (with a little extra sitting area).  

More photos to come!

HOME!

We have finally moved into our new home!

It's been a while since I've blogged because I figured no one wanted to hear about how painful and exhausting the loan process with Bank of America was.  But that's behind us now, as are the 7 months of working towards our goal, the 3 Purchase & Sale agreements, 3 inspections, 3 appraisals, etc.  We have our 1 beautiful home.  Photos will be posted when we upload them and get our internet fully functioning!

Table Talk

Platow Haus update:

The inspection is taking place this Tuesday (yay!) and the closing date will be set soon.  It must be set before June 25th, so we need to get back into packing mode!  In less than a month this little gem of a home will be ours!  We were at Union Street recently and marked things off on the floor to see where we'd put our furniture and to see what size table would work well in the dining room.
This wall is where we want to have a large, floor to ceiling beam, bookshelf built.  The contractor was there and he said he, "can build anything."  Looks like we'll be working with him on the bookshelves.

Will we put a buffet or a couch next to the fireplace?

At first we thought we'd buy two of these awesome Darjeeling tables from cb2 and either set them up in a big square against the wall, or have them run together to create a very long table so the room feels kind of like a hall.  We mapped things out on the floor with masking tape to see, but we're still undecided.

Will now likes the Pacifica from Crate & Barrel.  The mission continues.

A Visitor Brings More Happiness

We had a visitor this weekend.  My friend Daniel, who is a kind, interesting, beautiful person and an awesome musician.  He left for the airport this morning to head back to LA, leaving a note on the table that brought tears to my eyes.  I'm so happy I have this friendship in my life.

One of the things I knew little about was Daniel's wife.  Our long distance friendship doesn't always allow for us to share all the details of our lives, and oddly enough sometimes we don't share the most important ones, like stories about our spouses.  Daniel finally got to meet Will, my husband, and I got to hear such wonderful things about his wife, Amy.  I was excited & surprised to hear she's an interior designer.  It was fun to find her design firm, and to see the inspiring spaces she creates.  If only LA were a little closer so I could frequent the their store.

My weekend has been a great one!

Beautiful, beautiful!
I'm not sure if this design is by Nickey Kehoe, Inc., but I'm loving the painted brick walls!  I can't keep going back to the idea that we might need to paint 10 Union's walls.

Will and I recently bought a bed that looks very much like this one.  This photo inspires me to find clean, simple bedding for it, and a cool bedside table.  Our lighting will be slightly different, though.

Update

We found out the appraisal happened last week, and the inspection is hopefully set for Friday of next week, which means the closing will be on or before June 29th.  This is perfect since we need to be out of our apartment by June 30th.  Yay!  Progress! 

Loft

Here are some photos of the loft that make me happy, and keep me hopeful that we'll soon be living in this wonderful space.

Stairs leading up to the loft/living room area.  The stairs seem to be original and it seems they're being kept as is.  Yay!  We could always wallpaper them!

Will near the utility closet and top of the stairs.  The floors are fantastic up there, as are the two skylights.  I think we'll love this "room"!

You get a sense of the height, the light, and a good view of the beams.

The railing overlooking the dining room below.  Isn't the light from the window nice?

Since I saw these in old homes, and in a refurbished home belonging to some friends in Jamaica Plain, I've wanted an electrical unit IN THE FLOOR!  What a cool thing. 

Small Space Need Storage

The new issue of Dwell is about homes under 1000 sq. ft.  Luckily, 10 Union is a bit over 1200 sq. ft., but I'm always looking for beautiful and smart storage ideas, which is why I was especially happy to see this issue in my mailbox.  

We actually like the challenge of working and living in a small space.  You wouldn't guess it by the look of our apartment right now, but we tend to like things tidy, simple, and neat.  We're in packing mode right now, so our home is nothing like that!  Oh, the transition.

This is one bookshelf in our current living room in Somerville.  We have SO many books.  We're up to 22 full book boxes packed already, and we still have three rows to go.  We really have to think about how we're going to store these books at 10 Union.  Our newest thought is to build bookshelves in the dining room, after some purging!

I'd love for our bookshelf at 10 Union to look like this one I found on the site Remodelista.

I also found this photo on Remodelista.  I wish the bathroom at 10 Union looked like that!  I love the towel rack.

But the bathroom at 10 Union looks like this.  Not bad, but we have some short-term ideas for improving it, and some long-term ones.  Unfortunately, there's little room for storage (like a cool towel rack), but we'll be creative!

Also from Remodelista, I was drawn to these kitchen shelves.  We will need more storage in the kitchen of 10 Union, and I'd love something like this.  Will is thinking of putting in some high cabinets and a bar along the wall below with stools, but I'm still drawn to this idea of lovely shelves.

This is the kitchen at 10 Union.  The shelves or cabinets/bar/stool combo would have to go on the left wall, just at Will's back in this photo.