H is for Home

I’ve been in my new apartment for a full year now—in fact, I re-signed my lease, so I’ll be here for another year. Woohoo! Here’s the post I published in February, where I took everyone on a tour of my new place.

There have been a lot of changes since I wrote that post. Let’s discuss:

• Dining room – I bought a new dining room table (it’s a smidge smaller and circular rather than square) and added a 16-cube bookshelf on the far wall, where I have space for decorations, organizing bins, and book stacks.
• Patio – I added a gorgeous patio set and removed the lone chair.
• Office – I had to get rid of my beloved reading chair in the corner and have yet to replace it. I removed the 4-cube bookshelf and, in its place, added an 8-cube bookshelf so I can essentially have a wall of bookshelves in my office. I added a table I’m calling my “tech command center” in the far corner next to my desk to hold my shredder, printer, printer accessories, power cords, Internet routers, and work laptop. Oh, and I added a smallish cat tower on the other side of my desk.
• Bedroom – I removed the small nightstand and added a very cute pink tufted bench. The cats love it and have yet to scratch it up!

If I were a better blogger, I would have taken before-and-after photos to show you all the changes, but alas, it is 8:45 p.m. on Sunday when I’m writing this post, and I do not have the energy. Maybe I’ll do a post once all my Christmas decorations are up, and you can see all the changes then!

The biggest change I’d like to make is getting new living room furniture. I love my sectional, but it’s starting to sag a lot, and it’s about time for something new. I’m not sure if I want to get another sectional (maybe something U-shaped rather than L-shaped) or something like a couch and armchair combo. And, of course, I must buy a new reading chair!

Overall, though, I love my apartment so much. I love that I have so much space that Eloise can now do full zoomies down the hallway and parkour over the couch. (One day, I will get this on video, but it usually comes out of nowhere, and she always stops once I get my phone out.) I love having my own office. I love my kitchen and my huge bathtub and my quiet washer and dryer.

The only thing I don’t love is that I’m on the third floor and have to climb four flights of stairs to get to my apartment. In this complex, there are three-bedroom condos with attached garages, and I covet them. The rent is easily $1,000 more than I pay right now, so I’d need quite the pay raise to afford one. Do I need three bedrooms? Absolutely not, but to be able to have my own office and my own library room? OMG. I would have to pinch myself every day!