Elements of Style Blog

Following up on yesterday afternoon’s post, part (a big part) of why I’ve had such a stressful few months is because of some housing drama.  We had planned to buy our apartment we’re in, but due to some, ahem, shady activity on the part of the owner we can’t.  After some major hissy fits on my part,  we started looking for another condo. And if you live in Boston’s South End/ Back Bay you know that having less than a million bucks to spend makes it difficult, which is RIDICULOUS and so frustrating. So I randomly did a suburban house search and fell head over heels for an antique house 15 minutes outside the city. We put in an offer, and were outbid.  By two other people. Apparently the real estate crisis has not hit Boston whatsoever.  While I was upset to lose it (more crying) I was happy to realize that I might be okay in the (close to city) burbs.  Having my own four walls and roof sounded really nice after years of city living.  So we found another house we loved. And found out it was a lemon. And then we found ANOTHER we liked, and that one was an even worse lemon (the kind with black mold). Loving old homes is a tricky affair, but thank goodness for my father who can do just as good of an inspection as an actual inspector!  The clock began ticking louder towards our Jan 1 move date and my anxiety grew palpable,  so we resigned to rent for another year while we looked for a house.  But finding an apartment that is dog friendly and CUTE in the South End of Boston ain’t easy and bears it’s own load of stress.   After seeing some icky ones and missing out on some others (renting is almost harder than buying right now) I finally, last week, saw a very cute apartment on the cutest street. And even though it was a little outside our price range I just needed to KNOW I had somewhere to live because the crying and anxiety was getting to be too much for Andrew (and me) to bear.  Sometimes  you have to calculate what peace of mind is worth, and this time I felt it was worth more that the extra couple hundred bucks a month. Should we not find a great house in the spring, we could stay here another year and be happy. But of course, in true Erin style, the relief lasted all of 10 minutes before I freaked out about spending too much on it.  Andrew deserves a friggin’ Nobel Peace Prize. For reals.

What made this whole drama extra tough is doing what I do for a living. Spending your days picking out beautiful furniture and paint and lighting for other people’s homes when you have no idea where you are going to live in 60 days is emotionally tough.  I am DYING to nest somewhere permanent where I can WALLPAPER! :) But for now I have to accept that it will be at least 8 months until that can happen and enjoy this great little place on a street I have always wanted to live. Crossing things off my bucket list left and right!  And I think that it might be great to show you all how to not only decorate a small space, but also a temporary, rented one.  I’ll need to spend my money smartly on things that can work in any space, and spend less on things specifically for this space (while being super, duper stylish).  So readers, meet my new apartment:

A pretty historic street…

The kitchen is redonk- Wolf range, people! I will probably never have one again so I will be cooking!

The french doors to the patio make this underground space brighter….

The living area with wood burning fireplace where bax and ollie can snuggle up…

The reason I really rented it… I DIE.

Roses in the spring right outside my living room!

A built in desk and exposed brick on the stairs to the bedrooms…

Master bedroom with window overlooking the patio…

The cute first bath in between the bedroooms (second downstairs) and the guest bedroom with GORGEOUS marble mantle.

The guest bedroom…

So as you can imagine my mind is already planning the decor….it’ll be a great thing to show you the process!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 at 5:39 am and is filed under my life. Both comments and pings are currently closed.