Our apartment

Our building, the Haley House.  Aren't the steps pretty?  We are the second row of windows.

Joey taking a break after emptying the cars himself.

I thought since yester- day's blog was so long I'd just put a little bit about our apart- ment today.  We live in a historic row house, which, according to the bronze plaque on the front of the building, was built around 1871.  It is named the Haley House (also according to the plaque in case anyone thought I had begun randomly naming things).   

The kitchen/dining area

The place itself is nice.  It has beautiful crown molding, granite counter- tops in the kitchen and bath- rooms, top of the line stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, berber carpet and a huge tiled shower in the master.   

Our back porch - the door to the bedroom is right behind the post.

Unfortunately, it is without storage.  Whoever renovated this place apparently decided two small walk-in closets in each bedroom would be sufficient for everything.  There is no broom closet, no pantry, no coat closet – just the closets in the bedroom.  Joey keeps saying “if we can fit it all in the car, we can fit it in here” but fitting it and accessing it are different.  I’ve turned the curio cabinet (can someone please explain why people think furnished has to mean decorated – keep your chatzke crap out of my space – I don’t want to look at it and I don’t have room) into storage for paper towels and first aid items.

A view from the other side of the post (back door).  The butterflies love the bushes.

The street is also part of a historic neighborhood, called Shaw.  A home only a few down from us is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Blanche K Bruce House.  He was apparently the first African-American to serve a full term in the US Senate.  If you're interested in reading more about our neighborhood (the history is actually fairly interesting), here's a link: http://www.shawmainstreets.com/shawhistory.htm

This is the view to the right of our apartment - the picture above is the view to the left (facing the building).

 

The view from our front door - luxury condominiums.