A place to live! Need furniture

So I just got a phone call a little while ago and I got the apartment!

Woo Hoo! I'm very happy and that's a relief. Since it's owned by an individual and not a big corporation/management company there's room for the interaction to be more personal and for some flexibility. I had the feeling that things would be fine and she said the credit/background check was pretty much just a formality, but there's always that little doubt in the back of your mind. What if they see a few slow-pays on there from being a poor graduate student, or maybe they just decide they don't like you and don't want to rent to you.

But she said everything looked good, so it's a go. She's going to put the lease in the mail to me and then we'll meet up at some point so I can give it to her. The guy living in the apartment is buying a condo and is expecting to be out of the apartment around August 24-26, but really if he needs it he has until August 31. So I won't be moving in until the end of the last week of the month or the beginning of September. My first full official day at the parish is August 15, so that means some form of commuting. The Alumn who lives down there called last night and said they're happy to help me out with their guestroom. They'll give me a key and I can come and go as needed. That will be a big help. I'll need to come up with some way to thank them.

I'm real happy about my new apartment. It's only 2 miles from the parish and I think only 1 or 2 stoplights. The rest is residential streets and stop signs. A branch of my bank is less than a half-mile away, and only about a block or 2 away is a neat grocery store that has a lot of stuff and is the produce wonder-land (we have one where I live, but it was farther than the larger chain store and a little more expensive so I never really went there).

There is apparently a Psychologist who lives upstairs, and 2 nuns living in another apartment. A psychologist, 2 nuns and a priest - how's that for peas in a pod? Also sounds like the beginning of a joke. Heh! There is a washer and dryer on the premises for tennants to use for free (yep, no coin-op and about 5 to 10 feet from my back door), and my utilities are included in my rent.

It's part of what used to be about three 2-story condo/townhomes and are now about 6 single-floor apartments. I'll be on the first floor and there are still stairs inside that go up to basically nowhere. :) There is a door at the top that's locked on both sides. The kitties are going to have a ball going up and down the stairs. The guy who lives there now has a cat and says she likes them. Even thought it's a one-bedroom it's pretty spacious at 800 square feet.

The kitchen is pretty big and lots of counter space and cupboards. The lower cupboards even have the little pull-outs so you don't have to go digging into the back of the cupboard for your stuff, it slides out so you can get at what you want. There's a large dining/living area. Pretty good cupboard and counter space in the bathroom. The only drawback is you have to go through my bedroom to get to the bathroom, so if I have guests over I will have to make sure my bedroom is not a disaster zone.

The bedroom is also large and has an extra closet which is all the space that's under the stairs (A good place for hiding stuff when the guests come over - Heh!). There's a little nook type area at the far end of the bedroom with windows and the closet, and a little ledge by one window that with a bad might make a window seat, and even without would be a good place for putting on shoes or nylons. I'm also thinking this little area would be a good place to put a comfy reading chair or maybe a little prayer desk.

I'll need to figure out which room I want to put a desk in. Probably the living/dining area. I shouldn't need as much "office" space as I was originally thinking, because my office at the church is pretty big. I'll be working there a lot and many of my books will be there. There's a place in the corner of the kitchen where the current tennant has a buffet that could even work for a desk and would be sunny, if there are electrical outlets and a way to hook up internet access. But I might also want to put a little informal two-top table there for when I'm eating by myself. But... then if I don't have people over a lot a real table and chairs in the dining area would basically be unused. Honestly, I often eat on the couch in front of the TV anyway. From the dining area I would be able to see a TV in the living area, but not from the kitchen.

So... things to think about. Not only where to put things in the apartment, but also what kind of furniture I will want/need. Because of the Master's degree, even though clergy don't get paid tons of money (we kind of fall in with teachers and social workers), I will have a higher salary than I've ever had. In the past I always was just getting furniture as hand-me downs, or looking for things that were inexpensive and functional. It's a whole new world to be thinking that I can actually consider getting a new couch - whatever color and style I want, if I'm willing to spend the money on it. And the same for a bed and dining table. I have spent way too long living like a college student and now I want my place to feel like an adult lives in it.

I've been cruising various furniture websites like Rooms to Go, The Room Store, Decorators.com, Ashley Furniture, and Office Max/Office Depot, and on a few of them was able to create "wish lists" so if I went back I could remember the types of things I liked.

It was amazing to me, but fairly quickly I was able to see that when given a choice of furniture that I did have a definite preference. At one store my tastes were said to fall under "transitional" style. Also they seem to fall into areas like mission style, cottage style, casual style, maybe a little contemporary, but I definitely am not a big fan of the metal, glass, or bizare shapes. I tend to like wood, but not froo-froo victorian looking stuff. My taste is more simple and earthy. Clean lines. I don't want a poster or canopy bed, and prefer not to have the foot of the bed come up much higher than the mattress, but I do like some of the sleigh bed designs, so that would be an exception. I never really knew what Shaker furniture was, but apparently I seem to prefer Shaker and Mission style furniture.

I also have a preference when it comes to wood color/stains. I like Dark and Light Cherry, and also was seeing some called "Merlot" that I think is kind of like a Walnut that I liked. I also like some of the lighter furniture like a natural or light Oak, and even some of the white-washed/antique white stuff. But didn't really like that darker medium plain brown color, or the more yellow-y/golden Honey colored stains.

I've never bought an area rug before either, but a clear pattern emerged when looking at some of those on one of the websites. I have no idea how to really explain the types of rugs I liked, but I knew what I didn't like immediately. Nope, nope, nope, nope, Hey... now that's what I'm talking about, nope, nope, nope, Ooh yeah I like that pattern and colors. It was kind of a fascinating little dream-decorating journey. :)