My new home!

After an agonizing search filled with long drives, dead ends, and abundant reminders that descriptive adjectives in apartment ads are open to WIDE interpretation, I'm thrilled to report I have found my next home!

My search wasn't all sunshine & roses -- I definitely grew demoralized as I plumbed the deepest recesses of sites like Craigslist, Rent.com, and Zillow into the wee hours of the night. I sent countless e-mails to check availability and introduce myself as a clean, quiet, smoke-free resident with excellent housing and professional references. Finally, I advertised myself on Craigslist -- through a housing wanted ad, what were you thinking? -- and described my ideal apartment. This yielded several really nice housing options as they were tailored to my want list.

I passed up a more conventional (though comfortable!) apartment with an actual waterfall & swimming hole on the premises in favor of a charming unit in a 4-unit home built in 1920. It boasts newly sanded and refinished hardwood floors and chestnut trim, great light, original stained glass windows in living and dining rooms, and antique fixtures in the bathroom. It includes laundry and storage in the basement plus garage parking to save me from having to scrape snow off of my car during the winter. Epic score!




The only downside is that it has no dishwasher, but I'm considering one of the portable/rolling units. The landlord and his daughter, who is around my age and lives in a neighboring unit, are truly wonderful people. My residency program coordinator made the excellent point that it will be good for me to live in a place where others will notice if my lights are on when I'm at work or if I go missing.

Anyway, the place is adorable and I will post photos after it is ready for move-in complete with finished floors and a few more finishing touches. I hope I can decorate it so that it feels like a real home. Since I failed to inherit the decorating gene from my mother (oh how she struggled to impart her ways!), she is going to fly out to help me get settled.

I remain moderately ashamed of my inability to choose things like area rugs, window treatments, and wall hangings. I view accessorizing as a mysterious black box -- much as a person with Asperger syndrome cannot fathom the nature of others' emotions and motivations.




The concept of creating a cohesive decorative theme with several items purchased from different stores on different days overwhelms and mystifies me. Is linen better than chiffon? Do I prefer piglet snout to dusty rose, or would I perhaps appreciate the tasteful elegance of simple wheat or Cream City brick? What about patterned fabrics? Add throw pillows and I turn into a lost lamb crying for my mommy.

At least I can accurately diagnose a decorating misstep, but only in hindsight. As they say, those who can, do, while those who can't, edit. I am perfectly capable of filling in gaps with one or two basic items and am quite proud to have purchased new towels and even an antique end table all by myself, thank you.

But as much as I want to be like Dr B. Culp, beautiful surgical resident by day (and, er, night) and decorator extraordinaire during times she has every right to be asleep(!), I cannot fathom putting something like this together. How does she do it? For goodness' sake, the flowers match the pillows! I quite love it, but it is not my fate to be able to create it.

I'll be over here, admiring her talent and waiting for my saint-like mother to bail me out. Again. Thanks, mom!