At Home in Berkeley

Although we moved here last August, I think it's about time I posted pictures of our apartment for our friends and family who haven't seen where we live now. Let the tour begin:

This is the living room. It is spacious and comfortable, so we love hanging out here. When we were looking for housing in Berkeley, the options were so bad that Will's Dad (normally a tough man) said he didn't know "whether to scream or cry." Berkeley's housing situation is a mess, but by some miracle (Will's Mom and Craigslist) we found this place.

I love reading on our couch. Our last couch was a stiff, leather monster. So when we moved, we deliberately sought the comfiest couch we could find. Just ask Will - he teases me because I fall asleep on it all the time. Sitting on that couch, book in hand, while looking out these windows is one of the things that makes this apartment my favorite place we've lived so far. Just look at all those trees! 

Below is the fireplace behind the couch. The skinny doorway on the left leads to the bathroom and the kitchen, where you see Will studying at the table. Our apartment was built a long time ago so it has little quirks, like the small hallway or the fancy heating vent to the right of the fireplace. The fireplace itself is pretty cool and backs up into the kitchen.

Various pictures are on the mantle, including a portrait taken by my friend Becky Price. There are also several stone and wooden animal figurines we've collected over the years. It started at U.C. Davis, when Will bought me a stone statue of two silhouetted figures embracing from an African artist. I wish I knew the name of the artist because I love the statue. Later we found similarly entwined giraffes, and from there the collection grew to include all sorts of cool-looking animals. Braeden loves it.

 

Above on the right is what the fireplace looked like until few months ago. Will had to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal for a class but only used the online part of his subscription, so the newspapers piled up in the fireplace. We got so many it was comical. We received them well after his subscription expired, and one even ended up on our roof!  Don't worry, we recycled them.

Below is the kitchen. Although it looks super cool, we don't use this fireplace for anything other than storage. Our neighbor, Tom, rightly pointed out how asinine it is to keep all of our most flammable items (cleaning products, etc.) in the fireplace.

We just like living dangerously like that.

...No we don't, I'm just kidding Dad! I don't even think this fireplace works, but it's still fun to have in the kitchen.

Remember the French door in the living room, to the right of the fireplace? Well, on the left below is that French door. This is the wide hallway to the bedroom, and we keep our tall bookshelves there.

There is a closet in that hallway (not pictured), but it isn't nearly as exciting as the closet in the bedroom. Our "Harry Potter Closet."

See the shorter closet on the right? It is short because it's located underneath a staircase, so it's our "cupboard under the stairs." I don't have more pictures of the bedroom to post because it's usually messy, but below are two pictures taken outside. 

Left is the entrance to the back yard, where there is a lovely patio, a lemon tree, and a small area for gardening. There is also a shed that receives mail addressed to "Somewhere in Time." Haha, I love this place. Have I already said that?

Will smelling the flowers. Totally candid and unposed.

We have fantastic neighbors who have become wonderful friends, we're only a short distance from Will's school, and you can see the ocean from the street we live on. Although Berkeley is an expensive place to live, we are so glad to be here. I hope you enjoyed seeing our home, and I'll try to put up more pictures of life in Berkeley soon!