TBT: Student Living {Part 2}

Well I wish I had something shiny and new for the house to write about, but I don't.  Some unexpected but necessary expenses have come up, a trip to the vet, a new windshield, you get the idea.  Isn't it the worst when life gets in the way of sideboards and rugs?

I've been especially nostalgic for Boston lately so I thought I'd share a tour of our second apartment that we lived in while up there, you can see our first apartment here.

But first a few scenes from last spring of the HBS campus in bloom:

We moved into this apartment in April 2013, the spring of Matt's first year at business school.  It was a more central Cambridge location-- walkable to Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Harvard and Central Square, much closer to campus, and pet friendly so we jumped on it when it became available.  Like our first apartment it was owned by Harvard University Housing.  The building was constructed in 1887 and is three stories with one apartment on each level all of which are about 800 square feet.  Downright palatial for student living.

This apartment had great natural light and tall ceilings in the entryway/living room.  

The photos below are not good, these are iPhone pics, but they're what I've got. 

Living room with our table in the windows, it was so fun to eat meals at that table and look out onto the street below.  It was a pretty busy street and I liked the hustle and bustle.

View from the table to the street below.

The fire on the TV was a mainstay during the winter months.  Which was mostly all months.  

Sometimes Shep just had to hide from the cold. 

Down the hallway from the living room was the bedroom, our queen bed was a snug fit.

Moving on down the hallway was the kitchen, bathroom, and second bedroom.  

That stackable washer/dryer in the middle of the kitchen was my absolute favorite feature.  It was so rare to find an apartment with in-unit laundry and after having gone without it in our previous apartment I will never take laundry for granted again. Even now my washer/dryer is in the basement and I don't think twice about hauling laundry up and down.

And how about that green linoleum floor, are you drooling yet?

The linoleum might not be your thing but let's take a second to appreciate those beautiful thick baseboards.  Looks like they did some things right in 1887.  

Guess what the door in the photo below is?  The bathroom.  Yep, the bathroom was in the kitchen.  As someone who really really really values clean that was a struggle. Character building you might say.

But at least it had generous counter space.

Here's a photo from a day when I baked something and for some reason really styled it up and took pictures of it.  I think I had just gotten my camera in anticipation of our safari and was practicing?  Turns out wild animals don't let you arrange them the way eggs and lemons do. 

We didn't have a guest bed so we put this couch in the second bedroom for guests to sleep on.  This room was also used for the printer, the linen closet, my dresser, the laundry hamper, really it was just a catch all.

                                             Christmas in the apartment

This is a sombering photo, it was taken the day the city was on lock down while police searched for the marathon suspects.  I took this in the middle of the day when we ran Shep outside for a bathroom break.  On any other day there would have been lots of traffic and people jogging along the river, but it was empty. 

This was our last walk to Harvard Yard shortly before we moved out of the apartment.  You wouldn't know it from my outerwear that this photo was taken in May. 

And while we're on the subject of New England, here we are eating lobster in Rhode Island.  

I want to end with this because can I just say how much I appreciate the screen printed ivy on the construction fencing?  It made me smile every time I walked passed it.  Brilliant.    

2014 in Review

Here is our Christmas card from this {last?} year, never mind that Christmas was 2 weeks ago.  It's fine.

Let's be honest, this is one of those cards that I'd usually get and think "wow this is a show off card"  and it totally is.  There's no use denying it.  Two zero one four was huge for us!  And now it is forever immortalized on a card,  a card that is probably in most people's trash cans at this point, but let's hope for recycling.

I'll start from the beginning...

In March we had the chance to go on the vacation of a lifetime, a safari in Tanzania led by a fellow HBSer who was very familiar with the region.  We paid and showed up and the whole thing was beautifully planned out for us as well as the other 30+ people on the trip. Kudos to him, that was a huge undertaking and the trip was a dream.  I think about it every day.

We just got to stare at animals for hours on end each day.  Be still my heart. 

This was our safari guide, James, with our game drive group. He let us listen to The Lion King soundtrack and Toto's "Africa" on repeat.  Needless to say he deserved a good tip.  Not to mention he knew everything there was to know about what we saw on the drives. 

 We also went to Zanzibar on this trip, a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania 25-50 kilometers off the mainland. It was stunning. 

Then in May we went to Maui with some of our closest friends to celebrate our five year wedding anniversary and Matt's impending graduation.

The whole gang on a sunset cruise 

Elyse and me on the boat. 

Feast at Lele

Krista, we were also celebrating her impending graduation from HBS and her birthday. So much cause for a vacation. 

Then later in May Matt graduated from HBS.

Us and our families, such a special day.

In July we bought our house and moved to Oklahoma City. 

Shep accompanied us to the closing table...and was mortified to learn they didn't request her paw print on the contract. 

And in November we adopted sweet Birdie. So basically, I had a baby. 

I used the back of the card as a moving announcement of sorts.  

So that's a wrap of 2014, I think my show off card was warranted.  Of course we still plan to travel and just be fun human beings in general, but it's hard to imagine another year with as many exciting events as that one. 2015, you have some big shoes to fill.

TBT: Student Living

I'll state the obvious, I love documenting our living spaces.  That's why I started this blog,  I've only been at it a few months and already I enjoy looking "back" at how the house has changed.  I've always been this way, so today I thought it'd be fun to take a look back at our first apartment (we lived in two) in Cambridge, MA.  All of these will be iPhone photos, iPhone 4 photos to be exact.  Brace yourself.

Actually, before we go inside, let's take a look at Shep's first trip to Harvard Yard.  Notice the camera- wielding tourist behind me.  From the look on his face he doesn't think the John Harvard statue is a place for iPhone pics with dogs.  No.  It should be treated with more reverence than that.  Guess he's never seen The Social Network.

Now we'll get started on the tour, this was a townhouse style apartment built in the 1920's and owned by Harvard University Housing, the best landlords ever.  I often find myself wishing I could pick up the phone and call them.  It was two levels with a basement, about 750 square feet. 

Front door, coat closet, living room. 

Other side of the living room looking into the kitchen.  

We even had a little fireplace.  

Shep was quite the taskmaster during Matt's first semester.

Tiny kitchen!  Notice the mini oven/cooktop.  

Despite this kitchen being so tiny and without a dishwasher, this is actually where I started to really learn to cook.  After we got married we continued living in our college town of Fayetteville, AR where we ate out most of the time.  I didn't really know how to cook and the cost of living was low enough it wasn't too expensive to eat out a lot. 

Boston changed all that, an expensive city coupled with tuition meant that we needed to eat in more and eating out became more for social occasions, which admittedly, still happened frequently.  Before Boston the best I could do was spaghetti with sauce out of a jar and frozen garlic bread.  Now I can't imagine not having cooking in my life and we eat in 4-5 nights a week.  It makes our house feel homey. 

Shep looking for blueberry muffin remains in her snowflake pjs.

Stairwell/wedding gallery wall.

Bedroom, we could see the Charles River from those windows. 

Necessary pic of a sleeping dog in case you're still unclear on if we have a dog.

Looking out of the bedroom into the hall/bathroom/linen closet.

I thought the gray and white checked floor in the bathroom was cute.

Second bedroom, it was sooo small.  We used it as a place for Matt to study.

The front covered in snow.

The view from our bedroom windows, you can see the Charles looks kind of yellow when it's frozen over.  

Shep took to the Boston weather nicely. 

My littlest sister, Avery, who was 10 at the time flew up from Dallas all by herself to stay with us.  

She lined up all the DP cans she and Matt had consumed during her stay.  

She's 12 now and already looks so much older than she does in this pic.  

We even got to sit in on one of Matt's classes where it was decided she'll be HBS Class of 2030.

Cambridge is a special place and we made lifelong friends who are now scattered around the world.  I'm so thrilled we got to spend two years there, I have a feeling the HBS years will be some of our favorites. 

More New England photos here 

Tour our second student apartment here