This Old House

About a week ago I moved from Hayward, CA (in the San Francisco Bay area) to Champaign, IL (in the Middle of Cornfields). My husband's starting his PhD at UIUC in a few weeks, and so we moved. I was a little conflicted about this, as I really liked living in California, but ultimately the move was the right decision. As a native Chicagoan, I'd been craving the calmer, seemingly simpler life that you can find in the Midwest. Not to say there aren't exciting and captivating things to accomplish here, it's just...different. Hard to describe in most cases.

One thing that's not hard to describe though is the difference in housing prices here in Champaign. We'd been excited about getting away from our 1-bedroom white washed apartment in Hayward, and hopefully moving up a bit in the world. After a few weeks of searching on craigslist for a place, it was pretty obvious we would be able to do that, but the end result has startled just about everyone.

For significantly less than we paid in Hayward for our 700 square foot place, we are now the proud renters of a 1700 square foot, 95-year-old brick duplex. This place is less than 2 miles from campus, 3 blocks from the brand new public library, parks in all directions, and did I mention 1700 square feet? All told, we have a basement, living room, dining room, kitchen, three season porch, mud room, three bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths, and an attic. I have a few "before" pictures to share, though I'm sorry about the blurriness! I unfortunately did not take these, and will try to make sure things are clearer in the future.

Here's a shot of the outside of the house. We occupy the right side of it, split perfectly down the middle. Isn't it lovely?

My new kitchen. Less cabinet space than in my apartment in Hayward, but I already have a solution to that, which I will share with you very soon! I think you'll be entertained by it.

Here's my blessedly large dining room, peeking through to the living room at the front of the house (no, I don't expect you to follow the layout, it will make more sense when I post my pictures later). Check out those hardwood floors and wood trim. They're absolutely stunning.

Not a great shot of the living room, but it shows the fireplace and adorable built-in cabinet on the side. The fireplace doesn't work unfortunately (in the landlord's words, "do not use the fireplace. You will die."), but there are plenty of decorating tricks to make it a useful space. That cabinet, though? Already my husband's favorite spot in the whole house.

I don't have many good photos of the bedrooms, but this is a decent shot of the "closets." Each of the three bedrooms has wall-to-wall cabinets. It's almost like the world was giving me an excuse to buy more clothes...

Many more photos to come over the next few weeks, focusing in on the different rooms, how we've put them together, and the little tricks I'm discovering to keep it all cohesive.

- Cait