Author Topic: What does your home look like?  (Read 12632 times)

Zikoris

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What does your home look like?
« on: November 22, 2014, 10:10:05 PM »
Curious what sort of living spaces other Mustachians have! Here's a few photos of my place: http://imgur.com/a/gljfT It's a studio suite in downtown Vancouver. The big wooden thing that looks like a big cabinet is a Murphy bed folded up.

Show us your living spaces!

TonyPlush

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #1 on: November 22, 2014, 10:32:34 PM »
Do you treat the murphy bed as your main bedroom?

I recently learned about these and am fascinated. Such a smart use of space!

Jon_Snow

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #2 on: November 22, 2014, 10:50:54 PM »
When we build our cabin (not sure if its gonna be "tiny" or just "small") a Murphy bed will be a MUST. They simply make TOO MUCH SENSE, especially in smallish spaces. One drawback is, having slept on quite a few of them, they are in no way as comfortable as our Serta pillow top mattress. Not even close.
« Last Edit: November 22, 2014, 11:10:03 PM by Jon_Snow »

Zikoris

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #3 on: November 22, 2014, 11:01:11 PM »
I LOVE the Murphy bed - almost all the studio suites in our building have them built it, and it makes so much sense. A big benefit for someone like me who's a bit sensitive to dust is how you can fold it up and vacuum underneath. The built in bookshelves are also da bomb.

My boyfriend has mixed feelings, because if he doesn't fix it to my satisfaction then I do it correctly and fold it up. If he does a good job fixing it then we keep it down and he can lay down whenever he wants. The quality of his bed-fixing has improved substantially though.

MoneyCat

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #4 on: November 23, 2014, 06:26:50 AM »
Great use of space in your apartment.  A lot of people don't realize how little space you actually need to live.  We live in a very high COL state where pretty much everyone has thousands of sq ft of space in their houses.  Meanwhile, we have a modest 1490 sq ft house (3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths) and we use a fraction of the energy needed for other homes.  It's nowhere as frugal as what you have, but people around here are shocked by how small it is.


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boy_bye

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #5 on: November 23, 2014, 06:33:44 AM »
I live somewhat decadently in a 1100 square foot apartment on the 21st floor, with walls of windows looking out over a park, a river, and the east end of Pittsburgh. Two bedrooms (one is my husband's lair), two baths, large open living/dining area and a galley kitchen off the back. I love it here a lot, just wish we had some sort of outdoor space.

Next place we live will be smaller, maybe in a cypress grove or in a stand of redwoods.

senecando

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #6 on: November 23, 2014, 09:29:40 AM »
Currently renting a flat. Here's the lazy view-from-the-desk: http://i.imgur.com/YoEh52G.jpg

It's the bottom floor of a three story house. It used to be a doctor's clinic, and the family lived upstairs. Our kitchen is the old operating room. 1896.

We've got what you see here, a kitchen, a tiny bathroom, a small extra room and a small bedroom. It's quite nice. The basement is unfinished and small, but good for laundry.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2014, 09:31:59 AM by senecando »

BlueHouse

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #7 on: November 23, 2014, 11:35:41 AM »
my house is blue.
I have a clown house by MMM standards.  a bit over 2000 sf^2; 4 floors; 4 BRs, 3.5 Baths, 1-car garage, Roof Deck.  1 person. If I could cut out one of the floors in the middle, I'd be willing to, but I like the features on the roof and the bottom. 
 

homehandymum

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #8 on: November 23, 2014, 01:27:29 PM »
Giant crazy house here.

It used to be a a corner store, with attached 2-storey house (two apartments: one up, one down), is now one giant house: 4 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, 3 living and a bathroom downstairs (which we use as 1 lounge, 1 schoolroom, 1 sewing/spare bedroom), plus a large master bedroom with WIW and ensuite kindof out the back, attached to the house and with its own separate entrance as well.

It's nuts, but earlier this year we were living in a 2 1/2 bedroom, 1 living, 1 bathroom house.  It suited us fine, and although it was *cosy*, we had no plans to move and it was almost paid off. (mortgage rates are hovering about 5.5% here, so paying it off makes good sense).

Then we found out we were expecting baby #4 and I freaked out.  We looked to upsize just enough and no more, but didn't like any of the houses we saw, and didn't feel that the moderate gain in house space was worth the huge jump in price to go from 3 to 4 bedrooms.  So many of them actually had smaller living areas than what we already had, and with an upcoming family of 6, I wanted a family room we could actually all sit in at the same time.

So we expanded our search terms and discovered that crazy huge houses were actually selling for about the same price as moderately large houses.  So we bought one.

We will be getting a housemate in to the downstairs master bedroom to help with costs, but I'm still kinda getting used to the idea of having gone from 'nearly freehold' to 'biggest mortgage I've ever had'.

Is it mustachian?  hardly - we *could* have stayed in our smaller house for another couple of years until we really needed to upsize.

Do I LOVE it?  Oh yes, yes I do :)

rocketpj

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #9 on: November 23, 2014, 01:33:46 PM »
1200 sf generic house with 2 young boys on the SUnshine Coast of BC.  More or less looks like a tornado footage on the news, with occasional bouts of tidiness (usually when people are coming over). 

Outside the house is what matters, and we have two small forests (one in front, one behind), a beach a block away in 3 of the 4 cardinal directions.

Zikoris

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #10 on: November 23, 2014, 03:07:10 PM »
When we build our cabin (not sure if its gonna be "tiny" or just "small") a Murphy bed will be a MUST. They simply make TOO MUCH SENSE, especially in smallish spaces. One drawback is, having slept on quite a few of them, they are in no way as comfortable as our Serta pillow top mattress. Not even close.
Out of curiosity, couldn't you put whatever mattress you want on a Murphy bed?

Definitely. They make the beds in standard sizes. We just threw our double-with-a-pillow-top in and called it a day. Maybe if it was some really weird size/shape/thickness it wouldn't fit, but anything normal shouldn't be a problem. They make Murphy beds for every mattress size.

Heather in Ottawa

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #11 on: November 23, 2014, 04:13:08 PM »
Silliness, in many ways... 1900 sqft, 4+1 bdrm, 3.5 baths, single car garage. For 2 people. The only 'modest' thing about it is that it is semi-detached. But we like the living space, even though we don't have a use for all the bedrooms, it's surrounded by bike paths in every direction (including one that takes me right to work), is close to lots of free recreation in the Greenbelt, and it was within our mortgage-free spending limit.

They seriously don't make houses much smaller in this part of town (1970's era construction), unless you go without a garage, and a garage was very important to us for a safe place to store our bikes. Another important criteria was that it be within about 5 km of my work. It's a great house for us for now, but once we are FIRE, we'll be moving to a more central neighbourhood and enjoying easier access to all the great festivals and attractions that Ottawa has to offer.   

Dicey

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #12 on: November 23, 2014, 05:34:42 PM »
Curious what sort of living spaces other Mustachians have! Here's a few photos of my place: http://imgur.com/a/gljfT It's a studio suite in downtown Vancouver. The big wooden thing that looks like a big cabinet is a Murphy bed folded up.

Show us your living spaces!
Love the poses of your cat!

kendallf

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #13 on: November 23, 2014, 06:12:13 PM »
Here's a gallery of shots of our house as I was working on renovating it last year. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/26276815@N07/sets/72157632504633648/

About 1000 sq ft., built in 1949.  We've been in it a year now, and we've been super happy with the location and space.  I can't imagine needing more room for 2 of us.  We still have a "bike room" in the front that is basically only used for the bikes and some pet food.

iris lily

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #14 on: November 23, 2014, 06:37:30 PM »
Curious what sort of living spaces other Mustachians have! Here's a few photos of my place: http://imgur.com/a/gljfT It's a studio suite in downtown Vancouver. The big wooden thing that looks like a big cabinet is a Murphy bed folded up.

Show us your living spaces!

Your fat brown tabby cat makes a nice accessory!

MBot

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #15 on: November 23, 2014, 07:12:31 PM »
1300 square foot 3bed, 1 bath. With spouse and 2 housemates. Walkable location to schools and work and a small yard, single parking space up front.

It's cheaper to own this house than rent a 1 bedroom apartment here (lots of renters, short-term workers for industry and students in the North of Ontario) so with the housemates we're financially great and using the space.

CU Tiger

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #16 on: November 23, 2014, 07:16:24 PM »
We live in a small Cape Cod house, which is 1400 sq. ft. Two floors and an unfinished basement. Two bedrooms, two baths. It's paid for, which to me is the nicest thing about it. Our house was built in the 40s, it has small rooms, and only two small closets, but it works well for us.

Our land is about six-tenths of an acre. As time goes on, we are fixing things up...planting fruit trees, perennials, and native plants. It started out as a jungle in the back, so we are proud of what we have done in the yard. Our big plan for the spring is getting rid of the grass in front and replacing it with all native perennials and permaculture.

scottish

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #17 on: November 23, 2014, 08:00:42 PM »
1600 sq ft split level.   Nothing fancy, but lots of room for our family of 4.     Reasonably central but avoiding the expensive trendy neighbourhoods.


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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #18 on: November 23, 2014, 08:10:23 PM »
Not very Mustachian, but I live in a 4-2-2 with 2165 square feet. It's just my 14 year old son and I, so I will likely downsize in the future.

Dicey

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #19 on: November 23, 2014, 11:48:08 PM »
Here's a gallery of shots of our house as I was working on renovating it last year. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/26276815@N07/sets/72157632504633648/

About 1000 sq ft., built in 1949.  We've been in it a year now, and we've been super happy with the location and space.  I can't imagine needing more room for 2 of us.  We still have a "bike room" in the front that is basically only used for the bikes and some pet food.
So cute! Congratulations to you on your wonderful progress. I'm wondering if your refrigerator door is reversible, as so many are. Look on top of the door. If it is, it might be more convenient with your kitchen layout. Five minutes with a screwdriver and you'll think I'm a genius, lol!

Alex321

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #20 on: November 24, 2014, 07:04:42 AM »
It's about 3,000 sf on the two main levels, plus another 1200 sf in the finished basement. Five bedrooms upstairs, plus a guest bedroom in the basement. Four full baths, and separate home office. Basement also has a playroom, TV room with oversized sectional, and a workout room with a treadmill and an elliptical. For outdoor space there's a deck, patio, and screened porch. Situated on a couple of acres in the woods; walkability is exclusively for recreational purposes. Not very Mustachian, but great for a family with three kids. It is Mustachian in that it's paid off.

BooksAreNerdy

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #21 on: November 24, 2014, 07:10:07 AM »
We built our house two years ago and are trying to sell it now to downsize. Once we got the dream home/farm, we realized it wasn't worth the maintenance and commute into town.

20 acres, fenced. 6 of that is wooded.

House is 1960sqft with a full sized unfinished basement. Basement has a storm shelter/cellar. Has two hot water heaters so we never run out of hot water (facepunch). The house is 3 bed, 3 bath. Luxury chefs kitchen. That's the one thing I really really don't regret. I cook 3 meals a day in there and it is the focal point of our home. Hickory wood floors, custom cabinets and doors. Craftsmen style trim work.

All told, it is just more luxury than we needed. Building it was an amazing experience, but with two kids we just don't want the maintenance of an acreage. And I really resent the 30 minute drive into town.

I'll attach a few pictures please excuse the clothes drying in front of the wood stove and the dishes in the kitchen. :)

MandalayVA

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #22 on: November 24, 2014, 07:29:53 AM »
1325 SF condo inside a circa-1907 Italianate brick building, two bedrooms, one bath.  The rooms come off on the right of a 65-foot-long hardwood-floored corridor, which ends in the kitchen.  The layout was designed by an architect with lots of arches, ten foot ceilings, and track lighting so with pictures hung it looks like an art gallery. 

And it's getting paid off today.  :D

kendallf

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #23 on: November 24, 2014, 07:49:47 AM »
So cute! Congratulations to you on your wonderful progress. I'm wondering if your refrigerator door is reversible, as so many are. Look on top of the door. If it is, it might be more convenient with your kitchen layout. Five minutes with a screwdriver and you'll think I'm a genius, lol!

You know, that's a great idea, thanks!  I'm going to look at it tonight.  I wasn't really happy with putting the fridge there but other options seemed worse at the time.

I'm renovating my old house currently, and ended up building quite a bit of the cabinetry from scratch.  Learning some cabinetry has me thinking a kitchen remodel in this house, shuffling things around for better access and custom cabinets, will be on my list eventually.

Edit: and MandalayVA, congrats!  That's an awesome feeling, I'm sure!

mrsggrowsveg

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #24 on: November 24, 2014, 07:51:11 AM »
These houses all sound really neat.  Just what I would expect from this group :)

BooksAreNerdy:  Your house sounds awesome.  I totally understand the maintenance and commute hassle of country living.

Our house is a 100 year old renovated farmhouse.  The main floor is all open and has nice large windows.  We have a large master retreat on the first floor with a nice deck off of it.  The deck wraps around the entire house.  Our second floor is our son's bedroom, closet and bathroom.  Our house is small, but the size is perfect for us. 

We really bought it for the land.  We have 30 acres and a five acre fishing pond.  The view from the dock is pretty nice too.

GardenFun

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #25 on: November 24, 2014, 07:57:26 AM »
1325 SF condo inside a circa-1907 Italianate brick building, two bedrooms, one bath.  The rooms come off on the right of a 65-foot-long hardwood-floored corridor, which ends in the kitchen.  The layout was designed by an architect with lots of arches, ten foot ceilings, and track lighting so with pictures hung it looks like an art gallery. 

And it's getting paid off today.  :D

Congrats!  It is a wonderful feeling.  And your place sounds amazing. 

DollarBill

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #26 on: November 24, 2014, 09:47:21 AM »
Here's a gallery of shots of our house as I was working on renovating it last year. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/26276815@N07/sets/72157632504633648/

About 1000 sq ft., built in 1949.  We've been in it a year now, and we've been super happy with the location and space.  I can't imagine needing more room for 2 of us.  We still have a "bike room" in the front that is basically only used for the bikes and some pet food.
Love the tin roof!

Bob W

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #27 on: November 24, 2014, 10:10:32 AM »
When I'm driving up our private cul-de-sac road I get a wonderful feeling  seeing our house.  So for me,  like our kids,  it is beautiful.   

The details --

bought 3.5 years ago for 75K and put 15K into it plus labor.   It was pretty much a 50% rehab on the interior.  It is 3100 sq ft on 3 (lives like 10) acres of wooded hills in a vacation and retirement community in the Ozarks.   Appraises at 225.   Ground source heat pump and variable speed well pump with an average of $140 month in total utilities. (heading down with LEDs and water heater insulation).   5 bed, 4 baths.  I literally have rooms I don't visit. lol

I imagine houses like ours would sell for millions on the east coast, if you could even find 10 acres near the coast?   It makes me feel good to imagine that so don't burst my  bubble.   I like to compare our view and house to MMMs.   IMHO, having a private 3 acre park in my back yard and a 200 acre hiking trail across the street beats his park and having a big ass fuel efficient house beats his by a mile.  But then again, my kids are so much cuter than his son too! lol

Course I could be wrong because I do have to drive 800 miles to get to a ski slope!

Yndrd

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #28 on: November 24, 2014, 10:50:46 AM »
Just last weekend I moved with my girlfriend from a one-bedroom apartment to a studio at ~400sqft so it feels a little cramped as we're still in the process of making better use of the available space. The queen bed's days are surely numbered but I'm not sure what will replace it.

Does anyone have experience sleeping on traditional futon(s)?

shesaves

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #29 on: November 24, 2014, 11:01:27 AM »
Any other trailer park dwellers out there?  My BF and I have lived in a trailer for about 10 years.  Own the trailer, cheap rent on the lot, and 700 square feet.  We have the greatest neighbors and it's really quiet.  The biggest plus is that it is on a bay of Lake Superior that is one of the prime birdwatching spots in the Great Lakes.  We always joke that it's the only time we'll be able to afford waterfront living. :) The down side is that, even though our neighbors are great, they are really close and we can hear pretty much everything.

Fodder

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #30 on: November 24, 2014, 11:11:39 AM »
My home is not mustachian, but I was location-driven and I regret nothing!

I have a 2500 s.f. L-shaped bungalow with a mostly-finished basement.  (About 4000 sf of finished space).  It's 4+1 bedrooms and 2.5 baths.  What I love most is that it is on 2 acres in the woods, but moments from transit, stores and conveniences.  We're also at the edge of a huge natural area, and only about 3 km away from an amazing city recreational facility.  The property has a detached garage (huge structure; far larger than I need; it's 30x50) and a separate shed too (I guess for whatever the original owner couldn't fit in his enormous garage?).

The house itself has a steel roof and is heated with a geothermal system, so my utilities are relatively reasonable, considering the size of home and high cost of living.

I do have a mortgage, but I'm aiming to get it off paid off as quickly as possible.

I'm not sure I would purchase differently.  My area is very high COL (a modest townhouse will run you 300k in the suburbs).  Purchasing a house close to work, with enough space for our family, would have likely cost me around 600k, and it likely would have needed significant non-cosmetic work.  I would love to have an 1800 s.f. home on a large, private lot, near work, but that would probably be closer to 800k.

And so I will stick with my 30 minute commute to the boonies.  :)

Pangolin

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #31 on: November 24, 2014, 11:37:03 AM »
1100 sq ft, 3 BR, 1 bath row home for 2 people and a couple of pets. One bedroom is completely empty. The basement was full of junk until recently, now it's almost empty. We're purging to prep for a move. Our next house will likely be 2 BR and 600-900 sq ft - less to maintain, lower utilities.

Every piece of our furniture was inherited or a hand-me-down, except for a couch and a mattress. Even so, the place doesn't look too shabby. My taste might be questionable though. We painted the walls in several rooms purple and blue and we'll probably do the same in the next house.

Jellyfish

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #32 on: November 24, 2014, 11:53:43 AM »
Here is my 1400 sf 100 year old bungalow with my Little Free Library in the front yard.

FIRE Realtor

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #33 on: November 24, 2014, 03:37:58 PM »
What's the cost of the Vancouver studio?  Isn't it one of the most expensive cities?  Sometimes I watch House Hunters in Canadian cities and can't believe the prices!!

We live in an 100 year old cute little 800 sq. ft. house in Minneapolis.  The layout is awkward and there is no basement or garage or storage in general, but it's made me a minimalist and the $750/mo. mortgage payment allows me to be a stay at home mom so I'm incredibly grateful we ended up here. 

I did a blog post awhile back with a "tour" of our house:  https://frugalveganmom.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/tiny-house-tour/


Beric01

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #34 on: November 24, 2014, 03:47:21 PM »
250 square foot studio. Open the front door...

  • First step - shelves with food in the right.
  • Second step - bathroom (with shower+tub) on the right
  • Third step - kitchen on the left
  • 4th step - bed on the right
  • 5th step - closet on the left
  • 6th step - table+chairs (I eat my oatmeal each morning here)
  • 7th step - you're at the window+AC unit. Computer desk on the right

Note I'm pretty tall, so it may take more steps if you have a shorter stride. :)

I love it! But gonna most likely move out early next year because it's honestly too much space, and pretty expensive in this area. I'll most likely switch to renting a room. Currently paying $1K/month, utilities included (doesn't encourage me to be very Mustachian with the AC).

Man is Zikoris's studio huge! No idea what I'd do with all that space.
« Last Edit: November 24, 2014, 03:49:44 PM by Beric01 »

lizzzi

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #35 on: November 24, 2014, 06:46:33 PM »
Zikoris, your apartment looks great the way you've arranged it. I remember that other thread where you were having people make suggestions for arranging your space after you had moved in. You've done a fabulous job. Glad to see your cute cat and cute SO. I guess the worms must be out on the balcony. Say hello to Lizzzi Worm for me if she surfaces  out of the manure. 

Zikoris

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Re: What does your home look like?
« Reply #36 on: November 24, 2014, 07:15:49 PM »
Our current place is way bigger than the first place we shared! Here's the 2009-2010 apartment:









We really liked it there.