I can't believe I'm saying this, but our time in our tiny shoebox apartment has officially come to a close. We bought a house, and as of two nights ago, we are all moved in! I'll be following up with a post about our house-buying process and design updates, but for now, I wanted to dedicate a post to our little apartment.
We moved into a studio-converted-one-bedroom apartment in the heart of south Tampa back in November 2017. For non-locals, south Tampa is an area right in the middle of popular bars, restaurants, and shops, just steps away from the bay. Prior to moving, we'd lived in a suburb of Tampa where you had to take a toll road to get basically anywhere, and while we loved our apartment, I was so over living in what I felt like was the middle of nowhere. So when we moved into our apartment right in the middle of all things fun in Tampa, we made do with the cramped closet and lack of kitchen drawers. After all, our goal was to be out and about, meeting up with friends nearby, walking home from dinner, and enjoying the area.
Since moving in, we had to deal with more than just a lack of space. One of our building neighbors was a younger 20-something frat boy who still hasn't grown out of that lifestyle - e.g. playing awful music with excessive bass at 1:30 a.m. on a Saturday night when he wasn't even home, getting into loud, occasionally physical fights with his girlfriend(s), and playing video games at ridiculous volumes. In addition, our next-door neighbors liked to sit outside until 6 a.m. on weeknights drinking light beer and shooting the shit. Sigh. Yes, we know that with the area, we got what we signed up for, but our particular apartment is also unfortunately placed on top of a separate set of townhomes, and we hit the neighbor lottery with the guy downstairs.
I digress.
Neighbors and storage difficulties aside, we made a lot of memories in this little space, and we loved it (when it was clean). And as much trash as I talk about it, I'll definitely miss it, and it will always hold a special place in our hearts.
What I'll miss the most:
- Original hardwood floors that we don't have to take care of ourselves.
- Charming crown moldings and our white french doors with crystal knobs.
- The natural light that comes from our bazillion giant windows (and by that I mean twelve, nine of which aren't covered by an IKEA closet).
- The giant palm trees that sit just behind our bedroom windows, which give a calming, jungle feel when the blinds are open.
- The proximity to our favorite restaurant - bartaco! I will absolutely miss being able to walk to and from the restaurant. Drinking margaritas is a lot more fun when you know you don't have to leave your car to get a ride share home!
- ...and the proximity to everything else. Less than a half mile to two grocery stores, steps away from a ton of yummy restaurants, less than two miles to our favorite gym (that we will miss so dearly!). Nearly everything fun to do in Tampa is just a walk or short and cheap Uber/Lyft drive away!
What I won't miss at all:
- The majority of our neighbors. Enough said above.
- Our small kitchen with virtually no counter space or storage.
- Keeping our food storage containers in a plastic container above the refrigerator.
- The easy collection of dust. Our place was built in the 1920s, and I'm pretty sure the same dust bunnies have been hanging around ever since.
- Our itsy bitsy bathroom with its painted bathtub and lack of a proper drain.
- The drunk people wandering around aimlessly after hitting the bars at night.
- Living between several "through" streets.
- Parallel parking on the street with a bunch of groceries or work bags because I can't find a parking spot in our lot.
- Not having a dining room table, or any table at all, because there is literally no space for one.
Now that we have moved into our house, I'm really looking forward to designing our space and truly making it our own. When we moved into our apartment, I was still in graduate school, and then I was saving money for our wedding. Suffice to say, I wasn't in the market to be spending money on new furniture or home decor. Now, I am ready to take this house on as a project! Keep up on Instagram for more frequent updates.
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