Our "Crib"

I think I already mentioned that we love our new location. We have a park next door, a walking trail in the backyard, five minute walk to the BART station and the charming downtown streets are only a mile away. It's great!

Before moving here we left JJO with my parents for a weekend and drove 11 1/2 hours so we could then spend two whole days driving all around the Bay Area looking for a place to live. We'd had some recommendations given to us that turned out to be far from what we were expecting... when your husband says "this place reminds me of where I lived on my mission" - you immediately cross it off your list and move on.

I mostly love the place we ended up. It's a good size, perfectly located, clean and have I mentioned it's perfectly located?? I don't necessarily love the 90's looking kitchen cabinets, nor do I love the entire upstairs painted one color (walls/molding/doors), I definitely don't love the bookshelf our landlord built entirely out of mirrors... but I DO love the big bedrooms and bathrooms attached to each bedroom, our balcony, our big closet, the endless cupboard space in our puny kitchen and the stairs that keep Jonathan entertained for lots of minutes at a time!

For the first week here we had an ironing board, air mattress, pack n' play, laptop, folding chair and paper plates, bowls and cups. Here's some before pictures of our place.

I'm currently working on plans to paint and accessorize, so if you have any suggestions I'd love ideas on how to make a glass bookshelf look less reflect-y and what color to paint one or two walls in the master bedroom and JJO's room and how to make a muted color in the bathroom look less awful.

the dining room/family room/front room

the master bedroom (i couldn't really see the point in "making the bed"...so I didn't)

JJO's room... so depressing

the not so lovely but very useful kitchen... I whip up fabulous meals in this kitchen (in my mind... in the future.)

I'll post current pictures of our place next time... it looks slightly better with furniture and art.