Belle: The Official "Before" Home Tour

Slowly but surely, we are moving our stuff into Belle. The Birdcage was the first item of mine to make it's way over... love it atop the wood paneling of the faux fireplace mantel.

Today, I present to you the official "before" home tour of Belle. Before showing you agagillion angles of the different rooms, I threw together this amateur floorplan. It's not at all to scale, but gives the general idea of where things are located.

Gosh, why wasn't I an architect?

A few items of note:
- Yes. The apartment is huge. This is not an illusion. Actually, based on Danielle and our interns' reactions when I took them to see the place, apparently the place is even bigger in person than it appears in photos.
- I am paying the same amount in rent for this place as I am my current place. The new place is about twice as large. And actually, my landlord is raising the rent of this place $200 (plus $150 for parking), so this place will actually end up being cheaper than where I currently live.
- The size of this apartment is not normal. But it's what you can get the farther North you live in Chicago. It is a third floor walk-up (coin laundry is in the basement). No garage parking. No central AC. We will not be in the heart of Lincoln Park or Old Town or River North. I highly doubt you can find an apartment this large in those neighborhoods, and if you could, I can't even fathom what it would cost. So basically what I'm trying to say is, we were willing to sacrifice location for space. We're both homebodies, and kind of over being surrounded by congested neighborhoods streets on a daily basis.

Ok, enough babbling. And now, the tour.

THE LIVING ROOM

The living room is located at the front of the apartment, and is kind of two rooms in one. It will house the sofa and tele...

...which will go to the left in the above photo. Television on that wall. Sofa in the middle of the room facing it.

Another shot of the sofa/tv area.

But then there's this part of the room. Built-in bookshelves and faux fireplace. I'm thinking small dining table? Making this a grand entertaining space?

And can we talk about Christmas tree potential?! It will be loverly.

Also off the living room is the sunroom.

THE SUNROOM

Which has a super-sweet painted floor that I'm not allowed to paint over. It's been like that for thirty years (read: obviously the work of some friendly hippies in the 70s), and the landlord is attached to it.

So we'll make do. Either keep it as is or cover it with a rug... not sure yet. Thinking this might be a music room (been pinning inspiration for that). Mike has several guitars, and we're looking to get a piano. Stay tuned. No pun intended. Tehehe.

THE HALLWAY

Here's the hallway. The entrance to the apartment is on the right-hand of this photo. That doorway on the left is the main bedroom. And you can see the dining room and kitchen in the distance.

Here's the angle from the dining room (which is toward the back of the apartment) looking back at the front living room. Is this making sense or am I just confusing all of you? That's a closet door on the left, and bathroom door on the right.

THE BEDROOM

Here's the main bedroom. It's a good size! Nice and bright.

Located near the front (you can see the built-in shelves peeking in the corner). That's a closet door on the left.

Pretty much a nice blank square box of a slate. Could take this room in a million different directions.

THE BATHROOM

Here's the real gem of the home. Every old apartment has one. The problem child if you will. The wood paneling is... there. The tile is a dirty shade of beige. The shower head sticks out perpendicular to the tub. And there's a big wooden column in the middle of the room. But it's nice and big! And has a window! Always a plus in my book.

At least the toilet is white. Kind of surprised it wasn't brown or orange or something.

But there's nothing a little white paint can't fix. You can see a portion of the ceiling was already done, and we'll recreate that throughout the rest of this Brady Bunch latrine.

THE DINING ROOM / OFFICE

At the end of the long hallway is the dining room complete with beautiful built-in hutch. Perfect for all of my glassware. And there's little to no storage in the kitchen, so this will come in handy. The entry to the kitchen is on the left of this photo. The hallway is on the right, and you're getting a peek into a large hallway closet on the right side of the photo.

Dining room looking into hallway toward front of house.

The other side of the dining room has a beautiful bay window. I'm thinking my desk is going to go over there. We really want to make sure this space gets used, and since we're turning the second bedroom into a guest room, I need an office. This might all change once we're moved in, but that's where my head is at thus far. Oh, and how cool is the coffered ceiling? So many painting options. Or keeping it natural... again, we'll see!

THE KITCHEN

The kitchen is super small, offers no storage, and is located in the back of the house off the dining room.

Will likely paint that door and the cabinets white. Thinking navy walls. Crazy, I know. But this is far down on the list of priorities... right now we are just thanking our lucky stars the landlord was willing to add a dishwasher.

THE GUEST ROOM

Here is where guests (aka my new baby niece!) will stay. Don't know what's with the used-to-be-a-door converted to a huge window...? Love old apartments.

Otherwise, it's pretty standard. This room is also low on the list of priorities, so no big plans to share. It opens up to the dining room/office.

THE BACK DECK

And finally, here's the back deck. Which was the icing on the cake. You have no idea how difficult it was to find a place that had everything we wanted, most notably outdoor space. We have been grilling a lot lately, and with dogs, it's just nice having a place to kick back outside. Especially since nice weather lasts only a portion of the year here in Chicago.

But Belle has it all. Including this oversized deck off the back. Victory!

Thoughts? Suggestions? We are a little overwhelmed and all ears!