From the Land of Ma'am: My Apartment

Greetings and happy Wednesday.  Luckily I am feeling much better than I did when I wrote Monday's post.  I have a permanent desk now at work.  Just having that stability is really helping.  I'm feeling more settled, and in general am in a better place mentally than I was on Monday.  Onwards and upwards.

While I may not have really  chosen this move to Charlotte, the reality of the situation is that I am here.  The days are long, but the years are short so I figure I might as well make the most of my time here.  In an effort to motivate myself to see the good, I decided to start a post series that I will call "From the Land of Ma'am."  Since I'll be exploring more areas than Charlotte, I thought a "Southern-influenced" post series theme was appropriate.  And, after all, I am living in an area of the country where they say ma'am A LOT!

To kick off my post series, I thought I'd share some pictures of my new home with you.  I've been in my new apartment for a little over a week now and am mostly settled in.  I still have some organizational projects to do, but for the most part I am pretty much settled.  All in all, I like my apartment.  My main complaint is the lack of storage.  I have 1 closet total - no entry closet, no coat closet, nothing.  Just one smallish walk-in closet.  I had 3 closets, a linen closet, a kitchen pantry, and a storage unit in my last place so it's a drastic change for me to have such little storage.  I tried to fit as much into my closet as possible but admitted defeat last week and ended up renting an onsite storage unit.  I just couldn't handle throwing more out or donating more (I did a lot of that before my move and have sort of had it with purging).

I am fairly happy with how it is arranged, with the exception of the placement of my dining room table (I want to pull it away from the wall), but that is not a piece of furniture I can move on my own, so that will have to wait.  Here are some pictures of my new space.

Living Room

The living room from a different perspective (the door on the left leads to my balcony)

My beautiful kitchen

My bedroom (I have a sliding glass door that leads to the balcony which overlooks a courtyard)

My building has a lot of great features such as a concierge who signs for packages and notifies you of their arrival via email, a small gym, outdoor pool area, yoga studio where you can do workout/yoga DVDs, a small movie room, and a business center.  It's quiet and it's just over a 1/2 mile walk to work.  On days when I don't want to walk to work, there is a free trolley-style bus that picks up in front of my apartment building and drops me off right in front of my office building.

So all in all, it is a good place to live.  It's small, but besides the lack of storage, I think I will be pretty happy here.

What do you like best about your home?  Do you like your floor plan?  I picked this apartment primarily because of the cost and proximity to work, but also because of the open floor plan, which is the kind of floor plan I had in my last place and the kind I prefer.