Welcome to Apartment 6B

Welcome to Apartment 6B! Just a quick tour of our apartment for those friends and family who haven't seen it yet (Emily and Brett are actually the only ones who have). Below is the living/dining area before furniture. We "camped" here for a long weekend in December when we came for orienttion with just an airbed, 2 lamps, and a few kitchen essentials. As you can see, the basic decorating scheme is very neutral, off-white walls, parquet floors (another nice extra) and basic blinds throughout, so very versatile in terms of potential color schemes and style of furnishings.

 

We decided not to move big peices of furniture (one way U-Haul is prohibitively expensive), so I went to Cort Furniture just a few blocks away in Central Square and picked out a basic set of gently used furniture for the living room, dining room, and bedroom. I HIGHLY recommend Cort for anyone entering into a temporary living situation. Decent quality in a variety of styles at a reasonable price, and top notch service. You can either rent new or buy gently used, which is actually a bit less than rental if you need it for at least a full year. We added more lamps (more about lighting challenges later in another post), shelving (also more later), a small desk for me and a work table for Dan for the study. Also some dishes, silverware, etc., our clothing, books, and computers, and a few pictures and memorabilia from home. Here is the result, still a work in progress but pretty much the way it will be for the year. First the living room. The "view" pictures facing downtown were taken out these windows.


The Living Room

A comfortable sofa and love seat.

Next the dining area. As you can see in the picture of the empty apartment, the living/dining area is really all one largish room. The sliding glass door to the balcony opens off the dining area, The "view" pictures facing Harvard were taken from the balcony. Looking at the dining area from the living room, the door to the balcony is on your left, and the pass-through to the kitchenette is on the right.

Dining Area

 

Next we visit the kitchenette. I refuse to classify it as a full kitchen, even though it is billed as such in the apartment description, and seems to be fairly typical of kitchens in city apartments. More about this adjustment in another post. It is servicable for our needs for mostly just the two of us for a year, and to make a simple meal for a larger group (we can seat and serve up to 8) with some planning.

 

 

Kitchenette
 

Now down the hallway betwee the living and dining areas. The study is on the right, the bathroom on the left, and the bedroom straight ahead. In the study, the rug and Dan's work table (which is really a door on top of a folding table) come from our den/library at home. Marge's desk is from Cort, and the bookcase (just out of the picture on the right) is new from Walmart, and VERY flimsy compared to our built-ins at home. I confess to being a bit spoiled in this department.

Our Study; Dan's work table on the left, Marge's desk on the right
 

The bathroom is small but servicable, and to give our buildinng management and the previous tenant credit, very clean with everything in good repair, as is the whole apartment.




Bathroom - small but clean
 

Finally our bedroom, with furniture from Cort and a new rug from Home Depot but bedskirt and pillowshams from our guestroom at home, a down blanket from the cabin, and the large aerial photograph of our farm on the wall opposite our bed, plus a few family pictures on the dresser. This room also features a walk-in closet that Emily says is big enough to be a small child's bedroom. Not sure about that, but is is bigger than our bedroom closet at home.

Our bedroom, with a few touches from home.

As you leave the apartment, you will notice TWO hall closets and an alcove for a coat rack off the entrance hallway. Outerwear and some misc. storage in one, the vacuum, other cleaning supplies, trash can, and Marge's barn coat and boots in the other. Not quite a mudroom, but it is cold out so I am happy not to have to leave my barn coat and boots in the car or mix them with civilized clothing.

 

 

Good-bye for now. We hope you come to visit so you can see it in person.



The View

View from Living Room Window

One of the best features of our new apartment is the view. It is something that wasn't even on our list of features that we were looking for in an apartment, but it is a wonderful "extra", as is the balcony that we will be able to enjoy our view from in warmer weather. We are on the 9th floor (yes, Apartment 6B is on the 9th floor....there are 3 commercial floors beneath the apartment levels). This is high enough that we can see for miles, more than 180 degrees from various windows, and it also keeps the abundant street noise rather dim, which is a good thing since we are accustomed to NO noise, except birds and the occasional coyote. But it is not so high that it would be impossible to walk up in the event of a power outage (although I certainly would not look forward to the climb). The view is even more awesome at night, but I lack the photography skills to capture it. Wish Lisa Scolastico or Patty Bamber or Debi Peters or Robert Cunningham were here!

Toward Central Square and downtown Boston



Toward downtown Boston at sunset

Toward Harvard and the Charles River



Toward Harvard at sunset



Background

As many of you already know, we have just moved from Lebanon, OH to Cambridge, MA. Dan is serving as a Fellow in the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University for the 2013 year. Marge is on a Faculty Development Sabbitical from Xavier for the Spring 2013 semester so she is able to join Dan in Cambridge. Our son Marvin has taken over as President of Long-Stanton although Dan will remain CEO and plans to return to Long-Stanton with a redefined role in 2014. We have leased an apartment just a few blocks from the Harvard campus. It is on the 9th floor of a mid-rise building on Massachusetts Ave. Quite a change from our log cabin in the woods where we have lived for 30 years! Dan has a short walk to his office, and Marge's commute will be even shorter as she will be working out of the study/guestroom in our apartment (though she does need to drive to see her horse, who is stabled about 15 miles away). This adventure will be made even more exciting by the arrival of our first grandchild. Our daughter Emily and son-in-law Brett, who live only a few miles from our new apartment, are expecting a son in February.