Team Skaggs: Our Apartment

This is the view we saw as soon as we walked in the door. I literally gasped out loud. Just like our house in San Mateo, the view makes the place. Once we were finished oogling over the view we quickly realized how TINY this place is! The Craigslist ad said it was 810 square feet. For some comparison, we just left 1700+ square feet which by California standards isn't that big for a four bedroom house. Granted, we left more than half of our belongings in storage but still...it's small. I've had to get creative when finding places for things. I have my cookbooks at my bedside, our bed linens in the coat closet, and spices in the bathroom medicine cabinet (see below).

Actually, the medicine cabinets are HUGE. I'm trying to think of other small things I can put in them. We do have two bathrooms which is nice. And the building is only 2 years old, so everything is modern and new which Kevin and I love.

When we first arrived from the airport the taxi driver came from the north, down. That means we went through the Barrio and Harlem first and then just as we passed a big low income housing project the driver pulled over to let us out. We were both a little worried. When Kevin last lived here 15 years ago he said this was a dead zone area. No reason to come here. But apparently this neighborhood has really blossomed over the last few years. There are lots of really great restaurants, a Whole Foods right downstairs, and some really nice shops. From our block down is all really nice and I think the building of our luxury apartment complex a few years ago probably has a lot to do with it.

The kids love the third floor. There's a fun kids play room and an indoor swimming pool (which has large glass doors that all open up to a roof deck when the weather heats up). Last night we took the elevator down to the third floor for Holden's swim lesson, which was really nice since it was snowing out. I can't imagine he'd be taking swimming lessons if we had to leave the building.