Living 'close' is really nice!

Absolutely the scariest thing for Josh and I in moving to a new city was making a decision about where to live.  We spent a very fast three days in Nashville in April as a little 'pre-honeymoon,' desperately hoping to find the perfect apartment that would meet all of our spacial, safety, cleanliness, commute-related, and budgetary needs.  If you read the last post, you already know that we ended up in an apartment that we love, but I don't think I mentioned how blessed we feel that we found this apartment in this location.

As we explored our options, we weighed the pros and cons of second bedrooms, gated access, saving money, and distance from campus.  The more we considered things, the more we realized how much our marriage would benefit if we could find ourselves somewhere close to campus.  Having both commuted 20-40 minutes to our respective jobs before, we knew that the shorter Josh's commute was, the more time he would spend at home, and therefore, the more time we would have together.  Ultimately, though unfortunately after we returned from our quick three day visit, we found the perfect little apartment that would put us right there next to campus.

Not being from Nashville, of course, we actually had no idea how close and how convenient the spot we picked has ended up to be!  As the wife of a medical student, I cannot tell you how thankful I am that Josh's classes and activities are literally a five minute drive (or 14 minute walk) from our front door.  For me, this has meant that when Josh has to be at anatomy lab at 5am, I can roll out of bed, drop him off, and be back in bed with another two hours to sleep.  Or, when Josh wants to print out his lecture notes at 10pm, I know he'll be home again before I've even finished getting ready for bed.  Or, if Josh has a pre-exam study session he'd like to attend in the evenings, he can still make time to come home for dinner with 'wifey.'  Am I lucky, or what?

Since I already gave you a tour of the apartment, I thought I would give all of you back home a tour of the neighborhood!  This should give you a little sneak peak into the in's and out's of our day to day :)  For those of you reading from Nashville, I suppose there's really no lesson for you here...but thanks for your new friendship and for reading along!

I organized the tour along the loop that Josh and I walk to and from school/work each day.  Yes, we walk together every morning.  It is the best part of my day.  Walking home tends to be a little warmer than I'd like, but I enjoy that also!

About two blocks from our apartment is a park and city monument called the Parthenon.  It is actually a full-size replica of the Parthenon in Greece built in 1897 for an extravagant fair that became a permanent landmark in Nashville, the "Athens of the South."  It's actually really beautiful when they light it up at night!

One night near the end of July, Josh and I saw a facebook post from a new friend that they were filming a scene of the TV show Nashville at the Parthenon.  We ventured the two blocks down the road and got to see 'Juliette Barnes' perform a scene for the premier of season 2!  Look for this scene in tomorrow night's premier and know that Josh and I were there!

Another two blocks from the Parthenon (an eight minute walk from our apartment) is my current place of employment - the Barnes and Noble at Vanderbilt.  I'm loving working  about 30 hours a week in the Vanderbilt merchandise department.  I get to talk to prospective students and parents about the college search process and help organize piles and piles of Vanderbilt gear.  It's even helped me get excited about football season!

A few minutes past the Barnes and Noble would be my lovely husband's place of study.  Door to door, you can't get much better than his fourteen minute walk!  And he's been spoiled.  Anytime I haven't had to be at work myself, he's had a ride :)

And finally, the last stop I thought I'd include is the football stadium.  On the return loop from campus, the stadium is about halfway home (seven minutes walking).  You should see this town on game days!  Josh and I got season tickets, so I'm really enjoying getting to follow the team with him.  At the last game, he spent the whole second half explaining to me how football defense works.  It made for a great evening!  And it makes it nice that we can just walk over to the stadium and walk home, no traffic, no parking, no hassle!

Also nearby, but not pictured, are a ton of restaurants, a little grocery store we try not to frequent (it's over-priced and a little stinky), and a number of hotels.  We truly are right in the middle of things!

Who knows where we'll end up a year or two from now, but at least at the moment, our little corner of 'midtown' is better than we could have possibly imagined.  I imagine as the weather begins to change and the course material continues to grow, we'll only appreciate our 'nearness' more and more!

Thanks for reading! And for all the birthday wishes!

Sometimes, a little space is just enough!

If you talked to Josh and I before we made the move, you know that our biggest (superficial) concern was that we were moving into an itty bitty apartment.  Nothing like going from a bachelor living in a two bedroom apartment to combining closets while downsizing to 600 square feet! 

And so, Josh and I left behind A LOT, loaded up a 16' truck, and crossed our fingers that it would all fit!  And as we moved the first boxes in, it looked like it was going to be a little close.  In fact, even the movers were laughing at the already lack of space as they carried in our over-sized bean bag (don't worry, I made sure it fit!).

A photo before we started bringing all the stuff in.

I'm standing at the front door - yes, that's the back wall. No, there's not another bedroom somewhere.

We arrived to Nashville on a Saturday evening; we moved into the apartment the following Sunday morning.  Josh started orientation at Vanderbilt on Monday morning.  So needless to say, my dad and I did most of the unpacking.  We were conservative about space and creative in some of our placement.  I'm still sometimes surprised when I find an appliance in an unexpected drawer!  All that hard work paid off, though.  We found a home for everything that came out of these boxes!

We celebrated when the box pile got this small!

So, now that we've had plenty of time to unpack, arrange, rearrange, clean, rearrange, and clean again, I thought we'd give you all a tour!

Real time side note:  I just asked Josh how he was doing (he's studying like crazy) and he responded by turning on some scary rap music.  Must be exam week in the Thompson house...

This is the outside of our building.  One of those little windows provides our only natural light (when I remember to open the curtain)!   We're a 5 minute walk from the edge of Vanderbilt's campus, and about a 20 minute walk to where Josh actually has class.

 Here's a peak in.  I'm standing at the front door again.  Now with furnishings you can see we have a small entryway, and a long living room-kitchen-bedroom.  Plenty of space :)  We were pleasantly surprised by how much we like the polished concrete floors.  So far, no need for socks as the floor hasn't been too cold!

I stood up on the entertainment center (aka dresser full of kitchen appliances, pots and pans, and tupperware) to get this photo of our living room.  We love our wedding photos featured on the wall like that, and the paintings on the right were done by yours truly.  Thank you Pinterest!  The giant bean bag makes its home on most of our floor space, but we do love it!

 Here's from the far end of the kitchen (just before the bedroom).  There is a small counter between the living room and kitchen.  We thought it might make a good study space for Josh.  It turns out it is easier for him and I to eat dinner on the couch and leave the entire table as a desk for him.  Beyond that, there is very little cabinet space, no silverware drawer, and no pantry.  Like I said, we got creative!

 A long, deliberative trip to the Container Store added significant shelving space to our kitchen cabinets.  We managed to save the space above the microwave to serve as our pantry.  Our other strategy - always have some dirty dishes.  That way, the dishwasher serves as storage, rather than wasted space ;)  My favorite part of the new apartment?  Unpacking our dishes we received at the wedding into the cabinet.  You can't tell from the picture, but they look beautiful up there!

The other side of the kitchen - or Josh's desk.  We found a great silverware caddy to use instead of a drawer, and anything that didn't fit in the cabinets made its way to our Ikea shelf we brought out last minute.

 With limited square footage, the bathroom is significant space!  We've adjusted now, but we were both shocked that showers could feel so small.  I think the shower head is just a touch low.  The tiles along the mirror (which goes all the way up to the twelve foot ceiling) are beautiful!

From the far corner of the bedroom, this is all I could get in the shot, but you're not missing much.  Just the closet (see below) and the window are to the right of here.  We haven't even hung the pictures sitting on our dresser yet.  Oh well.

 Our closet.  And no, there isn't more.  Josh very generously gave me more dresser space, so he uses most of the closet space.  I don't know what we'll do when winter comes (sweaters and jackets are all under the bed), but for now, we're actually doing really well fitting everything in!  Again, we always have some dirty laundry helping keep space in the closet :)

I had to show you my very early birthday present!  I guess being a real adult means getting important things a washer and dryer for your birthday.  Thanks Dad!  We love them!

Lastly, I thought I'd give you a good picture of our sliding barn doors (just for you, Kim).  We only really shut them if Josh is going to be up late studying, and even then, only part way.  But they do make the apartment pretty trendy and urban, right?

And now you've seen way more than you ever needed to of our beautiful home.  Everything fit, we love how it worked out, and we're glad for even this much space.  We've even said a couple of times, better to be in a small apartment where Josh's studying never leaves him too far from me, than spread out in a big house, right?

Thanks for reading!