Boston Countdown

Since I have such a smarty-pants husband, we are moving to Boston this year so that he can get 2 (more) masters degrees at MIT. I am excited to move somewhere else - I have never lived further than 20 miles from where I was born and raised! Crazy, right?

Anyway, I am looking forward to a new town, and am having dreams of living in a nice apartment. Or a decent one. My current and last homes are/were tear-downs that don't get upgraded at all. As long as they are in working condition, the landlord won't put any money into them.

I became a painting fiend in both my old and current places. I repainted ALL 430 square feet of my last apartment, including the closets, shelves, rails, and the ceilings. Then we painted almost all of our current place. I only stopped at the bathroom because our lease is only 10 months total, so it wasn't worth the work (in my opinion).

I love our place that we have now. I have always dreamed of living in this neighborhood, and I thoroughly enjoy not having neighbors filling my apartment with their second-hand smoke. We have a great yard, only one wall with neighbors, and that is only a smattering of the positives.

But my landlord won't upkeep this property, or let me improve it while he pays for updates. It's a shame.

So now I daydream about places that have wood trim that doesn't dandruff paint chips, don't have possible asbestos in the attic/ceiling, have heating systems that don't drown out the television, and have light flowing through most of the unit.

And the ultimate daydream - having a place that looks like this:

(all images from one of my favorite blogs of all time, Young House Love)

You can find the whole post from John and Sherry at YHL here. They go into detail about what they love in this place, including the gorgeous floor stencils. Floor stencils!!! I could SO do floor stencils in my current place - the wood has absolutely no sealant on it and the floors are just a lost cause. I die.

I am excited because we are planning on getting rid of a lot of our furniture for the move and starting fresh in Boston. I hope we have an outdoor space or a garage so that I can grab shabby stuff off of Craigslist and make them pretty with paint and such. My goal is to try and get somewhere close to this look.

I showed the YHL post to Rick, expecting him to say that the place was too girly, but he seemed to not mind it, not even the pink dining room! Of course, he was watching the Olympics, so I might have been kind of cheating on that one! ;-) I think it's one of those things where I'll just do what I want. As long as it is comfortable and I do it all on the cheap, I don't think Rick will care.

Even if this isn't your Dream Place, if you are nesting and/or love interior design and DIY projects, GO to John and Sherry's blog. It is what my little starter blog aspires to be someday.

They are a cute couple, great writers, and have awesome posts every day. They are currently putting together their nursery for their first baby. Even if you are not expecting, it's a great blog because it's not all-baby.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on my Dream Place? **Please don't shatter my dreams by telling me I'll never find that in Boston - I know this is very likely a lofty, unattainable dream for now.**Have you lived in or been to Boston? What do you like to do there, and what stores/bars/parks/neighborhoods do you love?