solvera's Profile

I live in Brighton and I love it. Our apartment is small but really charming. What we lose in square footage we make up for in convenience. I love that I can walk to the gym and local shops. I love that I only drive when I need to. Our neighborhood is diverse and quite friendly. Most of Brighton is different enough than most of Brookline that I would separate the two, but that's based on my own opinion. Brighton is very "me". The neighborhoods around here do vary tremendously, and not just in cost, so I do recommend some effort be put into research if you're moving here for the first time.

Hey folks its Solv. Yeah, that part was a hard decision and I spent forever opting back and forth. I LOVE the bright poster in the hallway so I thought showing the little bit of color with our grey and black furniture gave the effect I was looking for. The living room's a little bit more in progress that the rest of the place, and I've seen a billion entries with mostly closeups so....I gave it a shot. But if I guessed wrong that's good for me to know.

Yay! Working up the courage to send a submission because I'm in love with our little rental. But yeah I'm afraid of criticism too. Either way, I love this time of year and best of luck to everyone.

Yes! I'm a motorsports fan so our living room has my Nascar and Indycar stuff everywhere, including my autographed items. We've also got our HD TV and beer fridge in there. My boyfriend could give a toss about racing but he's a gamer so we have the computer in there as well as our game consoles. We've also got his movie posters and his action figures.

What I'm trying to say is...yeah its a man cave. And I love it!

Funnily enough I've kept my sense of decor so there's things like window scarves and matching throw pillows. Its just so....me

I love our rental. Worry free maintenance, two parking spots, great management company, attic for storage that's all ours. Its a smaller two bedroom but there is a great little porch for grilling and entertaining. using the fabulous tips on this site I've been decorating and making it feel like home. Plus were walking distance to public transportation when needed, and we can walk to tons of stuff in our neighborhood.

Renting in the Boston area can be far cheaper than owning. I have never once felt like I'm throwing money away. Someday id like to own something but for now I'm just saving money every month. I don't want to buy until I can have something I really want.

I live in Boston too. We just moved into a place on October 1st (and I moved a few years ago on March 1st) by taking over someone's lease who needed to move. I agree with Dunks, be open to leases with weird timeframes (ours is 11 months, through Aug 31st).

sorry to say I found both of these on craigslist, so no new ideas there. I would say though, keep an eye and ear out for any email lists you're on, at school, at work etc. LOTS of people around here have rental properties in addition to whatever else they do, and there's always people looking for roommates if that's something you're willing to do.

Hey Bennemans,
I downloaded the pics from the craigslist ad of the apartment (we haven't moved in yet, I'm just obsessive about this stuff). I can email them to you if you shoot me an email at circleofkayless@yahoo.com (my public email for things like this) That'd be awesome!

Aprilhearts, I think we'll need to replace the computer chair so yeah, that's a great excuse to get something smaller to fit under the desk. The corner desk does have more shelf space than the glass one so for storage purposes it may make more sense.

Dierdre, this is exactly my issue. I'm going for cozy without claustrophobic. And yeah I rabidly scour the small cool submissions lol.

I'll take out the bar stool for sure, maybe get rid of the Poang chair, maybe just replace it with a smaller chair, and lose one of the side tables.

still haven't decided what to do with that mirrored nook. I think the current tenants' mini-bar in it is really classy but may not be practical for us. I'm just a sucker for mini-bars in the living room.

This is Lisa, and thanks for the answers so far. Yeah, it'd be heartbreaking to lose the sofa because its the only brand-new furniture I have (this was NOT a planned move). Its the Ciera sectional from Bob's http://www.mybobs.com/Ciera_Fab if that changes anything. But I totally told you guys to give me honest feedback!

My one saving grace might be the new living room is sort of a smaller version of my current one. My current one is 15 1/2 by 15 1/2 and its setup similarly to what I have sketched. The tenants in the new place have an overstuffed sofa, chair, and loveseat in that small living room so I thought maybe I could get away with it.

Minuoriginals, your comment is exactly what I was wondering (except I was thinking glass desk flat against the wall). I've had small living rooms that were setup as you described.

Keep em coming, I'm loving this!

WOW! I love this. really really nice job.