October 3, 2013

ODE TO IREDELL



Above: a few favorite photos of my first apartment in Durham. Did you know it was featured as a House Tour on Apartment Therapy? (I also recently saw one of the AT photos used in a BuzzFeed article about cleaning your toilet. I'll try not to let the fame go to my head.)

Micah and I have started packing up our apartment. We're so excited about closing on our new house (next Thursday!) and moving into it (next weekend!). We don't have much to move, thanks to The Never-Ending Edit, and I know our new place will feel empty for awhile.

In a backwards way, it reminds me of my first duplex in Durham. I had just cut my possessions by half to move across the country into a super-cozy, super-cheap 590 square-foot apartment on Iredell Street. All my furniture felt squished together, and I felt a little strange about reverting from homeowner back to renter, but it was still one of the best decisions I've ever made for myself. Micah visited me there a month or two after I moved. I had been Skyping with him every night from that tiny office nook, and we still weren't really sure What We Were. He said "I love you" for the first time in that tiny kitchen (seriously tiny – that butcher block island literally doubled the counterspace), and a few months later decided to move across the country to be with me. That's when I moved into a larger place – the duplex we're currently packing up. The duplex that now feels tiny and squished. Full circle!

But it all started on Iredell.