Further left of the rabbit hole

As of this week, our new home was officially "moved in" enough to bring in a cleaning woman. (I cannot say how much I love being grown up enough to have the income and priorities to employ someone else to keep my home sparkling.) Well, if the flat is now feeling like home, it seems to me to time to share my handy work/the object of my obsession over the past couple of months.

Last I'd checked in on our housing front, we were broken-heartedly packing our bags and bidding farewell to our home just left of Alice's rabbit hole.

Us at the mouth of Alice's rabbit hole, in our private gardens just outside our old home

Now, rather than simply making a left at the mouth of the tunnel and escaping the gardens to reach our front door, we've added another 5 blocks to the trek and lost the magical key to the gardens where the rabbit hole hides. Today, our private gardens are a mere strip of manicured flower beds protected by a sign that says No Dogs, rather than 5 acres of Wonderland under lock and key. But life's not all bad 5 blocks further left of the rabbit hole.

Without more ado, welcome to our anything-but-humble, eviction-landed-us-here, seafront flat (which yes, we share with a flatmate—no way we could afford this on our own, but no it's not that bad). No, this is not too bad at all.

Welcome in! Walk into our home (see top left photos), and open the door (bottom left). You'll see two hallways side by side to your left. Peering down the first one (bottom middle photo), you'll see the door into our flatmate's suite. Just beyond it, you can take a peek into our hallway (top right photos, and bottom right). But first, let's take a turn to the right and into our shared spaces.

Welcome to our living room, which we happen to share, though that's easy to forget with a roommate we hardly ever bump into! In the top left, you've got the view as you enter the room, and next to that, another view from the back of the room looking across to our couch and dining area. In the top right, you can see shots of our modern kitchen that opens up into the living room, as well as the bar corner with the latest incarnation of our bendy bookshelf. On the bottom left, there's a close up on our "coin apéro" (aperitif corner), where I tuck myself in to a quick breakfast before catching my 7:20am lift to work. In the bottom middle, a view of our fireplace, one of the few things reduced in grandeur compared to our previous home. (But when you're complaining about the side of your Edwardian fireplace, it's probably time to stop complaining.) And finally, in the bottom right, our gorgeous dining set has found its new home.

A close up on the Paris-themed French art from the "coin apéro" (aperitif corner) of our living room

And one more close-up this time to show off our dining corner. Although half of these decorations had hung in our previous kitchen and the other in our living room, I think they paired nicely in this iteration of chez Nicolas et Emilienne

Wander into our bedroom suite. Top left: just past the Brighton photo frame, you walk through the door to what delineates our private part of our flatshare. Top right: peek over your shoulder as you let the door slide shut behind you. Bottom left: continue down our private hallway. Bottom middle: turn your head to the right as you reach the end of our hallway to peer into our massive bathroom. Not only do we have a tub, but behind the bathroom door is nestled a shower stall, and even a bidet. We're that fancy now. Bottom right: enter into the lower level of our bedroom suite.

As your bedroom suite opens up, take a glance to your right (top left), to see what's become of our Alice in Wonderland themed guest room décor, now perched just along the convertible Murphy bed-desk that's suddenly serving us much more regularly (in its desk configuration) than it ever did when hidden off in a guest room way down the hall of our previous home. Top, second from left: as you've entered our bedroom suite, you can glance over our Murphy bed-desk (still ready to host guests!) and our library corner. (How I miss those shelves in our previous living room!) Top, second from right: as your climb the staircase, take a glance over your shoulder to look down over the lower level of our bedroom suite. I am completely enamoured with those massive windows that overlook our terrace (which can only be accessed through our flatmate's suite). And I am a huge fan of our massive lower level carpet, purchased to protect the landlord's carpeting from two overly playful kitties. And how classy is that armoire? Did I mention our flat came with zero closet space? Top & bottom right: From our upper-level balustrade, you get a great view across the lower level, excellent for staking our your prey. Bottom left: In our cozy upper level, we've still book-ended our bed with matching chairs from the dining set purposed as nightstands. Bottom middle: Just a nice view from above across the lower level, which generally serves as our private living room/office/guest room.

And in case you didn't notice our bedroom chandelier in the previous collage, let me dedicate an entire subsequent collage to it, because I am pretty damned proud of this thing. The Venetian mask chandelier is my own, original, one-off creation, a reincarnation of a very different chandelier that I accidentally smashed during our move...

Yes, believe it or not, this was the previous life of my Venetian mask chandelier, until it befell an unfortunate and unintended fate at my hands.

And, saved the best for last: the views from that expansive living room.

Yes, every morning I drag my butt out of bed for, and every evening I come home to these views. Is a #blessed too cliché here? Yeah, I know, I'm rubbing it in. But after our eviction on top of all this year's shit, we've earned it.