Welcome to My Apartment

I've delayed posting for a couple of days because I wanted to have all I needed to make today's post.  Even so, I'm not going to cover everything, because I've still got organizing to do, but I thought it was high time to introduce my readers to my apartment, since I've been talking about it so much.

Apartment, readers; readers, apartment.

I suppose I should start with a blueprint because, typical of me, I have one.

You'll notice that the text in this picture is backwards; this is because I had to flip the image I acquired from my building's website to show how my apartment is actually laid out - the way this looks with the text flipped is the mirror opposite of my apartment, but this is the right way around.  In this picture up is south, but I didn't think rotating it 180 degrees was really necessary.  The entrance is in the upper right, and the balcony in the lower right.  That boxy thing above the balcony's right side is an air-conditioning/heating unit (as is the boxy thing at the bottom of the dining room), above which is a window (no window in the dining room, alas).  Above the balcony on the left is the sliding door, and the portion of wall to the right of the dining room is window.  Incidentally, that's also where I'm sitting right now, because my desk looks out that window.  The living room window is big and square, but the desk window is tall and thin; I'd be tempted to nickname them Abbott and Costello if I could only remember which of them was which (answer: Abbott's the fat one, but Costello was no taller than his counterpart, so the comparison doesn't really work.  Oh, well.).  And just to settle any questions, the accent wall I painted last weekend is the wall that faces the balcony - that is, the wall whose other side is in the dressing room and bathroom.

Anyhow, today I wanted to introduce you to the living room (living room, readers; readers, living room), because I've spent the past two days decorating it (along with the usual docket of cleaning, organizing, and running errands).  In the past "decorating" for me has primarily meant "putting things on the walls" because furniture has always been provided (dorms and furnished apartment), but although I have to supply my own furniture here, putting things on the walls has actually become more important because I have so little furniture to begin with - with bare walls I feel like I'm living in a super-sized shoebox.  But with things on the walls, it's much more homey.

As you can guess, my decorating is no minor affair, so without further ado, my two newly-decorated walls:

This is the brown accent wall over which I labored so hard on Saturday, and again yesterday.  At floor level you can see the makeshift couch I've put together (six layers of cloth, and it's actually pretty comfortable).  To the left is the one shelf my landlady left in the place (she took down three more above it, which makes about as much sense as...well, never mind).  You can also see that the stuff on this wall has given me a little trouble - I woke up to find two of the maps and one of the pictures on the floor because I hadn't secured them enough (I'm using masking tape, because it's what I have and it's usually gentle on paint and paper alike, but too little and things end up on the floor).  As you can see, Southeast Asia doesn't want to stay on the wall (Taiwan wants its independence), so I'll have to re-tape it in a bit.  None of the six big maps are ones that I've displayed before, so they'll have to be beaten into submission.  Interestingly, the post-World War II World and Africa are the only ones which haven't given me trouble - 1950s Germany and Middle Asia were both on the floor this morning.  (Blow this picture up to see more detail.)

Here's today's effort, the wall to the right of the accent wall, or to the left as you enter the room from the foyer (are you referring back to that blueprint?)  There are fewer small things on this wall because I used most of them up on the accent wall yesterday, but that's just as well, because smaller things mean more work.  Spain, the Heavens, and the world at night are all reappearing after a successful stint in Chicago, but the United States is new (I didn't display it in Chicago because it's so big) and I've retired my old map of Italy, which was falling apart, and replaced it with a Traveler's Guide to Italy version.  Normally I shy away from "traveler's guide to" maps (I have one of the British Isles which I don't like at all), but this one is actually quite well done.  Italy's just so photogenic.

Once I've cleaned up the remaining rooms in my little kingdom I'll have pictures for you (don't you want to see the Black Hole of Calcutta?), but in the meantime, it's back to cleaning and organizing for me!