A new apartment in Koreatown

N and I moved into a new apartment at the beginning of March. We had a lot of stuff to figure out about shopping for a new place in LA.

It was a lot of "firsts" for us. The first time we hired professional movers (we used Aussie movers and they were pretty great), the first time we had to buy a garage remote control and the first time we had to contemplate street parking (we only get one spot with out unit).

We ended up with a 1.5 bed + 2 bath apartment for only $100 more than our increased rent would have been at our last place--and that was a studio! We have so much space now it's almost mind boggling. And now it's time for another rundown...

Things I love about this new apartment:

• The half bedroom is actually an open loft space, so our ceilings are super duper high! I love high ceilings.
• We have TWO exposures, and they're on opposite sides of the apartment. I'm not sure if multiple exposures is a big deal in LA, but I'm still in NYC mindset when it comes to real estate so I'm amazed. We get a pretty good natural outdoor breeze going through the place.
• We suddenly have lots and lots of kitchen counter space. Freedom!
• We are literally within half a mile of a TON of awesome Korean restaurants, including our favorite kalgooksoo and jjajjangmyun spots. For. Serious.

Things I do not love about our new apartment:

• We only have one assigned parking spot. Gag. We have to street park one of our cars, which would be okay since N usually takes the Metro to work, but oh those dreaded street cleaning days! I've never cared about street cleaning until now. Do we *really* need it?? I guess we probably do...
• The stairs that go up to the loft cut right in front of the entryway to the apartment (you can see them jutting out in the photo below). You have to literally step over them every time you enter. As one of the Aussie movers said, "You better not come home drunk, because you are DEFINITELY going to trip over those!"
• There are no drawers in the kitchen. Yes, you heard me right. Whoever heard of a drawer-less kitchen?? We had to jury-rig a weird setup for our silverware and stuff.
• There's no central air. In fact, there's only one wall unit for the entire apartment and it's in the living room. I had serious reservations about that fact, but we took the apartment anyway. I think I may end up sleeping in the living room during some summer nights, though.

And now for some pics!

The living room. You can see the stairs on the left and the loft up top. And Stewie on the lower left:

The living room from the opposite direction:

Messy bedroom:

The loft area with second bathroom:

And the view from the loft looking down onto the living room: