Living Situations
[ 18 May 2007 ]
I started thinking about this the other day, especially when I read this about Helena Bonham Carter & Tim Burton:
“They live in adjoined houses with a hallway that connects the two homes.”
I love that idea. Together, but apart. As an only child, I really enjoy spending time by myself. I live with my boyfriend at the moment, & thankfully we get along well the majority of the time! I do, however, have very fond memories of living alone in my studio apartment. I could change my outfit 5 times & leave clothing everywhere, call up a friend & go out to a restaurant at midnight, then come home & talk & listen to music until the wee hours. It’s nice to feel like you can live your life without disturbing anyone else or having to “be considerate”.
My favourite kinds of houses are those gorgeous Victorian ones you see all over San Francisco, preferably one painted candy colours, with a big staircase & a verandah upon which I would take breakfast & read fashion magazines. Ha! Though since my first love is New York, I would love an apartment there, too. Big windows, lots of light, something old which has been refurbished — lots of character but good, solid structure underneath.
What’s your living situation at the moment, & what do you think would be ideal?
Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala 
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I live with my husband, and we share one house… although I think it would be a lot of fun to have two houses with a joined hallway. Or at the very least, two master bedrooms, as is the trend in new, big, construction.
I am an only child too! So I can totally relate to needing alone time, something that is a tad hard for hubby to figure out since he is one of five kids. The nice thing is, we each have our own office, otherwise I know we would drive each other completely bonkers.
i live in a pretty messy old state house, with my crazy furniture (i have karen walkers old board room chairs!)and artwork in a semi-ghetto part of town. but it’s mine and i love it.
i would love to move to a huge crazy old house up in the hills around wellingtons cbd somewhere
I live by myself right now. I like it because I always have art projects and clothes scattered about the place. I do want a kitten or a sugar glider or some other pet soon… I think ideal would be having one or two friends down the hall.
Actually, ideal would be a private island with 24 hour Vincent Price movies playing in black and white, lots of outdoor laterns, and a forest to glamourbomb my heart out in.
I’ve always had an incredible desire for small spaces. I’d always find the smallest room in the house and somehow now i’ve ended up living in a house with a cupboard under the stairs that’s big enough for my bed.
I’m going to try it out when i’ve removed some shelving in there. It’s a perfect private space, everything in the room (and in small rooms before) is mattress and when the energies sort themselves out after you settle in, it feels comforting and sort of womb-y. Especially appealing in winter.
Obviously,it probably won’t work for claustraphobics, but i’m kind of the opposite so it offers me a great deal of privacy and security in a house where I have to be around people a lot.
I lived with the boyfriend for nearly two years and my dog for six of those. We live in a terrace in richmond (a dream i’ve had since i was a teenager) with a tiny little yard and a pseudo bungalow/laundry. If i were going to live overseas i’d love a loft in NYC or a shoebox in Tokyo, but if i were going to live the domestic life i’d have a yard big enough for a serious vege garden and a massive kitchen.
i don’t unnecessarily like big spaces, i just want one that’s big enough. i live with my husband and 3 cats. i just want enough room where we don’t feel cramped.
i actually lived in a loft in NYC, i would move back in a second, though maybe not to that exact space. :P
diego rivera and freida kahlo lived in separate but connected spaces near mexico city…together, but apart.
i think i know that house!
it’s definetly a gingerbread house, and there is a village of them on the island of martha’s vineyard. it’s a victorian campground. my family used to have a vacation house there. walking through it is like walking through a movie set.
Life in Tokyo can be pretty cramped. The two of us in a two story, ultra slimline apartment with dangerously twisty internal stairs can sometimes get pretty tight!
Alone time is oh so gorgeous – living together and working together with different languages, cultures and ways of doing things requires an intense amount of awareness (of course that awareness sometimes flies out the window) but there is never a dull moment.
Regular ‘Ladies Lunches’, separate shopping sprees and pampering visits to the salon make things a whole lot smoother!
Always expressing how greatful we are to each other (in any language), lots of hugs and plenty of love words help alot too ;)
ps We think your apartment is simply stunning we often have a bit of a drool over the pics of your fresh space.
I almost have that “hallway connecting two homes” thing…see, I live with my boyfriend (and his family), but I live in a self-contained unit that’s downstairs from their house. So I have my own space (which at the moment is strewn with academic texts on pornography and my entire wardrobe), but whenever I feel like it I can run upstairs and spend time with The Boy.
Being that we’re both people who need lots of alone time, it works really well.
Aimee — My boyfriend & I both work from home, but thankfully we have our own space so we don’t drive each other insane. It’s really important. I’ve tried living with people in small spaces with only one bedroom & it turns sour quickly.
Sarah — How did you get your hands on Karen Walker’s boardroom chairs?! That’s amazing!
Ms. Tokyomade — Thank you! We are blessed with a lot of natural light. The place isn’t perfect (like our carpet, oh my goddd, it is kind of waffle print & dirt just gets trapped in it!) but it is pretty damn good & I do love living here.
Nadia — That is awesome! It must be good to be able to get a break from your boyfriend’s family. No matter how great a family is, sometimes they can be a bit much ;>
i live in the tallest apartment building in aaaalll of san jose, an art-deco style building built in the late 1920s…
i’m in the center of downtown, across from the new city hall which is all spaceage and lit up at night, and i have 180 degree plus views of the city.
it was my number one choice for a place to live in san jose and i finally got it..
HOWEVER. san jose is not my ideal city to live in! i want a beautiful victorian with lots of bay windows near golden gate park in san francisco that i can paint pretty colors.
do you visit san francisco regularly?
so,
i don’t know if we’ve already mentioned this in e-mails, but i currently live with Bebop & his weeuns. In a house. In an area of the city that i don’t fancy much – very suburbish. Not ideal, as i’m not very kin to children & we’re having relationship difficulties.
i currently (JUST TODAY!) found a house that was built in the 50s/has a pool/patio/amazingness & i’m really hoping to build a little community of neat people there.
this post makes me think of Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera’s house – at least the one that was portrayed in the movie. I really like the idea of seperate living spaces, or at least spread out areas as well. I like to have my room to spread my legs (or stilts), so to speak.
And that house? Freakin’ amazing. I think of you nearly every day when i dig through piles of scarves. I’m still collecting. By the way – do you like asian style dresses? I know it isn’t summer, but i found a beautiful light pink cotton one with white embroidered cherry blossoms that is vintage, but brand new… If you think you’d fancy it, i’ll set it in my growing pile for you!
...okay, this comment is turning into an e-mail.
i bought them off trademe, i had no idea when i bought them thats what they were. they were just some crazy old retro chairs to me!
That house is adorable! I love how the hearts get smaller as it goes up the hill (at the bottom) someone must have put a lot of thought into this house!
I live in a Victorian terrace house in England. It’s a lovely house! There’s enough space for us all to keep out of each others way if we need to (myself, my parents and my sister). However, my boyfriend stays round most week days so I hardly ever get time to myself! The only free time I have is if i decide not to go to his house at weekends.
Having someone staying in your room all the time really makes it seem smaller than it is! And I sleep in the attic room which is massive!!
My ideal living situation would be University accomodation! I can’t wait to start a life away from home! I’m taking a gap year next year so I’ll be at home a lot longer than I wanted to be but at least it gives me the oppurtunity to travel!
I live in my parents house now, so pretty much anything else would be ideal! Ha, I’m kidding… kind of. I think people move out of their parents’ homes faster in other countries than in the US, but I plan to move out after college and live la vie boheme for a while – and that truly is my ideal because I’m not fond of anything too modern. :)
A year ago I moved into a condo/townhouse with my dad. It’s not my ideal living situation, but it’s the best we found and it’s very roomy. The interior is sweet, too, and the third floor is just my room. I like being by myself a decent amount, so a bedroom on it’s own floor is a nice touch.
An ideal place for my dad and me would actually be a Victorian house. He has actually talked about moving into one once I’m on my own/in college and he can move wherever he pleases! I’d probably end up staying in that house all the time with him, though , haha.
Mary Bee — Yeah, I saw your ad on Tribe etc.! I hope it all works out for you. I just received a package from your friend Liz in Portland who sent me STOCKINGS & incense & stickers! So awesome, thank you, she said you got her onto my website ;D & that dress sounds amazingggg! Eeeeep!
Stefanie & Sarah — I think it’s cute you guys live with your parents! I kind of miss that sometimes. Enjoy it while it lasts :D
I live with two men because I bailed from my old living situtation and found this apartment empty, fell in love with it and invited them to rent at the last second! It’s a perfect house. It looks RIGHT ACROSS the road to a big old cathedral, has beautiful box lamps on the path and its a huuuge 4 storey Victorian terrace of which we have ground and basement floor. It is also 2 doors away from John Lennon’s old place and is somewhat a tourist attraction.
It’s cosey and cluttered; we decorated it with laura ashley wallpaper and baroque furniture. I love it! (although sometimes I wish they didnt play electric guitars, the noise makes me want to cry).
gala – have you written about keeping your home from being swamped with clutter/getting to enjoy your beautiful things? i will do a wee search, as this is my summer project.
i live with my boyfriend and two (male) housemates, and i would do anything for a room of my own where i could close the door, but neither of us could afford anywhere with more room. however, we’re in a gorgeous edwardian terrace with a cute garden and a huge kitchen, we get along, and i have space for a desk, so it could be much, much worse. but couple-private just isn’t the same as me-private.
i’m an architecture student so my ideal would be somewhere i designed myself – definitely with small spaces for a single purpose, like amyz’s description of her bedroom (harry potter!). i like nooks more than open space, and would love a bright studio space where i could have separate stations for the different creative things i do. a porch big enough to sit on (rather than a sheltered doorway, which is as big as they get in ireland!) would be lovely too, to drink tea and watch the rain.
I live alone at the moment in a studio that sometimes feels too small (purging stuff I haven’t used in ages usually helps with, that though.) I’ll be moving in to the boyfriends 2 bedroom place at the end of the summer. It’s a little scary given that I haven’t lived with anyone in 3 years but it should be fine. We’re both neat freaks.
i pretty much live like you and ambika. in san francsico, a studio apartment. five outfits on the floor. cat, stella… shes’ great.
i love this life.
Currently, I live ‘alone’ in a tiny one bedroom that I kind of hate. My boy is over nearly every day/night, though, so he basically lives here. When his lease is up, we plan to move into a better place, with enough space for me to have a proper dressing room!
My ideal dwelling would be a treehouse. Or at least an ancient flat/house with a sleeping porch. They are actually quite common here, I just need to find a place with a proper one!
I’m an only child too, and MUST live alone. I have a boyfriend of 8 years and just this last year he moved into the same apartment building as me. Six floors below me. People think it’s weird…and maybe it is, but I like it this way. He is allergic to cats anyway, and I have 2 so he couldn’t live with me even if I wanted him to. We like it, he comes and goes as he pleases, as do I, and when I want to be alone, I can be. There are days where we never see each other. I’m sure people think it’s crazy, but it works for us.
I live with my boyfriend and our cat in a big, old flat in Murcia (Spain) and i love it. Although i dislike some things and we have 3 housemates, the rent is pretty cheap for more than 180m2 and i really enjoy living in a biiiiig house with a lot of natural light.
The ideal house for me is a big flat with a lot of natural light, filled with Ikea furniture and cute japanese stuff, and i hope that we will move soon to something like this!
(and please, excuse my horrible english! i love to read your web but i never make comments because…uhm…my english is soo bad xD)
I have never lived by myself for more than a month or so – I don’t like it. I have basically lived with my boyfriend/husband (same guy!) since I left school.
We bought our first house almost a year ago (me, huz, sons). It is a Lockwood, ie solid wood construction and ‘decor’. We both grew up in Lockwoods and we both love them; they are very cozy-feeling with all the warm-coloured wood. (Some people cannot stand them!)
I wish I enjoyed living alone, with my personality you would think I would love it, but I don’t really, I get lonely. Just as well seeing as I’m married now I suppose!
We live in a very old character apartment right by the Kingsland railway station. We both love the noise of the trains (not so much the announcements that go with them). I love that it’s an old apartment, there is loads of storage and weird angles and things, the apartments aren’t all just repeats of each other, they’ve divided the building up very strangely indeed!
I wish we owned it though, as it hasn’t been maintained well at all and there are a lot of things that should be done to make it much better — just not worth doing when it’s not your house though.
I would much prefer two bedrooms than the one-plus-study we’ve got. We both use the study and it’s FAR too small! I would love a separate room for Elton’s music stuff and to have my own sewing/office space.
I’d love a small lawn and vege garden — we’ve just got a concrete courtyard and herb garden now. I really look forward to living in a house one day. I hate having to be considerate of my neighbours with music volume etc, Elton hardly ever DJs at home out of consideration for the thin walls — I would love it if we could be as loud as we like. Also I hate that our neighbours don’t recycle properly and we all share a rubbish area — I’m always tidying up the rubbish like a bag lady!!!
Annabel — I used to live near that train station myself! #20 Walters Road. It’s a pretty cute house, I had my 21st birthday party in the backyard!
I live in a big two bedroom apartment with one of my close friends. Our entire apartment is basically a design studio, as our entire living room and dining room are filled with sewing machines (four!), boxes of fabric, a dress form, and countless other crafty items. I love our apartment, but we live above our landlord, and they hate us due to our noisy taco nights and dance parties that seem to accidentally happen at least once a week (oooops!).
Our lease is up in September, and ideally I’d like to move into a big house with a few friends, but my second option would be to move back into a studio by myself. I’ve generally always lived alone, and I absolutely love it.
okay, i had to come back & see if you had wanted the dress. hurrah! i have it set aside.
anyway, i should’ve FIGURED it was Liz that sent you the stockings!!! i got to visit sockdreams and nearly had an aneurism.
I ♥ Liz. she is awesome!!!