Hi, I'm Evan.
Welcome to my Sweet Digs.
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Come on in.
I live in St. Louis, Missouri.
I am paying $710 a month for a one
bed, one bathroom apartment.
And it is, I think, 750 square feet.
I live here with my cat, Bonnie, and we've been here for about 2 years.
My apartment is shotgun style.
When you open the front door, you're going to walk into the living room.
Beyond that is the bedroom and there's a
bathroom off the bedroom.
Then that goes into the kitchen and then there is a balcony off of the kitchen.
I'm a grad student and I'm also a third grade classroom teacher.
So it was really important to me to have a space that felt like home,
a place that I could come and decompress.
Welcome to my living room.
This space is being utilized right now as an office space.
This is my desk overlooking a beautiful park
just across the street.
This chair is not the most comfortable, it was just sort of for ascetics.
I didn't intend to be sitting here for, you know, a great length of time.
But since we've been quarantined,
I'm using the space a whole lot more now.
This came from my parents house.
My mom was a school teacher as well and taught...
don't kill me mom, second grade, I think, for 30 some odd years.
And so I want to say this was in her classroom.
So my favorite find in the apartment is the paisley chair in the living room.
It is something that I always admired in my grandmother's home.
And then whenever she passed
away, it was living in my parents basement
and I really didn't feel like it was getting the attention that it deserved.
So I love the fact that it's in my living room, it's on display.
I think the pattern is really cool and funky.
The 70s are definitely in.
During quarantine I have acquired lots of new plants.
I liked plants before, but definitely I was
spending a lot more time in the space and I just started
to get really into collecting new plants.
So this is my cactus corner.
So I have a ric rac cactus over here and I love this plant
right here, this is a rubber plant.
That's my tetrasperma plant over here.
I love it because it's growing super tall, this is like a climber.
And it's in my, "please don't die" pot.
I have discovered that owning multiple
plants is actually pretty similar to only owning one or two plants.
If you're going to water one, it's easy to water them all.
It's not hoarding if it's books or plants.
So when I came to check out the apartment, I was in love
with the bookshelf that I think catches everyone's eye when
you first walk into the home.
All the shelves are adjustable.
So there's notches on the side here and you can
adjust them up and down as you would like to.
I actually draw as well.
I do have mandalas that I've drawn throughout the home.
This is Bonnie's stuff.
She plays with it sometimes.
She'll even like drag it from
this space, like over to my bed to like, tell me that she wants to play.
I was nervous to get my own pet.
I'd always wanted a dog, but I don't have the
yard here for a dog, so it's not the right time.
For now I have Bonnie, but she kind of serves as the dog of the apartment.
She plays fetch, she likes her belly rubbed.
I really couldn't imagine living in the space without her.
She is a really, really sweet animal.
Now that you see in my living room, let's go ahead
and check out the bedroom.
I just really wanted this space to feel peaceful and relaxed.
Growing up, my bedroom was zebra
carpeting and lime green walls.
And I like, you know, more neutral things now and I want
the space to feel super serene.
So my style is definitely, I would describe it as bohemian.
Definitely some things that are from the 50s,
60s and 70s.
The pillow came from green shag.
It caught my eye and I just thought it was a really cute
pop of color.
So it lives there on the on the chair.
I think a space should be filled with really unique artwork.
I really like things that feel personal and things
that feel like they have kind of a back story.
My friend Katie makes these painted vinyls.
This is a Donna Summer album.
I just thought it was a really beautiful piece to have in
here and it's nice that it's done by a friend and someone who is local.
So it's important to me to support local artists.
My biggest splurge has been the dresser in my bedroom.
That was several hundred dollars.
But I bought it knowing that I would have it for many years to come.
And I wanted something that felt sort of more
mature and adult. And I knew it was going to be like a big
investment piece.
I really like the dark wood on it and I really liked the
the hardware on it.
One book that I love to reference is, I've had this
forever, it's a Dictionary of Dreams and I will wake up in
the morning and want to decode what my dream meant.
So this is like supposed to tell you if you
dreamt about something crazy, what it means.
I do not have a bathroom closet.
I don't have that storage.
This is where I store just like my towels and other things
that I would typically keep in like a bathroom closet.
The bathroom, it was really important to me that this was
also serene, I kind of was inspired by this
green tile that's going up.
It's kind of that mint green color.
And I really liked that I green tile on the floor in here as well.
I really enjoy having this
window in here
because I've been able to put some plants in here during quarantine.
So I've installed some shelving.
You will notice on like the back of my makeup,
I've gone ahead and stuck magnets on there and
then everything is just super accessible and easy to find
while I'm doing my makeup.
So I'm not like rummaging around in a bag trying to find it.
This space is really nice because I'm able
to use it kind of as a bar area if I have people over.
I really love this open shelving with the glass so you can
kind of see what's in here.
And I have my degree.
So this apartment is one hundred years old.
It was built, I believe, in 1923.
And this ironing board that's in here
is actually still functioning.
I just store my broom in there for now,
but it's just a really neat piece.
I'm positive that this is original to the space.
It's just really cool shows the kind of antique feel
of the kitchen.
I do wish I had new appliances.
Range in the kitchen is super old school, the refrigerator
is not the newest.
So even though it would be lovely
to have new appliances, I kind of feel like it goes with a vintage vibe.
It's a blessing and a curse, I would say.
I use the space all the time.
Whenever I did move in, I was concerned because I knew
that I had these appliances that I needed to put somewhere
and I did not want to cover the space with my microwave and
my coffeemaker and toaster because then I wouldn't have
anywhere to cook.
So I actually went ahead and installed
the shelf here, which made it so that I was able
to put these things higher up.
Andthen I have all of this space now to cook.
This is a can crusher. I drink a lot of sparkling water and
so this is a way for me to, like, smush my
cans down and then I don't have to take out my recycling
quite as much.
One of the more sentimental displays of artwork I have in
my home, these pitchers that were made by a relative who passed away.
So they're just sentimental to my family.
And then I just kind of put them up there so Bonnie
wouldn't knock them over.
Alright, so last but not least, we have the balcony area.
Bonnie loves it out here as well.
During quarantine his has been a
wonderful area for us to come and relax
and kind of still be outdoors, but not be in close
proximity to anyone.
I love a lot about this apartment.
I love the amount of light I get in here.
It's been lovely to have you all today.
I really enjoyed showing you my space.
It's time to wrap up.
I'll see you later.
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