new apartment, pre-renovation

I apologize to any faithful readers for shirking my blogging responsibilities! Have no fear - I am back on the job! Now that I have consistent internet access again I will be posting some catch up entries. Surprisingly a lot has happened since I arrived in Massachusetts just two short weeks ago.

I finally got the go ahead to move into my new place on August 1. My new apartment is adorable and I really like it! It is the biggest apartment I have ever lived in and extremely cheap for the size. In addition to it not being lived in since September it also hadn't been updated since about 1953. My parents and I spent four days tearing up carpet, taking down wallpaper, painting and cleaning. Here are the before shots:

The living room, pre-renovation. The contraption in the corner is actually a gas heating unit from the 50s or 60s. This thing terrifies me but if I want to stay warm in winter I guess I'll have to learn to live with it. Note the ugly wallpaper and hideous orange/brown carpeting!

There were a few weird discoveries when we took up the carpet in the living room. Look, a trap door leading to my landlord's apartment!
I thought that the grid on the wall was hiding an air conditioning unit. Imagine my surprise to discover a Styrofoam storage area - how clever!
Apparently the previous owners didn't like the look of the same wood covering the entire floor so they threw in a large-ish square of a different wood and left that part unfinished.
A built in hutch! I've always wanted one of these!
My kitchen - nice wallpaper, eh!?!
This is kind of a bad angle but there is actually a mosaic tile of a cat on the wall of the shower. I love this cat! I haven't picked out a name for my new pet yet - any ideas??
Stay tuned for pictures of post-renovation!!