Dotty's Apartment

Well she's gone and done it.  She found an apartment in San Francisco and the move is imminent.  I prefer not to think about it as "she's moving out" as much as "I'm getting a second home in San Francisco."

For those of you who don't know, San Francisco is a lovely city in Northern California.  The two photos above give you an idea of what it looks like when you're driving there from the East Bay on a cloudy day.

And the photo above will give you an idea of what it looks like to be inside a 1895 Victorian that your daughter will soon be calling Home.  Which is a less original name than Wellington if you ask me.  She'll have to work on that.

Those picture were taken on Wednesday when The Hub, The Dot and I went to measure spaces in order to plan the move.  And we met The Roommate who is a very sweet young woman.

Yesterday my friend and I hopped on BART and stalked the apartment in question.  First we met The Dot at her place of business and took her for a bite of sandwich.  After seeing her safely back to her office, we took off on foot towards the new apartment.  It's actually walkable, but took about 40 minutes.  It was worth it because look what we saw in one of the many gardens:

Guess what it is.  Go ahead.  You'll never guess.  I didn't.  Luckily my friend is a master gardener and knew right away that the plant above is a Poinsettia!!  I can't even keep mine alive over the holidays, and look at this ancient specimen!  It's all gnarly and woody and positively thriving!  It must like fog.

While we were stalking the apartment, we spent 30 minutes or so on the front steps.  Some of us had to lift the mail flap to see if we could actually see into the apartment.  We could!  So we snapped this picture of the hallway.  The door at the back is the roommate's bedroom.

And here is what it looks like when you peer into the side window into The Dot's room.  This is her desk alcove.  If you look up into the corner you can see this sort of gargoyle.  It's a face molded into the trim.  I need to do a little research and find out what these probably depicted.  The medallion on the ceiling has little cherub faces, I think.  But these faces, according to my wonderful Master Gardener friend, look like Sir Francis Drake.  The Dot concurs.  So for now, that's what we're going with. 

Cool?

This is what The Dot will see when she looks out her window.  The house to the left is probably about the same age as The Dot's, 1895.  The apartment building to the right was probably mid 1970s.  Functional but not beautiful.  Her actual neighborhood is really sweet with lots of trees and interesting eateries.  My favorite so far is a coffee house called Bean There.  But I"m just getting started, so I'll keep you posted as I become more ensconced in the local goings-on.

It is my second home now, after all.