:mattLandia:

If you want to see a larger photo, click here.

I saw this place 15 days ago. I owned it as of 3 days ago. I finished moving in yesterday. I am officially BACK IN THE CITY. And I'm exhausted.

Since selling my place 3 months, I've been crashing with a good friend at his house. About 6 weeks ago, I found a loft in foreclosure and tried really hard to work out a deal to purchase it. Countrywide just couldn't move fast enough for me, so the deal fell through. I was pretty crushed. I really liked the foreclosure unit, but I needed to move - and quickly.

I thought I would take one last look around before giving up on finding something in my budget and going the rental route. Determined to find something in Castleberry, I decided to walk the Loft Tour. Since there are so many amazing lofts in this neighborhood, the Loft Tour basically lets anyone walk around on a guided tour, visiting some freaking amazing spots. Of course, any realtor with a listing was going to have an open house as well, I figured this was a great way to cover a lot of ground quickly.

I saw lots of great, spectacular, beautiful, totally renovated spots -- but all were more than I wanted to spend. I was pretty dejected after a few hours of walking, and decided to head home. But at the last building, on the last street, I had to walk before reaching my car, I spotted a flyer... Serendipitously, the doors to both the building, and the actual unit were open so I walked in to take a look. Within 48 hours I'd made an offer.

What you can't appreciate in the photo above:

• There is still quite a bit of fixing-up to be done.


• I'm right next to the train tracks so I'm learning to live with the pretty consistent rumblings of passing trains.


• I have a TON OF CRAP. I mean, I thought I had actually done a pretty good job of condensing my stuff, but my stuff just seemed to keep expanding and filling up the place.


• The HOA fee includes T1. Yeah. T1. Comcast can suck it.

It's gonna take me a few months to get this place situated, decorated, lit, cleaned, painted, etc. Once I finish it up, I'll post more photos then....