not fair

Jason and I helped my brother move into his new apartment in DeLand yesterday. He used to live in one of the areas that was ravaged by a freak tornado this past February, and his neighbors living there are not the greatest: late-night screaming matches, guns, all that fun stuff. He has since found friends who have this gorgeous storefront apartment in downtown historic DeLand, the top floor above a bicycle shop and a rare coin dealer. Don has always lived in pretty modest places, as he has spent the last decade or so as either a grad student or a public school teacher. So, when we loaded up the U-Haul truck to take his belongings to his new apartment, we weren't expecting what we saw:


Ignore the furnishings and try and see how freakin' HIGH that ceiling is...


The kitchen. Yes, that is a mannequin in the back. She's holding a welcome home sign. She kind of creeped me out.

Original, beautiful hardwood floors. 1700 square feet of them. Ceilings that appear to reach to the sky. Fresh paint job. Huge windows looking out onto a courtyard. Big open spaces. The kind of living room that any self-respecting singer would salivate at, because the acoustics are of the type that make your voice sound 100 times bigger than it is, round and full and rich. And for this echoey vastness of an apartment, he's paying, like, two dollars a month or something. (Okay, I exaggerate, but I will say it is less than what we pay per month for our 1000-sq ft apartment in a not-nearly-as-desirable area.)

To top it all off, the coin shop downstairs is the next door neighbor of a fabulous Irish pub where we had dinner: fish and chips, burgers, apple crisp. Across the street: a chi-chi nail salon. Behind the building: a cute little boutique with fantastic dresses displayed in the front.

Needless to say, I am completely, totally jealous. Inspired, but jealous.