Back in my senior year of college, I took apart my bicycle with the intention of cleaning, greasing and putting it all back together. Every little component was broken down to it's smallest state. Spokes came out of wheel rims, derailleurs were deconstructed and brake components disassembled. I thoroughly documented each step along the way with detailed photographs to illustrate the disassembly, and in theory re-assembly. After I called it a night, I put all of those pieces into a small beer box. And that's where they stayed — I didn't have a fraction of the necessary tools or knowledge to put it back together. Two months ago, a few days before we hit the road to move our lives across the country, I carried that box over to Turin Bicycle Shop to donate those parts.
Initially I was afraid that our decision to move out here was a higher stakes version of that bike. Disassembling our lives in Chicago to put in a box, haul across the country and do our best to put back together in Los Angeles.
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Our courtyard back at 4829 N Wolcott, 2B. They really did a number trimming the trees this summer, which sort of helped with saying goodbye.
The day after we signed a lease for our place (2 weeks before we drove out) we celebrated with our friend Agnes with a drive through Topanga Canyon and a trip to Malibu beach.
Sunny vibes, two weeks out and miles away from the hours of packing, donating, goodbyes and driving ahead of us.
The studio stripped down to some basics.
The morning we left Chicago. Pouring rain and bare apartment.
Drove through St. Louis and through the Ozarks on the first night. This isn't a picture of that.
Oklahoma?
Albequerque. Stayed in our favorite hotel with a mexican food truck in the parking lot.
New Mexico
Arizona
Day 4?
We flew out two weeks before our final departure from Chicago, rented a car and went straight to our first apartment showing. Adapting to LA traffic, we looked at place after place for two days straight. Christi was sick and our prospects didn't seem bright. Two days of no-shows, scams, sketchy rehabs, and frantic internet scouring, led us to the place we'd eventually rent. We met with the friendly building manager, Bianca, and she showed us the space. She said we were the first to see it — it was the first place we'd seen that felt like a potential home. We put in our applications and eagerly called the management company to see when we'd find out about our approval. 'Sometime next week...' 'We're only in town for the weekend. Is there...?' 'No, sorry.'
Christi called Bianca. Who put us in touch with her contact at the management company, who was exceptionally helpful and transparent with us. Guiding us, two newly-weds with nontraditional income and no jobs lined up in LA, through what he needed from us to appease the landlord. Long story short, two hours later, we sat in the car after looking at another place we weren't excited about and got a phone call saying we'd been approved. The relief that call provided us was indescribable. We jumped up and down and hugged eachother laughing. We'd done it (not the hard part). And we had two days left to enjoy.
Christi called Bianca. Who put us in touch with her contact at the management company, who was exceptionally helpful and transparent with us. Guiding us, two newly-weds with nontraditional income and no jobs lined up in LA, through what he needed from us to appease the landlord. Long story short, two hours later, we sat in the car after looking at another place we weren't excited about and got a phone call saying we'd been approved. The relief that call provided us was indescribable. We jumped up and down and hugged eachother laughing. We'd done it (not the hard part). And we had two days left to enjoy.
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View from our front gate on Normandie facing Hollywood blvd. Griffith Observatory up on the hill.
View down our driveway. Our front door is on the right. Bianca, the building manager maintains a really nice garden.
There's a guava tree in the driveway and one of our neighbors collected some and put them out for folks to take.
I had to work the day after we got into town. This was my makeshift desk for a week or so.
Christi relaxing in the new wing of our apartment.
Kitchen WIP.
We tried to figurred out what to do with the fireplace since it's painted over, and thought we could make some extra dough renting out a cat apartment to cooper.
Got some art up on the walls WIP.
Feels like a home. It's crazy to see pieces from different parts of the Wolcott apartment and studio living together in one space. Found a ton of good stuff on craigslist and all of our framed prints survived the drive, too!
More to come.