{new dtla loft lease + patio inspiration}

Last week we officially signed a lease on a loft in downtown Los Angeles and will be moving in at the end of this month (so long as all our stuff makes it safely across the country!).  Searching for a new place was somewhat stressful and completely painless at the same time.  I was incredibly worried I would be disappointed with whatever places we found since our last loft was such a lucky find and I loved it so much that it was likely nothing would measure up.  Outdoor space was one of my top wish list items for our new place (especially after living in Chicago weather for the past two years!), but it is very rare to find affordable units that actually have substantial areas of outdoor space in dtla beyond the ridiculous penthouse units.  Many of the converted buildings in the historical core will have maybe 7 or 8 units out of 200 to 300 that happen to have an outdoor deck just based on the odd architecture of the building which was the exact situation with our roof deck last time

I almost couldn't believe it when I got a call about a unit that opened up with almost as much outdoor space than interior space.  We put down a deposit on the newly available unit within 24 hours of that phone call! Our new place has about 820 square feet inside and while I was hoping for a bit more interior square footage, the fact that the deck will be almost 750 square feet more than makes up for it!  The big reason I wanted substantial indoor space was so that we have more than enough room to entertain and we are hoping to put a lot of work into the deck so that we can use it as a additional living space.  Here's some of the inspiration I have been gathering for the new outdoor space!

I absolutely cannot wait to get into the place and start putting it all together!  I promise to share progress along the way via Instagram and all the details once things are finished here on the blog!