A HOUSE ON THE HILL

Finding a House on The Hill for my College Student Son

Hello there and HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

It’s the end of the school year already and my baby boy, my youngest son, Austin, has just completed his 1st year in college. You’ll remember him, he’s the crazy skier dude that broke his back doing wild and ridiculous ski stunts over Spring break. I told you all about it in this post explaining why I went M.I.A from this blog taking care of him. Well, thanks to the kindness of all of his professors, Austin was able to complete his coursework from home. He Skyped into his classes and arranged for an old high school teacher to proctor his exams, allowing him to complete his Freshman year in college. Yippie! That’s the good news. The bad news was that he had a dorm room full of possessions sitting there in Colorado that needed to be cleared out. And, he needed to find a place to live next year, as CU Boulder does not have student housing after Freshman year.  That meant making a trip to Colorado, packing up way too many plastic totes full of way too many possessions, and getting Austin’s buddies to help me move it all into a rented storage locker. I’m exhausted just thinking about it!  However, here comes the fun part. The house hunting! My favorite activity! Finding Austin a House on The Hill to live in for the next 3 years!

I made arrangements with a very nice young woman named Emile from FourStar On The Hill Realty in Boulder to show me several apartments that were available for rent beginning in August. Austin wanted to reside in an area called The Hill. It’s a residential neighborhood near campus where all the frat houses are located, along with a lot of charming vintage homes. The area has been overrun by students, thus many homeowners rent their homes to students, as I can’t imagine anyone else wanting to live there in light of the fact that the area fits the image of the quintessential National Lampoon’s Animal House neighborhood to a tee. Heaven help me!!

So, as luck would have it, we found this charming vintage house on The Hill that really fit the bill. The home is divided into 3 apartments, and the upstairs unit was still available.

Tucked in under the gabled roof is the kitchen and living room area, complete with bright yellow formica countertops.

I actually kind of like the yellow, although it probably would be better suited for female tenants.

I do like the combination of the yellow countertops and the gray carpet, although the beige linoleum kitchen floor would surely not have been my pick. Austin already has a lot of gray colored things from his dorm room, as we decorated it in Gray, Black & Buff, CU Boulder’s school colors. I think if we went with dark gray upholstery and accented it with yellow accessories it could work, and produce a more masculine aesthetic.

He’ll be sharing the 2 bedroom apartment with a roommate. Here’s one of the bedrooms…

and here’s the other.

And checkout the bathroom. They’ve made an effort to update the bathtub/shower combo but the sink and fake brick flooring leave a lot to be desired. But hey, who spends money fixing up a house that gets rented to college students? Overall I think the house has a nice vintage feel with a good degree of character.

I’m hoping Austin agrees to let me decorate his first apartment. Although I can foresee difficulties in that department, as he has a mind of his own and is very strong willed. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. In any case I’ve begun thinking about all the fun things we can do with the space and have started a Pinterest Page to help me find inspiration. Speaking of inspiration…

Do you believe in fate?

I do!

And as fate would have it the other day I noticed that I had a new follower on Twitter named Kyle Schuneman. When people follow me on social media I try to check them out and follow them back if I like what I see. WELLLLLLL…. it turns out Kyle is a very talented young interior designer with a terrific website and he just happens to have a book out called The First Apartment | Cool Design for Small Spaces.

I browsed the pages on Amazon and found that it was chalk full of great design ideas and DIY projects that have a decidedly masculine feel to them. So ya know what? I immediately ordered the book and have shared it with my son who also finds it very inspirational.

Kyle uses a lot of fun bright yellow accents, how apropos for our House on the Hill with the yellow formica.

Yellow couch?? No, maybe not.

A yellow desk?? Perhaps.

Yellow accessories?? That’s more like it.

Some yellow throw pillows?? Absolutely!

Maybe I’ll even make my own using Kyle’s hand-dandy DIY instructions.

I like what he’s done in this bedroom: gray flannel bedding, muted yellow and dark gray accent pillows, vintage tennis rackets on the wall, yellow and gray carpet tiles on the floor. Very masculine! This might just work. I even own a set of vintage tennis rackets!!

This is my starting point. Do you have any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations for the design of our House on The Hill? I’d love to have your feedback.

So there you have it: A HOUSE ON THE HILL

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All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Unless otherwise credited, all photos are the original property of Celia Becker @ www.AfterOrangeCounty.com and may not be reproduced without specific permission. This post contains affiliate links.