Where the door leads..

An interesting door in Manhattan Beach, which looks as if it belongs somewhere else. I saw a picture of this in the local paper and it reminded me of how much I liked this apartment at one time. The door opens to a stairway which leads upstairs, and a small room beyond the door. The building is now a house/ apartment?, but it started off as a garage. No.. a REAL garage, with pits in the floor and everything. I believe they are still there, but filled in with sand the last I looked. The living quarters were upstairs, and they may have owned the building next door at one time... which is where I lived for several years.

When my first apartment in MB became too expensive for me to rent, I moved across the street to this tiny old building. The owner lived upstairs, and the downstairs (my place) was built around the garage. It was an infamous L shaped room. The bedroom/living room/music room was 13 feet long and 8 feet wide. My van was 10 by 6, and almost a spare room! In that long room I had my bed, which had been purchased by my grandparents in 1905 when they married. At the end of that bed was my piano, which fit EXACTLY against the end of the bed and the end of the room. There had been a water heater across from the piano at one time, but it was a closet. I had to sit in said closet to play the piano...

There was a little corner (the closet was part of the 8 foot width), and in that corner I put my TV and stereo, in a shelf unit I had made to fit. It was triangular, and I used it up until last year when I finally got a bigger TV and a real entertainment unit. I still have the shelf, but now it's a Kitty playground.

The other part of the L shape was the kitchen and bathroom. I don't remember how long it was, but in it I had my dining-room table (also my grandparent's... solid mahogany, it opened to seat at least 12, but closed down to 25 inches wide.. a boon in the small room). Keep in mind that the stairs that led to the upstairs apartment were IN MY APARTMENT... closed off, of course, but they took up a lot of room..

After the table there was a small sink, a stove, a little refrigerator and then a boxy bathroom, with a very small shower and room for my only other furniture piece, a tall dresser that matched the bed. It was, at the very best, a funky little apartment!

The first time I used the stove the fire alarm went off, and I had to use a ball peen hammer to make it stop. That worked REALLY well, but I never could have a smoke alarm in the place...

So you know why I love my house so, even if the door is a bit plain..