Moving Day

It’s moving day!

We met Ralph, our landlord, last night to get the keys and write our first rent payment check–woo hoo!

Before I get too far, can I just say that moving sucks?  It really does.  It’s the packing, the chaos, the schlepping (I love that word) of stuff in and out, up and down…  And I did two WHOLE loads in the Pilot BY MY SELF.  After my carefully planned-out night DID NOT go according to plan (why was I surprised?), I was a cranky girl!  Let’s just say we may have more than one load still sitting in the living room of our hotel as I write this at 6:15 a.m….  How did we get so much stuff?

Anyway, I’m in a better mood this morning–I’m sitting here with my (gasp-last!) cup of hotel coffee and a sample of one each of all the breakfast pastries I’ve SUCCESSFULLY avoided for the last four months–and am ready to get moving!  (the puns, they just come to me…)

While we were at the rental last night I snapped some photos:

Here’s the living room view from the kitchen.  The front door is just through that opening on the left.  Ralph had the carpets cleaned, which explains the giant fan.  It was so loud!

This is what will be our dining room.  It’s open to the living room and the entrance to the kitchen is what you see on the left.  On the right is the alcove with the front door and a coat closet.

Here’s the view if you’re standing in the living room at the big window in the front, looking at the kitchen.  It was raining last night and the weather calls for more rain today, so we put sheets down to protect the clean carpet.  Ralph did a lot of work on the place before we moved in–it was gorgeous last night!  Fresh paint, clean carpets…

Speaking of paint…  Here is what will be our ‘master’ bedroom.  Pepto Bismol-pink and purple are currently on the walls…  I asked/told Ralph that I’d need to paint and he was amenable to that (thankfully!).  In fact, he’s even been kind enough to supply the primer and paint–I just have to find the time to do it!

This is the second bedroom, which will be storage and where we put Hadrian’s crate.  It’s also bright pink (do you see what I mean by bad lighting now??), but Ralph said he’d like to keep one of the rooms pink, so it’s staying.  I’m just hoping it doesn’t give Hadrian the headache it would give me…

Disclaimer:  I was pretty “gung-ho” in the beginning to paint both rooms (I can’t stand the color THAT much), but am actually thankful we’re just painting the one room–I just don’t have the time or energy with school, and this move has totally stressed me out.  Did I mention I have a psych midterm TONIGHT (as in right after they drop our stuff off), and a test tomorrow and a weekend online chemistry quiz?  Yes, yes I do.

This room makes up a bit for the pink ones…  It’s almost the exact shade as our guest room back in Ohio, so that’s what it will be here.  The bed you see will be removed tomorrow; although our guest bed is white iron, too,  It’s also where I’m going to put our light maple desk, so I can have a calm (hello light teal walls) place to study.

Our first guests will be Dan and Emily Wilhelm in just a few short weeks!  We’re so excited!

This room is just off the kitchen (you have to walk through the kitchen to get to it) and it’s a little dark (despite how light it looked last night), so we’re going to put our green office furniture in here.  Because there aren’t any doors it wouldn’t really be a good place for me to study, but it will be a nice, central spot for the computer and printer and my books.  And the green MIGHT look nice with the paneling…or not.

And, the moment you’ve all been waiting for:  the kitchen!

Not too shabby!  The cabinets and counters are probably from the fifties, and have been repainted white, but it could be worse…  The fridge is huge (or maybe I’m just used to our small one) and there is a decent amount of space.  Although nothing like our house, and I probably have more kitchen-y items than the average girl, so storage will be an issue for me.  Do you see the flowers?  They’re still alive and kickin’ so I brought them on over on my first trip in the cup holder of the car.  Note the dishwasher:  it’s ancient, so I’m a bit skeptical.

I’m toying with the idea of NOT unpacking all our dishes, etc…  and trying to survive on the bare minimum for both ease of packing when we leave and space.  I mean, I’ll have to unpack it all, decide what to use, and re-pack the rest, but there is just not enough room for it all!  I’m interested to see how I like the wall oven; I’d never seen one until I went to Andrew’s house for the first time.  I’ll admit; I like the idea of not bending over…  At this point, I’ve been in a mental-baking frenzy for so long I’d take ANY oven!  Seriously–once we’re unpacked, this girl is gonna churn out baked-goods like never before!

I didn’t take any photos of the basement, but I should have.  It’s huge, open, dry and was incredibly clean–yay!  I’m sure a bunch of our stuff will live down there until we move again, so that was a huge blessing for us.

This weekend is going to be an adventure–studying, unpacking, test-taking, shopping (I already know we need shower curtain rings and new cat supplies)–but we’re excited!

Wish me luck on my test and that all goes well today!  Cross your fingers for no (major) broken things…