We Are Moved In! FINALLY!

We made it.  After a long month of visiting family and being homeless, and another LONG three weeks staying in a crappy motel, we finally moved in to our apartment on Friday.  I am super excited about this because, for the first time in our marriage, I have my own space that I can truly put a mark on and make my own. (Well, OUR own, but who are we kidding, Tim will be too busy to think about home decor...I hope...)

Even when we were living in Utah, we never had a space that we felt like A) was worth decorating, or B) was able to be decorated.  Living in Uncle Tim's basement was fun, spacious, and luxurious, but it also came pre-decorated.  And I didn't want to put nails in the wall.  Or try and decorate that much space on a starving student budget.

Anyway, the point is that I am really excited about our new place.  I promise to get pictures up soon, but I'll give you a little description now so you can know what I'm working with here.  It's a two-bedroom, one bath 2nd floor apartment.  The kitchen is teeny (think "Batcave"size--our first basement apartment), and only has one drawer, two upper cupboards, and two lower cupboards.  Oh yeah, and did I mention there is NO pantry? We are going to install some major shelves in there.  We went grocery shopping on Saturday and our makeshift pantry location is on the floor. In the middle of the (tiny) kitchen. Creative, I know.  I'm just such a space saver.

The living room is actually decently sized, but right now it is as barren as...um...the grocery store parking lot on Sundays in Utah (good one, eh? I miss it there).  The barrenness is on account of us getting rid of our furniture while simultaneously realizing we did not have enough money to buy replacement furniture.  Tim and I are just so dang smart.  I mean, you can't plan to be that stupid, people.  So, our plan right now is to slowly collect furniture one piece at a time.  Right now we have a couch that we got for $25.00.  It is a lovely mauve color.  Lovely enough to be covered up as soon as I can whip up the energy to sew my own couch cover.  There's also a smallish closet in the living room that is our only storage space in the whole apartment.  It's already full.

Then there's the two bedrooms.  One is our bedroom, obviously, and it is decently sized.  The other one is just a little bit smaller.  So far, we've been calling it "the study," although I think a more appropriate name would be "That One Room Where We Put Everything Else That Won't Fit Somewhere Else In Our Tiny Apartment With No Storage Space, Such As Sewing And Art Supplies, Tim's Study Desk, Six Boxes of Books, And Laundry Supplies."

Yes, it's long, but it's catchy.

And how could I forget our bathroom? Oh yeah, because it's so small that you may think that it is a closet.  It doesn't even have electrical outlets.  None.  And the toilet is such a tight squeeze that a certain someone who may pee standing up may or may not have to do so sideways so as to fit between the wall and the toilet bowl.  But you didn't hear it from me.

The old tenants left their over-the-toilet storage thing, which has been a life saver.  I'm pretty sure that if we didn't have that our bathroom stuff would have to be set on the limited floor space in our bathroom.  No bueno.

Tim and I have really liked our landlord so far. My only beef is that he conveniently didn't mention that our downstairs and wall-sharing neighbors BOTH smoke.  At certain times of the day I can smell it really strongly and I can't even describe to you the way it makes me feel.  I just feel so mad at them for forcing their sick and smelly habit on our apartment.  I need to talk to the landlord about it, but I'm not sure what exactly he can do for us.

I just realized this post makes it sound like we hate where we live--which is definitely not true.  I'm having a lot of fun getting used to the "quirks" in the apartment, and figuring out different projects I can do to maximize space and make our apartment functional.  I think it's a fun challenge for me, and I am really loving it so far (except for the stale cigarette smoke.  That part is just filthy and wretched and I hate my life whenever I smell it).

Well, I promise to post pictures of our apartment soon so you can see it.   Other than that, Tim is loving law school so much and I am so happy.  I'm still trying to find a job.  I had an interview with a YMCA here in their HR department so we'll see where it goes.  Although, if I get that job, I have to work during Christmas and Thanksgiving, which means no Utah Christmas...it is a tough choice.  Kind of a catch-22 as well--earn money or go visit family? I need the money to visit family, but I can't get money unless I work during the holidays and don't visit my family. Oy vey.