we now live in a condo

well, we finally moved out of the bunker. it is a good move – our new place is

a) 1 minute from subway

b) larger

c) has windows

d) has nicer floors

e) is nicely layed out

d) allowed us to ditch a lot of baggage and stuff and start very fresh.

as in, pretty much no furniture fresh. so right now, we still have no sofa, no bed (a futon substitutes temporarily), and only 4 chairs (gasp! :P ). surface wise we have the bed tables, a coffee table, and a small side table. its pretty dang awkward, but certainly means we have lots of space.

today was monday, which i got off to do move-in stuff. boy, was that a great idea… i got up at 8, and only stopped working and doing stuff at 10pm.

the move

the move went incredibly well thanks to the help of all our friends. scarf showed up first, and saved our entire schedule by leaving right away with tim to get the van. while they were gone, i continued to pack the things we didn’t pack the night before – we stayed up until 2 am packing things, and towards the end just ran out of energy. (6 hours packing!)

wait i’m jumping too much forward.

friday

somehow it all came together fairly well. tim picked up the keys; i left work 3-4, and then came back and left again at 5. meanwhile, my mom painted most of the living room, while tim (and maybe mom?) moved up all the laminate that had to adjust to the conditions of the room. just typing this makes me tired. we started off with an empty, dirty-ish, apartment, with carpet in the bedroom and yellow and blue walls. towards the end, it became magnificent.

mom and i finished laying the first coat of paint in the LR  and BR (Bedroom), and we all went off to our place and had a quick dinner. parents left, and we went off packing.

okay, then…

saturday

the move day! this is where scarf comes in, and then dad, and then maha and tema and kisa and stalker and everyone just MOVING boxes non stop while i was trying to keep the conveyor line going. towards 1-2pm i started falling apart at the bunker from sheer exhaustion, and tema/scarf/stalker/dad helped me do the last push and wrap it up.

i’ll miss the apartment lots. it was a really fun, interesting, different period of my life, one that is as significant as europe to the person that i am. tim and i met while he lived there, i found my love for interio design while living there, and i found my LOVE for awkward spaces and making them work. we had our first fights, first making ups, first “i love you”, first jobs and graduations (and 2nd graduations for some). we had our Big Talks about life, and lots of silly nights watching tv or sharing funny stuff online. we got our cat/s. tim grew out his hair and cut it; i dropped a table on my toe and completely destroyed (a now regrown) nail there (biggest injury ever i ever had, i think). i left for australia while he lived there; and i moved in after we returned together.

so many happy, drunken, talking evenings with friends. a new year, several birthdays, impromptu get togethers, poker nights, (few) dinner parties, more drinking and talking, and staying up waa-ay too late and shooting the philosophical bullshit. that place lent itself so well to that kind of life – easy, student, chilled out.

i biked to school during wither; i walked to exams over harbord freaking out about databases and philosophy questions. our marriage planning, our budget planning, our life planning, our future planning, all took roots in this place.

i won’t miss the small windows. or the smallness. i forgot how much difference an extra foot ceiling height makes; and windows! are! awesome!

anyway. that place was great. i’m glad its staying in the “family” (stalker has it now, good for him. i hope he makes as many awesome memories there as we did.)

saturday continued

as people were moving boxes, mom was painting and maha cleaned the kitchen. their hard work paid off; kitchen feels CLEAN and rooms look BEAUTIFUL with the coat of “toasted marshmellow” that i really love.

eventually, around 4pm (specifically 3:20pm, 40 minutes ahead of my schedule, how good of a PM am i? :-) that’s SPI of 1.11 for those of you following. ) the move wrapped up by eating some food graciously brought by parents and drinking beer graciously bought by tim and scarf. eventually everyone left, and we went down for a quick nap. the place was a mess; chaos; boxes piled everywhere, bedroom unusable due to no floor; complete insanity.

though, but the end of the day, we went to canadian tire (7 minute walk including getting a fresh mango bubble tea), i cleaned the bathroom and it instantly felt so much better, and thus we gained 2 rooms that became nice. (kitchen and bath).

the highlight of the day, if i am allowed to pick it, was the moment tim kicked me out of the LR (i went to clean the bath) and put together my lovely, beautiful, eames lounge. it is beautiful. it became the centerpiece of elegance among a PILE of boxes; and though that may have been crazy that chair motivated me each moment to KEEP ON CLEANING so that it looks even better.

sunday

an early start by tim at 7am and laterish by me, 9am, as we rose with the city and the sun. my uncle and dad came over and tim joined them in laying down laminate. the guys did a great job, and our bedroom is probably the coolest looking room in the house. while they were doing that, i went off to ikea, with stalker, which took a while but was fairly productive.

later that day we also went to structube, and got 2 more chairs and a desk table (to be delivered) and i stopped by the apartment and got more stuff i forgot. what a stress-less move. so nice to have a friend living in the old place.

monday

and so that brings us to today. after an early start, i tried to

– return laminate (fail)

– return underfloor (win)

– return ikea tv stand thats too big but missing packaging (win)

– return other misc ikea stuff  that was sealed (easy win)

– purchase a new shelf (major win; found a great one in as-is in a style that i wanted and that was sold out. and it fit in the car EASY.)

– purchase 2 office chairs in MOST! (win; and possibly found a sofa for mom – she came along for this store)

– clean up clothes (win! did all the laundry (mmmm own laundry rocks), and hung almost everything up. some minor stuff left, extra towels and stuff, but nothing critical.)

– clean up living room (win! more stuff went away as i cleaned up clothing; more stuff went away as i cleaned up and unpacked hallway and misc kitchen stuff; and even MORE stuff got unboxed as it went into the new shelves).

and thus i am at 11pm, having blogged way too much.

summary

we are exhilarated, terrifically happy, and REALLY look forward to next week – when like 90% of our furniture gets delivered.

this wednesday: office chairs

next wednesday: mattress

next week (wed?): sofa, bed, 2 easy chairs, tim’s desk

aaah, i cannot wait.