Furnishing the Apartment

Kim commented that she wanted to see the carpets we bought and I realized I hadn't shown any 'after' pictures of the apartment. It's a work in progress of course, but here's what we've got so far.

Here's the living room (or sitting room) with the new carpet. The couch is a fold out with storage underneath - this was part of the furnishings Epic provided and is pretty nice. They also included the coffee table, the TV stand (which isn't pictured), the dining room table and chairs and our bed.  Enough of the basics to get you started. The rug is great, although those black squares are a cat hair magnet! :)

This is the work in progress office. We're still unpacking boxes and storing a few for one of Brian's co-workers so it's a bit of a mess. We bought the lounge chair you can just see off to the side, and the cabinet unit and desk are from IKEA. The table in the middle we shipped from home and will eventually be my craft table once things get fully organized. You can also see out to the patio and the two chairs we bought for that area. It's so dirty and dusty out there that I have to keep the cushions inside and only take them out when I'm going to sit out there. Keeping up with the dust out there is a losing battle. I'm hoping once the construction dies down, I might be able to get ahead of it. The drying rack for clothes is also out on this side of the patio - I have to wipe that down before a new load goes out to dry because it's always so dusty.

And this is the bedroom with the new rug. It matches the curtains nicely, but not the comforter cover. At some point I'll get a new cover, but it's not an urgent need. The bench at the end of the bed is from IKEA and the lamp was provided by Epic. The whole other wall is a built in closet unit, so plenty of room for clothes and storage. I doubt we'll buy anything else for this room (like a dresser ...) as we just really don't need it. And, we're trying to remember that everything we buy we'll most likely have to find a way to get rid of in 3 years. 

In addition, we bought a TV for the sitting room - 40" HD which is really nice. I've almost figured out which channels we get and finally found American Idol last night (and only caught the last 5 minutes). There's not a lot of TV shows to choose from, but the movie channels aren't too bad. It also allows you to plug in a jump drive and play from that, so we downloaded Dexter and caught up on last season.

We shipped our desktop computer and printer and Brian is in the process of getting that set up. Unfortunately, his first attempt resulted in a loud CRACK as the difference in voltage blew out the power unit. The system will support 220 volts, but you have to 'flip a switch' first, which Brian didn't. We were very worried that he had fried the whole thing, but luckily it was just the power unit, which he was able to replace for less than $30. Whew!!

We also shipped a decent amount of kitchen tools, so we're set for pots, pans, cooking utensils. We had to buy dishes, glasses, mugs and storage containers. I also think I'm going to need to invest in an electric mixer and possibly a blender. We're trying first to do without and see what we really need rather than just buy everything we had back in the states. I'm sure in a few months we'll have accumulated a few more items. The most urgent need was a coffee maker, which Brian actually got as his birthday present. It's a cappuccino maker that steams the milk for you - pretty nice and WAAAYYY cheaper than a stop at the coffee shop each morning (coffee drinks are really expensive here). So, while I'm still without a job, Brian gets his latte each morning from me, his personal barista. ;)

Rogue is settling in fine and her litter box is actually in the guest bathroom shower (remember the smallest shower ever?) It works really well as she can make all the mess she wants and it stays pretty contained in the shower basin. She's itching to get outside and play with all the birds, but that's not going to happen any time soon. She's just a little too curious to let her outside here. We're wondering if we can get her used to a leash. :)

So, things are coming together. The thing we're most missing is wall art. We had some beautiful pictures on the walls back home and didn't even think about shipping any over (we were thinking practical I guess). The walls, as a result, are a little bare. Hopefully as we spend more time here, we'll pick up some local pieces that we can then bring back to the states when we return home.