Renovation vacation - details

Over the past 4 days we have made too many trips to IKEA (although I secretly love going because I can feed my Swedish fish addiction), spent approximately 94 hours together, and overhauled most of our apartment.

The idealist in me thought we would get most everything done in just a couple of days and still have plenty of time to burn discovering hidden parts of the city or venturing away on a day trip... I couldn't have been more wrong.

I think I may have under estimated how much work and time it was going to take to re-do our little place. There are still a few things that we need to take care of, but we have definitely been making progress.

I will also say redecorating with your loved one may be added to the list of things you should do with a potential spouse, right between 'see them at their worst (sick and or drunk apply)' and 'watching how they handle tangled christmas lights'. Luckily we both survived.

The monotonous moving of things and helping with with manual labor sometimes makes me daze off. When Stefan was trying to do something precise that I was supposed to help with I started to zone out. I could sense his irritation. When I told him I was thinking about other things he asked, 'Like what? - Cake?' These are the moments I wish he didn't know me so well. These are also the moments that I wish he realized I was not a mind reader and holding something 'just so' isn't one of my better abilities.

Despite the occasional irritations Stefan and I really have come together and actually enjoyed updating our place. One of the best things about reorganizing was finding our little heart cardboard scrap from when we moved. We tucked it behind my defunct closet and Stefan wrote 'Emily + Stefan 4 Ever' with the date. Yes, we could be in the 4th grade. It will have to find a new place so we can discover it once again and get a much needed smile and reminder during a move.

Along with the reorganizing joy comes the need to do more. We're already considering what other projects we can begin. Refurbishing our kitchen is topping my list and getting a new car is topping Stefan's. I have trouble getting excited over things like 'climate control', which in my American eyes should come as a standard feature, but that's another topic in itself.

Since we are seriously tired from all of the racing around, I thought I would post a few photos of the details. I realize some of them you may have seen elsewhere in this blog, but they are the few things that have found their new homes and I don't really want to post the photos of when things were seriously disheveled. In the coming days as things settle down I will try to post more photos.

I'm sure you can hardly stand the anticipation - just try to contain the excitement as much as we are.