moving day(s).
Well, I seem to have slightly stepped away from my blog yet again. You see, I just had the busiest weekend of my entire life. While I cannot remember my entire life, I am still pretty confident that this is no exaggereation. Here I will explain in a lengthy post that lacks complete sentences. I’m going to pre-apologize for the photo quality. Whatever little skill lied within is officially lost.
Day 1: Thursday
Work all day. Get a phone call at 6:30 pm informing me that I can, in fact, move into my apartment. Rush home. Finish packing. Load car. Lug items up to fourth floor (that’s right, no elevator – welcome to Europe). Remove mattress from lofted bed. Place on floor. Make bed. Crash.
Day 2: Friday
Get to work super early (ok, maybe just more like normal people early) so you can leave super early. Skip lunch to further the effort. Rush to train station to meet Maggie and catch train to Stuttgart. Drink champagne. Arrive in Stuttgart. Change into my dirndl in train station bathroom. Set off to find Canstetter Wasen. Realize you have no idea where your reservation actually is. Get super lucky. Find reservation which oh so wonderfully includes free beer, schnapps and dinner. Eat bratwurst and the best sauerkraut you’ve ever had. Beerfest it up. Take last train back to Karlsruhe from Stuttgart.
Day 3: Saturday
Sleep in to avoid beerfest hangover. Wake up and stare at massive project of a new room. Call friends. Friends come and begin to saw the potentially treacherous lofted bed. Go to hardware store to purchase paint. Realize you have no idea what painting a room actually requires. At hardware store, also realize you could never carry this stuff to the tram. Call a cab. Return home to much shorter bed situation. Saw dust everywhere. Try to vacuum it up. Fail. Begin painting. Realize you should probably cover the floor. Cut up trash bags and tape to floor. Somehow still get paint all over the floor, but you concocted a solution out of nail polish remover for the clean up process so you get over it. Cover up ugly red wall. Friends leave for work. Lay down and realize you had no idea how much work painting is but you can’t go back now.
Later -> roommate enters. Sees my pathetic attempt to paint. Pours beers. Helps. Suddenly all the walls are pretty and white. Go to bed feeling accomplished.
Day 4: Sunday
Wake up. Bavarian breakfast with the roomies. Begin painting edges. Feet begin to hurt from standing on a ladder all morning. Think that the ladder is the one positive that came out of the lofted bed and decide to do something Pinterest-y with it. Then think about how your whole room would be one large Pinterest project if you actually had free time. Finish painting edges. Friend comes to help. Friend finishes last bit of white while you tape accent wall. Accent wall is the largest by far – still a long leg of the race remains. Paint wall navy blue. Notice the color is uneven. Try out the Asian place in your new neighborhood instead of stressing about it. Come back, paint another coat. Looks 100x better. Breathe sigh of relief. Realize it’s finished minus those spots you missed outside the lines. Feel accomplished yet again and decide to fix them tomorrow.
Day 5: Monday
Think all day at work about how you just want to clean up the construction site that is your room. Buy necessities like toilet paper on lunch break. Buy standing lamp on way home from work. Return home. Start laundry. Start painting. Eat roommate’s homemade potato soup *yay people feeding me*. Touch up edges. Continue to get color outside the lines during the process. Cake white paint over wet blue paint to cover it up. Impatience sets in. Start watching Sunday TV shows (“Once Upon a Time”, “Revenge”, “Homeland”) to get mind off waiting for paint to dry. Grow more impatient. Peel tape off anyway. Peel all plastic off floor. Scrub Cinderella-style with paint removal concoction. Move bed back where it belongs. Get in said bed. Fall asleep to best.show.ever “Homeland”.
and that brings us to today.
I am still living out of suitcases. My furniture consists of a bed, a standing lamp, and an IKEA side table, but currently cool with it. I kind of have to be until my next paycheck. We get paid monthly here and in the sense of moving, it’s #woof. Rewarding myself with wine and not working on my room.
Ok, I lied a bit. Bought another lamp on the way home. Took me 45 minutes to put it together because I was too lazy to read German instructions. My roommate hung my clothes racks. But I still drank wine. That’s the important part.
I’ve gotta say. Everyone was hating on my navy wall idea but I’m lovin’ it. SO HAPPY IN MY NEW ROOM EEEEEK!
Congratulations! The place looks great. A little time, some patience & a lot of love and you will have it just the way you like.
So very proud of & happy for you.
Love always,
Daddio
I’m definitely lacking the patience part, but happy with how it’s looking so far!
Ohhhh, painting. Probably my least favorite thing to do ever but it feels great when it’s finished!
Couldn’t have said it better!
Love your room! But sorry for all the stress, dear! Painting can be a pain in the ass!
So worth the stress now that it’s done
Love it!! congrats, Alex!!
I think congrats are in order for you missy!!!
i love your new room and your new bed.
i know how stressing it can be. at this point, i can’t wait until i can move and settle in.
p.s : i love your green dirndl!!!!
I love my bed too – feels so good to me settled and on my own. Even if there is only a bed in my room hehe. And thank you! I love it too!
HOMELAND IS AWESOME.
Amen sista – Sundays episode WHOA!
I was so hoping Saul would show Carrie the video…that was the highlight of my weekend (sadly).
Wait did he not?? Do I need to rematch?
I love the navy wall! It looks much more interesting than if it was all white. Enjoy your new home
Thank you – already am enjoying it!
why are you so impressed I try to write in english too?
hard work!
I feel exhausted for you just reading all of that. Your room looks wonderful though. I think a feature wall in navy is a great idea! And yay for such helpful and useful friends. I’d be pretty useless. My answer would be, lets just pay someone to do it. No use at all!
Ha I am impressed you read the whole thing. It’s hard work to follow my ramblings! Thanks and honestly, organizing someone else to do it while having to speak German probably would have been more exhausting for me
Haha, that looks great. I can’t wait to have such projects of my own, moving out is out of the budget for now though. I love the navy colored wall! Hope the new home is worth all the work =)
I’d love to go to Germany, don’t know a word of German though. Will wait till my sister gets better in it so I can use her as my translator XD I think I’ll just stick to my five languages for now ~_^
Happy Friday!
Trust me, you don’t need to know German as mine is still pretty terrible. What 5 languages do you speak? Very awesome!
Good for you for painting at the beginning of moving in —> SMART. I like the navy blue wall. Navy is my jam right now. High five for decor!
Oh if I was fully moved in it would have NEVER happened. Just those few things in the room were trouble enough. Glad you like it
I feel excited for you! Navy blue looks awesome (as i now see in rather yellow-tinted photos) and yay for new living place, wine and beer!
Ha the lighting in my room definitely needs work but I’m loving how it’s coming along
hhaha omg this is the best post ive read in days, love it. so freakin funny. there are a number of things i want to comment on, but im going to limit it to this: i obviously can relate to everything you said that referenced ‘living in europe’…oh, and i love the navy wall, good call.
I never missed having a car until moving, good god. And an elevator, oh how I would love an elevator.
LOVE, love, LOVE, the navy wall
DANKE!
Whew! You’re making me tired just from reading about all of your hard work. Great job, though. And I really like Navy accent wall. ;D
Thanks! So true that hardwork pays off though, I’m so happy in my room now