this is as before as you're going to get

So the condo sold in three and a half days. Done. Relatively stress free. But now I'm starting to get stressed out. I don't care so much that it is winter and I have to move, more that I have to move at all. I dislike moving a lot. I should just hire professional movers, but I don't think I have enough stuff to warrant the expense. Plus it's only three blocks. Kind of pointless.

With about two and a half weeks until I have to vacate the property I am just starting to pack (tomorrow I'm boxing up my books and hopefully moving over some of my kitchen and clothing). The larger pieces of furniture will have to wait until either this weekend of the next. I'm hoping this weekend because then I will be able to sleep on my wonderful mattress. As long as I have my mattress I will feel settled.

In preparation for the move, the gentleman and I began the process of painting his apartment and rearranging furniture. So far, so good. There are some spots that require some more work (like the spots where I painted the test swatches, apparently I wasn't as careful about sanding those areas down as I thought I was - I blame my sore wrist) and some rooms that we won't get to for at least another month (like the bedroom). But it's starting to look good. The process of painting and setting up house together is actually rather refreshing. It makes me feel like I'm moving into a brand new apartment, rather than somebody else's home. I'm excited just to bring my stuff over. There are plenty of other things that I will be excited for down the road, like when we finally get a rug for the living room (my current one is too big), replace the lighting fixtures (we picked up some replacements today), and finish painting the rest of the apartment. But everything can't be done all at once. I feel pretty good with what we've accomplished so far. My next priority is to get all of my stuff over there.

In what is probably the least shocking event of the renovation I chose to paint the apartment in white. Thankfully the gentleman did not fight me on this (or really any of my suggestions for the apartment). The new apartment is much more traditional than the loft, in that it has much lower ceilings and it isn't just one gigantic room. But it has it's own sort of charm, one that I find particularly appealing now that it is painted white and light is actually reflected into the hallway from the bedroom and office windows. I think we're going to replace the doors with more modern frosted glass, which will allow more light to get into those windowless areas of the apartment. If only I could come up with a way to get light into the kitchen without arranging for some walls to be knocked down.

Tonight we picked up a few items from Ikea, including a lamp, bedside table, cheap light fixtures for the ceiling (ridiculously low price of $3.99!), and two armchairs for the living room. A few shelves for display and a new light fixture for over the dining room table and the main room of the house will be nearly complete.

I'm looking forward to the new photographic opportunities in the new apartment. The northeast orientation is going to present very different light than the old place, but I think I'm ready for the challenge. There will be entirely new angles for self portraits and documentation of my daily domestic life. Photographing the place so far has been fun. I didn't really take any photos of the apartment before we started painting, but I don't think it's going to be something I regret. The old colour wasn't horrible, it just wasn't my taste. Plus it was difficult to capture the right shade. Sometimes it was more orange, other times it was more pink. Sort of the colour of that indeterminate flesh pencil crayon. Sounds sort of gross I know. That's why I didn't photograph it.

It's not all renovating and moving though. There's plenty of other things going on in my life. Work is busy and if I didn't have to go to the office then I would probably be staying up all night and packing my belongings. However, when I really think about it, it's not the packing that I'm worried about. It's the unpacking. I don't know where everything is going at the other place. I have a feeling my stuff is going to sit around in boxes for a bit while we start to sort out what goes where. I should keep that in mind. Even though I feel rather stressed out today, this is actually the calm before the storm.