I just had to share . . .

Whoo-hoo!!! We're in!! Wow, folks, this new apartment is AMAZING!! I've been trying to post pictures so that you could get an idea of where we came from and what we've come to, but for some reason Blogger is having trouble uploading pictures. So I couldn't wait any longer!! I had to come on here and write to let the world know how exciting this is! Where should I begin?

Well, I'll first tell you about our old place - it was a loft (have I already mentioned that?) and the bedroom was upstairs, big enough just for the bed! The closet was literally a hole-in-the-wall that I used a long curtain to cover (no door). Somehow we managed to squeeze our dressers up there just lining the wall from the stairs to the bed. It seems like you would have to suck in your belly to get through to the bed! (LoL) Downstairs we had a small entry way with the bathroom hiding behind the only door in the apartment. Now, the bathroom was the redeeming feature when we first moved into that loft because it was HUGE! -And every woman loves a huge bathroom to get ready in! The kitchen was simply a wall. There were probably a total of six cabinets in the "kitchen" that were about as wide as your hand fully extended and about as tall as a schin bone, from your foot to your knee. Eeekk! I don't know how we made it! The dishwasher (which I was just happy to have at all!) was about a foot and a half wide. I honestly had never seen a dishwasher so small. It was kinda funny! The oven/stove was about the same size. Small burners. But we did it! We got one of those kitchen cart things and that helped a lot with storage of the large pans (that ended up not even fitting in the oven so we went and bought smaller ones too). The kitchen opened up to become the living room/dining room/office/where we put monster's kitty box/wide open storage area/etc. We fit the couch and the entertainment center along opposing walls and the coffee table in the middle, which left about two feet of walking distance on either side of the table! There was a small (did I say small? I meant TINY!) closet built-in underneath the stairs. We shoved everything that we could in there to keep the clutter as out of sight as possible (didn't work so well - we just had too much clutter everywhere)! Against the back wall, where the windows were, we had our kitchen table and behind that was our desk with the computer. And that pretty much sums the whole place up! It was like a puzzle figuring out how to store all of our things without having to rent a separate place just for storage! We did have to keep some of our stuff at our parents' houses because we just did not have enough room for all of our stuff! Oh, I was soooo good and ready to get OUT of there as soon as we possibly could! But I had no idea what we were in for in getting this new place . . .

I didn't actually get to see the apartment until the day before moving in. Long story short, the people living in here before us took their time getting out, cutting everything close for us getting in on time. So we were living out of boxes for two weeks! But let me tell ya, it was ALL worth it when I walked in the door last Friday night . . .

WoW!!!! This place is a palace compared to our mini loft just two floors above! Immedaitely when I walk in the door my jaw drops open. I gasp! To my left is a closet (coat-closet) that is twice the size of our old bedroom closet - and this one has sliding DOORS!! To my right is the bathroom, almost exactly the same size as my beloved bathroom in the other place. Just behind the opened bathroom door was another closet - small, but perfect as a linen closet! I've never had a linen closet! (In fact, where have my linens been? Ha! Probably buried somewhere!) I walk in a little further and directly ahead of me is an open door and a room and then to my right, I see, is the master bedroom! (Gasp - AGAIN!) I can feel the tears of . . . of . . . of . . . SHOCK, BLISS, MY DREAMS COMING TRUE BEFORE MY VERY EYES! In the far corner of our new bedroom there is what appears to be a kind of nook, which looks to be about the size of our queen bed (the size of our entire old bedroom!). I'm just shaking with excitement! The room itself, even excluding the nook, is bigger than any bedroom I've ever had in my life! Then I look behind me to find another closet, larger than even the one in the entry way, that also has sliding DOORS! So much space! So much storage space! My mind starts racing excitedly as I begin to plan where I will be able to store things. I walk out of the bedroom and now to my right, where the EXTRA room is waiting to welcome me. "It's just perfect!" I think as I walk in and look around to find yet another closet, smaller than the bedroom and entry ones, but larger still than the one we had before! I spin around in the middle of the room, feeling like a kid again, exploring our new space and being silly with excitement. I then walk out of the room to find myself in the largest part of the entire apartment: the living room. It is so large that my voice echos against its empty walls. Oh, I just can't believe that this is for real! It is just so incredible that this is where we are going to live now! I imagine our couch against the far wall, the longest wall, and our entertainment center across from it, on the other side of the room, with our coffee table in between the two. This time, though, there will be plenty of space between the coffee-table and the couch and entertainment center. So much space, in fact, that I think I might need my glasses just to watch TV from the couch because I'm not used to seeing it from more than five feet away from me! (LoL) The smile on my face cannot be erased. My cheeks even hurt from smiling so big for so long. And then, just behind me, is the kitchen. The FULL-SIZED kitchen! A full-sized oven range and a full-sized dishwasher! Even the refridgerator is bigger! I just cannot get over all of this! I'm standing in the middle of the kitchen, where anything is accessable, and all around me are cabinets, cabinets, cabinets! I can't wait to put everything away in cabinets! No more stuff sitting on the counter or obscurely hidden beside our coutch! No more stuff on top of the refridgerator, no more buying separate storage units to fit the essentials! And check out all this counter space! We will actually be able to prepare food on the counters, in the kitchen, as opposed to on the coffee table in the living room at the old place! (Sigh of contentment at last)

So it's Wednesday and we haven't even been in here for a whole week yet, but I am so in love with this place. I feel proud, like we've waited for this for so long and now we've achieved it! I feel comfortable, like I can sit on the floor in perfect contentment, stretch out my arms and legs, and still not hit or break anything. Already I can tell that the conditions in which we live truly do affect my mood. Before, I felt so cramped, so vulnerable with no privacy, no place to go to just 'be alone.' Now, I can PICK the room, where, and when I want to just cool down.

We've got all of our stuff in here now. It's just a matter of where to put things. Just this morning I finished emptying the last box (onto the floor!) to get them all out of the way. That nook that I mentioned in the bedroom, that is going to be the little 'studio' where I can create, express, and relax with my art. I am having so much fun setting it up! I've finally got space to devote to doing what I really want to do! The extra bedroom is now our 'office' with the computer, the important papers, and, well, monster's kitty box (at least now it's not in the living room!!) with the Christmas decorations and wrapping stuff in the little closet. It is really coming together! I've got to give all credit for our beautiful, classy-lookin' furnishings to IKEA! That is most definately one of my favorite stores in the whole world!! We really got some great stuff to create a theme for these rooms. The office is black (white walls - bummer, we're not allowed to paint!) and it looks so awesome! Our bedroom has white furniture (stuff I've always had that is just easier to match than to buy a whole new bedroom set right now) and the little nook, my studio, has a birch desk and decor. The living room is also in birch wood and bright colors, like picures of real flowers and our coutch is a perfect, soft green (don't worry, it's not a hideous green!). The kitchen has black counter tops, our appliances are all chrome and black, so everything is matching perfectly. If I can ever get my act together, I'd really like to get into Interior Decorating someday.

I really wanted to post before and after pictures of this new place, but like I said from the start, blogger isn't working for uploading pictures right now. But oh well! I will post them as soon as I can, to share with you the excitement and all my reasons for it!