Moving In Outtakes

So, moving in.  The weekend when we arrived was a crazy one.  Not only did 4 other people descend upon the flat, but also 4 people's stuff, including various things that we had ordered and had shipped to the flat.  So for a few days we lived in and around empty boxes, boxes of things to be opened and assembled, unpacked suitcases, racks of drying clothes, various things that needed to be strategically placed to allow them to fit in the tiny storage areas, and overall chaos and clutter.  Which made me crazy.

Most of the pictures are in black and white just to help me deal with the crazy mess that is happening in them.  It makes it seem more like a funny memory than a stressful nightmare.

This is the kitchen before.  The after is here.

Chelsea and Chris taking the old couch downstairs, having a bit of a "Pivot! Pivot!" moment.  (You know, like Ross?)

The couch-less and furniture-less living room.  But even then, there were clothes drying.

We do have a piano, despite requesting for the landlord to remove it.  He said no.  So we let Jayce "play" it in short bursts.  

The other day Chris asked Jayce if he would like to take some piano lessons since we have a piano.

"Mmmm, no.  I'm already pretty good."

So there's that.

Since there is a shortage of toys at the moment, Hannah opted to just crawl into and play in her car seat.  Which is not what she wanted to do on the plane when she needed to be in it, ironically.

When I was putting together this table, Jayce turned to me and said, "Mom, you're a natural." 

Thank you Jayce.  I am a natural at putting together tables. 

Chelsea and I, however, were not naturals at putting together this desk.  It took us almost 4 hours because the directions were annoying and we didn't have the right tools.  By the end of it we were using pliers to try to screw in these screws, which there were millions of.  We had been attempting to use the only screwdriver that we had, which was one of those tiny screw drivers that you use to put batteries in kids' toys, and it was completely stripping the screwdriver and making it even more useless than it already was.  Our fingers were raw from trying to screw them in by hand, which forced Chelsea to declare at one point, "My hands hurt from all the screwing!!"

Which is really funny at 2 am.

Unfortunately, we had to leave the desk unfinished.  Chelsea flew out early the next morning, and without her help and Chris at work, the desk moved to the bottom of my list of priorities.  However, the next week a handy man was over fixing a few things in the flat.  While he was upstairs I quietly quietly snuck a few tools from his toolbox by the door, put the rest of the desk together, and snuck them back in.  And then I realized that Chels and I could have done the job in about an hour if we'd have only had the right tools.  Sigh.  But it was a funny night.