Moving, again...

Today we are finally getting the keys to the apartment and checking in. Before that a quick trip to IKEA, then off to the apartment to get the keys and to wait for delivery of the new stuff. A couple of trips from our current place should be enough to move all our things and we are officially spending New Year's at our new
home! :)

The exterior shots:

Keep looking for the inside:

Paris Anniversary Day 3

TBA

Paris Anniversary Day 2

So today the weather gods weren't as kind to us as yesterday, but still it wasn't too bad and it didn't rain all day. Managed to get to Eiffel Tower, Place du Trocadéro, the Pantheon, Notre Dame, and stroll around the Latin quarter. Musee d'Orsay and Monmart tomorrow. :)

Paris Anniversary Day 1

Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées, Champs-Élysées Christmas Market, Place de la Concorde, 

Jardin des Tuileries, Palais Royal and the Louvre: DONE! :)

I LOVE PARIS!!!!

Our train to Paris, all ready and waiting... :)

Always read about fog creeping across the land, but seeing it is soo different. Suddenly The Hound of the Baskervilles feels more real.

We're here!!!

Let there be light! :)

So, the current tenants in the apartment have some really awesome lamps and they gave us the name of the store. Here are the ones we want for when the apartment is finally ours:
Living room

Bedroom

Hall

Kitchen

And the other bedroom and the office/reading nook will have the lights we already have:

I"ll also be turning my second KNAPPA lamp (the flower one) into a floorlamp like this:

Candle making

So, I've found this place, COateliers, and we've planned on going there last month, but in the last moment it didn't work out, but this weekend (16.12.12) we've finally made it!
It's awesome, and the ladies are even speaking English, so that was an extra bonus. :)
Basically you can start from scratch with just the wick, but that takes an hour longer so I started with a base candle. You dip it into the different waxes, waiting for it to cool off between dips (there's a bucket of water to help this go faster), and watch your candle grow...
For the carving part, I've never done this before and only seen it a couple of times on YouTube, so this time I let the lady to carve, but... seeing her work, and watching more YouTube I think that next time it will be all my handywork.

We've found an apartment!!!

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!!!
We finally got an apartment! 2 months to the day of searching, visiting, applying and being rejected (great training for one's ego, btw) and now we are the proud owners of a 2BR with a fireplace and a balcony, 10 min by foot from Andrey's work and 5 min from the lake!  :)
Finding an apartment is no trouble here, finding and agency willing to rent it to us, is!
The stats are:
- 72 apartments seen
- 41 applied for
- 2 "sorry not for you" callbacks
- 10 "sorry not for you" letters

It's a Chanukkah miracle - got the call on the second day of, and a New Year's present - lease starts 1.1.2013

This is rudimentary sketch, but this is future home:

Now off to Pinterst to make a shopping list for supplies  needed to make all my home decor plans/dreams come to life!