Moving

Every post I make nowadays seems to have a big announcement. This time it's the following: we've bought an apartment!

We originally planned to rent another apartment and wait until after the wedding with buying our own place, but finding a "nice" apartment (meaning big enough, not also moldy and stinky, with a decent landlord) turned out to be near impossible. At least within the time scale we were looking at, seeing our current apartment has health hazard written all over it (which is a shame, because it's big, the landlady is a wonderful woman and it's quirky in a fun, and a bit difficult to furnish kind of way).
Well, we met with the bank and they told us "sure, you can pay us a shitload of money each month if you find a house or apartment you want".
And we did! The following day, actually. We went home from the bank, browsed through the ads and put up a list of open houses the following day. Most of them turned out to be worn down and needed a lot of work, but one apartment stood out. It's newly renovated and everything looks brand spankin' new! Gorgeous kitchen (with integrated stove and dishwasher, yay for the dishwasher and D'OH to the new stove we just bought two weeks ago), airy living room with lots of window sill for my flowers, stunning fireplace... Oh man, it's just perfect.
And we got it! We're moving in in three weeks, and by then so much has to be done.
It still freaks me out when I think of what we've done, but I hope it'll be a good thing. There are so many worries, for instance what will happen with the real estate market in the next couple of years now that it's had such an insane growth (comparison: colleague of mine bought a house four years ago and paid almost one third less than we did now for a two bedroom apartment). We'll also have to pay a lot more a month than the rent we've paid in our own apartment. But with my new job it's no problem. In fact, the bank gave us a green light on a much higher amount, so if we wanted to, we could have afforded a more expensive place also.

Well, enough babbling about the apartment. I'm sure you'll hear more about it in the following months, although I'm pretty busy at the moment with work and moving and trying to plan a wedding. After the move it'll be better... And I can decorate for halloween and then later for yule in the new apartment. I'm so looking forward to getting a tree again, and baking gingerbread cookies in my new, fab kitchen. Weeeee!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Sorry about the blog post overload today, but...

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Guess who now has a job? ME ME ME ME!
It's in a photo place, where you can get your photos developed and buy scrapbook equipment. And at a decent wage! (Unlike old gas station job that pays zilch)
I'm giddy and swirling around the apartment at the moment. This means we can get a new stove, and I don't have to live off popcorn for the next couple of months. YAY!

I want a zoo!

Saw a cute kitty video today.



And when I told Love I wanted a kitty, he replied this "... and an armadillo, hedgehog, manatee, miniature cow, wombat, hairy grub, parrot, bunny, more piggies... you need an entire zoo!"

I'm not the one to blame, there are too many adorable animals in the world. And I'm a sucker for all of them.
Besides, Love forgot to mention aardvark. I really want one of them too. Zoot!

Kjersti discovers something she can't do.

I like trying new things. Generally I have a there's-nothing-you-can't-do-if-you-put-your-mind-to-it attitude (unless we're talking of roller coasters and other things that are potentially deadly, there I have a very healthy stay-away policy). Fixing things? I'll give it a shot. So when dad said our wonky stove probably just needed to exchange the heat element (which has been done to it twice before), and that exchanging that means unscrewing two screws and pulling the element right out, Kjersti thought "sure, that shouldn't represent much of a problem".
To sum it up? I'm not fitted to be an oven repair woman. First clue? I didn't unplug the oven before trying. Second clue? The element didn't want to come out, and sparks flew everywhere (see first clue). Third clue? We're now completely stove-less, whereas earlier we still had the top to use, now we only have a gaping hole where the oven used to be. Luckily we just got a microwave oven dirt cheap, and can live off popcorn for the next couple of months until we can afford a new oven.
Bugger!

Oh, and I checked the norwegian equalent to craigslist, and found one there. Sent the person a message, and got this back. "Sorry, it's already sold, but I do have a sofa for sale."
Gee, thanks for the info, but what the heck do I need a sofa for? Set it on fire and throw a BBQ? *shuffles off to microwave some popcorn*

Bridezilla steams onwards

The date is set, venue and church booked. Yes, church. I had a talk with the priest who said that unlike catholics, they don't view marriage as a sacrament, so they didn't ask any questions about belief at all. Which means that I can, without guilty conscience go and get married in church, it will be my wedding gift to Love. Because even though I have my standards, when it came down to the decision, the thing that matters most to me is to have a special ceremony to celebrate our union and he's way more important to me than sticking to my own strict standards. So there... church yes, but pretty one.

We had the apartment examined today by a man with a sniffer dog. First he went around and measured the walls and floors with this yellow thingy, and later he drilled tiny holes in the wall to check more closely. And that's when the yellow thingy went haywire with beeping.
So... damp and moist apartment yes. And sniffer dog clearly indicated mold several places also. "Get the mold, go boy, get the mold!" the man said to the dog, making me laugh.
Bottom line... we need to move. It's not such a rush it has to be done tomorrow, but he recommended us moving out. We're not currently having any health issues with it, but you never know how that stuff can lay dormant for years before breaking out and making you seriously ill. Eww...

Tried on a couple of wedding dresses today, and unfortunately fell completely in love with one of them... and it's hellishly expensive. But bloody perfect. I mean, I have some wobbly bits and like every woman on earth probably, I have some issues with parts of my body. But damn, I felt like a million bucks in that dress. Absolutely amazing... But it's next year's model, so I can probably get my hands on it next year too. I was looking now because they're selling out this year's models so that they can have room for the new ones. I thought it would be nice to make a real bargain, if I had the chance. Oh well... lots more dresses to see. But probably not like that one... *meep*