Condo upgrades

So, my boyfriend and I moved into our new condo a week before we left for Sweden. When we got back from our trip, we started our first project: Painting the second bedroom.

For some reason, the previous owners thought it was a good idea to paint the room bright green. It was so bright that Albie's father would put his sunglasses on each time he entered. After a week of sanding and painting the trim and priming and painting the walls, the room is a more pleasant light blue.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

We are still hoping to replace the beige carpet with a wood floor, or a laminate wood-lookalike, as we want to do in the entire condo.

In the kitchen, the following progress has been made...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Our plan is to upgrade all our appliances to stainless steel when they break. Right now it doesn't make the kitchen look any brighter, but we will work on that! The new stove sure makes it fun to cook again!

New addition to the family

Our little babies: Sophie and Pepper ("Pip")

Back from Sweden

So, Sweden was good. It was a bit busy, though, visiting all the relatives I could think of in a very short amount of time. Plus, I had to reserve a day for Stockholm to get a new visa. But my dad was nice enough to drive us there, to entertain Albie at Kaknästornet (the tallest point in Stockholm), and to take us to Max (a hamburger restaurant) for lunch.


Both my grandmothers were thrilled to meet Albie. Although neither speaks a lot of English, they both made themselves understood with him, and he with them.

To the left is my maternal grandmother, Lisa, and to the right is my paternal grandmother, Frances, and her friend Franz. (The two photos were taken the same day. I was NOT wearing the same clothes every day of the trip).

Cleaning out my storage room was a big part of the trip. I've had stuff stored for nine years, and one of my friends has had to pay for it. Now she and I decided to combine our storage materials and downsize our needs. It was sentimental, and it took an entire day. Here's some stuff that I got rid of:

And here's some stuff there's no way I can part from:

Live from Sweden

I'm sitting here in a little yellow house on the countryside in Sweden after four very stressful days of visiting relatives and shopping at Kopparbergsmarken - a local annual fair and market in the tiny town where I grew up.

Sleeping has been a bit of a problem since getting here. I'm not really sure why, but I seem to do it every other night, and the nights in between I only sleep three hours or so.

I had my interview at the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm yesterday, while my dad took Albie to Kaknästornet, one of the highest buildings in Stockholm that is also a communications tower. The interview, which I had been very nervous about, went something like this:

"Please put your left hand on the fingerprint machine."
"OK"
"Please put your right hand on the fingerprint machine."
"OK"
"Please put your thumbs on the fingerprint machine."
"OK"
"Please do it again, they did not show up."
"OK"
Pause.
"Here are your papers back. We will mail your passport to you, probably send it out tomorrow. You will have it in less than five days."
"Can I stay and wait for it?"
"No. Have a nice trip."

So the goal is to do some more shopping and clean out my storage room I have here in Örebro before we leave on Friday. Then it's back to our new condo to start getting organized!