The apartment: pt. 2

I went up to Quest on Friday to sort out all the paperwork needed for my March and April classes. I'll post about that soon. While I was there, along with enjoying time with Kate (i miss her so much) and my friends, i enjoyed the fast internet! I never thought i'd say Quest's internet is fast, but i uploaded all these pictures in a reasonable amount of time so there ya go.

The chair and futon came with the place. At first we where super excited about the futon but now... the novelty has worn off and we've realized it's just old and flat. But, we are still thankful to have a couch!

The pictures seemed to lighten up when i uploaded them to the blog, not sure why! An old record player Hunter found in his garage, we've got a small collection and a big wishlist of vinyl.

We bought this shelf at Ikea a little while back because it was on sale. I put it together alone on while Hunter was taking the van back to Bellingham. People are always complaining about how hard it is to follow Ikea assembly instructions, but i really enjoyed it! It was like a puzzle. A big heavy, real-life type puzzle. I think I got some of Grandpa's fix-it genes, because I also pride myself in my trunk/car packing abilities :)

My Zen alarm clock is amazing. It has "sleep trained" me. Now i wake up at the same time everyday, without an alarm. If it's the weekend i can easily fall back asleep, but if i have to get up i'm up.

I couldn't help putting a scarf over the hand-me-down tv Hunter brought. You've trained me well Mamma.

It's the little things that make it feel like home. A beeswax bee and flower candle, hand-made bowls from my brother.

Again, little touches ground me to the houses i've lived in and loved from the past. We brought pictures of Hunter's parents and have them on our fridge (i couldn't figure out the light setting to get a good picture).

That's our place! It's beginning to smell like our home. I find smell is so important. We've got our rhythms, we're mastering our kitchen, and we're able to keep the little place tidy. All in all, i am extremely happy.
Take a look at us moving in, and our apartment.

The apartment: pt 1

I went a little picture crazy, but i just wanted to show it off! I love it, Hunter loves it, and it is very slowly but surely beginning to feel like OUR place.

One of the last jars of canned cherries i made a couple summers ago. Georgia, do you think they're still ok? I was hoping to give a jar to our landlords!

The kitchen. Mamma, notice the dish dryer we got with the Cottonwood gift card? I love it. It is the perfect size for our dishes and is so aesthetically pleasing. Georgia, I've been finishing up the bottle of Prairie Doctor tonic you sent me a while ago- the stress of moving is making my throat tickle.

 

I know it's dorky to have a picture if our food shelf... but i get to post whatever i want on here :)

I snipped the labels you wrote Georgia, and tapped them to my little containers!

The best salt IN THE WORLD. Thank you Mamma!

Our big soaker tub. I love it. Paired with the bath salts/bombs 

Georgia's given me = relaxation at it's best.  Hunter's a bigger fan of baths than I am,

he's particularly stoked on the lavender bath salts.

Love love love the citrus one. Thanks G, i'm still using the refill bottle you got me.

The best (and worst) part about our apartment? The heat is radiant, meaning the floors are heated. All of them. all the time. Really heated. We don't control our own heat, so sometimes it's lovely and toasty, and sometimes its more like a sauna and less like an aparmtnet in February.

I don't want to overload you all with pictures, so I'll give you glimpses into our living room and bedroom soon! Also, the internet is still a snail and uploading pictures to my blog practically crashes my computer. Ah, the woes of the 21st century.
Take a look at us moving in.

Hope you're all enjoying February, lots of love from us, xo.

Movement

Moving house is crazy.
You think you're prepared, and then ... well, we've all moved so we all know the feeling. During the crazy-ness that was the past couple of days Hunter and i have moved all his stuff from Bellingham, moved all my stuff from Squamish (we unexpectedly had to make two trips- not fun), Hunter returned his parents van, stopped by Ikea with his mum on his way back up, we showed Yolanda (Hunter's mum) the place really quickly before she headed back home, we slowly unpacked all our things, and we ventured into our neighborhood to purchase veggies for dinner.
It is hard to arrange all your things into a little space that you have to share with another person and all their things. What makes it even harder is this apartment doesn't have a single closet. I never realized how crucial closets are until now. Everything we own is on display in our home; a good and bad thing. It's making me re-evaluate the necessity of a lot of my belongings.
For now, here are a couple pictures Hunter snapped on our first night!

I'd love to upload some pictures of what our place looks like now that we are settled in -and i'm taking pictures during the day- but it literally took me over an hour to upload these four. If the internet is still snail pace tomorrow, we'll have to ask L. and E. about it, but hopefully it's just a glitch and it'll pick back up!
Here's our apartment.

How do you cope with stress/the stimulation of a new environment?
*Georgia, we've already taken a bath in your big soak-er tub with the bath salts you gave me for Christmas, it smelled amazing and my skin was silky soft afterward, so thank you!

A Signed Lease

Hunter and I signed our first lease together. In Vancouver. For February 1st, 2014!
   
We'd been talking for a while about moving in together again -we lived together with four other people over the summer of 2013 while we worked for Quest- and decided that Vancouver B.C. made the most sense, geographically and socially.    
Finding an apartment in Vancouver was very stressful, the city with one of the worst housing markets in the world. We continuously looked for places and contacted landlords, with very little luck. Finally in late December, we saw an ad on Craigslist for a gorgeous little apartment in a good location. We heard back from the landlords right way and their open house fit perfectly into our schedule.

I was so nervous as we walked up to the house through the drizzling rain, I squeezed Hunter's hand, "we're going to be great" he reassured me. As soon as we walked in L. made us comfortable. She was welcoming and honest and we fell in love with the suite right away. We chatted with L. and E. for a while (L. knew about Quest, and what a Question was because she had heard a podcast a few years back! She asked us about our Questions and seemed really impressed with our studies, who knew my university's reputation would help me win over a landlord). She told us they'd be in touch either way and we left, giddy with hope.    
Almost a week later Hunter got a call, L. was offering us the place! We had viewed a few more apartments in the meantime but they were all tiny and dingy and the landlords seemed distant and impersonal.    
It still hasn't sunk in. Move-in day can't come soon enough!    
Do you remember your first home after your child-hood home and university dorms? What was it like?