Just a quick plug for this amazing local company called “The Professionals”: they made this move the best and easiest move we’ve ever made. And we’ve moved kind of a lot.

I resisted hiring movers for a long time, while my husband chipped away at my stubbornness. Finally, I wised up and gave in. I am SO glad I did.

The skinny: 3 guys showed up at our old apartment at 8:20 am on Friday the 17th. They immediately dug into our pile of boxes, which seemed to disappear into the truck downstairs faster than what I could account for. “What . . . ? Where . . .?” I asked myself as the livingroom went from full to empty in a flash.

They shrink wrapped and protected furniture with pads. They moved quickly and efficiently. Within 2 hours, the apartment was empty and they were pulling away to drive the truck to our new place. They unloaded us in 2 hours as well, and we were waving goodbye to this fabulous trio by 12:30pm. Nothing was damaged. It came to just over $400 (well under the estimate), and we had all day wide open to unpack and move stuff around.

What a great deal. I know this won’t be the case for everyone in every situation, but for us, this really beat the experience of recruiting friends to do all the hard lifting (though I love all our friends dearly), worrying about picking up and dropping off a truck (not to mention driving it in this crazy city), experiencing massive headaches over when the couch should be loaded in, strategizing about whether the bookcases should line the side of the truck or go in last, and debating about how to angle that loveseat so that it doesn’t scratch the wall. These professional movers knew exactly what to do.

I think I’m in love. I’m in love with moving. And I can’t wait to move again!

Just kidding.

But seriously, it was 100% painless.

On that note, here are some pictures from that afternoon, after the movers had driven away.

We’ve been trying to make repairs on little annoying broken things as we move them in. Moving is a great time to fix stuff that’s been lingering on the to-do list.

And check it out! Our old dresser is a perfect fit in the laundry/linens area, to store our blankets and sheets and such.

Yay for getting settled!

It’s satisfying and wonderful. This is the fun part.

More pictures will come (because by now it’s looking drastically different! Homey, organized . . . aaaaah).

In the meantime, I’ll have you know that tomorrow is our big Ikea trip, so I’ll be incommunicado all day basking in the wonder of that magical store. Wheeeee!

I wanted to share some pictures of the new apartment (almost) totally empty that I snapped before moving the bulk of our stuff inside. I took these on Wednesday the 15th, right after letting ourselves in with our new keys for the first time. They’re not great photography, but they’ll give you an idea of the layout and wall colors (both of which I love!).

After entering the main door, you come up a set of stairs (under a skylight) into the main room (living room/dining room/kitchen) . . .

. . . where an excited husband and an able-bodied moving-helper (otherwise known as John, my brother-in-law) are inspecting the space.

Those are my beat-up silver flip-flops by the front stairway. I love them and simply can’t throw them away even though they look like they’ve participated in a dog fight followed by a cat fight followed by a rabid llama throwdown.

I love the warm neutral color on the walls of the main room. I love the window treatments and light fixtures, which came with the place.

As I mentioned last week, everything about the apartment is better than I remembered.

Off of what will be our dining area, there’s a porch.

My husband LOVES this porch. It’s a great spot for prayer time in the morning, and beer time at night. John checked it out and also stamped it with his approval.

And here’s the view from one of the bay windows in the living room:

In my mind, the three negative things I remembered about this place were: not a ton of closet space. The shag carpet in the master bedroom. The longer walk to the El.

But after moving in, none of these things bother me! I actually like the short shag in the bedroom. It’s soft and clean and a nice neutral oatmeal kind of color. After further examination, there’s plenty of closet space, and the walk to the El (though 10 minutes instead of 2) is really enjoyable, through peaceful tree-lined streets, and doesn’t feel any longer than 5 minutes.

But less talk and more pictures! Because I have more to show you.

Like the amazing kitchen.

In which I will cook without that lingering gross feeling that I had in our old kitchen.

When we first arrived there were some ants scuttling about, but after buying ant traps and waiting a few days, they are now nowhere to be seen.

After the main room, a very long hallway leads to the rest of the rooms (though this picture is taken in the hallway facing the main room):

The first door on the left leads into the smaller guest bedroom/library/office:

That’s where you all will be sleeping when you come to visit.

And where will you get clean when you come visit? Where will you answer nature’s call?

Well, the hallway bathroom:

Alice’s room is painted a bright and cheery blue!

And has built in shelves.

And here’s the fabled aundry area, which I can’t shut up about. I think I’ve done about 15 loads so far–and I’m not even kidding. Curtains, chair covers, blankets, afghans–nothing has escaped the washing madness.

I’ve also discovered a new paramour: bleach.

And at the end of the hall is our master bedroom . . .

. . . which has its own bathroom!

The walls of the master bed, though they look funky-colored in these pictures, are a gorgeous light grey-blue. So peaceful.

We feel slightly in awe of how nice everything is, and how hovel-like our previous abode seems in comparison. Are we allowed to live somewhere so . . . posh? When we go to bed, it feels like we’re in a hotel. Should we feel guilty about this? we’ve asked ourselves. Are we going to grow soft living in the lap of luxury? Will central A/C make us total nincompoops of pleasure and ease?

I guess the answer to all of that is that we should just rejoice, praise God for his generous blessing, keep thankful hearts, and not worry about the rest.

More pictures tomorrow!