Our humble abode

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we finally have our stuff!  It was supposed to arrive yesterday between the hours of 8AM and 5PM, so I sat at home all day long waiting...and waiting.......and waiting. 

When 6:00PM rolled around and we still hadn't gotten any word on where our shipment was I started to get a little frustrated.  I was well on my way to writing a venting blog post when our door buzzer went off.  It was the delivery man letting us know that since we live within the ZTL, and it was around dinner time, the truck wasn't allowed to drive to our apartment.  Sigh.  He told us that he would be back the next morning (today) at 6:30AM to start unloading. 

Considering Italy is the land of "We Like To Take Our Sweet Time When Doing Anything", we were not expecting him to actually be on time.  Let me tell you, he wasn't on time...he was early.  6:24AM and our door buzzer went off.  I don't think I've ever gotten out of bed and dressed so quickly in my life. 

This is what the kitchen table looked like after a few hours.

Our guest bedroom.  I think y'all will be able to fit an air mattress in between the two bikes just fine...

One of John Ralph's biggest contributions:  Putting together the Smokey Joe grill. 

About half way through the day.  Making progress. 

I worked, and organized, and cleaned, and organized, and unpacked, and organized until I finally got almost everything where I wanted it. 

I don't ever want to see another cardboard box in my entire life. 

All we have left is to hang up all of our clothes and finish organizing our guest bedroom. 

So without further adieu, the finished product:

Our kitchen. (obviously)

Another view of the kitchen.  It has pocket doors you can close off, say, if you ever wanted to ignore a huge pile of dirty dishes. 

Our dining area.  The table is government issued, so the table cloth doesn't fit.  Humor me and pretend like you didn't notice.

Yes, I drank that wine after taking this picture. 

The living room area.  No animals were harmed while decorating this apartment.  (Actually, that is a real cow hide rug that we just bought for a STEAL at only 60 Euro.  However, we like to think the cow died happy and of natural causes.) 

View of the living room area from the other corner of the room.  We're still waiting on a couch to be delivered and some artwork to go on the walls, but for now, this works. 

View of dining area and kitchen from the living room.  I built the bookshelf you see here, as well as the chair, coffee table, and desk you saw in the previous photos.  Talent. 

The bedroom and bathrooms aren't quite ready to make their blog debut, however I'm going to work hard at getting them complete this week so I can showcase the rest of our living quarters. 

Ciao for now!