Moving Day!

The apartment is one of four in a renovated old house. Ours is the "garden apartment" on the back of the house on the ground floor. The house is on a slight hill so the back of our apartment is partially underground.  We have a private entrance, real wood floors, granite counter tops, nice appliances including a washer and dryer in the unit (apparently this is unusual).  There is also a steamer above the oven, I guess the Swiss do a lot of steam cooking...I will have to learn to cook with steam! We liked where we lived in Bellevue because of the fabulous view and location but are looking forward to living somewhere well made and new.

Empty living room...notice there isn't a light fixture.

In Switzerland everyone gets one day off a year to move, so on Monday Torrey did just that.  We met the Property Manager at our new apartment at 8am. She did a very extensive inspection, noting every blemish. While she did her inspection Torrey took measurements and drew a plan of the apartment.  We had already made a list of items we needed to purchase but the plan helped us know exactly what would fit where. Yes, I married a very organized man and I am thankful.

Torrey is being patient with me as I begin the documentation of  our  shopping experience. 

After the keys were sorted out with the property manager we headed to Ikea. We spent quite a few hours at Ikea and managed to get most of everything on our list. We would have liked to have considered a few more items but simply ran out of time as we had a truck rented from 3-6pm.  We managed to get from Ikea, stop at our temporary apartment to pick up the boxes we shipped from the US, unload and almost get the truck back in time.  Thankfully, they didn't charge us for having the truck back late.

Torrey testing the Ikea umbrellas (he bought it).

Still smiling after a day at Ikea

Ikea rents trucks! Thanks to the Geels for the tip!

Torrey unloading outside our new apartment

Boxes full of items ready for assembly

Our first meal, that is our table - in the box

 I spent the remainder of the week putting together furniture, figuring out how to use the appliances, and organizing.

Putting together furniture in the front entrance  

Washing all the dishes for the first time, thankfully we have a dishwasher

 On Saturday as the weather wasn't supposed to be good we went to Ikea again. We expected our bed to come with slats but it didn't so we went back to get them. While we were there we hit the electronics store (Interdiscount) and bought a router, hand blender, and microwave.  We are planning a shopping trip to Germany at some point as it is cheaper especially now, because of the high Swiss Franc (sound familiar).  I had already bought a number of household items at some of the department stores in Zürich.  Apparently, this is the time of the year for sales. I was told to take advantage of them now as we won't see them again until next summer!  I am especially proud of my 75% off purchase of some Swiss cooking pots.  They are called the "entry-level line" but are excellent quality.

Waiting for the bus, Torrey is holding our bed slats (they are very heavy). Notice the other people waiting for the bus  with oversized bags and boxes.

And now on the tram

We will be fully moved in by the end of the month (end of next week). We should be getting our mattress delivered on Tuesday and we are picking up more furniture from one of Torrey's coworkers who is moving to the US.