The loo is finished. And it’s lovely. Very difficult to take pictures of though as the walls and stuff get in the way. :| So this is a few pictures stitched together badly (again).

The weekend was lovely. Really relaxing even though I got a lot done. Organised the walk-in closet and some other closets and sets of drawers. Very therapeutic indeed. ;)

It’s my birthday. :D Yay. I actually feel suprisingly jolly considering I just started my last year in the 20′s. Eek.

Well, the biggest news is that the kitchen is finally finished. I thought I was going to lose my mind with it, but we got there in the end and it is gorgeous. Thank you M. <3 For those who desperately want to see boring renovation pictures, I've put together a simple gallery here. I’m just so thrilled to get my life, and my flat, back… The work has been so overwhelming, I just haven’t had a minute to think about anything else. Today was the first day I had time to go through any pictures in my camera that I took in England for example.

Good little housewarming party on saturday, was nice to see some friends I hadn’t for a long time.

We’re on holiday next week and I’m planning on doing absolutely nothing. Well at least nothing that wouldn’t be just for pure pleasure and relaxation. =P I will most definitely be playing lots with my new apple green iPod mini, which I got from Stu for my birthday. :D It’s the cutest thing ever!

Oh and just because it felt like a good idea here’s a sort of a panoramic pic of our kitchen and living room. I think that’s all rooms covered now?

The problem (and joy) about having a separate office is becoming quite clear. I enjoy closing the door to the office – and to work – in the evenings so much so, that all this ‘internet life’ is starting to suffer quite badly. Messages stack up and people wonder where I’ve dissapeared to. Oh and I haven’t watched Big Brother online for ages! How about that for breaking a habit. :D I really need to get a wireless network card for my laptop – or a bloody long cable – so I can watch it in bed again like this. :P

Oh and the sofa arrived on tuesday! Yay. It’s huge. But oh so comfy and lovely. <3 Sorry about the lack of 'styling' in the pic, just snapped a quick shot for now. Mmmm how I've always wanted a corner sofa, have to pinch myself to believe it's reality now. :D

Midsummer’s Eve tomorrow. It’s a public holiday in Finland, but as I work for an english employer I don’t get the day off. :( Oh well, it’s not like we’re going anywhere this midsummer anyways, too much to do around the flat still. And I gotta go to England next week. I can always reminisce over last midsummer I suppose. *sigh*

Well ok then. As sooo many (two at least) people have demanded pictures of the new flat I have decided to post the pictures of the two rooms that have been more or less finished now. The office and the bedroom.

Bedroom

Like quite a few projects in this flat, painting of the bedroom started by trying to get rid of the huge blue square on the wall. The previous owners must have had some sort of a square addiction going on. Anyways, took about 3 layers of paint to get rid of it. The other wall got painted with a too light shade of green to start with (that paint will now make an appearance in the kitchen) but we saw the error of our ways and repaintend with a darker moss green, which is really nice and comforting in real life actually.

Office

This room was supposed to be the guest room to start with, which is why we left it to be done later, but at the last minute I decided to put the office there and furious stripping of wallpaper commenced. By far the most laborious and boring job of all. Luckily Stu turned out to be quite skilled in this. :D The colour was a problem as well, as by then we’d already painted the guestroom (originally the office) duck egg blue and couldn’t really use the same colour in two rooms. We went for quite a light and perky shade of green, which turned out really nice. Makes the room kinda zingy to work in. The colour doesn’t really show well in the picture, since everything looks so dark because of the light coming from the windows.

So there ya go, two whole rooms to feast your eyes on. Don’t tell me I’m not good to you. =P

We ordered a hob plate and an oven today. And the kitchen plan is more or less finished. The old one will be ripped out and the new shiny one will go up at the start of july. Scary and exciting at the same time. I can’t wait for it all to be finished… still so much to do and the work seems to drag on endlessly. And still no sign of the sofa…

And there will be no pictures before it’s all finished and perfect and stuff. =P Everything’s still a right old mess.

What an absolutely knackering week I’ve had. Call that a holiday! But now we’re finally all moved in and most of the boxes have been emptied, even if nothing has really found its rightful place yet. We’re still in the process of getting to know this place and finding out how it works best for us. The bedroom, office and the guestroom (which is not purple after all) are more or less finished, living room is still missing wallpaper on one wall and a sofa. And the kitchen is being gutted next weekend… I can hardly wait. :| But I’m sure it will be worth it in the end. :) Every inch of me aches and there are bruises in the most peculiar places. :o Please can someone remind me of the awfulness of moving next time I get any brilliant ideas… I do love the flat though. And the space.

I thought it might be time to update a bit. I’ve been slacking very badly when it comes to blogging… or anything internet related really. Too busy with real life? Well sort of, and also I’ve had some trouble with my arm/wrist and was told to avoid unnecessary typing. At some point it was so painful I could hardly sleep, so avoiding typing came quite naturally. =P

So. Today I got woken up at 8.30 by five men barging into the flat to fix the air circulation thingies. Which was nice. Cue a frantic search for pyjamas and then trying to busy myself with cleaning the kitchen to keep out of their way. Mind you, I could get used to this morning tea thing. Mmmmm.

While this old flat is sitting on the market without anyone seemingly wanting to buy it (apart from a couple who were very keen and then put in a ridiculous offer) the new flat is getting along nicely. We’ve painted the office, the hallway and the bedroom, which got a new bed yesterday and is looking almost finished.

One wall in the bedroom is a lovely green, the other off-white (what a nice job trying to get rid of the huge blue square on that wall was)and the curtains and bedspread are going to be red/burgundy sorta.

The office is sort of duck egg blue. And I want to get fuchsia curtains and a rug and some other accessories to make it zingy and energising to work in.

The living room is going to be quite natural in terms of colour, sort of relaxing hopefully. And we found an ad for the perfect corner sofa yesterday. It’s a nice off-white colour though, so it’ll be an interesting experiment to see how long it takes for Stu to pour some red wine over it. :D Anyways, we’re going to go see, and maybe buy, it on saturday.

The hallway is a lovely yellow (which Stu chose), haven’t made a paint sample of that but you can probably imagine a yellow. :P Not a very bright one, mind.

And then there’s the guest-/dressing-/photogear-room left to do. That’s gonna be my girly room. :D And it’ll have some romantic wallpaper in lovely purple colours. Just have to get rid of three layers of old wallpaper first. :|

The really big jobs, i.e. the kitchen and the bathroom, will have to wait until we’ve sold this flat and know what we can afford to do… Hopefully that will happen soon.

Oh and yesterday we got broadband there. Yay. We’re officially living between two flats now then. Hello debt. :D

Well, it seems like we’ve got ourselves a new flat. :D How about that, from an idea to realisation in more or less two weeks. =P But when the perfect one comes along, you have to take some risks I think… Now we just have to sell our current flat… we have until mid June or we’re a bit screwed. So here’s hoping.

It will be so nice to have more room, can’t wait to get in there. The living room is a lot bigger and we’ll have an extra room to put the office in so I won’t have to work in the living room anymore. Yay. I really like the hallway and it’s so long that it might be the perfect studio space as well, as it opens into the living room. No more falling over sofas. :D We’re gonna put a new kitchen in, as the current one has definitely seen some better days. And also it will make the transition from a fairly new flat into a more ‘lived in’ one more bearable. Stu wants a black kitchen. :| Someone tell him. The only thing I really don’t like at all is the bathroom, which is rather icky. So that’s going to get gutted at some point as well, how soon depends on the money situation etc.

I’m so excited and scared and hyper at the same time. There’s so many things to think about and sort out, my head’s practically spinning. But I think (hope) the worst is over now. Touch wood. We’re going to sign the deeds on Friday. :D

I had to pack all my flashes and the rest of the gear away as we’re going to start showing the flat to possible buyers. Apparently a big softbox on the kitchen table is not a good look. :| So this might mean taking a bit of a hiatus from photographing. Unless I take up nature photography or something in the meanwhile. You never know. :P