I can't really believe how long it's been since we've updated the blog. It's not that we haven't had anything to write about... we went to the Copenhagen zoo in September,
took a weekend trip to Rennes, France in November,
celebrated Thanksgiving with some Danish and French friends,
had a visit from Kate and Iris in early December,
passed the penultimate level of Danish (I [Carla] somehow passed a 4 hour written exam and a 30 minute spoken exam, all while quite ill),
and suffered through the holidays with the flu, bronchitis, and pink eye (though we certainly had fun with Mom, at least until she got sick with the flu and bronchitis... sorry Mom!).
However, the biggest thing that has happened since our last update is we finally bought and moved into our very first 'home'!
The move itself was painful. We moved right at the end of my flu and the beginning of my bronchitis. Luckily, Bobby had not yet caught the flu or pink eye (that came a week later), so he and three of our guy friends were able to do most of the moving. However, the pain of every pound we carried to our 4th floor apartment was worth it! Our apartment, which is in the area of downtown Copenhagen called Nørrebro, has two bathrooms, three bedrooms, a big kitchen, a dining room, and a living room (or, as we call it, the reading room), plus a little balcony. In this photo of the building, our apartment is on the American 4th floor (or European 3rd floor), on the corner. The place is great, but we're slowly working on making it better... We have purchased a guest bed, so we have a queen-sized bed for anyone who wants to visit! We have also purchased a nice microwave and an incredible oven! The oven hasn't been installed yet, because a licensed electrician has to install it. That will hopefully happen this week. This week, however, we worked on the dining room.
These are photos of the dining room under the old owner. We spent yesterday painting and now the dining room looks like this:
I love the color! I feel like I'm living by the ocean. With our black, white, and natural wood furniture, I think the room looks clean and elegant. All we need now are some couches.
Our next room to paint and decorate will be the reading room. I can't wait!
We've had another busy weekend of painting, organizing, and improving the apartment. The weekend started with the installation of our new oven! The oven, which we bought over a weekend ago, was finally installed by an electrician. It is huge compared to the old oven that it replaced and is much more energy-efficient. It also has a lot of cool functions like drying, defrosting, and grilling, and it even has a built-in food thermometer! I'm in love :)
Bobby also spent time moving into and organizing his office. He hung up a huge map of Denmark, set up his desk, and even has a little reading corner. It is a very 'hyggeligt' (Danish word for cozy) office, and he's allowed to have the heat on as much as he wants.
We also did some painting this weekend. Luckily for us, the paint store is only a few blocks away from the apartment. I purchased the paint the biked it home!
I spent all of Saturday painting the reading/music room, which is the room you reach via the French doors in the dining room.
Here is what the room looked like under the old owner.
And here is the room now. You can't really see the paint color (it's a very, very light blue), but you get the idea. We have a couch and brown leather chairs, along with a wood coffee table, in one corner of the room. In the other corner, we have the book shelf, CD shelf, and what I like to call 'the music box.'
You can see why I call it the music box! The dresser holds Bobby's accordions, one of my flutes, and the banjo, plus a lot of sheet music.
This corner is one of my favorite places in the apartment. Located in the reading/music, room, it's a beautiful off-set corner looking over the main street Tagensvej. We are going to put a little table and two chairs here, and we hope to enjoy our summer breakfasts in the North-East facing nook.
During the week, we purchased couches! They were delivered Saturday night. The 3+2 black leather couch set is just lovely. Bobby has already treated the leather!
The dining room is basically done. All we need now is to upgrade our TV to a nice flat-screen... one day!
