Sophia's Room

The cleaner came, and Sophia's room is just about finished, so we can finally post some photos. I think we'll end up going room by room on these posts. My goal is to get thru 2 boxes a day, so it will be a while before everything is up & running!

Her room is so big, it has become the general play room & so great when we have friends over... The kids can go nuts, and then we just close the door at the end of the day!

And no, we haven't used a fish-eye lens in the room. Due to our (very) old building with floors that have been re-built & settled about 4 times over the last 100 years the center of Sophia's room is actually about 6 inches lower than the base of the walls. It took a while to get used to it, and we had to pick a location for her bed that she wouldn't roll out of every night. Now we just have to get the handy man in to attach all of her furniture to the walls so the pieces don't fall over as we walk by!

Z update

Sorry for the long silence, but we have been very busy here!
After returning from Seattle last Saturday, we (finally!!!) got the keys to our "real" apartment on Monday morning & the rest of the week has been a whirlwind of furniture & IKEA deliveries. Not to mention a bit of jet lag. Sophia has slipped back into her school schedule with no problem. Honestly I think it was nice for her to have something familiar on the return as we went thru yet another change!
We have spent the weekend putting rooms together, and using the baby's room as storage for the time being. Our office is filled with extra pieces of plastic and cardboard, and extra screws that should have gone into some of the new furniture.
Sophia's room is coming together nicely, although her bed won't be delivered until this week. She is getting all new furniture, as everything she had before will be used for the baby. She is the Princess & the Pea right now, sleeping on a stack of mattresses on the floor.
We have a great, old apartment (photos to come soon I promise!). However, every room slopes in one direction or another. It is most obvious in Sophia's room, where the center of the room feels about 6 inches shorter than the floor at the walls. You can actually see the furniture lean into the center. We tried to pick a bed location for her where she wouldn't roll off every night.
In the meantime, we also have been trying to clean out our temporary apartment. Its amazing how much stuff we can accumulate in 3 1-/2 months of living out of suitcases! It has been 3 car loads, but I think we are finally done. The cleaners come on Tuesday and then we will officially have moved.
Anyway, lots of rest is called for for me tonight so I'll try & do a bigger update later this week.
Happy New Year to everyone

Moving in Paris

Moving in Paris: Our neighbors on the 4th floor below us moved over Easter weekend. Because we don't have access to the street, the moving company actually builds an "elevator" in the courtyard to move the items that don't fit into the regular elevator. This is also how our furniture was moved into our apartment. For the entire weekend Sophia kept waking up saying "Aligator & Trees". Troy thought she was having dreams & was finally able to tell him about them, but in a 2 year old's reality, every time we opened the curtains in her room, she was talking about the "Elevator & Trees" she saw going up & down.

Our Passy Apartment

Living room (open to the dining room to the left)
The great hallway - it runs almost the entire length of the apartment! Sophia loves to use it as a landing & launching strip.
Our room....
Sophia's room (with sofa bed for guests!)

We found a great 4 room apartment in the 16th, just off rue de Passy. Amazing neighborhood, and the apartment is fantastic. Lots of original charm, and enough space for us right now. We'll see how much we accumulate in the next couple of years.

Househunting in Paris

A rather daunting concept! There are so many places to see and so little time to decide. Over the past week in Paris we have seen more than 20 apartments, and have made a decision to rent one near rue de Passy in the 16th. It looks like a typical Parisian neighborhood, and we are really excited about being so close to the river, and the Eiffel Tower.

We spent 3 days visiting all of the apartments, and after the first day we had to sit down & re-configure our wants & needs. We decided that a modern apartment (think post war 1950s & 60s re-building) is definitely NOT our style, even if the space is great. With that said, there are a few contemporary apartments that were interesting - specifically the one with the 1,000 sq ft terrace on the roof of the building - but felt a little too much like Bachelor Pads to be serious about.

On the other hand, Troy has concerns about getting the "parents apartment" with too much frilly stuff all over the place, and too ornate. Even though we know we are getting the ex-pat's view of apartments, it has been really interesting to see all of the styles and set ups that people here live with. One apartment had 3 bedrooms, and the family still had half of the living room split up into another bedroom for an additional child!

The afternoons & evenings were fantastic! We stayed in a hotel in the 15th, with a view of the Eiffel Tower, and went for late walks every evening before dinner. Sophia is a charmer with all of the Parisians, they just love [beautiful] children...