We're in

We still haven't got a dining table, there's a whole load of bookshelves we need to put in, it's not perfect, but it's more than liveable and we're here.  The magical trip to Ikea (that I had been looking forward to for months) was actually a pretty shitty trip to Ikea.  Having just dropped ourselves into massive amounts of mortgage debt and being utterly exhausted from all the painting and moving, it was pretty draining to have to drag a mattress, a couch, a bed frame, and all the various bits of kitchenware and hobnobs that we'd collected, pay for it all (ouch), then schlep it back to the apartment and put it all together.

Ikea is a lot more fun when you're there on an exploratory mission, where you don't actually have to buy anything and the realities of your budget don't hinder your overactive imagination.

We thought we'd be able to do all the moving ourselves, with our baby hatchback and one of my parents' cars, but it pretty soon became apparent that this wasn't going to happen, so we rented a van from the world's dodgiest rental company for the world's cheapest price (about $50 for 24 hours) that pretty much looked like this:

I went to return it the following morning and it just straight-up wouldn't start.  I decided that since it was a manual, I could do a rolling start because we live at the top of the hill and Kippax Street is pretty straight, though maybe a little heavy with traffic but whatever.  Dan helped me roll it around the corner, then I let 'er rip, coasting at a terrific pace with no power steering through roundabouts and intersections towards Elizabeth Street, all the while trying to get the engine to tick over.  It finally did, about 100m from the end of the street, when I figured out that you actually have to put the thing into gear and mash the accelerator for a rolling start to work (I had never actually tried this before).  Anyway, thank christ the beast started.  When the guy at the yard asked me whether I had any issues with it, I shook my head and walked away, praying for the return of my security deposit.

Also, underneath my teacup in that picture of the living room above is the nasty-ass ottoman that I bought from Officeworks.  I haven't properly re-upholstered it yet (just wrapped the fabric around the lid and plonked it on), but it's functional!  It's probably a little too small for the living area, but I'll use it as a bedside table or something anyway.