After our handover we had a very Swiss “last meal” of Ghackets mit Hörnli, or noodles and ground beef with applesauce. It was delicious and kept us running for a long time that day.

We picked up a transport van from Mobility instead of a traditional moving truck because it was cheaper and easier to drive and park and then we started moving!

Our old flat was on the 5th floor (Floor 4 in German), had four and a half flights of stairs and no lift. Because Kay and I were moving by ourselves, we had to get a little creative bringing down the boxes.

Kay used his special Mystery Ranch backpack to strap in 1-2 boxes on his back and carried an additional 1-3 boxes down in his arms. With his magical backpack he dealt with all our heavy loads while I put lighter boxes in some giant Ikea bags to carry down with backpacks and bags on my back and boxes in front. Between the two of us, we were both getting around 3-5 boxes down in each load. No fighting and moving in at the new place with a lift was a breeze.

After three loads on the first day we called it a night and then finished the next two loads on Saturday. We still had the transport rental for another few hours so we headed to Ikea for lunch and to buy some Billy bookshelves for our office now that we are in need of new storage space.

We didn’t forget to enjoy a meal of Köttbullar and Daim cake of course!

Allreal was sweet enough to gift us this thoughtful gift basket to welcome us to our new flat as homeowners. It was the nicest thing they have done for us ever.

Inside was also a 5 year “lost-your-keys” subscription tag that lets someone drop your lost keys off in a mailbox to be returned. Kay made me put it on my key ring. Psh. It’s not like I’ve ever lost my house key in Brazil or anything…

The kitchen was completely covered in boxes, but on the Sunday after our Friday/Saturday move I had opened all the boxes and put almost everything away. I found out things like that Kay has a freaking ton of Matte Leão tea from Brazil! All those orange boxes. Sheesh!

21 empty boxes later, the kitchen was finished!

I celebrated on Monday with a beer. Ok, that’s not the real reason why I had beer just then… but I’ll save that for another post.

Coffee machine all set up, thanks to Kay. I’m kind of in love with it. It grinds our beans and gives me frothy cappuccinos. 🙂

One of our first meals on the balcony. We ate outside a lot the first weeks because the weather is great and the inside is a mess.

Enjoying the innenhof.

This is our new view for the next few years. I hope we enjoy it. It sure is not quite the same as what we had in Zürich.

Back inside, the living room is still mostly a mess. I asked forced Kay to help me flip the dining room table right side up so we could fill it up with crap.

But lookie what Kay did while I was busy organizing the kitchen! He installed our hammocks (both!) on the balcony! Hoorah!

We bought a cheap umbrella from Ikea to help combat the sun, but it falls over all the time so we are thinking of returning it. It’s pretty lame and that sun is killer right now.

Here in the bedroom you can see the sale light shades we purchased. Kay haphazardly installed them in the bedroom and office so we have a temporary light solution. Thank God for electrician husbands!

We also have temporary clothing stands and boxes while we figure out our wardrobe situation.

More grilling and relaxing. We worked hard on our Monday and Tuesday off buying things at stores, assembling, unpacking and organizing, so we deserved a little “us” time. With the kitchen in order, we could actually put together things like grilled ratatouille and bouillon marinated steak!

And my last bit of success now was organizing the bathroom, which took a solid 4 hours after a week of living here. Maybe more. I have a ton of makeup…. but look at that giant drawer of organization!

So. That was that. I was tired of moving, sore as hell and my back literally ached for the first week after moving, partially due to our very crappy sleeping-on-the-floor arrangement that we had for so long in Zürich. Poor back!