OH WHAT A MESS WE ARE IN!!!!

Did I say in an earlier post moving out of the country was not for sissies?????  Well, let me repeat myself for emphasis!!!!!  MOVING OUT OF THE COUNTRY IS NOT FOR SISSIES!!!!!  Or, for that matter, for anyone who just doesn't feel the "dream" calling them.  Seriously, this is a lot of work and, in our family, much of that is on David.  He is taking care of all the financial end-banking, accounts, lease etc.  Without Adrian Leeds, this would be a nightmare!!!  Really.  She is always there to help us understand and pull us back from the ledge!! Karina, too, has been great in following up with us and trying to make it easier.

This week David has been out of town some and I concentrating on putting my clothes together....clothes/shoes to take, clothes to give away and clothes to trash (not many of them).  As I've said before, I really am a purger.  Ask people who know me.....I am always going through my closet bagging up clothes (not so much shoes!!!).

But doing this has been the hardest part of this move for me.  Those questions: what will I need there? what if I take it and don't really need it there? what if I don't take the right kinds of things and have to buy new (harder for me now because as well as being more expensive, I'm not familiar with the stores and my options), and the big one---what if I don't take enough and have to wear the same boring thing all the time!!!!!  I know, I know, this sounds vain and frivolous.  I own that.  But moving like this is something I've never done and I'm new at it.

When I was feeling the craziest, I called Nikki and she talked me off the ledge!  After our conversation, I went back to my suitcases (2) and pulled out more filling up more "give away" bags.  This morning I went through them again and did the same thing.  I know our space is going to limited and I don't want to pay to take a bunch of clothes I'll have no good place for.

This is just the beginning!!!!!!  I've gone through these two bags 3 times.....and we've discovered my problem isn't clothes, it's products!!!!  It takes a lot of skincare, makeup and nail equipment to maintain this body!!!!!!!

When it was all said and done, we decided it would be better to have all our bags under-weight (you know, the American Airlines 50-lb. rule!!) and just one BIG bag and pay the extra on it.  And I can work with that....no loss of products for me!

A NEAR-PERFECT PARIS HOME!!!

Earlier in the week I was was feeling homeless and without country.  But then, voila, we have a new Paris home!!!  The pieces are finally all in place for us to begin our adventure!

Last weekend at Nikki's we were sent an apartment by Karina that we decided was "the one".  She looked at it on Monday and emailed it was a nice apartment with lots of light, nice owner (yea!) and in an area (the 9th Arr) that she prefers because many of her ten years in Paris it's where she's lived.  We thought we were sold.  However......we decided to go back to an earlier apartment we had scratched from our list because of the price.  We sent it to Karina and on Wednesday she went to see it.

When I got up Thursday morning, David had received an email from Karina saying "this is your apartment!"  It's in our first-choice location (the 7th Arr), has 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, small balcony off the master, lots of storage and is 90 square meters (the biggest we'd looked at and had thought we wouldn't find on our budget).  The owner is very nice and Karina submitted our dossier without even asking us.  So we now had two applications in for two different apartments.  We never even heard back on that first apartment and the owner of the second was back to us in a matter of hours and a rental agreement had been emailed, signed by us and emailed back.  Technology is great when it works!!!!

So we now have a new home...ready on March 1 for our March 4 arrival.  It needs a little "Sherry zhushing (Courtney's word)" to make it cozy and like us but I'm already looking at the pics and thinking of ways to rearrange and change things and what I would like to see in various spots.  Then I guess we'll just have to hit some flea markets when we get there!!!!!

For me, probably the best part of this apartment is each time you go into or out of the building this is what you see....

And, yes, it is as close as it looks!!  David says about 1000 feet (whatever that looks like!!) from our front door.  I told you I'm a geek about La Tour Eiffel!!!!!

Once we move, I'll post (maybe even video) the rest of the apartment for you to see.  Maybe after the zhushing..........

FIFTEEN DAYS BUT WHO'S COUNTING??????

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted news.  Someone said to me recently she hadn't read anything in my blog lately.  I replied, "I know this is hard to believe coming from me, but I actually haven't had anything to say!!".  Which is REALLY rare for me!!!!!!

The truth is the days have been passing quietly, mostly, with nothing really to share about our upcoming move.  There are been open houses nearly every weekend (😖) and many showings (👏), but no happy news.  It's like everyone (or most everyone) loves the house but no one wants to buy it!!!  Until they did!!!

On Monday, my birthday, we got a contract on the house!  After some negotiating,  we reached an agreement and the ball started rolling.   So now we are in the process of sorting--things to store in our little storage room we've rented, things to leave for the estate sale, and things to take to Paris with us (which is getting smaller every day!!).  The other day David and I took a carload of boxes to store.

Amazing how little is "close to my heart"

We've designated this space for the things we, hypothetically, plan to take to Paris.  However, that box on the right hasn't been gone through so I'm thinking much of it will go to storage.

The table and chairs will go into the sale and the plates on the right may go to storage.  Right now we're just doing the first round of organizing.  Later we'll probably have to narrow things down.  Luckily, I'm a good purger (is that a word???!!!) and don't hold on to things too tight.

Moving to a new country isn't for sissies, that's for sure!!!!  So now we're homeless and without country (did I just sound like Meg Ryan in French Kiss???!!!).  For now.......