We're settling into life in Austin, so I thought I'd share a few pictures and a little update. We arrived last Monday and spent the week feverishly unpacking before departing again on Friday for a wedding in San Diego (more on that later). We barely left the apartment all week and when we did it was to grab household items we forgot/needed at Walmart. Sidenote: I think I've found the most bizarre Walmart on the planet...it's right here in Austin! I thought nothing could beat the Branson Walmart, but this is definitely a contender. Over the course of our multiple trips last week I saw three people carrying dogs through the grocery section (since when is this socially acceptable?), someone in the parking lot tried to sell us drugs, and we saw a semi-nude child riding in a cart. Luckily, we discovered the sole Super Target in Austin near our house and have been sticking to that ever since.
So, we arrived Monday and checked into the leasing office to get our keys and parking pass (for the car we don't yet have). This is the cute little communal coffee bar across from the offices.
And here is the common living area, where you can hang out, watch TV, or work.
Our apartment complex has two buildings: the first was completed earlier this year and is full, and then the second is still under construction. We are some of the first tenants in the second building, pictured below, and when we arrived there were only two other cars in the parking garage. Since the building is still under construction, our amenities won't be finished until early December, so we have to trek to the other building down the street for the pool and gym until then. A bit annoying, but we got a great deal on our rent, including the first two months free, so we can't complain too much!
And now for a few pictures of our actual unit...here's the kitchen.
And a wider view of the kitchen from the living room area. Excuse the dirty floor...like I said, there's still a bunch of construction going on so the hallways are a bit dusty!
The living room:
I snapped (If you want to see additional fascinating content follow me! My username is laurahinderaker) this picture, and the sentiment remains true. It's still in the 90s here in Austin and there's no sign of it cooling down anytime soon. Any Texans reading...does it ever cool off?!
I spent the better part of one day last week assembling this IKEA TV stand. I have a serious love/hate relationship with IKEA. Mostly hate. We've moved around a lot, which has translated into a lot of IKEA furniture building and I'm sort of over it. If I never have to put together another LACK or MALM item, I'll be extremely happy. Once I finished this stand, I went to attach the back panel and realized I was missing a few pieces. At least, I thought I was. IKEA directions are the most confusing/least helpful thing ever. So, Ali and I went back to IKEA yesterday and tried to get the missing pieces. I felt like a complete idiot when the guy informed me that the piece I thought I needed more of was actually just supposed to be one piece that was basically a tool that I thought was a legitimate part. Awkward. So, today I'm going to tackle the rest of it.
After our weekend in San Diego, I flew back to Minneapolis to make the drive down to Austin with our roommate, aka my sister Ali! She stayed to work an extra week at her job before moving down, so her room has been used as a pseudo storage area until now. We took two days to drive down, which wasn't so bad given that we could switch off driving every few hours. We got to see a lot of sights between Minneapolis and Austin...aka fields and not much else ;). We've now got the basics set up and are settling in nicely. I'll post some more pictures when we have everything finished!
Yay! Love the new apartment, I bet it feels so huge compared to your home in Melbs,
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh it does! I mean, a box would probably feel huge compared to Melbs but this is actually quite big.
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