Yay! Today was the day that we signed the contract for our new home. After weeks and weeks of looking at many, many apartments, we are super excited to have a place to call our own. Even though it will be mostly empty until we get our surface shipment of furniture and other belongings - we will move in this Saturday!

We have been lucky enough to be living in this small, furnished apartment for the last 6 or so weeks. We seriously lucked out with how friendly and generous the owners have been, and how nicely this little apartment has suited our needs. It really has begun to feel like home here - but that said, we are really excited to be able to get into a bigger place, spread out a bit, and get the rest of our stuff here to really make ourselves comfy.

So this weekend, we will take what belongings we have now and move them over to our new, empty apartment. Right now, the stuff we have includes the luggage we brought on the plane with us (clothes and tolietries) and a small shipment that arrived by air a couple weeks ago. This small shipment included enough kitchen items to get by, some bedding, the kids scooters, and a few other essentials that I projected we might need in starting out. We will definitely be 'roughin' it, but I think along with a couple borrowed airbeds (thanks to our lovely friends in the ward), we will be fine.

So typically, when you imagine a small move such as this, you probably imagine loading up a friend's pick up truck, or even the back of your own mini van and driving across town and unloading it. But since we don't have a car, we have to improvise. With a tip from a friend, we decided to sign up for a car sharing program called Zip Car. We have reserved a cargo van for friday morning and will be charged by the hour while we use it. Not a bad deal - until you realize that instead of pulling up into the driveway, you have to find a a parking spot as close to the apartment building as possible - which may not be close at all, and then haul all the items down the stairs, out the door, and to the van. Only to drive it to the new apartment, where there is even less parking available, unload, walk to the building, and go up the stairs. I have a feeling that this small move is going to take a long while. Luckily Eric found out he has Friday off of work. Great timing for an Islamic holiday!

Here's a few perks about our new place:

It's big. Decent sized even for U.S. standards - but giant for Vienna standards. We will have plenty of space for our stuff, and room to romp. (PS - we will have a rather large guestroom as well, so get ready to come and visit!)

It's situated on a pedestrian shopping street. The whole street is lined with little shops - a chocolatier, a bakery, a cafe, an antique shop, a juice bar, a book shop, clothes shops, etc. I am not much of a shopper myself, but there is something really cool about being right in the middle of where everyone wants to be. There is always lots of foot traffic, but hardly any cars. Its in a nice area of town. It feels happy and energetic. I love it.

There is a huge, green, quiet courtyard in front of our building. Although we're on a popular shopping street, our actual apartment building is set back one building from the road. You turn off the shopping road, and through an entrance way into a nice quiet courtyard, and then enter our building from there - so it's super quiet where we are. And the courtyard will be a great, safe, confined place for the kids to play hide and seek, ride scooters, and get outside time - and I can watch them from my open window!

There is a grocery store right at the entrance of the apartment. This was probably one of the biggest selling points for this place. I can see into the windows of the Spar Gourmet grocery store from my living room window. You can't get much more convenient than that!

It's much closer to the kids' school. Our travel time to the school will be cut in half, at least. The kids will be able to ride their scooters to school on nice weather days, but otherwise there is a bus that drops us off just in front of the school.

It has TWO bathrooms! I know that doesn't seem like much to many Americans. But the majority of the apartments here only have one bathroom, and sometimes an extra guest toilet room. We are so excited to have more than one bathroom in our new place! This will cut bathtime in half, and eliminate waiting time when nature calls. I feel spoiled already.

It's old but new. The building itself is probably over a hundred years old, like most of the buildings in Vienna - but the interior of the apartment has been completely renovated and we are the first tenants since renovation. It still has tall french doors into every room, large double windows that open up wide, and ornate carvings on the ceilings that date back to the original construction. Also, the walls are about 2 feet thick. No joke. This blocks out sound from adjacent apartments, and also helps the building self-cool during warm weather. So while the orginial construction still stands, it has all new bathroom and kitchen appliances, new flooring, and new paint. So right now everything is nice, new, and very, very white. After a couple hours of hanging out there with my two little boys, however, there are already a pluthera of black smudges and marks all over the walls. I'm sure we'll have it 'broken in' in no time flat.

Empty is an understatement. We are quite lucky that our new aparmtment is equipped with kitchen appliances and bathroom essentials. A lot of times, Vienese apartments don't even come with that. However, our new home is still a lot more empty than a U.S. apartment would be. Here is a list of some things that we will have to purchase ourselves:

Bathroom mirrors, toilet paper holders, towel racks, shower curtain racks, and bathroom storage (drawers or cupboards).

Window coverings and Light fixtures (right now we have light bulbs dangling from the cieling and bare windows - "Hello, World!")

Closets - typical Vienese apartmets have ZERO built in closets, and ours is no exception. We will have to purchase all of our closets, shelving, and storage space - including a pantry for the kitchen.

A washing machine. There is a space in the back bathroom for a washing machine hookup. There is no dryer hook up, however - which is pretty typical. We may purchase a washing machine/dryer combo. Basically, and extra cycle after the clothes are washed, tumbles the clothes (mostly) dry. And even still, no Vienese apartment would be complete without at least one laundry drying rack.

The more I think about, the list just keeps getting longer! I have a feeling that IKEA is going to be my new best friend.

So, we're super excited to move in and start making a home there. It will take some time, lots of organizing and probably many, many trips to IKEA to get totally settled, but we'll get there eventually.

Stay tuned for pictures!