All settled in...sort of...

Well, Mark and I successfully made the long drive across I-40 West without killing each other. Yay! We stopped in Oklahoma City the first night, Albuquerque the second night and Kingman (Arizona) the third night. We arrived to lovely Santa Monica on Thursday around 1 p.m. (Pacific time).

Sorry it took me so long to post pictures! I will post more once all my furniture is set up and everything's in order. Right now I'm sitting on the floor because I'm tired of the chairs and there's no couch. :)

Here's the apartment building from the outside. Basically what you see of the second floor (the top floor) is all ours. The window on the far right is from our dining room area (it's not a separate room, more like a breakfast nook), the window to the left of that one is from our kitchen, the next left window (covered up by the trees) is from the bathroom, and the far left window (also covered by trees) is the "office" or second bedroom. Our bedroom is actually around the corner on the left, behind the office.

If you walk down the walkway on the right in the first picture, you'll come around back. Those stairs take you to our place, which is the door that you can partially see in this picture.

This is the living room, and it's actually bigger than what you see. The front door is on the right, and as you can see we are still assembling/gathering furniture. That desk on the left is mine from IKEA, and it was $25 (and I had a coupon for $25 off, so it was basically free!). The lamp is from IKEA, too, and in the boxes are books and two dining room chairs that are awaiting assembly. :)

This picture is taken from the kitchen looking into the dining area. To the left (out of the picture) is the living room, which leads to the bedrooms and bathroom.

This is the kitchen! I haven't been able to cook yet because my pots and pans, etc., are all in boxes at a friend's house in Miami, but I will get them soon. I'm lucky to have such great friends to help me out. Thanks guys!

Here's the bathroom. The shower-head is detachable, which I like, and there's tons of storage here (in the bathroom and just in general). Our apartment in Miami only had ONE closet, the one in the bedroom for our clothes. This place has four closets and more cabinets and nooks and crannies in the bathroom for storage. I'm loving that!

And last but not least, here's our bedroom. We've actually moved stuff around since I took the picture, so as I said, I will take more soon and post the updates.

So far we have found a local Chinese place that has $5 DINNER take-out (what?!), an Indian restaurant that delivers to us (and is delicious!), a bar within walking distance that has a pool table and yummy fish tacos, and a Mexican restaurant with huge meals and great margaritas.

Mark started his job yesterday, and he's really liking it so far! First days are always hard because there's so much to learn, but I think his second day is going more smoothly and he's getting into his routine. I packed him lunch this morning and sent him off! :)

Love to all from the west coast.

j