The Move

A and I decided to move in together a little over a month ago, and having found a place we have spent most of this month moving in. After a bit of convincing, A agreed to an apartment in the area of the Marolles (where I was living), and we found a huge ≅150m² loft-style apartment right on the edge of the district, purely by accident.

Moving only a few blocks from my old apartment seems a bit odd, but I think I might miss my old ≅75m² place overlooking Place Rouppe… a bit…

I've added a few photos here of my side of the move, as I haven't really got much to say at this point.

The plan was for a removal van to pick up A's stuff, then swing by and pick up my stuff, all before Comme Chez Soi (below my old apartment) started their lunch service. The removalists moved everything that was in the apartment down in the ground floor entrance in about 30-minutes' time in preparation for the van's arrival.

The old apartment was basic, but still home for so many years.
It came as a shock to me that the place was emptied so quickly.

The van was late, and lunch service at Comme Chez Soi had started. Moving my furniture into the van was complicated by need to move the van at the same time, with the result being some form of Frogger-Tetris hybrid. I think it was only due to the skill of Michel (voiturier at Comme Chez Soi) that this was pulled off. In the end, my couch and a few other bits that didn't fit into the van as planned were carried on foot to the new place.

I wandered over to the new place, following my couch, and found that A's dad was kind enough to come and help shift some boxes once they had arrived up the lift.

When I moved into my last apartment, I literally had nothing beyond what was in my suitcase and my backpack; but now after merging our two apartments, we had a lot to sort through. Our first night was spent wondering where to start — these photos only show about ⅓ of the stuff. Furthermore, Belgians like to rent their apartments without light fixtures for some reason, so I had to start wiring in some temporary lights so we could see what we were doing.

It's been three weeks since we moved in, and we've gotten the light fixtures in place, the Ikea furniture rebuilt, and A's started to paint. It's going to be a while before we're really settled, I think.