Avancer

Copain and I decided in Bali that our word for the season would be AVANCER. Move forward, look ahead - in other words, get shit done.

We've been dragging our feet about this whole getting an apartment thing, mainly because we both have busy jobs and this summer was nutso before we left for our amazing vacay (that we so desperately needed).  As we walked / hobbled around the Gili Trawangan island, we told ourselves that once we were back in Paris, we would procrastinate no more! 

So far, we've been pretty good about calling agencies, locking in visits, verifying our budget with the banks and encouraging each other as we go. I'll admit, it's great to have us both be on board. However, I decided that I needed a few other motivators to keep me going.

Exhibit A: The Taupe Couch

The taupe couch was purchased in Cannes, back in 2007, when we had zero furniture and 3000 Euros to furnish an entire apartment. It cost us under 350 Euros and has served us well. 

The taupe couch in its glory days, in Cannes.

Unfortunately, time has not been kind to the taupe couch. It's now faded by the sun, and what started as a tiny wearing away of the fabric, has now resulted in this:

I refuse to replace the taupe couch until we have a new apartment. I also refuse to invite people over until my couch is presentable. Which brings me to...

Exhibit B: The Plateaux - The Trays

With no space for even a coffee table, let alone a dining table, this is how Copain and I have to eat our meals.  Eating with Exhibit B has also contributed to the deterioration of Exhibit A, coffee stain here, pasta sauce spill there - hence my refusal to make any replacements until we have room for both a couch AND a table. So I'll just keep on "accidentally spilling" things, to help keep that motivation high.

Exhibit C - The Laundry

The three doors that you see in this photo are: the bathroom door, the toilet door and the front door. What you don't see is the bedroom door on the right-hand side and the 2-foot space left over for us to walk into "the living room". 

Getting ready in the morning is a tangle of "pardon, pousse-toi!, excuse me, move!" and then scooting by each other as we both try to get from the living room to the bathroom to the bedroom at the same time. I think I'll just leave the laundry like this on a regular basis as an additional motivator to get the heck out of here.

Exhibit D - The "Cupboards"

...are spilling onto the floor. I'm done.

Exhibit E: Our "Storage"

I know what you're thinking - I have too many shoes. But you're wrong. A. You can never have too many shoes, and B. We just don't have any space to store anything, which results in this:

Our suitcases are stored on Copain's armoire - all five of them.  Two of them are full of my winter clothes and weigh approximately 45 pounds each.  Taking them down and putting them back up is a blast. Maybe I'll add my exercise weights as an additional pain-point this year...

To keep us on track to AVANCER the heck out of this place, and into our new Parisian apartment.