The Nesting Phase
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Even though I’ve moved out of my parent’s house more than 10 years ago (I know, I know, late by most countries’ standards, but actually on the early side by Croatian standards), and have moved countries twice in the last three years I’ve never actually bought or owned much furniture. Sure, I’ve shopped with my mum for my parent’s apartment and I’ve bought a bed and electrical appliances for my own place while living in Croatia, but that was about it. My apartment had a kitchen and bathroom, a built-in closet and built-in shelves and the rest of the furniture came from my grandparent’s house.
Even then I felt the need to re-decorate the whole place to be exactly as I wanted it to be, but I never had enough money to do any serious changes, there were always more important things in the way, like a trip abroad or a few new pairs of shoes…
Ireland did nothing to quench my nesting urges as both apartments I’ve lived in there were fully furnished (for the first one I had to buy book shelves, but that was about it) but the second one was quite perfect as it was. As I mentioned in my previous post, Israeli rented apartments usually come unfurnished – the first one entirely lacked living room furniture but had almost everything else, so a year ago we bought a beautiful L-shaped sofa and coffee table. Though the apartment was really nice, it somehow never really felt like home and I didn’t feel the need to add any more personal touches to it.
Then, 3 weeks ago we moved to our current apartment, which had a fully equipped kitchen and a big-ass closet in the bedroom. And that was it. Commence nesting phase: stage one. First item on the to-do list was obviously a bed. We shopped around for a mattress + bed for a bit and were completely baffled by the sheer amount of available choices (not to mention the wild price range) – even I, who am impulse shopping personified, couldn’t decide! Eventually, after lot of discussions, price comparisons and help of the master negotiator (i.e. Amit’s mum), we settled on a bed and mattress but had to wait full 2 weeks after moving in for it to be delivered. Have I ever mentioned before that I’m not a very patient person? Sleeping on the living room floor for 2 weeks hasn’t done much for my “sunny disposition”, especially in the mornings. However, earlier this week the bed finally arrived and the joys of a full night’s sleep were rediscovered.
With that out of the way, we could refocus on completing the furnishing of the rest of the apartment. Commence nesting phase: stage two. We spent a whole morning on Hertsel st. in south Tel Aviv looking for various items but coming home with only bar stools that were the last items needed to complete our kitchen. It was a bit disappointing but we knew there was one final place to turn to for the remaining items we needed.
Commence nesting phase: stage three, also known as The Ikea Invasion. I’ve raided Ikea before, mostly commonly the one in Graz, but I’ve also been in the one in Budapest and the one in Belfast. I usually bought small storage solutions, bed linen, small kitchen items, candleholders and similar things. This time, we bought several bookshelves, nightstands, side table, TV stand, shoe storage, work desk and a whole bunch of other, smaller items. Since most of the big stuff was too big to fit in the car and neither of us saw the appeal of carrying all of it up the stairs in 30+ degrees anyway, we ordered delivery for them. They are scheduled to arrive next week when the final nesting phase will commence and our apartment will finally feel 100% like home! :)
There's no place like home