WHEW. I am totally exhausted. Evan and I have been going back and forth between our house and the new little apartment all week, and it’s wearing me out fast. I think this is what happens when you take time off from home renovations for a while—you lose your swing.

We started with the kitchen yesterday (my incredibly patient and determined mother came along and spent the day cleaning the filthy kitchen cabinets inside and out—and then spent an hour stuck in traffic with us en route to IKEA), and I’m hoping we’ll wrap things up tomorrow. Today we got a first coat of paint on the walls, new knobs on the cabinets, and assembled a butcherblock that we’ll be using for extra counter space and storage.

Do you think it’s possible for us to finish renovating and decorating the apartment in six days? I actually think it might be, despite the fact that we seem to be on the six(ty)-year plan when it comes to our house.

p.s. IKEA TO THE RESCUE, OMG. What do those of you who live in places without IKEA do when you need something beautiful and cheap and you don’t want to thrift for it? I have no idea.

It’s not very cute right now, but it will be.

I feel a little bit like Evan and I are getting ready to go away to college. There are piles of pillows and blankets, dishes and kitchen gadgets in a corner of our dining room, just waiting to be loaded into the car and transported into the city.

It’s a funny thing, suddenly buying metal steamer baskets and ladles and garlic presses and measuring cups at this stage in my life. (Again.) It’s been 17 years since I left for college for real, and 15 years since I moved into my first apartment. I never expected to shop for these little things a second time. You forget how much you need.

It’s fun. Overwhelming at times, but fun.