Our first trip to IKEA!

I've started to make myself to the idea that we are probably not going to be moving any time soon. We have on and off been looking for a bigger house/apartment since May and still haven't seen one that has totally convinced us. Or they have been completely out of our price range. I still feel we need more space; I have no decent place to work at home and most of my things are still in boxes waiting for that new place when I will finally have the occasion to unpack them. But, as long as we can't come up with something that is better than the place we presently have, what's the point in moving.

Pacific Beach is a very nice community, but a lot of the housing here seems to be geared at temporary visitors or college students and just lacks the homeliness we're looking for. Many houses seem to date from the 50's, with bathrooms and kitchens that haven't been renovated since then. Some neighbourhoods are just too convivial, meaning that they have a very young, noisy, partying crowd. Then there are the oh-so-unappealing condo complexes, while C. and I see ourselves as a bit past the "Melrose Place" stage. There are gorgeous houses to be find in between of course, but they cost they eyes out of your head, and we're not rich, yet!

As it dawned upon me that we were here to stay, I felt that something had to be done with our living space, and we did some rethinking, moved the futon and the coffee table, shifted the book case from one wall to the other, then moved another table and the stereo around. That was a lot already. Then C. set me free in the kitchen and I discovered that we had a lot of unused cupboard space and that with some organising the kitchen could actually be made to look tidy. I also discovered that we were missing a few things that could make our lifes better. With that in mind we headed for IKEA (for the first time since I came here). I had envisioned we would be making this trip as soon as we moved into the much dreamed of new appartment, but well, you can also use IKEA for smaller purchases I guess. We made a list and at IKEA methodically picked up all the items from our list. I felt very satisfied walking out of there.

Since we were shopping, C. also wanted to make a trip to R.E.I. where he had a gift certificate since ages ago. He had been talking about getting me some roller blades for that gift certificate, or maybe also some climbing shoes, a mountain bike, a surfboard, a wetsuit and what not. I myself had rather been leaning towards buying us a new, bigger tent for that money, or if we had to spend it on me then a new pair of walking boots or a bicycle helmet. We walked out of there with a tent and a pair of 5.10 climbers!