Tales of a Third Culture Kid: Before and after shots of "1bdrmapt"...

So, very recently Markus and I moved from each living in our own homes in Mississippi (his, 4 bedrooms; mine, 3 bedrooms) to a one bedroom apartment in Massachusetts. Let me tell you it was touch and go there for a minute! I can't complain too badly, actually, I had no involvement whatsoever with the packing of the trailer. The trailer was packed thanks to family. Expert packers, if you will.

Dad was convinced even with the pickup truck-bed and the U-Haul trailer, our stuff wasn't going to fit. He was right. A desk, side table and Kudzu's big khaki chair didn't make it (but the matching ottoman did, it's now our living room coffee table as you'll see shortly). Everything else fit though, once all knobs and feet were removed, and boxes were unpacked in to dresser drawers, and every piece of anything that could possible come apart was taken apart...it was miraculous.

That's mom and dad making room for me after I returned my rental car to the airport, they picked me up on the way in, it was glorious to see them. They had to carefully open only one side of the trailer to cram some things from the truck cab in so I could safely sit and ride the rest of the way to Noho with them.

If you've ever moved before you know the packing part is a pain in rah-rah.

Then, you dread unloading the trailer - unless you have these handsome helpers to assist:

That's the last piece to come out of the trailer #photopp

Thanks to some of my new work-family, we unloaded that trailer in under an hour. But then the real work began: deciding where it's all going to go!

I feel like the next series of photos doesn't even begin to do justice to the state our apartment was in during the unpacking phase:

BEFORE (LIVING ROOM)

AFTER (LIVING ROOM)

BEFORE (OFFICE)

AFTER (OFFICE)

BEFORE (KITCHEN/DINING)

AFTER (KITCHEN/DINING)

BEFORE (HALLWAY)

AFTER (HALLWAY)

Mom, Dad and I got pretty much everything somewhat put away. But the pictures on the walls, the TV, the hall closet, the office and a few other things are all thanks to these good-lookin' fellas who drove up during the hurricane (the storm refers to our apartment, it's a metaphor folks) and spent a few days inside: