She's baaaack! A.k.a "Who ever said unpacking would be easy?"

After an almost unforgivable absence I'm happy to announce that as of this morning I'm back online:) Over 2 weeks in the new apartment and finally Telkom has reconnected us!

I have to admit something: I completely overestimated the size of the apartment! On the day we moved in, I came ahead to open up and I tell you, my jaw nearly dropped when I saw how small it really was! OK granted, places do generally look smaller when they're empty, but I think that in my mind I'd built the place up so much that it was quite a shock. From a 4-bedroom house to a 2-bedroom apartment... Ouch!

However, I am still totally in love with the place although I've had to put a lot more into storage than my over-active imagination expected to. And I've thinned out my wardrobe with such a compulsion that I started to get worried that I was renouncing materialism or something, Hare Krishna-style. Here's a sneak-peak of what the place looked like the evening that we moved in...

I'm not entirely sure that I should be allowing the general public to see that, but what the hectic! One thing I can be super-proud of showing off is our new emporium king-size extra-length extra-height bed:) Yay! I can't tell you how awesome it is! Even my favourite insomniac has been averaging 6 or 7 hours a night on this baby! It's phenomenal! The only other pic that I have of the bed was taken a few hours later - room still a complete mess, but at least you get an idea as to the size of the bed - 2m x 2m:

Ok now I'm hoping to get some advice from the readers regarding some furniture that I want to fix up and change. Please let me know if you've had any experience with anything similar.

My first concern is my white-washed coffee table that I want to sand and stain dark wood in keeping with the rest of the furniture in the lounge. Is it safe to even consider attempting doing this inside? Even if I sand it by hand? How long would it take to sand a table like this by hand? Am I crazy to even consider doing it inside and by hand? Even if I cover everything in sheeting, am I looking at a dust-disaster? Should I already be turning my garage into my little workshop? Pic of the table below...

Once I've figured out how I'm going to do this particular piece, I have a few more pieces that need work - from bookshelves to dressing tables and mirrors - but they all require some sanding to get things started...

Will be posting more regularly for the next little while. The end of my winter holiday is drawing near, so I'm going to be making the most of the last few weeks. You might also start noticing some changes to my blog - I've bought and downloaded a 'study guide' from The Blog Guidebook which I'll be working my way through in the next few days.

Xxx
Belle