We survived our first week! I’m not going to lie – it was questionable at times. We managed to land in Europe right when the contintent was going through a major heat wave. And we don’t have air conditioning. Needless to say, it was hot, hot, hot.

One of the choices we had to make when we decided to make this journey was whether or not we wanted to ship our personal items and furniture from Chicago or if we wanted to just buy everything once we got to Lisbon. We didn’t have much furniture in Chicago that meant a lot to us. Plus, given that we had not yet seen our Portuguese apartment in person yet, we didn’t know what would work and what wouldn’t. And the expense of shipping was daunting. Instead, we packed all our personal belongings into 7 large checked bags and planned to make a number of large purchases once we arrived.

I don’t know about you, but it has been a LONG time since I have had to set up an entire house. It seems so basic when you first think about it – bed, sheets, dresser, couch, and table. But then you step into an IKEA and within the first 30 seconds, you are immediately overwhelmed with the enormity of all the things, big and small, that you need to make a place feel like home. Towels, bathmats, mattress pads, pots, pans, silverware, pillows, decorations, chairs, plugs, storage. Ugh. Just thinking about it again sends me into a panic.

After a minor freakout (who are we kidding? It was pretty major), we realized that we had to accept that there would be multiple IKEA visits and that we needed to do this in stages. We thought about what we wanted and needed first – a place to sleep and a place so sit. So we started there. Luckily, we had a guy who would pick up our treasures from IKEA and deliver them to our 6th floor apartment – which is really the 8th floor because you enter the building on floor -1. Elevator you ask? Yes! We wouldn’t rent a place on the 6th floor without an elevator! But because this building is so old, the elevator is a tiny rectangle that only fits three people. In otherwords, no furniture was coming up that way. God bless our guy.

So after week one, we are halfway set up. We are missing big items like a couch but at least we all have a place to sleep. Once we get everything set up, we will show some before and after pictures.

Wins this week? I managed to order (and have delivered) 4 mattresses from a woman who spoke no English. Obviously, my Portuguese is pretty nonexsistent. But thanks to my years of Duolingo Spanish and Google translate, we were able to make it work!!

Challenges? Half of our appliances are missing in action! The first thing we did when we got here was head to Worten’s to purchase a fridge, dishwasher, washing machine, TV, and A/C unit (appliances do not normally come with the units here unless you are renting them fully furnished). Delivery was set for the following Friday but all that showed up was the TV and the washing machine. We did learn that we got a tiny bit scammed… the delivery person refused to walk up the stairs with the washing machine without being paid. When we mentioned this to Worten’s, they said that was absolutely unacceptable and the delivery person shouldn’t have asked for money (and, since they did, we should have asked for a receipt. Oops). Anyway, the rest of our items were nowhere to be found and after eventually heading back to the store, we found out that they were picked up and just never delivered. Hmmm… they are supposed to be here today but I am sure you can understand that we are not holding out breath.

True American moment? I hunted down and bought a portable ice maker. Had to do it. And we are so in love with it that it’s literally the first thing we turn on in the morning. Highly recommend in this heat!