This is no Dream… This is Really Happening: We moved to Paris!

Mar 9, 2018

Nous sommes arrivés à Paris! I can’t believe we have been here three whole days. Of course time is flying by in this beautiful city. Our flight was seamless which is shocking considering how much grief our fourteen pieces of luggage plus our huge iMac computer was giving Antz and me.

Thank goodness my Mom has a monster truck called “Beast” to help us carry all fourteen of our heavy bags! I even had to ship two suitcases because they were too heavy for the plane. I hope you got the Rosemary’s Baby (Mia Farrow with the cutest Pixie haircut ever) reference, film nerds! I got this rad shirt just for the flight because I love Rosemary’s Baby and I still am in denial that we have actually moved to freaking PARIS!!

This angel here hooked us up in such an awesome way!! I feel like the entire airport was cheering us on as we were leaving. Flying premium class has it’s perks, like we were able to hang out in the VIP lounge at LAX and I had so many yummy cocktails. They were serving a drink called Red Carpet because the Oscars were happening that weekend. I accidentally left my beloved navy Yokoo scarf in the lounge and only discovered it was missing as we were about to board our plane.

I wish I’d known we would end up having a two hour delay (we just ended up sitting on the plane) I would have tried to run and grab it. Boo!

Yet, we didn’t lose anything else and my neurotic thoughts of our iMac computer getting damaged were all for naught. Norwegian Airlines was a dream to fly and we slept most of the flight. Look at all that glorious legroom in premium class!

We arrived a Charles de Gaulle airport much later than I planned so we didn’t have time to go to dinner. I was so happy to go through customs easy, peasy. It took me so many long, stressful months to get those French visas and I wanted to kiss the agent who stamped them!

We were exhausted and terribly hot (check out my hair!!) by the time we found the rental car place. Luckily, I got a cool English-speaking dude who hooked us up with a minivan that fit all our ridiculous luggage. I have to say Thank You to my Mommy for giving us bungee cords! We wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere with all this luggage without them and they really came in handy when we were packing the van.

I was surprised that I liked the rental car we got this time. Even though minivans aren’t cool at all, I was grateful it was an automatic transmission, with heated seats. I could plug my phone to play my music and I set up the driving navigation. I was also happy for the rear camera because parking here is no joke. It’s like a crazy game of Tetris fitting all our luggage in the van. Driving in Paris is no different than LA other than the dreaded roundabouts. Those were definitely tricky because it becomes a Mad Max battle and it took me almost killing us several times before I understood how to navigate them. Antz needed a Xanax to calm him down from the crazy motorcycles drivers in the city.

I can’t believe I drove down the famous Champs Elysees! Of course, we had to promise to take Liv to Ladurée for some macaroons but she politely declined to go on the ferris wheel.

The apartment we are exchanging for two months is lovely. I am putting together a post about it soon. It’s a small studio with a toilette I fit in by a mere inch but it’s warm and cozy and the bed is heaven! I love that she lives on a private street so I could park anywhere for free! We have already done so much in a short amount of time here, I can’t wait to share all the photos we have taken.

But of course she sparkled just for us as we drove by!

Je’taime Paris. We are so happy to finally be here!

Our Visa Appointment at the French Consulate

Feb 12, 2018

Salut. Today I will try my best to recall the story of our visa appointment. This is all a true story, no exaggerations.

I have given birth and let me say, that was a piece of cake compared to getting our visas. It did not go anything like I expected. I imagined a lovely office where we would sit in a private room and be able to speak with a French agent (let Liv show off her French skills). We all take photos with our new visas in hand.

NOPE!

I liken our experience to going to the DMV with no appointment. The day started off fine, we felt prepared as we could be. I didn’t forget anything, I took my stress pills. We all dressed up, as I mentioned in my last post, I wore my fancy new brogues for good luck. We left the house with plenty of time for traffic and I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be (although I had a serious knot in my stomach). Google maps told me it would take 50 minutes to get there. GOOGLE MAPS LIED! They wanted me to take three freeways that I know would be a parking lot at that time of the morning. I took the streets knowing I can take shortcuts around traffic. All the drivers of LA were being assholes! I almost threw up and cried because the 50 minutes arrival time kept changing to an hour and 2 minutes. It took ages to go a few blocks. Every shortcut I took was met with someone driving 10 miles per hour. I was not happy. I think I gave Antz a heart attack with my crazy driving but there was nothing I could do, we arrived at the consulate at 9:04 am and our appointments were scheduled for 9:00/9:20/9:40. Yep, I blew our first impression by being late. Then we couldn’t find the entrance because it makes total sense to look for an address INSIDE a building. We park in the garage and look for the office only to have the world’s slowest speaking security guard tell us the French consulate was located outside around the back of the building. This guy.

So, you do understand I was wearing my brand-new shoes made of leather. Meaning, not broken in and destroying my heels in blisters with every step. Please use your imagination of me shuffling in hurting feet walking around a huge building holding all our folders, fighting back tears, frantically searching for the consulate entrance. Can you see it clearly? Good!

As we are approaching an alley, we see a few people standing outside the building. We lined up behind them totally confused and worried about missing our first appointment. The door opened and we tried to enter with the other three people but a security guard told us we couldn’t come in yet. WTF? I tried not to panic. The family went inside and we just stood there. Antz finally buzzed the door and we opened it to find the smallest room you every saw. Like Antz, Liv and I could barely squeeze inside. This is why he told us to wait. There was a metal detector and the guard asked if we had any electronics with us. I had my laptop and our phones but he didn’t want to scan them, he said to put them away and said you cannot take any photos inside. There goes my photo of us with our visas. Okay, we went through the detector with no problem and the security guard tells us (sensing how nervous we were) don’t worry, it’s all about the vibe you give. I recomposed myself and we entered another small waiting room. By then it was 9:07 am. Seven minutes late for the most important appointment of my life! There was two guys and the family of three already seated so we sat down. One of the guys looked very polished and had a folder. The other guy was wearing a Members Only looking jacket, had hair on top of his hands and had some loose papers folded in half. There was a glass covered counter (like at a gas station) with two French dudes sitting at them. I assumed they would call us soon and we would go to another room for our appointment. We waited without saying anything. I was stiff with anxiety and feeling sorry for myself that our nice outfits were going unnoticed. The guys called the first two gentlemen to their windows and we continued to wait. I almost interrupted to tell them I had a 9:00 appointment but I figured it would be obnoxious since we were already late. I finally said to Antz, we’ll go next since your appointment is almost over. I was surprised that I overheard the French guys taking paperwork and conducting the visa business at the window. Then I noticed there was no other room or other agents. Just two bored looking French guys at the window. This was not what I planned for. Those minutes went by excruciatingly slow, maybe because of my nerves and we couldn’t use our phones to pass the time. I listened to the right window guy say he needed a short term visa to go to a wedding. The other guy wanted a long term visa and I kept hearing him to tell the agent in a snotty voice “I work for 20th Century Fox!” as if that would have changed something. The agent needed a ton of paperwork from the dude so they took forever. The wedding guy was quicker so when the agent said next, I popped up out of my seat but the guy from the family that was before us outside said, “No we are next.” I said “Oh sorry, I guess they aren’t going by appointment.” He said “No, everyone has a 9:00 am appointment.” It then dawned on me that had we arrived early (as planned), we would have been seen first and the three appointments I scheduled online didn’t matter anymore. Meanwhile the guy who works for Fox was told to come back with his medical insurance and he could get his visa. It bothered me that as unprepared as he was, he was still getting approved. I whispered to Liv, try to speak up and say hello in French when we get to the window.

Finally at 9:37 we were called. All three of us went to the window but there was only room for one of us to speak at a time so I went first because I had all our paperwork in my fancy folder and totally forgot to have Liv say Bonjour. It didn’t matter anyway, this guy didn’t seem prone to charm after his encounter with the jerk who works at Fox. He asked for Antz paperwork first so Antz came forward and gave him my six inch thick dossier. The guy asked a few simple questions and went through every sheet of paper meticulously. He then began to hand me through the slot in the window almost every other paper saying he didn’t need it. You guys, I almost killed myself gathering all this paperwork. I paid for our documents to be translated into French, I made two copies of everything as requested. He handed them all back to me. I was shaking but he hadn’t really said anything disparaging yet. He then asked if I had copies of our bank statements. I was like Oh, my name is also on the bank statements and our advisor said only Antz needed to show proof of income. It’s almost as if he found the one thing I didn’t make copies of just to scare me (I really didn’t see the need to make copies of our 14 pages of bank statements). Merde! He then asked me if we were married. Umm, maybe you would have noticed we were if you didn’t hand me back my certified marriage license so fast (two copies in Antz file, two in mine along with the French translations). So freaking frustrating! He then started on my files which are smaller than Antz because I had no income to show. He didn’t have much to say about mine except he asked if we had an utility bill from the woman we were planning to be hosted by. OMG! I straight up panicked. This was not happening. I couldn’t believe a stupid bill was holding us back from getting our visas. All that preparation and double checking we had everything was useless. He told me I could email it to the consulate. I said screw it to the no electronics rule and I emailed her and texted her because it was 7 pm in Paris. She wrote back immediately and said she would send it after her work meeting. Great, I interrupted her at work, as if I haven’t asked enough of this poor woman. I was so mortified I didn’t even know what to say. The guy then started going through Liv’s papers. He seemed confused when he got to her vaccinations chart so I told him, I put that in just in case. He started speaking to the other guy in French and took about 10 minutes looking on his computer. He finally told me “You don’t need it.” I was smiling like a crazy person. I’m sure I had flames and tears in my eyes at this point. I still tried to be as friendly and courteous as humanly possible. I threw her report card in for extra measure knowing it wasn’t required, he seemed fascinated and began to read all four pages line by line. He asked if we had a school yet for Liv and I fumbled out that our school director was working on it. He then asked us for our fingerprints. By this point a family with a baby came in and was being helped next to us. The Dad clearly had the flu and proceeded to sneeze/hiccup loudly the whole time we were trapped in the world’s smallest space. I felt bad for the guy but I also wanted to scream at him,

“Don’t you dare make me or my family sick with your nasty germs!!”

Antz pointed out that everyone in there was using the same fingerprint scanner and no one was sanitizing it in between. Gross. I was relieved when he asked Liv for her fingerprints in French so that made me feel a little better. We had to take another photo at the window and just like the DMV, we didn’t see how they turned out. I’m positive mine looked like a Goblin with lipstick on my teeth. He nonchalantly asked us did we want our passports mailed or picked up in a week. I said I’ll pick them up because with our three week departure date, I am not leaving anything to chance. I was prepared to use my credit card with the no fee for foreign transactions when the guy asked me to use my debit card. Certainly, I will only be charged three separate bank fees and pay more for euros than my credit card but when it rains, it pours! He took our ten measly papers and put our passports along with them and gave us a tiny slip of paper confirming our appointment. He did smile at us and I gathered my remaining papers while simultaneously checking the shit out of my emails waiting for that bill to come in. Just as we were leaving she sent me the bill and I was like HALLELUJAH!! I have no idea what the bill was for but it was 24.99 euros a month.

The security guard was the nicest person we encountered thus far. We walked back to the car in a fog and then I remembered to take a photo in front of the consulate. At the very least, they had a French flag outside and a kind lady took our photos. I’m still feeling weird and confused about the whole thing. I guess it was not as bad as I’m hyping it to be but it’s a serious exercise in perseverance.

So from what I gather, next Thursday I will pick up our visas, I hope? I never received a response that they got my email with the bill.

Here’s a tip: leave an hour early, duh (I made a rookie mistake and didn’t anticipate shitty LA traffic), bring hand sanitizer with you and be mindful the consulate door is around back next to the alley near the dumpster.

Actually, I want to say I am aware of how bratty and first world problems I sound in this post and I can’t begin to say how thankful I am to go through all these slight inconveniences for the privilege to move to MUTHA-FING PARIS IN THREE WEEKS!!!

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Our House Tour on Apartment Therapy

Feb 11, 2018

Hi There,

During the last few years we have done quite a lot of work to our house. I tried to photograph how beautiful everything turned out but I couldn’t capture it the way a professional could. I visited my friend Samantha’s lovely house and she told me her friend Marisa Vitale was a photographer and I should reach out to her. I was hoping to hire Marisa to photograph our house (since we are leaving it for a year) when she said she wanted to shoot it for Apartment Therapy!! I have been a fan of AT for years but I never thought our house was sophisticated enough to be featured. We had to fill out a questionnaire and one of the questions was “How do you describe your design style?” This was the hardest for me to answer because all that came to mind is “This is the home of a thirteen year old girl after she saw Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette!” I somehow managed to come up with a more adult answer but I cannot grasp how far we have come with this little house of ours. I went through phases of loving our house, completely hating it (mostly due to horrible neighbors across the street and bad water pressure) and then falling head over heels in love again. The bright and colorful way Marisa captured our home makes me so happy. I wish I could share all 206 photos with you because they are all my favorites but I will narrow them down best I can. Thank you Sam for connecting me with Marisa! Thank you Marisa for being so kind, talented and fun to hang with. Thank you Apartment Therapy for showcasing all our hard work and sacrifice to the world. I am honored to have our home among many other interiors I admire. Yay, here is our 1923 California bungalow home…

These are some of the outtakes of our family photos. How am I wearing heels and Antz is still taller than me? This one is my fave of the bunch.

Apartment Therapy used this one, which has my signature look at the sky weird thing I do and Liv almost has her eyes closed. It definitely represents us best.

In the living room there was much debate over which slipcover to put on the couch. We both agreed the blue slipcover was too much color and the white would make the pillows and our throw pop.

Our lovely Rifle & Paper Co Marie Antoinette portrait never gets shown because I rarely photograph that part of the room.

Physiognomy by Mark Seliger was one of the first “grown up” books I ever purchased about 12 years ago. I finally have cool coffee table books displayed on my coffee table!

I’m super stoked about our new lady llama! Antz first saw her at Dotter on York Ave and I knew she would be perfect for an empty space on our wall. Everything came together perfectly.

We had the prints made from Artifact Uprising.

Don’t you think llamas are the new elephants?

It’s hard to show a good shelfie because the couch is in the way but at least you can see our new plant from Folia Collective. We were in Pasadena one night getting ice cream when we found this cute, tiny plant shop. I almost didn’t go in because it look terribly expensive but I was surprised. The most expensive plant in the store was $38! We got called out in the comments of our house tour for the sad looking fiddle fig on our porch but little do they know how long we lived with zero plants in our house.

I wish I took photos inside but the shop is super tiny and there were so many customers.

We bought seven new plants for the house and guess what guys? They are still green and alive months later!!

Now let’s talk about that gorgeous bouquet! I knew I wanted something extra special for that vase. It’s very wide so I knew it had to be substantial. I have always admired IrisBarryBlooms on Instagram so this was the perfect occasion to have something customized for our home. My only request was very colorful and fun, and Michelle is the sweetest. She exceeded my expectations and really nailed our color palette. Thank you so much for creating this showstopper! Check out her website here.

That’s right, we have a dining room, library, music room and office all in this one space! #smallhousesolutions Olivia’s piano teacher (our awesome next door neighbor Lisa) uses cute stickers to help Liv remember her finger placement.

And just to the right, we have our bar. Our old bar was a clunky DIY. I’m telling you, house design is mostly trial and error. We lived with the same furniture for so long, we had no idea we could find something functional, affordable and pretty.

This is the same space full of Earthy tones back in 2009! Why were sticks in a vase a trend?

Now into the kitchen. I love that after five years it still looks modern and fresh. We haven’t changed much in there except a new set of pots and pans I got on sale for Christmas. In the future, I may change out the white subway tile backsplash into something more colorful.

If I could have one dream item, I would love a La Chanche range in Rose Quartz. They are French and so fancy I would be embarrassed to cook my Top Ramen noodles on it. Sadly, they cost as much as a small car.

New plant and macramé holder alert!

I don’t think I have shown our hallway/art gallery on my blog before. I have no idea how to photograph such a narrow and dark space but Marisa used her tripod and got it all.

I am super sad we aren’t taking any of his artwork to Paris with us. However, they are too big to pack and I wouldn’t want to risk them getting damaged in our luggage. I already loaned the giant portrait of Olivia to my Mom to keep at her house (I hope I get it back!)

Did I mention we had our bedroom painted during the October break? Antz and I were going to paint it ourselves but laziness and procrastination set in so we hired FIVE dudes to paint this little room! Really, we hired one handyman but he showed up with all these guys. Oh! Next time a dude at the paint store tries to sell you the fancy “one coat” premium paint, don’t fall for it. We were told one gallon would cover the green and the trim in this room but ended having to buy 4 gallons (which meant 3 more trips to the hardware store and $200 more dollars). As fun and colorful as the old bedroom looked, I think it made the space feel cluttered and I wanted to create a more streamlined look for the small space.

It took me awhile to adjust to the all-white room. I love white, it’s my favorite color to wear but it felt so cold and sterile before we added the artwork and accessories. I wish we had the budget for a new ceiling fan but we couldn’t find anything we liked and we didn’t want to pay an electrician.

I have never connected with an artist (other than Antz) that gets me like Carissa Potter Carlson. I have been super stressed about our move to Paris that this Things Will Work Out print has been my daily mantra.

Those striped brogues have been in my closet for months because they are so pretty I don’t dare wear them outside. Well, last week I finally gave in and wore them to our visa appointment for good luck. I’ll let you know how it went in my next post!

Liv’s room was the only room we only needed to straightening up. Once a month I attempt to get rid of stuff she has outgrown or no longer plays with (she’s currently in a Nintendo Switch and iPad phase) however, she swears she still plays with everything so I haven’t made much progress. Next week she is going to a sleepover and most of her toys are going into storage to make room for whoever ends up in our house.

I don’t think I’ll ever take down her baby mobile her Dad made before she was born.

I am grateful that I have these photos to remember her little girl room before her next tween remodel. I’m curious to what color she’ll choose next. I’m kinda over the pink.

Lastly our newly renovated bathroom. The least loved room in the house is now the most loved. I can’t stop staring at this stunning artwork Antz painted for me while we were visiting my Mom. I am the luckiest girl in the world to be married to this talented guy!

I bought that basket from Anthropologie to use as a hamper for our wet towels but Antz said it would make a nice planter for our new guy. He fit in perfectly.

I love her so much!!

So that’s our house tour. I am kicking myself because we spent all day with lovely Marisa and the only photo I took of her was while she was working. Marisa, thank you so much! I owe you a big hug and all our gratitude.

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Au revoir!

Moving Abroad: Applying for a Long Stay Visa

Feb 8, 2018

This post is for you brave souls who are looking to move abroad for longer than 90 days, applying for a long stay tourist visa in the European Union. It’s a complicated, frustrating, expensive, stressful and exhausting endeavor but I believe it’s totally worth it.

I began researching how to apply for a visa close to three years ago. It has always been my dream that our family could actually immerse ourselves in the French culture and travel throughout Europe. I was curious of what it would take to live abroad for a year. I found the French embassy website and printed a list of the paperwork. Then I created an Excel spreadsheet of we needed to complete and put together a timeline and a budget. If you live in Southern California, Arizona, Colorado, Southern Nevada, and New Mexico you and all family members (six years old and older) must be present at the General Consulate in Los Angeles, California.

Here’s where it gets tricky, when applying for a long stay tourist visa, you can’t schedule your appointment any earlier than three months before your departure date. So it leaves a tight window to purchase airline tickets, show proof of income, proof of where you will reside in France and work out all the logistics of moving. Our window kept getting moved due to issues with Anthony’s company. Initially his employer wanted him to apply for a work visa (called an Intra-Company Transfer/ICT) so that added additional paperwork and we had to work with an advisor from his company office located just outside of Paris. However, if you are self employed, you just would need to state that you will work remotely from home, you need to show a business plan and a letter from clients that will continue working with you and proof of income while you are abroad. Sounds easy, right? Not so fast.

I am hyper-organized and tend to over-plan for things but even with all my detailed preparation and vast knowledge of what is required to apply for a long stay visa, I still decided to pay professionals to assist us during the complicated process. This is something I couldn’t leave to chance. Like in my early twenties, I used to file my own taxes. Back then we were renting, had the simplest W-2s and barely got a $600 refund each year. Now we are homeowners with an actual financial portfolio and a kid, I pay a CPA and leave it in her capable hands.

I found our visa consultant Stephen from his blog An American in Paris and hit him up with all the questions. He gave me a list of recommendations and encouraged me to secure housing before making our visa appointment. Little did I know how difficult finding an apartment in Paris would be. Stephen gave me a list of things to complete that gave me the sweats.

Lizzie Tip: Be sure to make copies of everything a minimum of two for each document!

Official copies of birth certificates/also need to be translated in French (obviously make several copies) you will need copies of everything.

I already had our birth certificates but mine looked different from Anthony’s. Since I was born in Santa Monica, it didn’t have the official Los Angeles county raised seal. That meant I had to go to the registrar recorder office to order a new one and wait and wait and wait. It was no fun standing in line for an hour and a half but luckily, while I was paying for my birth certificate, I mentioned to the clerk that I was applying for a visa and I showed her my marriage license just to check if the one I had was the proper version. Turns out it wasn’t and she printed the correct one for me. It was a victorious day! I listened to my homegirl Edith Piaf on my headphones and daydreamed being in Paris while waiting in that hellish long line.

Official copy of Marriage license/translated into French

If you want to drive abroad you will need an International drivers license. I got mine from AAA for $20. One of the easiest items to get.

Passports (no less than a year before expiration, at least two blank pages and in good shape)

Visa photos (at least 6 each) Olivia and I needed to re-take our photos because our hair was covering our ears. Bummer, I liked our first ones better!

Proof of medical insurance coverage (No deductible, minimum of 50,000 euros of coverage, must indicate “valid outside of the USA or “valid worldwide” and show coverage dates for one year) We bought our policy through our current medical United Healthcare Global Plan. They email you a letter to bring to the appointment. Antz company benefits aren’t valid in France past 90 days.

Proof of financial means (Three months of bank statements, pay stubs and tax returns) Or a big sack of cash!

Statement of Purpose (an official statement of what you plan to do while in Paris). In our case, we are not allowed to apply for work while abroad so we stated we were there for our daughter to attend school and immerse ourselves in the French culture (and eat pastries). Fingers crossed that is enough. Most people apply for studying so they show their university admission letter.

Letter of intention not to work while in Paris (also translated into French). This is strange because Antz will be working while in Paris but he is considered a US remote worker, so he is allowed to work but not conduct any business in Paris. This emoji best sums up what I just wrote.

Submit the completed visa application online. What I found frustrating is there is no way to edit existing online applications so I had to re-submit a new application every time I needed to make a change or correction. This meant that I filled out 3 applications, printed them, signed them and scanned them to send to our advisor in France EIGHT SEPARATE TIMES!! That’s 72 pieces of paper. LAME! The online application is in English but it will print in French so make sure you check for corrections before you finish.

A few years ago I attempted to fill out the visa application and I ended up with so many blank spaces because I didn’t have most of the info and I didn’t have approval from his company yet. I totally broke down and cried with frustration. They ask you to show proof of financial means for the year. To me that translates to “You better be fucking rich.” I have discovered they have a minimum of 13,000 euros per person for the year. They also ask for the address of where you will be staying in Paris on the application, so you have to secure an apartment BEFORE you get your visa. How can you do this to people?

In our case, we don’t have a lease for a rental yet so we got an attestation d’hébergement (a letter stating someone will be hosting you during your stay) from the woman I was planning to exchange with last year. She also had to give us a copy of her passport. This was a total pain because I had to find an English sample of what to write for the attestation and then translate it into French for her. Also, the first copy of her passport she sent me was too dark to use so I had to bug her again for a better quality upload. She’s super cool about everything and quickly got back to me but make sure all your documents are pristine. It’s super tedious and frustrating but every time I checked something off my things to do list, I felt amazing! Although the find a place to live box is still unchecked.

So what if I had no idea how to fill out the French OFII Residency form? Big deal that I had to white-out all of our birth dates on all SIX forms (three originals, three copies) because the French write their dates with the Day/Month/Year. I wasn’t going to let a little thing like not having enough money or a solid plan get in the way of my dream! You will become really good friends with Google Translate.

Our final step was sort of ridiculous, getting our police clearance reports. I’m sure the French consulate wants to be sure no one with a criminal record isn’t planning to set up shop in France. We went to the police department in downtown LA and as soon as we found parking, I realized I forgot our passports at home. We tried again later that evening because the hours were 8:00 am – 8:00 pm. Lucky us, we get there at 7:00 pm and the guy at the desk said the commanding office had already left for the day and they needed to sign our reports. We could either have it mailed to us or pick it up the next day. Since we were a week from our visa appointment, I didn’t want to risk mailing it, so we said we would come back the next day. Then they guy was like, Oh! we are closed on Fridays. So we had to return on Monday morning. This time I called to be sure it wouldn’t be any drama and they said the best time to come would be 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. I guess third time’s a charm because we finally got them! Why is everything a hoop to jump through?

We were ecstatic to finally get our clearance reports. The woman who took this photo asked if we were tourists.

You need to show confirmation of your plane tickets. Yep, buy your plane tickets before you get your visas!

We also had to get an official letter from Antz company’s legal department. (which is required if you are working remotely)

Our visa appointment is tomorrow freaking morning! I just finished putting together our folder this afternoon. It took me over a year to complete everything.

I must admit, I feel pretty confident we will get our visas tomorrow. I have an lucky charm named Olivia who happens to speak French and is too adorable for words.

In the beginning of this process I got comfortable reaching out to people who have lived abroad. I emailed Jordan from Oh Happy Day (she has a great guide to moving to Paris ) with a long list of questions which she kindly answered and gave me excellent advice; dress up for the visa appointment, it’s cheaper to pay for extra luggage on the airplane than ship boxes and get a letter from your employer saying you will be employed during the time you will spend abroad. It is important to reach out to other expats because I needed info but also, I needed to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Knowing that it’s possible without corporate sponsorship, or being a millionaire made it more realistic. This has become a full-time job for me. Prepare yourself to be on the phone during the middle of the night talking to France. Seriously, our visa advisor requested Antz high school diploma. It was at his sister’s house and he hadn’t seen it for 25 YEARS!! Then we had to get it translated into French only to end up no longer needing it for our appointment. We had to reschedule our visa appointment FOUR times. I could make a killing turning this into a business but the stress isn’t worth it. I am taking stress/anxiety meds and I am still breaking out in hives. Yet, every meltdown, every tear and every headache will be worth it.

Let me be honest, money matters, this is not the path for someone who makes less than $50k a year. I am just on the cusp of shelling out the major Euros. We still need to pay a real estate agent to rent our house in LA and put down a serious deposit to rent a place in Paris. Here is a breakdown on what we have spent on documents.

$45 for our official birth certificates and marriage license

$96 in visa photos (AAA charges $8 per photo and was our least expensive option)

$280 passport renewals (ours don’t expire until 2027, Liv’s expires in 2022)

$2568 for international medical insurance policy (our current insurance sells this policy annually)

$120 in printer ink (for the hundreds of copies!)

$66 driver license renewals

$66 for our police clearance reports (the police dept. only accepts cash)

$450 for our documents to be translated into French (ask me for a referral)

$325 for Stephen (The American in Paris) our initial visa consultant

$1300 for our French visa advisor (required by Antz employer)

$375/99 euros per person for the visa application fees (the euro has gone up $50 since my last post!)

Countless hours of gathering and preparing everything, I’m not even including my cell phone bill for the long distance calls.

Total – $3,123 (although I’m sure it’s higher, I’m forgetting something!)

You have to submit a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the French Consulate to send your passports back along with the visas (fingers crossed). However, the visas are not yet officially complete until after you arrive in France. Your visa is valid once you get a stamp from French customs at the airport of your arrival. After a few months, you will receive an appointment to take an X-Ray for your health exam, submit your forms with the OPII office (French immigration) and pay another fee of 241 euros. You also must register at your local Mairie (which is similar to a city hall) and enroll any children in school.

One of the downsides of our move is we can’t take our 11 year old cat Lola with us. She is an indoor/outdoor cat and I don’t think she wouldn’t do well confined inside an apartment all day. Plus, we have so many travel plans and we don’t have confirmed long term housing, it’s not possible to bring her to France as sad as that makes us. I do have info for anyone who may want to bring their cat abroad. Just email me for more details. Lola will be staying in our house, we discussed it and she’s cool with it.

I began writing this post on February 18, 2016 at 3 am. I have updated it over the last two years and it’s insane how much we have overcome to get where we are.

Just go for it!

Consulate General of France

10390 Santa Monica Blvd. Suite 115
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Monday – Friday from 8:45 am to 12 noon. By appointment only

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Infinity Mirrors by Yayoi Kusama at The Broad

Jan 19, 2018

On New Year’s day we started 2018 in the most colorful way possible. Yayoi Kusama is one of my favorite artists because she has a wig made of yarn. She is also a brilliant and weird lady that I adore. I’ve previously tried four times to get into her Infinity Mirrors exhibit unsuccessfully but finally, we got in and I was so stressed about the 45 second time frame, I only managed to take blurry photos. I don’t know how other people take such lovely photos because when you get in the lights begin to blink so timing the perfect shot isn’t easy.

This time was no different. We had about 30 seconds for each exhibit which gave me anxiety! My favorite art piece (the yellow pumpkin room) did not allow cell phones but oddly, I have seen many people posting photos on Instagram. I know the artist wants us to be in the moment and not worry about taking selfies but if I don’t have a photo, did it even happen?

This is my favorite photo of Antz

This room started off white and visitors are given dot stickers to add to the room. We were there on the very last day so we were given unlimited stickers. It was definitely Liv’s favorite room.

Find the bike

These cuties

This is Noemie. She was Liv’s preschool French teacher and she is the reason Olivia speaks French with a native accent. I am forever grateful to this woman.

As we were leaving Olivia asked for Van Leeuwen ice cream. They seem to always be parked outside the Broad.

Moving Abroad: Where we are now

Jan 12, 2018

Hi There,

So I hope you found my last post informative and honest. I tried to give a detailed account of what it is costing us to move to France. Here’s where it all gets funky but stay with me, the outcome is optimistic.

Last March (exactly one year from our departure date) at the same time Antz asked his boss to work remotely, I was messaged by someone on a house exchange website. She was interested in doing a house exchange and wanted to send her daughter to American school. It was a dream come true. I fell in love with her apartment and she was offering a gorgeous second home to visit in Normandie. I was ecstatic. She had the same Kitchenmaid mixer in her adorable kitchen and a light blue Smeg refrigerator!! If you are a girl, I think you understand the significance. However, the exchange was always dependent on her ability to obtain an American work visa (not an easy feat). We both agreed on a timeline to her get her visa and I hustled as hard as I could, but I failed. I couldn’t find her a job that would sponsor her visa by the deadline. She has been absolutely wonderful throughout my devastation.

Carissa, it’s like you are talking directly to me.

So where am I now? I have reached out to over 70 families on 5 different home exchange websites to find a house swap. I have been sick with stress and highly emotional because our departure date is quickly approaching and instead of feeling excited about our new adventure, I am scared to death about where will we live. I have asked everyone I know. I have asked strangers. I have joined Facebook groups for Americans in Paris with no leads. I recently joined an exclusive designer home exchange website called Behomm. I’d share the link but it’s members only so you wouldn’t be able to view it. Let me say, the houses on this site are from members of the design community and they are freaking gorgeous! Like, insane architecture and style. There is a lengthy vetting process to become a member but I would be happy to talk to anyone who would like to join (there is a $99 annual fee which is similar to most exchange sites). So I felt hopeful that I would find a swapper but after three months and hearing nothing from most of my requests and then slowly getting declines, I started feeling worried again. I was giving myself a 4 month threshold to find housing and I was in December with nothing. So, I had to start looking at other options. I widened my search range (I originally wanted to be in walking distance to Liv’s school) and I was more flexible on my dates. During this period I received over 50 requests for summer swap from all over the world. Not a single one from Paris.

I bought Liv’s rad sweater from Saks last summer. We’ve been waiting for months for it to be cold enough to wear it!

You guys, this has been my dream for such a long time that I cry just thinking about it coming true. To come this far and push through so many challenges and drama, I refuse to not find a way. I reached out to a Behomm member to see if she would do an exchange for two months instead the whole year. Surprisingly, she was into it. This lovely lady is graciously exchanging her home with us so I have a temporary place when we arrive in Paris in March. Is it an apartment with a separate office for Antz to work in? Not exactly. Is it in walking distance to school? No, we will be taking the Metro. But the best part, it is in PARIS! It’s a free, BEAUTIFUL place to stay and I’m grateful to my new friend for making it a possibility. Bisous Louise!

Sometimes I can’t believe my luck! (I’m totally crying again)

I am a huge believer in the saying things happen for a reason and being open to new opportunities. So as much as not having a housing situation in Paris confirmed is outside of my comfort zone, I will persevere. I have already began looking into renting our house in LA and finding a rental in Paris. It really is my last resort because I will have to put down a huge security deposit for a rental and the monthly rent will take a chunk out of our monthly travel budget. I don’t mean to sound bratty, but my goal in doing an exchange was to keep our bills low so we could have the chance to travel. But, I am trying to be flexible. I have shown our house to potential renters and they all sound excited to rent but I haven’t heard from any of them so maybe it’s just looky-loos or they have an issue with the house coming fully furnished. I can’t put all my furniture in storage for 15 months.

I am also having issues with the rental agency that I found a cute apartment that fits our budget and is a 24 minute walk to school (do you see me sweating already?). The apartment isn’t available until April 24th however, they won’t accept any offers until late February because they are telling me it’s too early. Hello French logic! So now I have to find renters for our house before we leave in March. I need to be patient and hope I am lucky enough to get that apartment in February (the current renters may extend their lease) and we will have to hire a property management company to collect the rent and serve as landlords while we are abroad. Oh did I mention they charge 10% of the rent every month? So all those lovely monthly estimates I just shared are out the window. I’m looking at close to $9,000 in security deposits and agency fees. I need to get French renters insurance (my best guess is 300 – 600 euros per year) and I may or may not have to pay an annual tax d’habitation which is approx $1200. I’m fine, this fine.

I have asked friends if they can help me with finding tenants and I’ve gotten the awesome advice to hire a realtor. Did I mention three realtors came to see my house in December? The first one had a snotty attitude and didn’t seem to be bothered. She was charging one month’s rent to find a tenant and kept saying IF she could find someone. The second one went in another direction. He wanted to list our house on Airbnb for the entire time we are away. So not only would I NOT have financial security that I could pay my mortgage but there would be possibly hundreds of random people staying in our house like a hotel, so nope! The last realtor, who I greatly admire was the most reasonable. She would charge $2,750 to find a tenant. I wish I just had that much to spend on finding a tenant. So, I have publicly listed our house for rent. I’ve gotten many inquiries and a few showings but no success.

I’m starting to feel like I’m trapped in quicksand. The closer I come to getting out, the lower I am sinking. I am trying to stay positive. I will not let anything deter me from moving but I can’t lie, I am scared, I am stressed beyond words and I feel like I’m alone in this battle.

So as my life experiences has taught me, nothing worth having is easy. I have been through this before when I wanted to buy our house and when we were trying to have Olivia. Sometimes things just don’t go our way and I can accept that. I’m still moving to fucking FRANCE!!

Stay Focused and Extra Sparkly at the Yayoi Kusama exhibit at The Broad (post coming soon)

I would love some encouragement, or it would be great if you could find me a tenant or a house exchange in Paris.

In the meanwhile, I am still searching under every rock on the internet for a match. I am open to anything right now. I am feeling optimistic that our opportunities will align once we are in Paris. I have already encountered many kind strangers who have offered their support. I will keep you updated.

Bisous!

Moving Abroad: A Financial Guide

Jan 9, 2018

Bonne Année!

I don’t want to deter anyone, yet in all honesty, moving abroad can be terribly expensive. Unless your job is relocating you and fitting the bill, there’s no way around this one. However don’t bother buying lottery tickets or playing Blackjack in Vegas, I’m gonna tell you how we are doing it.

I bought Liv these play Euros two years ago. Liv’s Godmommy, Aimee, gave her real Euros for Christmas. The mini world notebooks are from Rifle Paper Co.

During the time I spent waiting to get an approval from Antz HR team, I spent months researching moving abroad online, putting together all the necessary documents, and talking to people who have lived abroad. I have read so many helpful blogs that share their experiences as an expat but never found anyone in my particular situation. Some of my favorites are:

The American in Paris (Stephen offers an excellent guide to moving abroad)
Oh Happy Day (thanks for answering all my questions Jordan!)
Design Mom (Gabrielle moved to France with SIX kids)

First, here’s a brief background on us. We are textbook American middle class; too poor to be rich, too rich to be poor. Typically, a move abroad is funded by your employer but we are moving voluntarily which means we have to pay for everything ourselves. Start saving now, pay off your debts and cut all the extras (daily lattes, mani/pedis, expensive clothes, etc.) the more time you have to prepare, the easier it will be. It wasn’t too difficult for me to stop daily Starbucks runs and give up mani/pedis but it was hard not to travel for an entire year. We were tempted so many times over the past summer to take a trip since people asking to house swap with us in New York, London and Australia. The goal is to trim your costs well in advance and create a realistic budget for what you plan to spend monthly while you are abroad. My high estimate will be 2000 euros monthly for living expenses not including our mortgage and Los Angeles utilities.

Utilities

Building Charges €150

Electricity €150

Gas – Water included

Internet included

Living Expenses

Groceries/Dining Out €600

Metro Monthly Pass/Pass Navigo Découverte €146

Spending Cash €400

Museum visits/Ballet Classes – (10 class punch card) €150

Household Shopping – Toiletries €150

Uber/Misc. €254

I asked people who lived in France what the typical cost of things were so I had a strong gauge of our expenses. This is actually less than what we spend in Los Angeles. I am excited to turn in my car lease because for the first time in sixteen years I won’t have a car payment! We will be getting a monthly metro pass. We are in a unique situation because in Los Angeles we spend a hefty amount monthly on tuition however, in Paris Olivia will be attending public school. We are also cutting back on Liv’s after school activities like Taekwondo and cheerleading. I will continue ballet classes (I found the perfect ballet school in le Marais) and I’m hoping to find a volleyball club. I am used to going grocery shopping every week and Target (for household supplies) every two weeks. Without a car I will no longer be buying things in bulk, so we should be spending less on food and household items. I plan to continue my Amazon Prime in Paris and I’m replacing online shopping with traveling. Oh, how I miss French food!

Now, here is the tricky part, staying in France for more than 90 days requires a visa. We got our visas, differently.

Antz will be working remotely for his company so technically he didn’t have to apply for a French work visa. I hired Stephen as our visa consultant so we had someone to ask questions and give us advice. We also hired an expat tax advisor to make sure we were clear on our tax obligation. More on taxes later… Halfway through working with our visa consultant, Antz company told him they would assist him in getting an intra-company transfer (ICT) visa. From what I understand, he will be transferred to his company’s office located in Paris instead of being an outside employee. They only require him to work out of the Paris office twice a month. This was great news because now his company was semi-sponsoring his visa although we are still on the hook for the $1,300 fees. Liv and I are attached to his visa as family members but I had to write a statement saying I promise not to work while in France (like that was hard). If you’re applying for a long stay tourist visa (carte de sejour) you must show that you have enough money in the bank for a year abroad. What that magic number is, I’m not sure but we are showing his pay stubs as proof of income. Expatica is an excellent comprehensive website that breaks down the necessary documents needed. Once you get approved for a visa in America you aren’t done yet! You must register at the police prefecture and French Office of Immigration and Integration in Paris and have a health exam (which requires an x-ray) at your local maire (town hall) a few weeks after you arrive in France. We will also register at the American Embassy.

Our visa appointment is scheduled for January, eep!! I have been putting together our documents for months. I paid someone to translate our birth certificates and our marriage license into French. I plan on using Olivia as our good luck French-speaking charm at our appointment.

So here’s the bad news, because we are spending more than 170 days in France, even though we aren’t expats, we are still considered residents of France so in 2019, we will have to pay French income taxes. We are going from a 28% tax bracket to 45%! That sucks but our tax adviser will be able to apply for a foreign earned tax credit so that should help take some of the sting off. Antz HR team are keeping him on American payroll so he will continue paying social security, medical benefits, contributing to his 401k, etc. I highly recommend going over your finances with a CPA or tax advisor so you have an understanding of your tax obligation. You must file for taxes in both America and France even if you don’t owe any taxes.

In the spirit of keeping it real, here’s a breakdown of our expenses. The first and most important expense is getting your passport.

Passport renewal – $140 per person ($60 for expedited service)

Our passports were set to expire in August 2017 so it was time for us to renew but when applying for a visa, your passport must not expire three months before returning to the States. We ordered passport cards which can expedite the lines at customs. The normal processing time is 4 – 6 weeks but ours arrived in two weeks.

Visa photos – $8 each/ $15 for non-members (we found AAA to be the best)

We needed at least four photos per person for the visas and also spares in case we lost our passports. P.S. The embassy requests NO SMILES which took many tries.

Visa fees – €1000/$1315

When I began filling out our visa applications, I had many questions and wasn’t sure if we had all the necessary documents. I found Stephen from his great blog about his experience moving to France and now he offers his expertise to expats. I didn’t originally budget for his fee but I also thought, why wouldn’t I hire someone who knows the ins and out of applying for a visa and can answer all these questions I have? I bombarded him with questions, sought his advice in every one of our specific scenarios and had a Skype meeting for moral support. Stephen helped tremendously and I felt much more confident approaching our visa appointment.

Long-stay tourist visa costs – $120 per person (Children under 6 are free)

You can only make an in-person visa appointment at the French consulate closest to your state so some people may have to add the cost to fly in for the appointment. The earliest you can request an appointment is three months prior to your departure date so schedule the earlier the better. The fee is actually 99 euros and the consulate only takes credit or debit cards (No cash, checks) Here is a link to the Los Angeles French consulate. Jordan gave me the tip to dress nicely to give a good impression. Read all about our appointment here.

Certified French Translator – $350 for 4 documents

I found certified translator, Odile Barth, from the LA French consulate website. She’s very nice and fast. You scan and email her the documents and she will mail the translations to you. It was strange seeing our birth certificates in French. If you need to order copies of your birth certificates, you have to go in-person to the County Recorder Office. I needed Antz birth certificate so I waited in line for over an hour but the kind woman really helped me out. I started chatting about our move and she asked if I had our marriage license. She really saved me because the marriage license I planned to take to our appointment wasn’t an official embossed version. The documents were $14 a piece, I think. Make 3 copies of everything!

This place was hell, I went at 8:15 am and left after 10 am.

Getting There Expenses

It’s absolutely nuts that a one-way ticket cost more than a round trip fare. Once upon a time, in a land far, far away I worked in the airline industry so I had the privilege of flying for free or extremely discounted fare. I searched every discount website there was. After ruling out a couple for shady reviews, here’s what I found, the more layovers, the lower the fare. Right now Wow Airlines (which I really like) has the lowest economy fare but they have a layover in Reykjavik. We are traveling with our huge iMac computer and eight heavy suitcases with our entire lives packed in them, so I wasn’t going to risk losing anything or missing a connecting flight.

We got lucky when it came time to purchase our airfare. I checked fares daily for a year and waited the recommended fifty-four days before our departure date. Norwegian Air‘s premium class was offering non-stop flights at the same price as economy on other airlines. We saved a lot of money not having to ship our things because premium class includes two check-in bags per person in the fare. I am an over-packer so having to limit myself to 44 lbs per bag, for a year’s worth of clothes and shoes will be close to impossible. We should be completely packed by next month but I anticipate being closer to 50 lbs but it’s still less expensive if I prepay for overweight luggage online than at the airport.

Remember, you are required to bring airline tickets reserved in your name to your visa appointment at the French consulate. This is where shit gets real. Buying airplane tickets is not only expensive but it commits you financially and physically. I couldn’t bring myself to pay $500 per person for non-refundable tickets so I took a serious gamble that our visas will get approved. However, if we don’t get approved for our visas I will purchase return tickets and enjoy a looooooong trip to Paris.

Airfare – $2,068.50 Norwegian Air ($689 one-way premium fare)

I am so excited to fly Norwegian Airlines! They have super reasonable fares and since I’ve been following them on Instagram, I’ve seen they offer affordable flights to many of the places I plan to visit in Europe. Their premium class fare cost the same as other airlines economy fare and since it’s a special occasion, it’s nice to upgrade our seats.

Excess Luggage – $100 (excess beyond 44 lbs)

Thanks to Norwegian’s premium fare, we are able to check our six bags for free so we should only need to pay for our Mac computer box. We aren’t paying to ship anything but the lowest quote I got when I inquired was $2,000 for an International MoveCube.

Luggage – $85 each from Amazon

As much as I like pretty luggage, I ended buying a practical deployment duffle bags. I needed something that was huge without a hefty price tag. I almost bought these bags because I like the brand but the difference in price was $100 and I needed four bags. My Mom (who is a veteran world traveler) gave me a foldable travel duffle to carry our household items (my toiletries that aren’t sold in Paris, Liv’s toys, books and larger items). I used a vacuum sealed ziplock bag to fit our king size bedding.

Carry on suitcase – $245 from Away

I ended up investing in a quality carry-on hardshell bag after seeing Away all over Instagram. Normally I would buy a cute but cheap suitcase from Target but in my experience they never last long and I’ve had zippers break during a trip which is annoying. The suitcase from Away is guaranteed unbreakable and has a built in phone charger. I love their West Hollywood store.

Travel Adaptors and converters – $42.99 – $19.99 from Amazon

Now, I consider myself a seasoned traveler yet when it comes to finding the perfect travel adapter I haven’t found one that is reliable other than my Apple Macbook Air adapter. I have bought super expensive ones and when I tried to use them, they were shaped like a square when every single outlet in the house we rented was shaped like a circle. I have bought cheaper ones from Target and it ended up frying my cell phone charger when we were in London. I did some research and read reviews before buying this one.

I like that there are USB outlets built-in so we can charge multiple devices at once and has the ability to use this converter in several other countries. I did read that the fan can be noisy but we will see. I also bought a twelve pack of adaptors. I already owned this travel adaptor which worked for my flat iron.

Travel books – $105 (The New York Times 36 Hours Europe, Europe by Eurail guide book, The New Paris and Don’t be a Tourist in Paris)

I adore travel books however, they are heavy in our suitcases. I had to prioritize how many books to bring with us. I was lucky to find 36 Hours on sale for half off at Taschen. It’s great for it’s practical travel information and it has beautiful photography. I also found this Eurail guide quite useful. I’ve heard nothing but great reviews on The New Paris and Messy Nessy’s chic guide to Paris. My plan is to travel every weekend and holiday.

All together I spent about $800 on moving supplies but I bought everything during the Black Friday sales so I spent half of what was originally budgeted.

Sixt Car Rental – $300 for four days

We will be renting an ugly minivan upon arrival for the first few days. With so much luggage, it would be ridiculous to take an Uber or the metro. There aren’t many choices when it comes to renting a car in France that has automatic transmission. My bestie Aimee thinks I’m crazy for driving in Paris but if I could drive in London, I’m sure I can handle Parisian traffic. I would love to drive a cute vintage Fiat while we are abroad but so far I’ve only found manual transmission available. As much as I’ve tried, Lizzie can no drivie a stickie.

International Drivers License – $14 from American Automobile Association (AAA)

I will be the primary driver while we are abroad. The Int’l drivers license will cover me in most European countries however, it’s only valid for a year. I’ve been a triple A member for most of my driving years yet this year has been the most I’ve utilized their services. Our membership is valid even while we are overseas!

Total Moving Expenses – $3,500 approx.

Our California Expenses

Post Office box rental – $96 annually

I rented a PO box in my Mom’s town so she can pick up my mail for me and forward important parcels. There is a company that will forward your mail and packages to overseas addresses.

VPN Virtual Private Network – $99 annually

This is important so you can access American websites like Netflix and for Antz to connect to his job’s network securely. I haven’t picked which one I will use yet but they are necessary.

Farmers Renters insurance – $515 annually

I highly recommend getting this supplemental homeowners coverage if for anyone who will be staying in your home. This helped me feel at ease about leaving our house furnished.

Utilities/Gardener – $300 per month

Ugh, this sucks! I know this may sound high but I would much rather pay my own bills in Los Angeles than pay bills in Paris and not know the stability of the euro. All my utility bills are automatically drafted from my bank and I know exactly how much they are every month so it won’t be difficult to manage from France. Living abroad could mean so many variables that I may not control (the French are famous for their bureaucracy, and the unpredictable foreign currency market) I’ve heard getting utilities set up for Americans can be difficult. For example, if you want to rent an apartment, you may have to put up to a year of rent in an escrow account and you have to show proof that you have a French bank account. In order to get a French bank account, you need to show a lease agreement. How? Our monthly utilities are gas, wifi, security alarm, and our cell phones. I also made an arrangement with our gardener to prepay him in cash for fifteen months. I will pay electric in Paris but it should be about 150 euros or less.

This best sums up our expenses before we even set foot on the plane. Everyone’s budget is unique and I’m no expert. I am certain our expenses are fairly higher due to the cost of living in Los Angeles. My neurotic worries needed to be at ease so I ponied up for the extra insurance, hired a visa consultant and tax advisor. I hope this post gives an honest insight to the insane list of things to do and cost of making our dream of living in Paris come true.

Feel free to ask me anything or give me your suggestions!

A bientôt!

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Our Bathroom Remodel

Oct 25, 2017

We have lived with an embarrassingly ugly bathroom for eleven years so it was overdue for a remodel. I disliked our old dusty rose shower tile and matching cast iron tub so much that I didn’t take many photos of it. However, I did post our bathroom when we re-tiled the floor in 2011. Liv gets a week off from school in October for “ski week” so we skied off to my Mom’s house while poor Antz was stuck at home without a bathroom for seven days. Luckily, he survived with the help of friends and family. After going through thousands of photos I somehow found one shot of our pink tub in action.

Our kid loves bubble baths. We both laugh at how hideous our taste was when we first bought our house back in 2006. Orange and lime walls looks so juvenile but I thought I was rad with my Jonathan Adler Seven Sins bathroom set. I still have that shower curtain for some strange reason.

We attempted on our first DIY home remodel project when Liv was just under a year old, installing tile on the bathroom floor and painting the room grey. It only took about four days (two for work and two for drying) and I thought we did a pretty good job however, the pink tub and shower wall constantly annoyed me.

The new tile floor was an improvement, but the pink tile shower wall and tub stayed hidden by our shower curtain of shame. I originally planned to remodel our bathroom last October when we remodeled the living room but an unexpected new air conditioner system caused us to go over budget which meant we had to postpone it. By the time we were ready to start the bathroom job my friend Rene was no longer available. He’s so busy with other jobs I would have to wait until next year and I couldn’t wait any longer. It took awhile but I found a replacement contractor. The guy we found was reasonable and nice but he doesn’t compare to Rene. It was extremely stressful because I was away for a majority of the project and Antz was at work most of the day. The workers didn’t speak English and drove us crazy making little, sloppy mistakes. So unlike me but, I forgot to take a before picture the morning they started working but you see how it looked above.

After demo, we discovered that most of the wood in the walls was rotten and needed replacing. The demo took no time at all but one of the workers checked the floor and… surprise!

Wheee! Look at those lovely black holes. Turns out we aren’t the greatest contractors we thought we were. The shower was leaking water under the tile floor for years and the subfloor was rotten. As every house project, our unexpected expense showed up right on time. I was just looking at buying a glass door for the shower but new floors were priority. I was preparing myself for a huge estimate because my guy wouldn’t give me a price but after two days of holding my breath, it turned out to be much less than I thought. Whew! Antz bought affordable floor tile and the project added two more days for the floors to dry. The workers installed new floor joists, every 4 inches and now you can breakdance on the floor without falling through.

I was so happy the walls were open so I could finally build a much needed shelf to hold our shampoo and stuff! It’s huge, I can fit my giant size bottles and no more falling bottles from the bathtub ledge.

Buh Bye pink tub!!

Hello new, straight floor! Shout out to Antz for choosing a classic style of tile that fits our 1923 house so well. One of my favorite elements of our bathroom is changing the paper in our medicine cabinet. This is a cute way to add color for less than ten bucks. I used this lovely wrapping paper from my friend Samantha Santana rad wallpaper shop. Her amazing home was just featured on Design Sponge.

Those Jonathan Adler orange lacquer tumblers are still hanging around along with Antz CK One cologne. We decided to squeeze a new sink/vanity into our budget after seeing how beat up our old sink looked. Ikea had this Hemnes two drawer sink that fit in our small space and provided us more storage. I found these cute rabbit knobs on sale at Anthropologie.

We chose black for our walls to contrast all the white tile and trim. I am so happy to finally have a wall-mounted mirror to use in the shower. We previously had a mirror with suction cups from Target and it would fall in the middle of the night and scare the heck out of us! I stayed up until 1 am when I came home, putting everything away and editing our toiletries. It’s insane how much junk you amass in ten years! I threw away half full bottles of shampoo and only added the essentials.

I love our new shower tile so much it took me three days to put up the shower curtain. We took down the old toys on the shelf and added these quirky planters from Anthro. I need to go plant shopping soon. I also bought a new pretty toilet paper holder. I’m happy to have such a grown up bathroom to display my Unicorn poop spray!

I ordered this flush mount light at the last minute when I saw how awful or our old light looked. It was $50 from Lowes and similar to the fancy ones over at Schoolhouse Electric. All these house projects has taught me how to make quick decisions and work with a limited budget. The finishing touch is a piece of artwork. I love art of Emily Winfield Martin but Antz is concerned about the print holding up to the moisture in the bathroom. So we are waiting to find something waterproof.

That first shower I took was pure heaven. We finally have a showerhead that we fit our tall asses under. I love our new bronze fixtures and the clean, white tub.

Here’s the finished Salle de Bain, everything including labor was a little over $4,000!

I’ll add more photos when we get the art, or maybe a vintage shelf? Hmmm, see how great I am at making up my mind?!

À bientôt.

A Dream is a wish your heart makes

Aug 27, 2017

If you have come into contact with me for the past two years then you may already know my life dream is to move to France for a year. I think I have told our mailman, everyone at Liv’s French school and even total strangers who humor me with a smile while I crazily go on and on about it. I’ve always dreamed of living abroad. I have been researching, prepping and planning for this move but not exactly sure how to make it possible.

Well, I got my wish…

Our family is moving to Paris, FRANCE!!!

Antz asked me what I wanted for my 40th birthday and I said, I would like for you to ask again if you can work abroad. His boss didn’t think it would work a year ago but we couldn’t give up on this dream. Antz and I put together a new proposal and we waited a year. In hindsight, as devastating as that initial NO was, it only motivated me more. We took that year to make much needed renovations to our house and even took a lovely unexpected trip to Iceland. Antz connected with the right people at work, submitted his proposal and his boss gave him the green light! I have been waiting in agony for months having to hold in this secret, waiting to get everything in order. I am elated to finally be able to share our great news. It still doesn’t feel real. I have been wanting this for so long that I haven’t even processed that this is finally happening. When Antz told me his boss agreed, I cried with joy. I could not have made this happen without his job being onboard so I am so grateful that he was able to negotiate this move. We have a lot of preparations ahead of us but I am confident I will have everything aligned.

I posted this inspiration on my Instagram the day Antz asked his boss to work abroad, exactly one year until we leave! We are planning to swap with a lovely French family during our time abroad. I will post about how we are house swapping soon.

The trickiest part will be getting our long stay visas (carte de sejour). We have to fill out tons of paperwork, make copies of everything, and translate our paperwork into French. I have heard that French bureaucracy is a nightmare so we are hiring a consultant to assist us with the visas. I don’t want to have any surprises that will hold up the process. There’s also all the moving expenses: airfare *did you know a one-way ticket cost more than a roundtrip ticket?* and other logistics like renter’s insurance, international health insurance policy, opening a French bank account and our expenses in California. We may rent a storage unit for the stuff we aren’t bringing and we’ll need to get a post office box to forward all our mail. I have already written a post about the visa process and all of our moving expenses. We are planning to makeover our bathroom and paint our bedroom in the next few months. Hopefully, #45 won’t mess things up too badly for our swappers to get approved for their visas. Fingers crossed!

Antz wanted to set a realistic timeline to prepare ourselves for this move. So we gave ourselves year to get everything in place. I am so glad Olivia is young enough to adapt to this move away from her life in LA. She plans to stay in touch with her friends via Skype, writing letters and will check in for scheduled video chats with her class. I know she will benefit so much by traveling at a young age. I feel like this strengthens our choice of French immersion education.

During my surprise visit to Paris to see Aimee I fell in love with a school near Aimee’s rental. I took this photo and told her, I would love for Liv to go to that school. Turns out, the family we are swapping with lives a block from this school! I found a ballet school for her close by so she will continue her classes. I didn’t know it at the time but the neighborhood I was visiting Aimee was the same area we are moving to. I know those streets so well and feel very at home there. Antz will have the opportunity to visit art schools and industry events in Paris to seek new talent for his work team. He will also visit his company’s office in London. I am sure the change of environment will reenergize his creativity. I am excited to take French lessons while Liv is in school. There’s no doubt, Paris would be an inspiring place for all of us.

I often catch myself daydreaming about what our life over there would be like. I imagine us biking along the Seine, having a picnic in Jardin du Tuileries next to a gorgeous carousel with the Eiffel Tower in the distance, it’s too perfect for words. I am so excited to experience total immersion, to finally learn French so I can speak with Liv. I have no doubt Olivia will thrive in school because her French is so strong and she is great at making new friends. She is so excited to live in Paris. I can’t wait to live without being a slave to my car. I look forward to strolling along the cobblestone paved roads staring at the gorgeous Parisian architecture. I am thrilled to experience the weather. In LA, I get to wear my scarves and sweaters a few days out of the year so bring on the cold! I can’t wait to hop on a train and take weekend trips throughout Europe. There are so many cities in France I hope to visit. My goal is to travel to twenty European countries during our time abroad.

We will be leaving in March 2018. Only Six months away!! This was the most incredible birthday gift I could ever receive. Thank you so much Antz for making my dream come true!

I bought that amazing Things will work out print from People I’ve Loved.

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Last day in Iceland

Jun 9, 2017

On our last day we stayed in Reykjavik. During the entire week we drove past the magnificent Hallgrímskirkja church everyday. We finally had time to check it out and of course, it was closed the day we went! Even without going inside, it was remarkable. The door alone was rad. The church took 41 years to be completed. Inside the church is a gorgeous pipe organ. I have a DVD with my favorite singer Björk singing in this church but I hope to one day see her perform there live.

So photographers and bloggers, what’s your secret of taking photos of landmarks without all the tourists? Do you ask them to move? Photoshop magic? I get so frustrated that I had to crop out the bottom of the church because tour buses full of folks kept showing up.

Ta-dah, no people (they are hiding behind Liv)

The church was built to mimic the basalt columns of Vik. It’s the second tallest building in Iceland.

This statue is Leif Eriksson who was the first European explorer to “discover” North America 500 hundred years before that other guy. Hot ass Viking dude!

Liv took this most perfect shot of Hallgrímskirkja with her camera and Antz took this epic shot of Liv holding her Instax photo.

It was time to say goodbye to our lovely cottage and we headed downtown for breakfast at The Laundromat Cafe.

How cute is it that Icelandic people engrave their names on their front doors. I would love to do that on our door.

We stopped at the innocuous tie mural right next to the Chuck Norris Grill. Iceland has a pretty rad street art scene, although they don’t have any Banksy or Invaders.

Most random thing we saw in Iceland.

I planned to have lunch at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur (Iceland’s version of Pink’s) however we had hot dogs one night at another place and found them to be awful (they were served cold) so we passed on the steamed dogs. We happened to park nearby so I snapped a shot of this guy getting his breakfast.

The food was great but this hot chocolate was the best I have ever had!

You find the laundromat in the basement along with a room for kids to play and read in.

After breakfast we had just enough time to visit the Viking World museum before turning in our car rental and heading to the airport in Keflavik.

The museum was right next to the ocean and let me tell you it was freezing cold. I almost died in my dress just walked from the parking lot. Since the museum is on the way to the airport it’s not close to anything so we were the only patrons.

These were real authentic, very heavy Viking weapons.

I was the only brave one to walk into the Viking ship. I was sure it would collapse. I didn’t even know if I was allowed to walk on it because no one was in the place.

I hate to say it but the museum was a tourist trap. It was cool to see a real Viking ship but I was very annoyed that they didn’t have any Viking hats for sale (although I know they are cheesy) or more exhibits. We walked through in fifteen minutes and were like “Is that it?”

We spent forever in the airport gift shop looking for last minute souvenirs. I really wanted to buy Liv a Viking hat but for some odd reason, there were none anywhere. She settled on some Icelandic candy which she ate on the plane.

I have inadvertently started a mini flag collection. My flag from France is getting pretty frayed so I’ll need to replace it. I also have been collecting pins from the countries we visit. I forgot to buy one in Amsterdam though.

Once inside the airport, it was hot so we began to shed our heavy layers.

I know, I’m the world’s greatest videographer. This was one of my scariest take-offs because there was zero visibility. I am not afraid to fly but the take-off and landing do freak me out.

Liv and I watched one of her favorite movies on the plane, Spirited Away.

Then she happily slept the rest of the flight. I woke her up just as we were flying over the Grand Canyon.

Can you see the tiny moon?

I love flights that land before dark at LAX, we rarely land during the day. Overall, I would strongly encourage everyone to book a flight on Wow Airlines and go to Iceland. It was our least expensive trip abroad and was the most memorable.

Smell ya later Iceland! Takk.

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Sunkissis

California born family of three living joie de vie in Paris, France

This is no Dream… This is Really Happening: We moved to Paris!

Our Visa Appointment at the French Consulate

Our House Tour on Apartment Therapy

Hi There,

Au revoir!

Moving Abroad: Applying for a Long Stay Visa

Infinity Mirrors by Yayoi Kusama at The Broad

Moving Abroad: Where we are now

Moving Abroad: A Financial Guide

Our Bathroom Remodel

A Dream is a wish your heart makes

Last day in Iceland