Moving on OUT!

I am 25. I wish I was younger as I am saying this, though I suppose I have had some major life experiences (joining the Peace Corps and living in Malawi, living in Panama, traveling solo to Europe). I am gearing up to move out! I am really excited about it.
I am moving out with my boyfriend. We have been together almost 7 years (which is probably another major life experience), since I was 19 and he was 20. Now, he is 27 and I will be 26 in a week! Crazy. So we have finally decided it is time to move out together and we are in the process of shopping. We are about a month out, which is crazy to think about, but really fun. I can't wait.
We chose our apartment complex, which I am really excited about. Our major concerns were: it must be reasonably sized with at least 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom, and with enough room for me to possibly work from home, have a gym/fitness center in the complex (so we can get rid of our gym membership), and as close to equidistant between our respective jobs. We found a place that shortens my commute to 30 minutes (from 50 minutes) and lengthens his to 15 (from 2 minutes). The complex is wooded, but right next to the major highway in our area but somehow, you can't even hear the highway! The fitness center isn't huge, but it has treadmills (for me), bikes (for him) and free weights and a bench press (for both of us).
We have made a GIANT list of things we want to buy. I mean, giant. I have lived away from home, but all my furniture in Panama was provided for, and I left all my furniture in Malawi. So little by little, we are piecing together our future home. We have the majority of the little kitchen stuff (the price, not so little to a saver like me). I have lots of cool pieces of art (perks of living around the world) and a little bit of furniture, like a bed, a few chairs, but not much else.
We plan on spending about 2000 to get started including the actual first month's rent, security deposit, application fees, etc which is about 1200. So we are trying to do this as much on the cheap as possible! I have been checking blogs and websites to see what are definite needs, and what we can forge ahead without, at least for a little while.
I found MyFirstMove to be amazingly helpful! Unpakt Checklist is another good link (and their moving advice and 8 most forgotten items are also pretty helpful). 7 Sins of first time renters - MSN is an interesting jump point - I never knew some of these things (particularly renter's insurance!).

I definitely will update this soon. Pictures to come when we finally move in!