Once I got my bearings straight, we went to see our apartment for the first time. Holy smokes. It looked like an estate sale gone horribly wrong. Boxes and bags were all over the place, you couldn't walk into any of the rooms. We found half open bags of pasta and Fruit Loops. Our printer and scanner were wrapped and delivered in a sheet- just like the stork delivers babies from the cartoons, only ours was an HP all in one. To make matters worse, the windows were left open, and we left right across the street from a dirt mine, so there was a nice coat of dust on everything. Shelley's first purchase will be bleach, ammonia, gloves, a gas mask, and a power washer to clean all the stuff up. In the midst of all the mess, we love our apartment, and are so excited to get it moved in. We are so thankful for Josh and Danielle for picking it out for us, and to those who moved stuff in the midst of their busy schedules trying to move back to America.
Things are different in our neck of the woods than in America. One difference is that convenient stores are rare here. Instead, everything is divided into a market. If you want fruits and vegetables, you go to the fruit and vegetable market. If you want roast duck, you go to the meat market. If you want a used fire extinguisher, you go to the fire extinguisher market (they have one). Each of these markets consists of rows of store selling the same stuff for more or less the same price. So, to finish our apartment, we went to the interior decorating market. Going into this little shopping trip, we had 2 goals. Stay within the budget, and try to pick out counters, cabinets, etc... that might not be as nice as we would have in America, but would make a more comfortable environment for where we live. We soon realized that to accomplish the first, the second might not be able to happen because their ideas of aesthetically pleasing and valuable don't quite agree with ours. Lets just say Pottery Barn wouldn't do so hot here. For example, when we went to the light fixture store, we found that the more colorful, plastic, and accesorized with colorful plastic the fixture, the higher the price. In America, such fixture would be on a back shelf. Here, it is front and center, and expensive. A simple globe fixture like we prefer, very cheap. Granite countertops are some of the highest priced and most valuable in America. So, when our contractor took us to the granite countertop market, I asked him "Aren't there any other kinds of countertops we can look at?" He replied "you mean fake ones?" I said "yes, fake ones." He said "Yes, but they are much more expensive. They have more colors, and are fancier, and they take more time to install. I didn't think you would want to pay that much." Granite it is, for a grand total of $120 to top all of our kitchen counters.
Here are some pictures so you can follow the apartment as we finish it over the next 2 weeks.
The Master Bedroom
The Dining Room
The Living Room
The Kitchen
Our Balcony!
