Our Temporary Apartment
It occurred to me recently when I was talking to my dad (hi Daddy!) that we haven't posted any photos of our temporary place. So here you go!
We've mentioned in earlier posts that we're only in this apartment for a few months. We actually just signed a lease on a permanent place, so that will be a post in a few weeks when we move in.
Our temporary apartment (wohnung in Deutsch) is ours until the end of November. As you'll see, we have room for one guest, but no more.
Here's the outside. Planter boxes are practically a competitive sport in this part of the world. I'm showing you our nice one first (one has flowers, and one has herbs that we're growing from seed, so not much to show yet).
I'm posting this photo in "X-Large" rather than "Large" so you can see it, at least a little bit. Clearly there are a lot of apartments here! We're in the tower in the center of the photo, and we're the 5th one regardless of whether you're counting up or down. Classic middle child. We're two balconies above the yellow and white awning, where the resident is watching us and wondering why we're taking this photo. This is our south-facing balcony. You may or may not be able to see our lovely flowers. There's another photo later. I know you were stressing about seeing the flowers. I gotcha.
This is our north-facing balcony. This is the direction that we walk out of the building to go anywhere. Again, we're in the center balcony. You might see one scraggly little plant on the far left of the planter. That's our strawberry (erdbeere in Deutsch). The herbs we planted aren't tall enough to be seen from ground level. Our balcony is the one below the one with all the red flowers. I took the first photo from an angle that includes our handsome new bikes. Lisa's is the one that makes your eyeballs bleed.
Now that you've seen the outside of the building, come on in! I'll show you around.
First is our elevator. I've never seen one that literally stops between floors -- and only every other floor at that.
This is the view from the elevator. We are up and to the right, not down and to the left. You'll also notice there's a baby stroller on the landing. There's really no room in these apartments to keep such a thing, and apparently they don't get stolen from the landing.
Our front door. It finally has our name on it. Very exciting development! There aren't apartment numbers here, only names, so no one could find us until they got our name put up.
On our door is written "20*C+M+B*18" in chalk. It's apparently a Christmas blessing. We've seen it all over town.
Just inside the front door is our main bathroom. It's small but functional.
Inexplicably, there's a half bath right next to this one. Or vacuum storage, as the case may be.
Next up is our sumptuous guest room, with single-sized bed.
This brings up an interesting difference in Germany: there is a fitted sheet, a square (European) pillow, and a comforter in a duvet cover. No flat sheet. If it's a double bed (king sized), it's two twin-sized mattresses pushed together, with two comforters, two pillows, no flat sheets. In our room (not pictured because we didn't make our bed today), we have two fitted sheets, but we added our own king-size flat sheet and blanket.
The living room is next!
The picture window and door overlook the south balcony and our flowery planter box. Also in this room is (no kidding) a stereo with a dual cassette. Welcome to 1988, y'all!
Better photo of our flowers, AKA our German pride and joy... lavender, dahlia, petunia, petunia, and two things whose names I don't know. Let's call them Fred and Ethyl.
Another fascinating thing here is how the windows work. In the US, windows are up or down, open or closed. Here, there's multiple choice! Play along with me!
This is open... the door swings inward on hinges on the left side of the door. In this case, the lever handle of the door is horizontal, parallel to the floor. There is also closed, in which case the lever points down.
But in Germany, there is a third setting -- the one we use all the danged time. In this case, the top of the window tilts inward, on a hinge on the bottom of the door. Engineering, y'all! In this case, the door lever/knob points up.
There's no AC almost anywhere in Germany -- not even in Robert's office -- so in the summer, you see lots of windows open like this so that people can catch whatever breeze there is.
Also in the photo above, you can see our clothes drying rack, which came with the apartment. Another rarity in Germany is clothes dryers. They exist, but even if you have one, it doesn't work the same way as in the States. There is no ductwork to carry the hot, damp air away. The most likely reason for that is that most buildings here are made of concrete, with walls around a foot thick. Hard to get ductwork through that!
This is the view off our southern balcony. On a clear day, you can faintly see the Alps just above the trees to the right of the pine tree in the foreground. They almost look imaginary in this photo, but they're there. No, really.
Next is our dining room, which is the room where we spend most of our time. You can tell because of the number of items on the table. It's where I'm sitting now.
Perhaps not shockingly, the dining room is next to the kitchen. Like our bathroom, it's small but functional. The cabinet in the foreground is our fridge, and there's even a dishwasher (a bit of a luxury here) between the fridge and sink.
This is also in the kitchen. It's a tiny table for two, attached to the wall. It's also the only spare place we could find to put our desktop computer, which arrived in our air shipment. Also, there is an assortment of wine and beer, which we'll rotate out as we drink what we have. A half liter beer is about one euro for most beers. Wines range from €1,50 a bottle upward. I think the rose on the table was €4,99. In case you're unfamiliar, Europeans use commas where we use periods (and vice versa) in currency and other numbers.
So there's the tour. Hope you enjoyed it! Stand by for the tour of the new place. It has a garage and a garden -- super exciting!
What's your favorite thing about the place you live? Where would you live if you could live anywhere?
We've mentioned in earlier posts that we're only in this apartment for a few months. We actually just signed a lease on a permanent place, so that will be a post in a few weeks when we move in.
Our temporary apartment (wohnung in Deutsch) is ours until the end of November. As you'll see, we have room for one guest, but no more.
Here's the outside. Planter boxes are practically a competitive sport in this part of the world. I'm showing you our nice one first (one has flowers, and one has herbs that we're growing from seed, so not much to show yet).
I'm posting this photo in "X-Large" rather than "Large" so you can see it, at least a little bit. Clearly there are a lot of apartments here! We're in the tower in the center of the photo, and we're the 5th one regardless of whether you're counting up or down. Classic middle child. We're two balconies above the yellow and white awning, where the resident is watching us and wondering why we're taking this photo. This is our south-facing balcony. You may or may not be able to see our lovely flowers. There's another photo later. I know you were stressing about seeing the flowers. I gotcha.
This is our north-facing balcony. This is the direction that we walk out of the building to go anywhere. Again, we're in the center balcony. You might see one scraggly little plant on the far left of the planter. That's our strawberry (erdbeere in Deutsch). The herbs we planted aren't tall enough to be seen from ground level. Our balcony is the one below the one with all the red flowers. I took the first photo from an angle that includes our handsome new bikes. Lisa's is the one that makes your eyeballs bleed.
Now that you've seen the outside of the building, come on in! I'll show you around.
First is our elevator. I've never seen one that literally stops between floors -- and only every other floor at that.
This is the view from the elevator. We are up and to the right, not down and to the left. You'll also notice there's a baby stroller on the landing. There's really no room in these apartments to keep such a thing, and apparently they don't get stolen from the landing.
Our front door. It finally has our name on it. Very exciting development! There aren't apartment numbers here, only names, so no one could find us until they got our name put up.
On our door is written "20*C+M+B*18" in chalk. It's apparently a Christmas blessing. We've seen it all over town.
Just inside the front door is our main bathroom. It's small but functional.
Inexplicably, there's a half bath right next to this one. Or vacuum storage, as the case may be.
Next up is our sumptuous guest room, with single-sized bed.
This brings up an interesting difference in Germany: there is a fitted sheet, a square (European) pillow, and a comforter in a duvet cover. No flat sheet. If it's a double bed (king sized), it's two twin-sized mattresses pushed together, with two comforters, two pillows, no flat sheets. In our room (not pictured because we didn't make our bed today), we have two fitted sheets, but we added our own king-size flat sheet and blanket.
The living room is next!
The picture window and door overlook the south balcony and our flowery planter box. Also in this room is (no kidding) a stereo with a dual cassette. Welcome to 1988, y'all!
Better photo of our flowers, AKA our German pride and joy... lavender, dahlia, petunia, petunia, and two things whose names I don't know. Let's call them Fred and Ethyl.
Another fascinating thing here is how the windows work. In the US, windows are up or down, open or closed. Here, there's multiple choice! Play along with me!
This is open... the door swings inward on hinges on the left side of the door. In this case, the lever handle of the door is horizontal, parallel to the floor. There is also closed, in which case the lever points down.
But in Germany, there is a third setting -- the one we use all the danged time. In this case, the top of the window tilts inward, on a hinge on the bottom of the door. Engineering, y'all! In this case, the door lever/knob points up.
There's no AC almost anywhere in Germany -- not even in Robert's office -- so in the summer, you see lots of windows open like this so that people can catch whatever breeze there is.
Also in the photo above, you can see our clothes drying rack, which came with the apartment. Another rarity in Germany is clothes dryers. They exist, but even if you have one, it doesn't work the same way as in the States. There is no ductwork to carry the hot, damp air away. The most likely reason for that is that most buildings here are made of concrete, with walls around a foot thick. Hard to get ductwork through that!
This is the view off our southern balcony. On a clear day, you can faintly see the Alps just above the trees to the right of the pine tree in the foreground. They almost look imaginary in this photo, but they're there. No, really.
Next is our dining room, which is the room where we spend most of our time. You can tell because of the number of items on the table. It's where I'm sitting now.
Perhaps not shockingly, the dining room is next to the kitchen. Like our bathroom, it's small but functional. The cabinet in the foreground is our fridge, and there's even a dishwasher (a bit of a luxury here) between the fridge and sink.
This is also in the kitchen. It's a tiny table for two, attached to the wall. It's also the only spare place we could find to put our desktop computer, which arrived in our air shipment. Also, there is an assortment of wine and beer, which we'll rotate out as we drink what we have. A half liter beer is about one euro for most beers. Wines range from €1,50 a bottle upward. I think the rose on the table was €4,99. In case you're unfamiliar, Europeans use commas where we use periods (and vice versa) in currency and other numbers.
So there's the tour. Hope you enjoyed it! Stand by for the tour of the new place. It has a garage and a garden -- super exciting!
What's your favorite thing about the place you live? Where would you live if you could live anywhere?
While I'm willing to accept the "Christmas blessing" spin on the front door graffiti, I still say it looks remarkably like an incomprehensible algebra problem, and that alone makes it cruel!
ReplyDeleteI *LOVE* the huge picture window in the living room and all the flowers. (By they way, Fred & Ethyl look like plumed cockscomb and foxglove to me. I could be wrong, but ... for what it's worth....)
We have a lot of German-ness in our family history. I wonder if that's why I'm cursed with always having too small a kitchen? Maybe I only think they're small when in actuality all my kitchens have been normal-sized by German standards, and they're just coming in and out of my life as if drawn by some German-ish beacon.
So what is your overall square footage? (I'm assuming the semi-permanent place is bigger.)
I think the apartment is around 850 square feet. The permanent place is 1500 plus the basement. I'm sure there will be a post about it when we get settled there. ;)
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