Our New Apartment

We have been so blessed by our new apartment.  It is a 5 minute walk to Marvin’s office, which also has a little grocery store in it, which we frequent for basics and the staff already knows our family.  It is only 5 minutes from the school Calvin will attend this fall, and we are hoping close to a preschool Micah can attend.  Only 1 minute away from to several buses and marshrutkas, walking distance to a park, 5 minutes from a track where I can run.  We are loving our new location and have enjoyed meeting our neighbors and being close to a few friends.

We moved in May and I have not hung a single picture.  That is very unlike me, but we wanted to wait until we returned from vacation before we completely settled in.  (We packed up things should we not be able to return.)  But I’m excited to finally unpack some things that we had left packed up when we moved in May.

So here’s the bare bones.

 

Our entry way has lots of storage, just like our old apartment, I love that everything has a place, in small spaces I’m often overwhelmed with clutter.  I’m thankful to have a space to store and hide all our art supplies and my crafting supplies.

 

Our apartment also came with a fish tank, and Marvin enjoyed taking the boys to pick out a few fish.  The boys each wanted goldfish, I like the neons, and Marvin picked out a few fun fish as well.  Some of the fish Marvin picked out were guppies.  We knew we might have baby guppies but as we noticed little bellies getting unusually bigger we were sure we’d have babies soon.  One day after dinner Calvin and I were able to watch one give birth to few fries, and then they were promptly eaten, we were cheering on the few who managed to swim to the plants, but after a few minutes the other fish promptly found them.  Marvin has enjoyed “sea scaping” and finding a few rocks and water plants for it.  It looks much better than the fake little plant that was in it when we moved in.

 

The Kitchen has some quirky aspects to it.  I like that it is big and has plenty of storage.  It has some deep drawers that fit my pots and pans, I’ve loved that when I’m cooking but I literally have zero counter space, so I’m learning how to clean as I cook so we can eat shortly after dinner is finished.  It’s a stretch, but slowly maybe I’ll learn how to be a neater cook.

 

Another unusual area in my kitchen is a little high counter/bar area.  We’re using it as our coffee/tea bar, because I couldn’t figure out what else to do with it.  All I need to figure out is adding a power cord so we can add our electric tea kettle and it will be perfect.

 

Our living room came with furniture which is actually comfortable.  Our new chairs make the perfect napping place.

 

I have no idea what to do with this coffee table.  What would you put inside?

 

 

Our bedroom gives us plenty of room to move about and there is plenty of room under our bed for storing suitcases.  As we were packing up I realized the abundance of suitcases we own probably isn’t normal.  I’m sure most of you don’t have to figure out where to store 20 suitcases.

 

The best part about our room is that it has a closet.  Friends who live abroad will understand what a novelty that is.  I am so thrilled have a walk-in space that has so much storage space.

 

Off our room is a little space we plan to use for an office for Marvin.  It has a little nook that will be the perfect place for a small desk and will give him a place to escape when he needs to work from home.

 

The boys room was honestly the reason we rented the apartment.  They have two rooms that are joined together.  The first room is their play space, school desk, and where they store their clothing. 

 

Then you can enter their sleeping room from the play room.  It already came with bunk beds and a couch and our crib fit perfectly.

 

So far they haven’t touched that tv, but they keep asking us about it.  J

 

Our bathrooms are very nice, clean and after living where we stored our things, I was a thankful to have a floor where I didn’t mind stepping out of the shower onto. 

 

 The tile however is Interesting.  One of the first days here Calvin was taking a bath and he made up a song about how God tells us to love one another and how it isn’t nice to kill things.  Micah took a bath next and while he was bathing he was making shooting noises.  They are such different boys those two. 

 

But what we really love about our bathroom is the toilet room has a sink!!!  And there is a fan in the bathroom.  (KD, see it is possible!)

 

The people who did the remodeling made some excellent choices and added some extras that make living here very comfortable.  I am so grateful, we are able to live somewhere where we aren’t having to make repairs every other day.