We have just accomplished something really impressive. We spent only two days on our apartment search, and got a killer deal. Seriously. We talked her down 2000 RMB a month. She started regretting it before we signed the paperwork, but she still signed it, so it's official. We put a down payment down and we pay the rest and get the keys tomorrow. The landlady was asking the realtors why this waiguo (foreigner -- literally "outside country" knew how to haggle on the price. Mark did a GREAT job. I mostly sat around, gave input in English, and got blamed for Mark's hardline stance on a number of things. "My wife says...." I'm okay with that.
So the furniture is not what I'd have picked, but I figure it will just add to the ambiance of living in China. They're getting the place clean, removing a few pieces of furniture, and fixing a few things, and we can move in tomorrow. Amazing.
The apartment complex is lovely. It's five minutes, walking, from the school our children will attend. On our floor there is a public balcony with trees and plants and some benches, and nice breezes -- very nice when it gets hot. Out front there is a fountain/pool with koi and water lily in it. The kids will love it. There's a grocery store in the basement of one of the buildings, a pool (that you have to pay to use) and a play ground under another building, plus lots of open space and nice landscaping between the buildings. It's really lovely.
We get four bedrooms plus an ayi room (which we'll use for storage), a slightly less tiny kitchen, two balconies, a big fridge (fairly rare, here) and a nice washer. We'll have to hang things to dry because I don't think there's room for a dryer, but that's what everyone else does anyway. The bigger balcony has a view of the road, and lovely trees, and some power lines, and a bit of the sea, and some of Hong Kong. I'm looking forward to seeing it at night. It's only the 6th floor, so it's a little noisy, but it will be okay. It will be quieter at night.
I promise to get better at this, but for today: PICTURE DUMP!
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| This is the security door outside the actual front door. This is normal for apartments in China. |
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| This is the shoe dresser just inside the front door. The two top drawers are for keys and such, and the other three are for holding shoes. |
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| This is my new ... thing. There's glass shelves for display and cabinets underneath for storage. |
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| This dining set will actually fit my family. The gold and jade.... Well, Maddy will be thrilled, I think. |
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| The balcony comes with a sun shade with alternate scenery.... |
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| This is part of my balcony. You can see some of the trees that make up the view. It's so green here! (Outside, too!) |
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| My kitchen cabinets are peridot.... |
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| This is the dish sanitizer. It's not a dishwasher. There's no water involved. It just kills germs. |
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| My new refrigerator and washing machine on my little utility balcony. |
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| That bed is for the hired help. (It's being taken out, and we'll have a nice, roomy storage room.) |
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| One of the bedrooms. I like the light fixture. The broken, bowed desk is going out, though. |
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| The other bedroom. We'll be moving this bed out and replacing it with bunk beds so there's some floor room. Again, the trees make for a nice view. |
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| This is the office. It's a step up from Mark's current work set up. ha ha ha. Also, I really love my new skirt that I bought just before our trip. |
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| The view from the office. |
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| The master bath has a nice big sink. |
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Plenty of storage. One of those doors hides a safe, which we can use.
I'm not sure what my shower does, but it looks like it's going to be cool.
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