We Chose . . .

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the . . .
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Grocery-Less Flat!



Apparently there was lots of interest in the flat and the owner chose us! The other interested parties must've had, like, more kids or a big dog or something. Seriously, we got the flat?!?! On paper I wouldn't have thought us to necessarily be the best candidates.

Once again, this really couldn't have gone any smoother for us. We got to choose-- choices weren't made for us (by someone else swooping in with a more attractive application). We didn't have to this whole German "Schufa" credit report thing that most renters have to do. And the lady who owns it wanted us! Us!

We get the keys at the end of September so we can start moving things over that last weekend of the month. Our contract will officially start October 1st.

So, let me tell you a little more. This particular building isn't all that exciting. Berlin is full of beautiful buildings and architecture that I love to look at. I enjoy it very much. I don't necessarily want it for myself however. Remember that first flat which was beautiful outside and had the amazing frieze on the ceilings? Like, it's so nice and quaint to go look at clothes drying across a line in a small Italian village


It is slightly less exciting when it's you having to get those clothes out there day after day after day and there are 5 people in your family who live in a dirty city. At the end of the day, I am a modern woman who would prefer modern conveniences. So I don't need the pretty building if it means the floors are torn up and the fuses don't work and there's no freezer or elevator etc. Sure, it'd be great if I could have it all but if I have to choose, modern wins:



Let me refresh your memory with a little floor plan action here:



You see in the top right there you can either take the lovely spiral staircase in a bright atrium sort of thing or you can take the elevator. We're on the German 3rd floor (American 4th floor). So when you come in there is that "Diele"/hallway except it's really more of a foyer/entry way/mud room in my head. I expect we'd put our bench from my old laundry room there with the kids shoes stored in it. Perhaps some hooks on the wall, a coat rack, etc. It's also where our little buzzer is to let visitors in the building and I always feel like Seinfeld. (It's this "phone" thing on the wall.)



Off the Diele is also where you find the entrance to the "WC"/guest bathroom. I didn't post a pic of it before so I had some "new" things to show you in this post but here it is:



Also off the Diele you can enter the oddly shaped room with aaaaalllllll the windows:



We had initially thought of this being the master bedroom. However, being inside the room with it's odd shape, I saw absolutely no way to make it work as a "master". In fact, because of that, I stopped really considering this flat as an option initially. Jason asked for measurements and we cut out little beds to scale on a tiny model floor plan and placed them in the room and I basically said, "I will not consider this flat if this is my room". Jason said things like, "Yeah, that's not ideal" in regards to the 30 cm (about 1 foot) of clearance to walk between the wall and the foot of the bed at one point. :) So . . . I brought up the idea of making it the boys' room. With their twin bunk beds I could maybe see it happening that way. Indeed, this will be the boys' room:





The "Wiga" is short for Winter Garden and the only access is from the boys' room but the family still gets access to it somehow. We'll work it out.



I can see maybe growing a small container garden in there or perhaps putting my laundry drying rack in there. We don't actually have a balcony here but that's okay because I've been on the balcony in our current flat, like, all of two times. Okay, it's been more that than to supervise the kids at the recycling bins in the courtyard, to hang laundry, or to cut the kids' hair. I've never once sat out there and just enjoyed looking at the backs of the buildings across from me or anything. :) And, as vegetarians, well, we don't exactly do a whole lot of grilling. Our grill lives with my mom now anyway. :)

Moving on.

The last door way off the Diele would be the Wohnzimmer (Living Room):



That is taken from what will be where the dining table goes. There is no room in the kitchen for any sort of table in there. You can see the windows out to the street below and up in the left you will notice the glass double doors to the boys' room and WiGa. We will perhaps have to do something about the see through-ness of the doors. Not for the boys, necessarily, but more for late night football watching/bill paying/beer drinking taking place in the Wohnzimmer.

This is near the double glass doors we were just talking about looking towards the dining area and the kitchen.



The door to the kitchen actually slides closed. What a space saver! ;)



Looking even closer at the double doors to the boys' room:



And from this corner you can also see a bit of the door way back to the Diele on the far left there:



Where should we go next?

Ah yes. Kitchen.





The fridge is the narrow door to the left of that microwave there. The freezer is below the fridge.





We are very excited to have a microwave again. Jason has been missing his nightly popcorn. Or heating up leftovers.

I'm also excited to have a double sided sink again:



And this pull out drawer to keep our 16 billion different types of recycling sorted.



Right now we like to keep our waiting recyclables attractively displayed on the kitchen counter. Oh! You can also see the dishwasher to the left of the under sink recycling spot in that pic.

Okay . . . last part of the flat:

In that above pic where I'm showcasing where the dining table will go and you can see into the kitchen? Remember it up there? Well, off to the left you can see a glass door separating off the main living quarters.

But go through it and that's where you'll find the hall to the bedroom Jason and I are claiming:



Autumn will get the smaller one:



In between them is the main bathroom with a tub/shower and the space for a stacked washer/dryer:







This bathroom's door is different than drawn in the floor plan way above and the door actually swings right into the toilet sitter's knees. Good thing there is another bathroom where maybe not as much bathroom time-sharing will have to go on.





I only took a picture of that because I'm excited that the tub drain is not right under that shower head like it is at our current flat. I realize that's the way it is at most American homes, but at our current flat, it is constantly being unknowingly stepped on for some reason and the tub fills with soapy run-off. I'm glad that won't happen any longer. I also hope this tub holds water. It quickly leaks out at our current place whenever I've attempted a bath.

Finally, just between this main bathroom and Autumn's room is a small storage space (see floor plan as I didn't take a pic even though I'm really excited about it). It's not closed off with a door or anything like a real closet but I'm thinking maybe a small curtain on a tension rod or something but I'm super stoked about some in-flat storage. You will notice on the floor plans that there's not a single closet, linen cupboard, or pantry. So this is nice to have. In addition, we have a small locked storage unit in the basement or "keller" (you know, a cellar but you pronounce a hard "c"/"k" here). I imagine that's where we might store out of season clothes (in bags because I think it's also quite moist down there), perhaps holiday decorations, maybe our suitcases, etc. The building also has a locked room inside for our bikes. Our current building offers neither of those things. Perhaps they're standard in "most" flats around here but we never saw any in the other 4 we visited nor do we have that here so I just made my assumptions. Anyway . . .

Yay!

As I mentioned before, while this unit comes outfitted with a way better kitchen than we would've paid for ourselves, we've got to still do things like the light fixtures:



That's in the living room.

This is the boys' room, with both ceiling and sconce-type fixtures being needed:



And there you have it!

We'll be in quite a touristy part of town which I wasn't thrilled about but it's not the worst ever. Especially since I'm so frequently stopped for directions. :) We're near quite a few hotels, lots of shopping, not too far from the zoo, we've got a pretty "main" subway stop about as close as we are to "our" subway stop at this temporary flat. But, not so much in the way of groceries. Especially not the "Bio" groceries we prefer. There are options, however. Like one friend gets her groceries delivered for supposedly not all that much money (I think she said seriously only like €2 or €3!?!?) I can see getting some of the bigger staples delivered and supplementing with filling my backpack with produce and bakery items like I've been doing lately anyway. I haven't shopped with my grocery trolley since last weekend but I've been to at least one grocery store every single day for something or other. So it's do-able. I really made up my mind after talking to some of our new friends. They just found a fifth floor flat . . . without a lift. If they can get groceries up to their place, I've got to stop feeling like "it's too hard" for me. :)

We're super close to one subway stop on one line and still quite close to the bigger stop I mentioned above with 3 lines running through it. Our new favorite restaurant (the burrito place similar to Chipotle) is also an easy walk away! We are roughly 1.5 miles (2.4 km) due north of the boys' new school. That's possibly do-able on bikes. There are the subways still too though. We are going to be within walking distance of Jason's job. Maybe about 15 minutes or less as his office is about a half mile (.8 km) north of the flat. His walking would largely depend on weather, of course, but Germans are all-weather folks. Just dress appropriately and head on out. We played at the park in the rain this afternoon. (Very mild rain but still! It's a start!)

So there it is. So sorry I took "so long" to fill you all in. This week has been quite crazy with school stuff. More on that some other time. Thanks for tuning in!