We Now Live in an IKEA Display

Seriously. If you came in here, you would look around for staff in the blue and yellow aprons! Here are some pictures so you know what I mean:

Living Room:


The couch has a trundle bed underneath that pulls out, and combined with the seat, makes a double bed. That's where the kids sleep. There's a nice flat screen TV in the corner, but we only get two English language channels: BBC News and BBC One. The kids really like watching German language cartoons, though, especially SpongeBob SquareKopf.

Desk/Dining Area:

You can see that next to the couch there is a small desk with two chars tucked under it. It also has a small table that fits right underneath it. We pull it out into the room to eat. We use the two chairs provided with the desk and two more folding chairs kept in one of the many closets. That's one thing to be said for this apartment -- there is a lot of storage space. Kind of like IKEA...hmmmm. Also, that curvy chair behind the wall is soooo uncomfortable and such a temptation for children to climb. We'd love to have it taken out of here, but I don't think they would have anywhere to put it.

Kitchen:



Here are two views of the kitchenette. It is cunningly made for such a small space. The top photo shows the stove top, which has a storage cabinet overhead and a drawer and cabinet underneath. To the right of the stove is a refrigerator (the big gray cabinet) and an oven that works both as a microwave and a convection oven. There is also another stroage cabinet over the oven.

The lower picture shows the sink area. The garbage and compost waste is stored under the sink and there's a tiny little dishwasher next to the sink (you can't really see it here). It's the cutest little thing you've ever seen, and designed to easily fit the cooking utensils and dishes dirtied by a family of four. The cloth you see hanging on the door is hanging on one of two hooks that are there just to hang your cloths.

Bedroom:

There's not much to say about the bedroom. It's two separate beds pushed next to each other, which sounds uncomfortable but is actually kind of nice. They don't seem to move around or gap in the middle, so it's possible they are attached to each other. Since I don't have to make the beds (yay for maid service), I have no idea. The good part is that we each have our own sheets and blankets. Aside from the bed, there's not much more than two bedside tables and a closet in there.

Tub and shower area:

The separate toilet/tub and shower areas were heavily advertised as a feature of this apartment. This is the tub and shower area. The tub is really deep and the kids love bathing in there. The curvy sink is pretty but kind of impractical. The shower, which you can't really see, is tucked in the left corner. This room is quite large and a comfortable place to get changed after you bath.

Toilet area:


This room is very, very small. In fact, I don't really like being in there with the door shut all the way because it's a bit claustrophobic. The toilet has two options: small flush for when you pee and big flush for when you do something else. It also has it's own little wash basin, which is nice. You can sort of see Jack's potty on the floor in the foreground there. He's been doing great with peeing, but he had a little poop accident in his underwear this evening. Fortunately, it was Jim's turn to clean up the mess.

View across the street:

This is the view from our living room window. See all the shutters? They appear to be metal. Almost all of them have been pulled down since we arrived, but there are clearly people living on some of the floors who open theirs. I'm not sure what they're for -- they look kind of like hurricane shutters.

View down the street:


This is the view down Hammerstrasse. There's not much to say about it.

Anyway, if you want a 3-D tour of our apartment, you can check it out here. Click on the oval that says "virtueller besuch" underneath the photo on the page, and then click on "die wohnungen" to get a drop down menu. Make sure to choose the second option for 2 zimmer-wohnung -- the first one is a different style of apartment from ours. The second option gives you a 360 degree virtual tour of an apartment like ours -- you will really get an idea of how small it is!