Apartment alchemy

I started moving into my new apartment today.

I asked the Italians if I can keep my room with them for a week longer so I can do the move slowly, and they happily agreed. It's a good thing, too, because there's no way I could have made my new place livable in just one day. I still need to get lamps so it's not pitch dark in there at night, and sheets, blankets and a pillow.

But I got a lot done today.

I took a cab over there with the larger of my two giant suitcases, some plastic bags filled with random stuff, and my little temporary bed. My bed looks like the brown one on the left pictured below:


The new place is really beat up, so first I went to the hardware store and lugged a whole lot of stuff home. I went there twice, in fact. I got a ladder, a folding work table (the thing opens up to an incredible length), power drill, drill bits, screw drivers, a wrench, needle nose pliers, light bulbs, masking tape, screws, and nails. Crap, I forgot to get a hammer.

By the time all that was taken care of it was 5pm and all the stores were beginning to close. NOOOOO!
The next time I will be able to do any real shopping is next Saturday, a week from today, so I had to find something that was still open.

I jumped on the S-Bahn in hopes that IKEA was still open, but after I had walked 15 minutes from the train stop and was still many blocks from IKEA it occurred to me that no way was I going to be able to lug a ton of things home with me, and I slowed to a halt.

And that's when I noticed the giant "Kaufland" store that stood before me. I'd never seen or heard of a Kaufland, but the logo looked vaguely familiar:

Plus, "Kaufland" sounded like the kind of place where I might find things I was looking for. ("Kauf" means "buy")

Once inside, it at first looked like a giant grocery store, but then I saw that there were aisles with other things, too. It turned out to be more like a Target store with the emphasis on groceries. I found a 2 burner electric hot plate for 24 Euros, which made my day because no kitchen sink or stove/oven have been installed yet in the new place. I'm going to call on Monday to see if that's going to be rectified any time soon or if it's going to be up to me to install these things. I also bought kitchen towels, bath towels, plastic bowls, sponges, a bucket, a mop, hand soap, a mug, a drinking glass, a set of silverware, two kitchen knives, a cutting board, a drain stopper, and a philodendron for the kitchen window:

I lugged everything back to the new place, and then hopped on the train and headed back to my room at the Italian's place.

I surfed around on the internet, looking for places where I could find a cheap refrigerator (there's no refrigerator at the new place either, seriously it's like wtf, why does everything have to be so haaaaaard) and I found a used one advertised by the owner for 130 Euros. It's not one of the little mini fridges, it's one of the tall ones with a separate freezer on top, which is a major score here, PLUS it was advertised as including transport, and that was the clincher. I emailed the guy and told him that if he would lug it up my stairs to my apartment on the 4th floor I would give him 10 Euros extra for it, and he said jawohl! So tomorrow afternoon I'm going to have my very own used "kombi" refrigerator/freezer.

I'm going to spend the day over there cleaning and prepping the place to be lived in. I've got to get drain-O (or whatever the equivalent is here) for the bathtub, and some general household cleansers, but I figure I can go to the Haupt Bahnhof for that (the train station, of all places, is the only place where you can buy anything on Sundays). It would be awesome if they sold lamps there, but somehow I think that would be asking too much. I'm going to look anyway.

I need to withdraw more cash, too. No one accepts my credit cards here.

The home of the Future

This morning I got up early and walked over to the largest flea market I've ever seen at Mauer Park, only a few block from where I'm currently staying. I thought I would check it out for future reference, and it was fun to browse through all the random stuff. When I'm in a position to start making my place more than just livable it's going to be a great place to find all sorts of interesting odds and ends. But this weekend wasn't about adding personality to my place, it was about adding the basics.

I got to the new space around 1pm, and at 2 my awesome new refrigerator/freezer comb arrived. The guy literally carried it up the stairs on his back, which looked crazy difficult, but somehow he managed, and it's now resting safely in my kitchen. It stands alone, a solitary resident in a space that will hopefully soon be populated by an entourage of fellow useful kitchen essentials.

I think I'm going to attempt to install a sink myself. It doesn't look too complicated, as long as I can get the pipes to fit correctly. Sink basins at Bauhaus (the "Home Depots" here) weren't priced too outrageously, and I saw a nice one for 34 Euros that I think would be perfect. I've just got to find or build some kind of scaffold to hold it up. That's a hurdle for another day, but it's something I'm going to have to tackle soon. I really don't want to have to go with one of those fake granite counter tops, so I'm going to put on my thinking cap and see if I can come up with something better. The French woman I stayed with used a narrow wooden table with a hole cut out for the sink which looked nice. She hung a red curtain across the front to hide the pipes and garbage can below.

Here is my proud new refrigerator:


Notice the beat up walls? I'm going to need to get some plaster, spackling paste, and mixed concrete to deal with all of the damage to the walls, and I've decided that I am going to paint most of the place after all. There's a horrible "mural" in the living room that absolutely has to go, and I'd like to spruce up the kitchen, hallway and bahtroom. So that's another task for me to put on the list. I'm no stranger to paint, though, so it doesn't pose a problem. I think I may go with a dark graphite for the kitchen walls. There will be so much white in there already with the tile and appliances that I could get away with using a strong, dark color and not have it shrink the space.

Here's the current state of the living room:


You can see part of the "mural", and I have to admit that I hate the blue walls. I'm going to paint them a light cream/sandy/almost white color to give the room a larger, brighter feel. I need this room to feel as big as it possibly can because it's going to be the living room AND bedroom.

And then there's the studio. This room needs a lot of love, too.


Note the crazy paint job on the wall, as well as the punched out panel in the door. I'm going to try to integrate the hole in the door with the rest of the space. Maybe I'll grow a plant with vines that goes up and through the hole, or paint something on the wall behind the door that is perfectly framed by the hole. I see the door-hole as an interesting quirk, rather than something that necessarily needs to be fixed. The paint job is unfortunate, but doesn't bother me as much as the nasty blue walls and mural in the other room.

This is the view of the street from my windows:


Yes sir, I live on a genuine, cobble stoned street! Pretty awesome. Plus there is a Spätekauf directly across the street on the corner there, so I am guaranteed to never run out of beer, Ritter Sport chocolate bars or newspapers. YAY