IOU: New House!

Back in June, I switched apartments. My old place was about 25 square meters (269 square feet), which actually had its upsides--it was fairly easy to regulate the temperature, I didn't gather more stuff than I needed, I could clean it in about an hour, etc. However, I couldn't have people over for dinner because there wasn't room in the place to have a shelf and table in the kitchen, or a more than two person table and a bed in the living/bedroom. The functional part of the kitchen/laundry room was one IH burner and a tiny sink, so cooking took a lot of improvisation. It was also really dark, and dark rooms and I aren't friends.

This was the whole apartment, taken sitting down on the bed. You can't see a table to the left or the sink/burner and washing machine behind the right wall. That door with the blue bag was my front door.


So, once I recontracted, I set my sights and my budget on getting a place that a) had a view of something besides a wall, b) had a kitchen counter, and c) was just big enough to have people over.

I got so, so lucky. My building is huge and rather empty, so once the landlord heard I wanted to move, he showed me all the bigger apartments I could move into without paying key money (non-refundable $1000+ housing deposit) again. The first one he showed me had a kitchen with three glorious gas burners and fish oven, a tatami room, a separate toilet and bath, glass sliding doors all around, and a roof balcony the size of the apartment again that I would have all to myself. I was in love. It's mine now, all 49 square meters of it.

The kitchen:

The balcony:

The view:

I'm short on good pictures of the tatami room and kitchen post-move in. The only problem I've had has been with the hot water heater. As the repairman put it, "its heart gave out." I got a new one free (!) and fancy control panels for my sink and bath that let me pre-program a full, 40c bath for when I get home. Not much trouble, really.

Clearly, luck and landlord were on my side. Now, off to fully appreciate my kitchen by making dinner and messing it up.