Saturday, June 28, 2008

Weeks 7 + 8: Nesting

Again there has been too much going on for proper weekly posts, but I think I deserve a break considering I just moved into my new flat and have been occupied solely with decorating, organizing, unpacking, yelling at the landlord, etc.

315 Upper Street pretty much rocks. Of course, as with any apartment, there are annoying/disappointg little things that escaped notice during the first viewing. For example, the bathroom was designed by men, for men. The mirror is on the left hand side of the sink. The sink has hot and cold faucets, but not stopper to fill the basin and mix. There is no toilet paper holder (men are FINE with keeping the roll on the back chamber), and absolutely NO storage. No medicine chest, no shelves, nothing. Thankfully the former tenants sold us a lot of household goods, including an IKEA cd shelf that was used for bathroom product storage. Obviously two girls have a lot more personal hygiene products, and therefore the tall skinny shelving unit is woefully inadequate.

Another weird thing about the apartment is that EVERY ROOM has a door. One wants a door on the bathroom and the bedrooms, but the kitchen and the lounge (living room) have them too. Being the handy, crafty girl and daughter-of-my-father that I am, I attempted to take the doors off the lounge and kitchen, but they have weird gear chains in the middle of the doors. Phil of course told me how to remove those, but they are full of grease and one set is painted over. So they are now functioning as drying racks for les sheets.

Oh, the sheets. THE SHEETS. They are worth every pence. Sliding beneath my duvet and snuggling against my four medium/firm goose down pillows every night is an absolute joy. Unfortunately, the hubbub and commotion of Upper Street makes falling (and staying) asleep difficult, but I'm slowly adjusting.

An apartment wouldn't be an apartment without landlord issues. We moved in to find mold still in the bathroom, a vent fan that didn't work, a communal hallway light that did not turn on, and a hideously large sofa that took up the entire living room. One phone call fixed all of these problems, except the sofa. The sofa, it turns out, was purchased expressly for us and was to stay in this apartment unless we paid a £90 restocking fee to the store. Several heated exchages resulted in no change from the landlord, so Big Blue is here to stay. Creative interior design and organization fixed the space problem, and a large khaki sheet from IKEA will hopefully solve the BLUE problem. GRRRR. Is it so wrong to want a well-designed home?!

Despite these niggling details (and more - like why do we not have a deadlbolt lock on the door to the apt? why does this place collect more dust than Utah during a drought? why does the weight fall out of my shade every time I open my bedroom window?), I love 315. It is a cozy place, and its slowly becoming more and more a home every day.

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