The New Flat!

We moved into our new flat way back in November and are loving our new home. Many of you have already received the free tour via Skype, but I promised to post some photos.

Our new home is on the Southside of the city (before we were in the West End) and with two bedrooms, a dining kitchen and large living room, it is twice the size of our last flat. Once again we are just renting, so who knows how long we will end up staying here, but for now we are content.


Our flat is on the 2nd level (or third story) of our building, which means that we have a few more stairs to climb, but this really hasn't been an issue.

The entry way has wood floors, which I love. Our last flat had cream coloured carpet in the entry way, which was constantly being dirtied by muddy feet and greasy bicycle tires. With the wood floor, all it takes is a quick sweep or vacuum and the occasional good scrub.

Having more space is great- we can easily walk around both sides of our bed. We no longer have mattresses and boxes 'stored' in our kitchen, and Ross no longer has to worry about cleaning his office space, which used to be in our living room, when we have people over for dinner.

Another plus is the fact that the flat was refurbished only a couple years ago, which means the floors, carpets, paint and wall paper are clean and shouldn't start falling apart for a while. I can honestly say that while we were suffering through the ongoing mold problems in our last flat, I was easily sold on this one when I walked into the bathroom and saw clean white tiles and breathed in the fresh air (not a hint of musty, moldy, mildewy grossness). Four months in and I still haven't discovered any mold.

The kitchen is big and bright, which I really appreciate. Our kitchen is way more than a place to cook- we use it as a dining room, bakery, craft zone, garden and drying rack and laundrette. I especially like that the windows in our kitchen easily open, allowing us to air out all the cooking smells and to use our dryer without having to worry about steam. Our dryer set up is not uber sophisticated- the dryer sits in the corner of our kitchen and when in use, we hook up the dryer hose and hang it out the window... The sight of a long plastic drying hose stretching across the kitchen may not be pretty, but it works!


Our lounge/TV room/Library is much bigger than the living room in our last flat. In fact, our tall bookshelves look small and a little pathetic when set against the high ceilings and bare walls. We definitely need to get some pictures up on our walls and I would love to get an armchair or ottoman to help will out the living room more. The danger with having a bigger home is that you buy more stuff to fill it and before you know, the next move requires two moving vans instead of just one! (I am trying to resist the urge...)

Over the holidays we did go in for a nice rug to help warm up the room, which is all wood flooring. I went for a traditional pattern with a bit of color to liven up a room that was very neutral; white, cream and brown. We were both surprised at how difficult it was to find a rug that was the size we needed. (Apparently not a lot of people need rugs bigger than 6ft X 8ft).

We ended up ordering one online and just hoping that we liked it when it arrived. Considering how little we paid, I wasn't expecting much. Thankfully, the rug has exceeded our expectations. The rug is actually well made and has a nice pattern, and it definitely helped warm up the cold wood floors this winter.

(Notice the Christmas decorations as evidence that I took these photos ages ago):

I realise that I haven't shown you the bedrooms, but it is always good to leave something to the imagination. You will just have to come visit and check them out for yourself!