Our Apartment

Welcome to our apartment!

We are thankful our organization found such a nice place for us to live. It has been remodeled and feels very contemporary. It's fairly near the center of town, in the Shenhe district. The rent is approximately $435 per month, which seems very reasonable to us for such a spacious place in a big city. It has three bedrooms and one bathroom, a living room, dining room, kitchen and enclosed porch for hanging our clothes to dry. It's on the fifth floor (75 steps with no elevator), but that hasn't been too much trouble. Molly can climb up quite quickly and Hudson has made it all the way to our door by himself as well.

Here's the entryway (note the slippers for guests to wear):

Here is the living room:

The tall thing to the left of the window is an air-conditioner. That will come in very handy this summer. The big window provides a nice, sunny alcove. We have lots of natural light, as well as all kinds of neat light fixtures. Great lighting all around!

There are three stairs leading up to our bedroom, the bathroom and the office/guest room. This landing provides the perfect place for Molly and Hudson to perform. They dance and sing constantly. They can see themselves in the entryway mirror, which is a plus for them.

The dining room has lots of storage space, with cabinets below the counter to the left and shelves behind the mirrored wall:

The kitchen is a nice size. It has one gas burner for cooking, a microwave, a refrigerator and an automatic washing machine. We purchased a rice cooker and may invest in a toaster oven before too long. In the past there was a water heater for the kitchen sink, but it's no longer there now. We heat water in the kettle for washing dishes.

It's hard to get a good shot of the "porch" or enclosed balcony, but it runs the length of the kitchen:

The bathroom has an enclosed shower and a water heater that heats the water for the shower and the sink. This is fantastic! Every night for the two years we lived in Changchun, I wished to be able to wash my face with hot water.

We picked out the bedding for Molly and Hudson's room and brought many of their special toys from home. Their room came with a desk, shelves and Snoopy curtains! We added a chest of drawers.

Hudson's bed, note his "girls" -- Dora, Soccer Dora and Sweet Pea Beauty:

Molly's bed:

Our bedroom has a king-sized bed, end table and wardrobe. We added the chest of drawers:

And finally our office and guest room, where Kevin's mom has been staying. Note the pretty but very sheer curtains! They're not so great about keeping out the morning sun -- but I don't think that has bothered her too much with Molly and Hudson still waking up so early as they adjust to the 13-hour time difference.

Wow, 20 photos is a lot for one post! Thanks for making it all the way through. :) We've enjoyed adding personal touches to our apartment to make it feel more like home. Let me know if you'd like to come visit!
~Dayna