My Apartment and Getting Settled

I have been moved into my apartment for two weeks now.  Originally I thought I would be settled much faster than this.  But finding places for everything is much more difficult when I don't have all the old furniture and storage places that I am accustomed to.  For example, I had a small two drawer file cabinet at home that held all my office supplies and personal paperwork.  Here I don't have any such cabinet, so that stuff is just in a pile on the kitchen table!  Another example is that I used an over-the-door shoe rack to hold alot of shoes at home.  I brought it with me, but the doors here are a little bit thicker than the standard doors in the US and consequently, the rack will not fit.  So now I have a pile of shoes in the corner. 

Most of these things can be remedied with a trip to Ikea, but I don't have a car.  Getting to Ikea is possible via public transportation, but I just need to set aside an evening to do it. 

Another setback I had in moving in is that I came down with the flu less than 24 hours after the movers arrived.  It is rare that I am sick with anything more than a cold, so this hit me hard and I was home from work and mostly in bed for 3 days.  Followed by another 4-5 days of feeling generally lousy.  Not a great formula for unpacking and being alone so far from home.  This last week has been better though and hopefully I will be able to get even more done here so that my apartment can feel more like a home to me. 

Here are a few things that are GREAT about my new place:
1. Location - the building sits on a main road, which I like because I'm not a fan of walking down long isolated streets alone at night.  It is also less than a 2 minute walk to my nearest Tube station and I'm discovering the bus system and loving that too.

2. Closet space - Because most of the buildings here are very old and just updated, they often don't have closets.  My bedroom has two large Ikea wardrobes in it and I'm able to accomodate nearly all my clothes without too much trouble.

3. The living room windows - They are large, floor-to-ceiling and when the sun comes out (which admittedly is rare), its nice to open up the shades and let it shine in!

 

4. Dishwasher - need I say more? Didn't think so. :)

 

A couple of things I find lacking:
1. The bathroom - I have a very special bathroom that is referred to as a "wet room." There is no seperate shower or tub, just a showerhead on the wall and a drain on the floor. The worst part is that the whole thing sits under the stairs of the building, so it has a slanted ceiling, I can hear people on the stairs in the hallway and it generally feels like a little cave. It depresses me when I wake up in the morning and know that the first place I have to go is into the cave. I'm trying to adjust to it.

2. Location - I know, this was one of my favorites, but now that I am having time to look around, I find that I slightly prefer the area about 1/2 mile away a little better.  Its still close and this probably isn't something worth moving over, just a general feeling I have about the area. 

3. The couch - the apartment was furnished and the couch is really a loveseat.  I'm a big fan of sprawling out on my couch, so hanging my feet over the end isn't great.  If I decide in a couple of months that I'm going to stay in this flat for my entire stay in London, I will probably buy a bigger couch.  The living room is big enough to fit both the loveseat and a full size sofa. 

One last item that isn't good or bad, but I just think is funny.  Look at this gold key - this is one of the actual keys to my apartment.  To me it looks like an antique but they take these little keys seriously here and apparently the locks with these keys are quite secure, so many apartments have one.  I also have a more normal key to open a second lock, the silver one to the side there.