Home Sweet Home

Marshall did a great job of getting an apartment all picked out for us before we arrived.  We talked about what we wanted, and the main criteria were 1) It can't be too far from base since I'm going to be the one pushing 2 kids around in a stroller most of the time- also close to Mdx's preschool would be nice, but not mandatory. 2) We'd prefer 3 bedrooms, but would accept 2 if it meant we could have a nicer kitchen, and 3) would like to have a bathtub or American dryer if possible (but neither of these things are common in Korean apartments).  Well- Marshall found an apartment that met ALL the critieria!  He even negotiated the landlord to put in a water cooler with 4 jugs of water, and a twin bed to put into the 3rd bedroom.  Our shipment was delivered the day before we arrived, and Marshall had already unpacked some stuff and even made the bed so I could rest.

The base bus dropped us off at the base gate, since we didn't have Mom's visitor pass yet, and it was actually closer to our apartment than going on base just to get a taxi to the apartment.  We could only find one taxi, so we filled it with our luggage and walked quickly behind it to get to the apartment.  There was no way we could walk that far with 6 suitcases, 2 duffel bags, 2 kids and a stroller!

Here is our humble abode for the next 10 months:

Marshall posted pics on his blog a while ago, but now you can actually see what it looks like with our stuff in it!  Here is the message that greeted us with Mdx's magnets on the fridge when we arrived:

Here is Maddox's bedroom.  She can show us on the World map where she used to live, and where she lives now.  She has a clock and a nightlight.

Mav's room looks very similar, but with this cute dresser we got downtown...

...which has an amusing Korean translation on the front:

The kitchen- there is a pantry and microwave out of view on the right.

The living room has some cool gold colored fabric wallpaper.  It is a fairly large room, with one long, low, firm sofa.  Through the sliding doors on the right is a small tile floored room with windows to the outside, and the washing machine.  There is a rack on the ceiling where you can hang clothes to dry, and you can see some of our clothes hanging through the frosted glass.

Maddox's favorite addition to our new house- Grammy got her this little chair downtown!  

The biggest bathroom, which has a bathtub.  The other bathroom is smaller and off of the Master BR.

I can't post pictures of the Master Bedroom because it is SO messy right now!  It's the clutter collection area so that the rest of the house can look decent.  What is really interesting about this place are the sliding glass doors/walls that are in each of the rooms.  They go to an outside patio type room that has the windows to outside.  You can open or close the doors depending on how much air you want to be let into the room.  We are using those little rooms primarily as storage for things that aren't climate sensitive. Since we are on the ground floor, with part of our apartment actually underground, some of the windows have bars covering them for safety.  It doesn't really bother me since we can't see them through the frosted glass anyway.  I just wonder how much square footage is taken up by those small patio rooms that don't seem to have much purpose beyond storage.

I can honestly say that this apartment is pretty nice, and certainly nicer than the base housing that we had at Langley AFB when we first moved there!  This apartment is covered by our Overseas Housing Allowance, and we get a utility allowance as well to help cover utility expenses.  There is radiant heating in the floors and I'm still trying to figure out how we can stay warm at night and comfortable during the day- but the Korean thermostat is confusing.  I'll figure it out eventually.  :)