We have an apartment!

We woke up to rain and intense wind this morning, and I thought "wind+rain=Dawn updating blog". Of course, as this is Wellington, the rain and the wind have stopped and the sun is trying valiently to break through the clouds. Who knows what will happen next?

Before we go out and see the new James Bond movie again (yes again), I will tell you about the apartment that ended our search for an unfurnished place to live. Of course I'll update about last weekend's fun (and Bond) later.

It does feel like we have been here weeks and searching madly for a place. In reality, we've been here about 2 1/2 weeks, and only Darren has been searching madly for a place, when he isn't wildly searching for a job. Since we have grown partial to the convenience of living in Mt. Victoria(we are on Hawker Street), we decided to look there first. Mt. Victoria is an older section of the city. We love that we can walk down the street and never see two houses that look the same - a Victorian will be next to a modern house, which is next to a Cape Cod. Oriental Parade is very much the same, and right around the corner. Of course Oriental is more expensive because it is right on the beach/water, but we looked there too.

When it seemed it was going to be too expensive to live anywhere near the city, we started to consider living outside the city in nearby suburbs like Brooklyn (which has a Central Park!) and Hataitai, where Darrel and Merrin live. While the map shows that these suburbs are seemingly close to the city - maybe even walking distance - the reality is that they are both over large hills (or what I would consider a freaking mountain). We discovered, too, that grocery stores are not within walking distance of the apartments we were considering, and we would need a car if we lived in those areas.


Ok! Back to Mt. Vic, then. Instead of limiting the search to the internet and the paper, Darren started walking down the streets where we would like to live, and looking for "To Let" signs - and that is how he found our current place. He viewed it first and took the pictures below. I was almost completely convinced just looking at the pictures, but was sold once I saw the place for myself. Best yet? It is just down the hill from our current place!




The feel is very similar to our condo in Columbia, in that it is a two bedroom apt on two levels. The bedrooms are really small, so we will have to be creative with the furniture placement, but there is lots of storage and a garage space. There is also a "1/2 bath" downstairs. I love that the living room and kitchen are open, and that we have two large decks that let in lots of sunlight.


The living room also has one entire wall of a built-in bookcase.
Since most of the bookcases we brought fold completely flat, we can easily store them and put everything in the built-in.

The kitchen is right in the center of everything, and even has a breakfast bar with a red top - perfect for our Director's chairs. The refrigerator is behind cabinet doors, and there is even a special metal cabinet to enclose/hide the microwave!








The first balcony is right off the living room/dining room. While the view isn't as stunning as the one we have now, it still is better than looking onto Columbia Road.









Up the stairs, you'll find the main bathroom












and "master" bedroom on the left (it's actually smaller than the 2nd bedroom on the right!)








Luckily, we have this giant closet in the 2nd bedroom, in addition to large closets in the first bedroom:










Oh, yeah! I should mention that while we have already signed the lease, we don't get the keys until January 12th. Considering that is at least a week before our container arrives (unless it arrives early - are you listening ALLIED?), we will need to make-do with borrowed items for a little bit. Of course, Darrel and Merrin have graciously offered for us to stay with them, but we're hoping we don't have to impose on them.