N: Renovation

Since our arrival in mid-august, we have been fortunate to be living in one amazing apartment.  The owners are currently in America, but when they first heard of our difficulty in renting an apartment last February, we talked about house sitting upon our arrival.  It has been pretty fantastic.  They packed up most of their belongings, cleared out their office, put thing in storage, gave us keys, and set their place up to be our home until we found some place new.  This blessing has given us the freedom to look for our own place without a significant time crunch (they return in Jan/Feb).

We are still house sitting but we started renting our own place October 1!  It is a great location, small complex, and has no other non-Chinese living there.  The last month has been spent making some renovations to make it more suitable for S and to give it our own touch to make it OUR home and not just a rental home.  What really makes this place great it our landlord.  She speaks a little English (she is an English teacher at the university where we study Chinese) and also understands that we won’t destroy the place in a manner similar to what temporary students might.  We have a two year contract at a fantastic rate.  She also gave us the go ahead to paint, renovate the bathroom, and do any work that we think is necessary.  We, of course, have to pay for those things, which we are willing, and she is also willing because she understands that it will improve the home’s condition.  Also, we trust her.

The place is 3 bedroom (office, master, and s's), one bath, dining, kitchen, and livingroom.  The laundry drying room is connected to the master.

K is out selecting fabric for curtains.  I bet we'll have them finished (put together and made) in a couple days.

Things we needed to change in the apartment:

*Install a bathtub for S

*A sink in the bathroom – to replace the one taken out to make room for the tub

*Add water/drain to add washing machine in bathroom – currently in dining room

*Patch holes in wall, fix up laundry drying room, fresh paint for whole apartment

*Replace kitchen spicket with a kitchen faucet, move water source BELOW sink rather than above

Some pictures of the place - prework:

  
  all the rooms have these built in wardrobes.  Fantastic stuff.

Renovation is messy work in China:

Another note: overalls are just about the greatest thing for S.

 

Learning Chinese is still pretty cool.  I got a message from China IKEA recently about some good deals…