More New Apartment Pics

We go to finally see the apartment yesterday, completely renovated, so I was happy overall with the outcome. There are some negatives (things I would have NEVER done if I owned it!), but nothing is perfect and this is merely a rental so I honestly don't care about this or that because in the end, I do not own it anyway! But I like the flat, it's nice and so I thought I'd share a few more images with you -- this is where we will live in a few weeks.

I showed you this one but I'll share again because now I can point you to the wall with the doors that lead to my work room.



You can find all new home pics here if you'd like to see what you missed perhaps as I'm sharing in bits.

Now here is the door off of that room to my work room. You can also access my work room through the entry way where the front door is and through what I think will be the living room. The doors are original, the house was built in 1900. The floors were oiled and sealed so now they are a shade darker. I preferred them freshly sanded above but when you don't own it, no one cares really what you prefer.



The front of the house has 4 rooms and a wintergarden and balcony - dining/living/work room/and entry room. To the right there is a long hallway. In the middle of the house is the small kitchen, small bathroom, and small half bath. Then you walk to the back of the house and there is a small guest bedroom, our bedroom with a wintergarden, and an office for my husband.

This is our bedroom if I stand where the wintergarten is. That white thing around the bottom of the room is another standard "German" thing. They hide the heat pipes and electrical junk that way. I don't like it because it takes away square footage and furniture cannot lay flush along the wall but in this room, it's not such a big deal as the closet will be put on the wall you are looking at and to the right, the bed.



Sadly, the landlord used laminate in the bedrooms and hallway, which I have such a distaste for and was so sad to see used in this gorgeous home. Hardwood is always better - warmer and softer to walk on. Germans are really into laminate. You won't find carpet in any apartments here like in the states, everything is laminate or hardwood. Some people love it but I'm not one of them. I will put a large area rug in the bedroom to make the laminate "go away".

Thankfully, the front of the house is all hardwood herringbone original floors but the back part of the house is more "modern" with the laminate. It was a HUGE compromise. But you have to compromise when you rent a space, nothing is perfect.

This room below is where my husband will work. It's also in the back of the house near the bedroom. I took this standing near the double windows which are beautiful with a view to the backyard. It was pouring though so the photo came out better from this angle. The room is larger than it appears and is light and bright like the bedroom.



This is the tiny guest bathroom below, only a toilet and sink, but very helpful to have. To the right is a window and another window over that - both are original and very nice though it's impossible in this space to photograph them. I want to wallpaper this bathroom and over the toilet, use a tall vintage cabinet with glass doors to store pretty things in like soaps and towels. This room needs a soft touch. I have no clue what those large silver things are on the wall near the toilet. They are in every apartment here that I've looked at. In the kitchen, in the bathrooms, anywhere "wet" you will find them. Anyone know what they do?



This is the tiny, but very sunny, kitchen in the middle of the house. They took out all of the original details leaving only the nice doors, and tiled it to death (on the walls) but this is a very "German" thing and so nearly all apartments here come with these tiled-to-death bathrooms and kitchen.




Here is the door from the kitchen to the hallway. I love it. This apartment has only original 110 year old doors with the exception of the glass doors that lead to the two wintergartens and balcony. I haven't showed the front door or the living/dining room doors yet, you will love them. Next time. You have to wait a few weeks for those though.



And here is another view of the kitchen. It has two pantry rooms off of it, one is for the vacuum, trash, brooms, storage and the other is for a stackable washer/dryer if we can squeeze it in there. If we can't, we are sorta in trouble because the only other place is the bathroom but the dryer cannot go in the bathroom since it will be too humid so I'm not sure... Let us both hope it will fit into the pantry!



Once the cabinets and such are up, and I wallpaper the kitchen (oh yes, I must cover the bumpy wallpaper that comes standard in every single German apartment) it will look nice and the wall tile will not be as obvious as it is now. I do like the floor though, it is white tile. If I owned this kitchen, the floor would be ripped out and I'd replace it with Belgium tile and the wall tile would come completely off. I'd also install vintage cabinetry and an old farmhouse sink. But after speaking to my husband, it looks like we're going the IKEA route once again. I'm sad about it, I wanted to do something very custom - but my husband reminded me that this IS a rental and we don't want to invest thousands custom fitting a kitchen and months searching for everything.... and he is right. So my challenge is to make this space feel lovely, welcoming, and warm.

The whole apartment is 210 square meters total, and is very nice overall. Again, some things I would change if I owned it but it's the nicest rental we could find as it took us 9 months of full-time house hunting to find it so I'm happy and sure we will enjoy it. I have to decorate it in a way that makes the space cozy and gives it a personal feel.When I move in soon I'll show you the floor plan and take some more photos of rooms I've missed and show you the wintergartens too. They are so beautiful, each with a view of the green backyard.

I'll share the progress as I go!

xo