Apartment

Here in Okpo, we live in a large high-rise Apartment Complex called Evervill.  It consists of probably around 8 or so 15 story buildings, parking garages, security gate, rec center, pool, and outdoor playground.  It is very nice, and is only a few years old.  

Our apartment is on the second floor of one of the front buildings.  It has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, plus an office.  The decor is nice and modern, but some elements are a little confusing, strange, and/or mis-matched in my opinion. You'll see...

We'll start the tour at the front door.  The above photo is looking at our front door from inside our entryway.  The door to the left is the door to the outside hallway/stairs.  It has a weird design on it that makes it look like it has a window to some prairie scene.   There are also little cartoon characters at the bottom of the door for some reason.  They like cartoon characters here in Asia...a lot.   There's also some film, I assume for privacy, on the windows here - and maybe to continue to pretend you're actually in a house, although the themes don't really match.  Same with the brick walls.  The door to the right has a key lock and looks more like a front door.  The crutches were left by the last people, along with a lot of other things.  Behind the door on the right are lots of cabinets for storage.

Here, further into the apartment and inside the second door is our entry.  There's a mirror, more storage on both sides and spots for our shoes.  It's custom here in Korea to take off your shoes before you enter the home - for cleanliness.  I have tried to adopt this, because I think it makes sense.  Especially with baby spending so much time on the floor playing.

As you enter, from the entry, to your right will be our guest bathroom.  Behind the mirrors are shelving and storage.  I like how a lot of the storage is hidden in this apartment which gives it a clean, minimalistic feel.  I love the flooring, not sure what it is, but it is a stone, that reminds me of wood.  Really beautiful.

It has a bathtub which is great for bathing the baby.  The vent looking thing in the floor is actually the overflow - we have one in our master shower as well, but in there it actually functions as the drain.  Like I said above, I love the tile on the floor, but it is one of 4 different types, that in my opinion, don't go together well, and then, the decals/stickers....

just to the left of that, and facing the entry is our 2nd bedroom which is the baby's room.  I suppose it used to be another small child's room as well, as the previous tenants left some character decals on the window.  They're cute and andrew likes them so we left them up.  We don't have a changing table, so I change him on a towel on the bed.  It kind of hurts my back sometimes because it is so low, but it works.  The white thing on the upper left wall is our air conditioning for this room.  It has a remote, but it makes some strange noises sometimes, and andrew always stares at it -makes me wonder if he is scared of it.  

From the inside of the room, you can see the closets and out into the hall and entryway towards the front door.

This is one side of his closet - the other side has 2 drawers.  Plenty of room for his things.

Moving back out into the hallway, you can see our dining and kitchen area to the left our master straight ahead, and to the right is our office and then our Living room after that.

Here's a quick peek into the office - we moved the desk into the living area, so we just use this room for storage.  Outside of the office is a sunroom, which I see in almost all the apartment buildings here - it looks like it's mainly used for drying clothing - at least that's what I see in other apartment windows.  And the clothes lines are permanently installed.   People here seem to line dry clothing a lot, which I assume is because energy is expensive here - I assume it's the same reasoning for the warm temperature in the Narita airport and the lack of Central A/C in every apartment building I've seen here.  Luckily, we don't have to pay for our electricity.

P.S.  the dead plants are from the previous tenants as well.  thanks.

working on getting building management to remove them.  

This is the couch and coffee table in our living room.  The couch is really nice leather, reminds me of ours at home.  We brought our own pillows and throw blankets.  The surround sound speakers, lamps, rugs, etc are part of the furnishings including with the apartments.  The coffee table makes me really nervous.  Andrew has already fallen and hit his cheek on the edge.  We found foam corner bumpers but he has ripped them off each time we try and stick them on.  The gadgets on the wall are an air purifier, lights, in-floor heating, and our home automation touch screen.  When someone rings the doorbell or buzzes you from the building door, it rings, and video comes up and you can buzz them in.

The desk and computer are in the living room, mainly because we have our tv hooked up as a second monitor - so we can watch Uverse over the internet.  Also, we have Skype on the Tv as well.  The big box in the left corner is the AC for the living room/kitchen area.  We have a nice view of the DSME shipyard our our windows on this side.  More on that later.

The media furniture was low to the ground, and andrew was pressing all the buttons, so we improvised by raising the tv up on top of the nightstand that was in the office and surrounding the electronics with andrew's playpen.  It's worked great so far.  Andrew did an awesome job of setting it up so that we can watch american tv and Skype.

Moving into the Master bedroom, we have a queen bed, our own air conditioner, and another great view of the shipyard.  And no TV, which I like.

 We brought our own bedding.  I am so glad we did.  Also the mattresses are thin and hard.  We also brought a bamboo/memory foam topper and love it.

These are our closets, including another small walk-in at the back of the room (mirrored doors).

Plenty of storage for all our clothes.

Here's my vanity, which I love.  Just need a magnifying mirror and I will be all set.  Again, lots of hidden storage cabinets and drawers.

Behind the vanity is our master bath.  Very small, but it's all we need.  Weird high-tech toilet seat, we just unplugged it.  

Shower is nice, water pressure is great, water is always hot.  :)

Back out into the living area is our dining room, it's open to the living room.  I like the chandelier, but they mix a lot of gold fixtures with the silver, not sure why.  I brought a few things to decorate with, photos and things.  We moved the other chair into the baby's room, to make room for the highchair.  The silver line you see on the wall is actually the door to our pantry.

In this view, the kitchen is to the right, but our refrigerator, Laundry room and more storage is straight back.

The refrigerator is much larger than I expected in a foreign country.  Very happy with it.  The color is perplexing.

Nice Sized kitchen, big sink, dishwasher, and even a mini-fridge hidden in the cabinets.  Cabinets don't have pulls, so baby doesn't open them really which is great.  Bad thing is that the oven controls are low, and he can reach them.  I tell him no and he leaves them alone for the most part.  The glass on the front of the oven does get very hot.  He and I both learned that the hard way!  He was okay, but I hate that - it makes me nervous.  

They have some cool gadgets built into the kitchen, such as a sanitizer for cutting boards, and a fruit and vegetable washer - I thought it was a deep fryer at first. You can see the laundry room through the window.

Pros:  We have a full size samsung washer!  Cons:  Everything is in Korean.

as with all of our appliances, all the buttons, remotes, everything is in Korean.  Luckily, the apartment gives us a manual with (decent) translations of the main buttons.  Even with the translation, the laundry took a little bit of figuring out.  It's a washer dryer combo, so it washes and dries.  This was definitely new for me.

At first, I thought it didn't even have a dryer, as Andrew said the maids that come every monday were doing his laundry and line drying it when he was here by himself.  I don't know if they were using soap or not, but the towels and his clothes were so stiff!  I figured it out by searching for similar models' manuals in english and spanish and was able to dry clothes just fine.  I don't know what he did with those clothes and towels.  Hopefully he wasn't walking around in cardboard clothes while he was here for almost 3 months!

The maids, by the way are so nice!  At first, I was hesitant to let them come, but it helps me so much, especially with a toddler.  I told them that I do all the laundry, so they just do the floors and bathrooms, dusting, etc.  The baby and i go to the playground and the grocery store while they are here.  More on that later.

Oh, and someone told us that these apartments sell for 1 million euros, or 1.3 million US dollars - crazy!

Likes:  Nice, new, modern apartment. It's got everything we need!  Technology such as gadgets and internet are very advanced.  No pulls on cabinets. Built-ins/storage.  I like that we are on the 2nd floor for easy access to the outside, but the steep hills make our view look like we are on the 12th floor!

Dislikes:  In room air conditioning units - room units can be noisy and remotes are in korean, so we are limited on customizing their functions. All appliances are all in Korean. We can hear neighbors upstairs, and on one side of us.

New Things:  Produce washer.  washer/dryer combo, home automation center.

Things I miss:  my own house, without sharing walls.  A feeling of permanence, this feels very temporary, which it is.