Tag Archives: new home

meet the neighbour

27 Sunday Feb 2011

Posted by in animals & pets, cats, home

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I’ve come across this beauty a couple of times coming up the stairs – she seems to have free rein of the building. And yesterday I found her out on my terrace! Since her terrace has “kitteh protection” along the side I can only guess that she made her way over via the roof. Clearly her owner has no qualms about letting her go wherever she likes, and it looks like she’s made it to a healthy age without falling… but I still don’t think I’d like to let Loki out on the terrace just in case.

Isn’t she gorgeous? I don’t know if you can tell from the photos but she is enormous – longer, taller and chunkier than Loki. I’d say her head is half again as large as his.  And she’s super friendly. As are all the neighbours I’ve met here so far (all but two). I’m dying to know her name – think I’ll go and introduce myself to her human to find out.

one room at a time: kitchen

10 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by in change, food & drink, home

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So this is the first day that my new kitchen has actually felt “operational”. There is still some organising to do, and a couple of minor repairs pending, but at least now things are put away so that I know where everything is. This is a quick photo taken just now while starting to cook the first “proper dinner” here. Which will be marinated potatoes, steamed broccoli and grilled presa. Yum.

Of course the kitchen was the most important room to be made properly functional. And with all my blue and yellow stuff, it kind of makes the RED actually look kind of cute – primary colour kitchen. Also, the red cupboard knobs remind me of flamenco polka-dots. I still think I’d prefer to have the dishwasher removed to give me more storage space, but mostly what I would LOVE would be to change that ceramic-top cooker to a gas one. I already hate the cooker – it’s even worse than the one over at the old place (which was top of the line). I don’t like cooking with electric under the best of conditions, and this is far from the best.

But poco á poco, especially with my ANKLE. So frustrated I can’t be doing more, accompanied by worries that I’m doing too much. I mean, I can’t even help out by carrying  a basket of laundry to hang upstairs. It’s driving me bonkers. I think the next room will be a tandem effort between the livingroom and upstairs study… with this ankle I barely get a chance to visit the upstairs and terraza. But MUST water plants tomorrow.

Sara & Steve … if you click on the pic and look real close you can see all the Simon’s Cat magnets on the top part of the fridge (on the left).

What would be your priority rooms?

settling in…

31 Monday Jan 2011

Posted by in change, home, hope, sevilla

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Here’s Azar sitting next to me on my comfy chair right now while I sit in the middle of the room with the desk wheeled over so I can use my laptop comfortably. Mostly all moved in now although the place is still a total disaster area, with lots and lots of cleaning and organising to do and a few things to get the landlords to fix…

But it actually felt great waking up this morning in my new home. And I’m so pleased to see the cats all curious about their new surroundings – especially Azar. He’s friskier than I’ve seen him in ages. And Peter also seems a bit recharged, in spite of all the physical work he’s been doing this past week, particularly yesterday.

Just one last bit of “leftovers” to shift over from the old place, and take care of changing over the utilities, and tomorrow I will say goodbye forever to the old casa az.

I thought I was going to miss my old place, but when I left it last night without all my stuff  inside I realised that what made it a home was everything I’d put into it. With all that gone it didn’t look so special, just like a place that used to be my home. I’m glad I have the video to remember it fondly, and I will miss the orange trees and the azahar, but there’s so much here to enjoy that I’m sure it’ll all balance out. And anyhow, the orange trees are just five minutes away (and I can also get a small one for my rooftop terrace!).

I have a feeling that living here in a new neighbourhood in this wonderful new apartment is going to be quite an adventure. Earlier today I hung out some clothes to dry in the sun on my terraza and thought … this is home!

my heroes!

30 Sunday Jan 2011

Posted by in friends, home

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Ana, Lalo & Isidro

All in all I had less than a week to move after signing my new contract last Monday and finally shifting stuff over to the new apartment today. Frantic and haphazard packing took place, with Peter doing the lion’s share of the work, and box hunting became a daily expedition. When friends first heard of me having to move a couple of months ago, and how distressed and overwhelmed I was about how I was going to get it done, they assured me they’d be there and help out. Ha. Not one of them came through. In the end, I posted a plea for helpers on Twitter/Facebook and got a reply from someone called Ana who offered me her van and her moving services for a very reasonable fee (compared to the 550 euro quote I got from the moving company last week). But it turned out that her van was too small for my bed and my sofa, so I started looking at vans to hire … and then Ana offered to drive for me. As I couldn’t afford to hire a van and pay her hourly fee, I offered her my help with setting up a blog and a few other social media thangs. And a deal was struck.

But suddenly it was Saturday and I still had nobody to help schlep the stuff – and there was a helluva lot of stuff piling up. Then I remembered that my friend Flor had told me about a handyman she sometimes uses and she thought he also did moving. Called him up around 7pm on Saturday and he said he and a friend would be there at 10.30 the next morning.  He quoted a fee, I counter-offered, and got a lower price. Fine…

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my new home?

19 Wednesday Jan 2011

Posted by in change, home, hope

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Well, I found it! Just by chance after my friend Flor sent me an email last night saying she’d seen a for rent sign up on a building around the corner from her place. So I called and it sounded wonderful – and also too expensive – but I thought it was worth looking at. And man, it’s perfect. Bigger than I was looking for with three bedrooms instead of two (though really one “bedroom” is more of an office space) and 100 square metres not including the massive terrace. On two floors without the dangerous-for-cats spiral staircase. Clean, freshly painted, unfurnished (yay!). Tons of light everywhere, and balconies. The kitchen has loads of cupboard space, the two bedrooms also have lots of closet and storage space. The drawback? The price! And I am so trying to rationalise and figure out how to say yes to this place. My maximum price was set at 750 euros, a hundred euros more than I’m paying now, but I was hoping for 700. But the thing is, this apartment is actually worth the price. Which is 850 euros, and which the owners say they are willing to lower to 800 euros and guarantee that price for two years.

And so, 50 euros more than my maximum price, and 150 more than I am paying now. To be honest, if Peter was working more and paying his share then I could afford it. This irks, because the whole point of sharing your dwelling is to cut costs – this is not happening for me at the moment. Another option is to rent out the “third bedroom” for a few months until things get sorted, to see if Peter gets his shit together. Because really, if I have to share the place then it makes sense to do it with someone who can actually pay, right? I can put up with three for a short time, but hey, there’s only one bathroom. And I know I can find people willing to take that room here on short-term rental, because the apartment is fantastic. And the owners know I’m in love with it, and have given me first option, though I have to decide this week.

Well, I guess you’re wondering what the place looks like. Here are some pics I took this morning with my iPhone that don’t really do it justice, and the apartment was still in the midst of painting and cleaning, and they’ll be hanging curtains, etc, but you can at least get an idea  (click on all the collages to enlarge)…

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