New Place, New Space

Living room in our new flat
Now that we're pretty well settled in our flat in Riga, I thought I'd share a bit about our new living arrangements.

We're in a much smaller (and cozier) building this time - a house with only four flats in it. The stone house was built in 1800s so has very thick walls. Hopefully, that will keep out the heat in the summer.

As you can see by the picture on the left, our flat actually has two floors. The upper floor has our bedroom, bathroom and family room, so we have lots more space than any of our other apartments in Europe. We have lots of room for guests (hint).


The lower level has the living room, office, kitchen and another bathroom. It's actually the closest to a US apartment that we've had to date. We have a dishwasher and garbage disposal in the kitchen. The laundry area in the basement has a washer and a DRYER!! First time in years that I have some of these luxuries.



During the last week, I have found a couple quirky things about the kitchen. One of them is the way the oven is configured on the inside. The baking coil is a third of the way up from the bottom of the oven.

The first time I wanted to use it, I pulled out all the pans over and under the coil thinking there would be another place to plug in the coil on the bottom of the oven, but no.

In the space under the coil there are other baking pan shelves. There are no regular wire racks in the oven at all. Only black solid oven-pan type shelves. Very strange setup, but the oven works quickly.  There, of course, isn't a book of directions for the oven in the flat either, so I can't read to find out how to use it. I guess that means I won't be baking the turkey for Thanksgiving next year - my oven is way to small to hold a turkey with a third of the space gone.


The other thing that is rather strange is the trash container under the sink. The trash can is attached to the door on a hinge-like device. As the cabinet door opens wider, the trash bin pulls out more, as I tried to show in the pictures.


When the cabinet door is opened wide, then the trash container is fully open and can be used or emptied as the need arises.

This definitely keeps the trash can out of sight in the rest of the kitchen, but takes over most of the space beneath the sink. I usually use that space for my cleaners, detergents, etc. so those things are kept to the bare minimum.

I guess if those are the worst part of my flat, I better not complain. I just brought up my newly dried shower towel. It's SO SOFT! I forgot how soft towels get in a dryer. I love my new apartment - especially the dryer!

Comments

  1. What a beautiful home! Looks like a perfect place to cozy up during the winter

    ReplyDelete

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