Let's Spruce This Place Up

The weekend before last, motivation struck hard as I noticed three very tiny, but much hated, ants crawling about the apartment. This invasion of personal space was all I needed to jump into a cleaning frenzy. Nick did not seem as concerned about the ants as I did, but I think that was just because he didn't want to spend the day cleaning.

Beyond all the scrubbing and washing we did, the main project I undertook was to remove the half dozen stickers from our table/desk. As much as we love some of the little personal touches previous owners have left in the apartment, we could live without the old, crusted metal band and skater stickers plastered all over the glass top table. So, I went to work.

Not the most comfortable workspace.

But along with my trusty knife, and window cleaner - I went to work and was on a mission.

After I removed the easiest stickers I wanted to give up, but Nick didn't think this was a better alternative to the original.

One of my biggest annoyances is poor quality stickers used on products. I understand from a marketing perspective that these are thought of as essential, but if I choose to remove the poorly placed sticker I do not want to be left with a sticky residue much like the images above. Maybe this is my life calling... to save consumers from idiotically placed stickers made from horrible quality adhesives!

After nearly two hours of picking away, I finally defeated the stickers and am proud to say there is even no sticky remains. To lighten up the table a little, we decided to put a map under the glass. For how much time Nick spends at the computer, I expect him to have all the country flags memorized by the end of next month.

Now that the apartment was clean, my creative juices were flowing. Through inspiration found on Pinterest I went to work on my next project. From the bookstore by work, I picked up ten cheap clip boards (approximate total: $20) to use as place to hang photographs, artwork and the like. Although I did upset our neighbors by nailing into our concrete walls late on a Tuesday night, I am very pleased with the result and can't wait to have fun changing up the collection.

All of the images are from the KTX (a train line) magazine I picked up on our way back from Seoul. It was the quickest way to fill the space but I was actually quite impressed with the photography. Can't wait to see their spring edition!

The Apartment

Nick was gracious enough to set up a brief introduction of our moving adventure. Now I am here to provide a few more details.
 
On Saturday our Co-Director, Tim, picked us up from the hotel in his smallish Kia SUV with his uber adorable 10 month old daughter. What about moving doesn't scream baby?? Besides thinking that her car seat was some type of modern torture device and being a little freaked out by the two strange white people, Elise wasn't too much trouble at all. Tim, however, didn't think to take the baby accoutrements out of the car before leaving home... He also forgot to put shoes on Elise... But who’s really counting the number of mistakes a new father makes ;) Anyways, where was I? Ah yes, long enough story short, Tim ended up using a cell phone car charger to safely secure our only possessions into the back of the car for the short journey to our apartment.

And here she is!

The Master Suite (note the window, which looks into the hallway - and yes, those are bars)

The Luxury Kitchen/Laundry Room, image 1

The Luxury Kitchen/Laundry Room, image 2

The Grand View (the only exterior window in the place)

The Regal Sitting Room

The Stately Restroom, image 1

The Stately Restroom, image 2

Now, don't be all judgmental right off the bat. She has some hidden charm that comes out after you get to know her... But to be fair... She also has some demon-like qualities we could already live without.

For example, our relatively new refrigerator randomly hums so loud I have been close to ripping my ears off just to make the sound go away. And for those of you out there who like hot water AND heat at the same time... I'm sorry, but Korea may not be for you. Since our heat is radiant through hot water running under the flooring, we have to push a button to direct the water from the tank to either the sink/shower or to the floor for heat.

And don't get me started on the washing machine! That alone is worthy of its own post, so stay tuned for that.

 But enough complaining already! Nick and I are really enjoying our new place. Amy and Liam, whose positions/apartment we took over, left us with a nice set up. Besides a few things we want to get for more personal enjoyment or need, we have all the essentials already here. Pots, pans, silverware, dishes, clothes rack, extra storage bins, laundry soap, toilet paper.... And the lists goes on and on!

At the end of the day, it feels great to finally be unpacked and have a place to call home... However, we have yet to decipher that damn rice maker! We have used it a number of times already, but feel we got lucky with an edible end product.

Mmmm, rice

I spared no expenses. (Hold on to yer butts)

So we're in our apartment now - we're home. It has been an exciting journey, but we finally had to leave the hotel we were staying in (and say goodbye to the ladies' badminton practice held in our motel's parking lot) to move to a place we can call home. Our apartment is situated on the sixth floor of some building that looks like a lot of other buildings in the city. Coming out of the elevator we are the first apartment - which, naturally, has its pros and cons. For example, we don't have to walk down the long hallway to get to our apartment; on the flipside, every time someone walks by our apartment the automatic lights in the hall turn on (and light leaks into our bedroom). Oh, well.

Our place was an empty, barren, desolate landscape with wallpaper everywhere. Well, it may not be that bad, but I like to be dramatic, sometimes. (Of course, once I get some dinosaur wallpaper on each wall, this is going to be one kick-Jurassic apartment!) Once we got into our apartment, we set our bags down, got some information from our Co-Director, Tim, and then got busy. Becky, of course, went straight to work trying to make the place look like home - by unpacking our fresh, new pillows.



I immediately went to work trying to decipher the cryptic language of the rice-cooker, so we could get some lunch cooking. Dictionary? Check. Rice-cooker in a foreign language? Check. A 10kg bag of white rice? Check. Luckily, two fresh eggs were left in the fridge from the previous tenants, Amy and Liam, so we were able to add a little substance to the rice. Here are the before and after pictures, just so you can feel like you were in the apartment with us (if you have 3D glasses, now would be the time to use them).

Becky started getting our new bed situated - but the only problem is the sheets we lugged around with us all the way from Minnesota don't quite fit the bed...

...but it looks fine, right!? Exhausted, we made some ramen noodles, got a pitcher (1600ml plastic bottle) of beer, and relaxed. Here is Becky's ramen relaxation station:


As for me? Becky said I don't get to eat dinner or drink beer until this blog post is done, so...it's done.



P.S. For some of you, the following image means nothing. For others, it means everything. Read it and weep.