Apartment Living

A confession: I'm really good at starting blog posts and then never, EVER, finishing them.

This is one of those posts.

We've been in our 13th floor apartment since about the second week of November...and it is now officially May (side note: woot, woot!).

So it takes me six months to post about where we live. Sorry, I'm not that sorry. But, better late than never, right?

* * * * * * * * * *

We live on the 13th floor of a relatively new apartment building, Gate Towers.

We live in Tower #1, the one of the far left.

Gate Towers is located on the artificial or man-made Reem Island.

The whole island is under construction we never know what road we'll have to take to get to work or what detour we will have to wind through to get home. But, it's new, nice, and a lot of teachers live on Reem so it feels a bit more like home.

We've never lived in a sky scraper before, so there are some things that definitely take some getting used to. For instance, we've had to add "wait time" for the elevator to our morning commute (anywhere from 3-6 precious AM minutes). And our view would be much nicer if our windows would open and I could clean the outside.

But, who can complain about tennis courts and two pools? I mean, really, we got pretty lucky.

The inside of our apartment is pretty sterile and cold - all tile flooring and concrete walls. But again, because we are a married couple, we got a bigger apartment than the single teachers (theirs are quite a bit smaller).

Now for the tour.

Our first stop, the living room. Brought to you by IKEA.

Two people can sleep very comfortably on our couch -
that's a HINT, HINT for traveling friends.

Next stop, the bedroom (also brought to you by IKEA).

Side-note: we splurged on a king size bed and we are never going back. EVER.

This next view is still in the bedroom and yes, that is our dryer in the upper, right-hand corner. You would think that having the dryer in the bedroom would make it easier for us to get clothes put away. It doesn't. 

I had to buy a vanity table because, as you can see in the next picture, our bathroom literally has no counter space and no wall sockets to plug in a hair dryer, straightener, or curling iron. But, as one of my UK friends pointed out when I was complaining about it, "Well...we in the UK always thought water and electricity didn't mix." I guess they have a point.

Walk-in shower that had to be redone AFTER we
moved in because the water ran towards the door, not
the drain. 

Don't mind the suits - and yes,
we added the tension rod.

Sorry about not putting down the lid!

As far as toilets are concerned, there are two things that are hard to get used to:

1. The toilet seats are plastic and there is only a little bit of water in the bowl, so it feels like you are using an RV toilet.

2. There is a hand-held bidet next to EVERY toilet: in our apartment, in the mall, at school, EVERYWHERE.

So, that's enough about toilets.

Look at our cute dining room table and chairs!

Again, brought to you by IKEA and, as long as I'm being honest, the seat covers will probably get stuffed in my suitcase and come back to the ol' USA when we come home for good.

The last picture is of our very, small kitchen. And yes, there are dishes in the sink. Almost daily, Rob comments about how stupid it is to have a one-sided sink and I have to agree with him. It's obnoxious and stupid. Which is why we bought a dishwasher...and yet there are still dishes in the sink...

And that's basically it. 

I think one of the reasons that I waited so long to post pictures is because part of me wants to make our apartment feel and look more like a home, like it's actually being lived in by humans. But we aren't here for the long-term and it feels silly to spend money on pictures or other wall-hangings that we will just end of selling when we leave. 

We have some pretty huge financial goals to achieve while we are here in Abu Dhabi, so coming home to bare walls is a sacrifice that we are very willing to make.

Besides, as cheesy as it is:

So for now, our 13th bare-bones apartment is our castle for now!

-F