Love and Apartment Shopping

The time has finally come! The time when I, the blushing bride, and my handsome groom (Hubs), get to shop around for our first place all to our own. So romantic. So sweet. I was almost giddy with excitement over checking out the first batch of apartments a couple days ago!

But, like anything in life, just when we thought it was perfect and couldn't get any better, we were most tragically let down. You cannot prepare yourself for apartment hunting in Moscow, apparently. We're pretty open-minded people and had prepared for the worst, but this town will still find a way to surprise you.

The first apartment was a soviet-era building, which means it is a super high rise, dirty lookin' building that looks like its about to fall over. Inside, the apartments are very nice, and advertise "Western-Style" remodeling. Our agent from the moving company, Yana, was very nice and spoke excellent English, so we were also getting a good Moscow culture and history lesson. She said that the old buildings are owned by the city, but the apartments inside are privately owned. Owners take great care to fix up their places, but unfortunately can do nothing about the exterior of the building.

Back to the apartment. It was so beautiful inside, great kitchen, wood floors, and a super small entry way just past the kitchen. I'm talking I hit my forehead walking through and Hubs would have hit it with his chest walking though this. Not all was wasted by the tour, though. They also had the sink/toilet thing, so we asked Yana about what it was. Judging by everyone's embarressed looks and giggles, its to wash your behind. I still don't get it.

Some of you may notice that I said "everyone" in that last statement. That's because a ridiculous amount of people are around while you're looking at apartments. We were using MoveOne to help us with our transition, and they have to bring an agent to represent them. Then you have the landlord, who also has to have an agent represent them. So we all walk from room to room and talk about the perks of the apartment. When it gets to leasing time, it can get pretty rough, because they negotiate everything. And for us, they really will be negotiating since we need everything...furniture, linens, towels, pillows, oh and will you please leave the french press too?

So, scratch that first apartment. I don't need Hubs decapitated our first year of marriage. On to the next! This one was a new building, complete with gates around the building and a really nice video surveillance in our personal apartment! The weird part about this apartment was that the family was still living there, so we felt like we were snooping around their stuff. And it was dirty. But the bathroom was fantastic! The new bathtubs here in Moscow are amazing! Complete with jaccuzzi-style jets on the tub, shower head, sauna and seats ALL run by this remote looking thing inside! Mesmorizing...

In these new apartment buildings, they also advertise heated floors. My imagination goes to both ends of the spectrum on this one, so jury's still out.

The next apartment was brilliant. Top floor of a 15 story building, complete with panoramic view of the city. Brand new building, two enclosed balconies, beautiful new kitchen with lots of space, an office/guest bedroom and by far, the TACKIEST bedroom set I have ever before seen in my life. Scratch that. I'm pretty sure I saw the exact same set at the Bargain Zone off Staples St in Corpus. I don't even know if I can write a description that will do this guy justice. Its white plastic with black trim, a mirror in the half-oval headboard lit up by black light. It haunts my dreams.

The last apartment was a complete joke. Super bachelor pad, complete with mirrors or some kind of mirrored glass tinted blue on all ceilings in the house. A spiral staircase going downstairs to the bedroom where you can also conveniently hop in the shower that shares a room. Thats right, half the bedroom had tiles for the shower tub in the corner. Yana and I were pretty giggly after seeing that, and didn't know what Dan was doing still checking out closets, asking questions and ignoring the bathtub in the corner. We all had a good laugh in the car.

We should be going out on Tuesday to look at some more apartments, this time in the city center, which we're very excited about. Not because they'll be nicer, in fact they'll probably be smaller and the buildings barely standing, but they'll be where the action is. And hopefully close to the little places we've managed to half-way figure out our first week here.

Cheers to the places and spaces that we make for ourselves.