#4 - Welkom bij mijn appartement

After three full weeks of living in Amsterdam I’m finally settled. The landlord is done with the touchup painting, the IKEA furniture is put together, and there are no longer piles of random stuff everywhere. You can read all about the search in my previous posting.

So with that, time for a tour of my crib:

First, an exterior shot. This is a very modern building for Amsterdam, where many of the buildings were built somewhere between 1600-1700. I do not know how old it is, but I would guess 20 years or so.



I am fortunate to have an elevator, and a large (aka “normal” sized one for the US) elevator. Many apartments require you to climb 4-5 flights of narrow spiral stairs in order to get to your place. Also, I’m lucky that the elevator is big enough for my bike.


Speaking of which, here is my parking place right out front. And check out that sweet ride!

Headed into the apartment, see the long hallway. The door at the end is the entrance to the living room. In general, Holland and especially Germany have lots of doors in the homes… often separate doors for the kitchen, living room dining room, etc. I always thought this was to add privacy, but also was used to keep in heating back when they mainly used fireplaces.





Here’s the living room – check out all that IKEA furniture I put together. Also notice my state-of-the-art TV. Anyone who visited my place in Seattle knows that I always must have the newest TV technology.


Next, the “dining room” and my make-shift office. Perfect poker table!
Nice windows in the main living room; here's the view to the left:
And to the right:
And here's a pleasant little coffee shop right across the street:


Here’s the laundry room. Luckily I have a separate washer and dryer. Many apartments have a combo washer/dryer that doesn’t work well and takes about 3 hours per load.


Next up, the kitchen. This is a bit small compared to some of the places I looked at, but I have everything I need.



Check out the refrigerator – basically just a tad bigger than what a college kid would have in their dorm. Notice that there’s no freezer really either – you can make ice cubes but that’s about it. In general, people here do not “stock up” Costco-style, but rather go to the markets or grocery stores every couple of days. The frozen food section at the grocery store is comparatively small and there’s really not much there worth eating anyways. This is the typical size here, although there are places with larger ones. Also notice the “combi” microwave and oven above the fridge. Those are common here too. It seems to work ok, but neither the microwave or the oven is exactly stellar.




Here’s the “guest” bathroom, which seems common even in small apartments such as this. I guess it’s another privacy thing because people wouldn’t want their guests using their master bath.



Here’s the regular bathroom.



Here’s my bedroom. Pretty small compared to home, and definitely not much closet space. However, this is larger than some of the rooms I saw on my apartment hunt.




Balcony off the bedroom – not a great view other than the church tower, but facing the courtyard keeps the room nice and quiet.




Finally, the storage room. I may get a rollaway bed for when guests come, but for now it’s pretty much just a bunch of junk.


And one last pic: the building has a parking garage, but I don't use it since I don't want to pay $400 a month for the privilege. Notice the metal ramps that the cars are parked on ... these actually move up or down and have additional cars parked underneath:



Hope you enjoyed the tour. Will take you on a tour of the neighborhood in the coming days.