Making a House a Home.

When I first walked into my apartment in Eurorisendence I was greeted by the refreshing smell of fresh paint and the glissening shine of nice newly painted white glossy walls. andThe floor a blue thick vinal material. I first walked into the shared living area that had a table and one chair in the centre and a small kitchen on the right which only had a fridge a small oven top with two elements, a shelf and a set of flimsly shelves.
It was very basic. I was later informed that having a table was considered a luxury in Euro residence let a lone the black bucketed share I had also.
My room had a simple desk chair and bed. It had a small built in wardrobe which was just big enough to fit in all my clothes. It also had a sink. There was no sink in the bathroom so there was one in each bedroom. Which is a good idea as it lets you go through your morning rituals alone, without having any ‘sectret life of us’ moments where all flat mates are in the bathroom together brushing their teeth talking about who they last slept with. The sink looked pretty new and modem and had flight on top of the mirror as if it were some dressing table for some movie star.
The bed was in a strange position between the sink and the cupboard and the beside table was just sitting in the middle of the room. I later discovered that the last tenant had kindly left a few condom wrappers in the draw of the bedside table. My bed must have gotten quite a work out before I arrived. Or maybe not considering the condoms had not been used.
Kate and I had ‘better homes and gardens moments’ where we moved my furniture around and redecorated my room. The aparment didn’t come with and bedding so we had to go to the supermarket for that. I just chose the cheapest one there. Its quite difficult buying bedding in another language. It took me to trips to the supermarket as the first time I bough the back that didn’t have a quilt cover and only a fitted sheet which I already had.
The room which needed the most attention in the house was the kitchen. I enjoy cooking and having one 2 cook tops really doesn’t suffice for me. A few days after I moved my brazillian room mates bought a microwave. I am not the biggest fan of microwave and only usually use them for reheating. For the brazillians the microwave was there lively hood. Not knowing how to cook, assumably because they were babied by their mothers their whole life’s, the only thing they started to eat was frozen meals.
A few days after they bought the microwave I decided to splurge out and by a small cooker. I discovered one at the supermarket for 60 euros and thought it would be worth it in the end. So I bought it. The kitchen was looking a big squished together as we had a lot of utensils and plates and appliances but only one flimsly shelve to put it on. They Brazilians already had put the microwave on top of the fridge and I didn’t trust the oven on the flimsy shelves for fear it would break it. So for the time being I just left it on the ground and when I needed to use it I just placed it on the table, which I dragged towards a powerpoint.
Then one day, when I was in kate’s room using her internet. She pointed out to me a hard rubbish area, near the trash bins of the apartment building. In this trash bin was a metal set of shelves and a small card table. I took a mental note and on my way back from a jog that afternoon I had a closer look at them and decided to take them. They were quite lite and I was able to carry them both. I gave them both a good whipe down but neither was extremely dirty. I took everything off the flimsy wooden shelves and put it on the metal shelf. I also put the small oven on the metal shelf as it was a lot sturdier than the wooden one. I moved the wooden shelf closer to the middle of the room and am using now for liter objects like plate, cutlery and mugs. The card table is quite low to the growned and placed this under the window.
After I did all this I looked back and this feeling came over me that I had finally made my apartment my home. The way it was before really didn’t reflect my ideal housing situation but now I couldn’t think of anything better. I have a nice room which is the biggest room I have ever had, and a nice enough living areas (Well it’s a table and a chair but for EuroResidence that’s pretty swave) and a pretty complete kitchen. What more could I ask for...???