Making Our Apartment Habitable

When you rent an apartment in Germany it seems to be usually totally empty, naked. No furniture at all, empty walls which have to be wallpapered or painted. Sometimes there is a kitchen included, but our apartment didn"t have a kitchen. That was annoying, but even more annoying was  (or is actually) the shower. It is a nice spacy bathroom, with bathtub and seperate shower, and even two sinks. But what is wrong with this picture? How can there be no shower cabin or anything to keep the water from drenching the floor? That is one stupid decision by the organisation renting out the apartment - without a somewhat useful shower curtain or cabin.

Anyways I spent a couple of weeks painting three bedrooms, one hallway, a kitchen (only part of the wall needed painting) and a big living room. That cost me around 150 Euro for paint and tools. If I had wallpapered it, it would have cost like 100 Euro per room. I also learned something about painting walls - be patient and take the extra steps to prepare the room (cover, tape, etc.) it really helps to actually get a faster and better paint job done. Also to cover the floor - don't use plastic foil. It always moves around, amd it never covers the parts you want to cover. Better are big cartons which you unfold. Like from new furniture. And what a coincidence - I got some new furniture recently, and i really found these unfolded cartons to work great for covering the floor.

Altogether the interior of the apartment is taking shape. We got some furnitur, some items for a kitchen and we build some shelves ourselves (with the help of my sister and her friend).

So here are some pictures of the current status of the apartment.

the long hallway. After the paint job and just a couple of posters (there is also a Taiwan map we put up in the hallway) it already looks much nicer. Hallways are a very nice or useful aspect of German apartments.

The kitchen - before

also before:

When they delivered the kitchen items (sink, cupboard - see the following picture) the plate came without the hole for the sink (which seems to be the standard for this kind of delivery according to my brother). I guess most Germans are well equipped with saws etc. Fortunately there is a big OBI market 5 minutes from us. So i could ask them to make the hole (for another 35 euro) and then i was able to assemble the sink, the faucet, etc.

This is how the kitchen looks now. On the other side are the fridge and two selfmade shelves.

The master bedroom before

The "now" picture is missing - but it has a nice color, a bed, and a closet now.

Here the kid's room before

after the painting job

and now

(please pay attention to the lamp - a "car" lamp, and it is handmade by my sister

and a couple pictures of the living room, before

and now

we are still missing a sofa or something like that. Hopefully that will come soon. Generally I enjoy working on the apartment, but sometimes I think it is crazy to put so much effort in a rented apartment.