"Inside Edition" of our apartment!

The kitchen...where my cooking MAGIC takes place.

Looking into the kitchen with the sliding doors open. As you can see from the little table in the kitchen, this picture was taken when Janae and fam stocked us up with goodies! You can't see, but to the right in the kitchen we have a nice pantry and water cooler with hot and cold taps!

This is the other part of the living room. We are so thankful that the landlord left his big screen tv for us to use! Plus, we have better cable than we did in Paris. We've got ESPN American, ESPN Classic, Animal Planet, National Geographic, Travel & Living, BBC Prime, CNBC, Hallmark, etc...

This is the living/dining room with the attached kitchen through the sliding doors.



The spare bedroom. It's small, but cozy and awaiting your arrival!

This is our guest bathroom. It's good size and has a great shower with serious water pressure!

The Office. Really, Jenn's office and tv room! It also serves as our library. It's a multi-purpose room. This is Janae's husband Greg (on his cell for a work call) on the air mattress that Whitney got to sleep on during their stay. Thanks to Mary for letting us borrow the air mattress!

Sorry folks, I just realized I don't have pics of our master bedroom and bathroom. I'll get those posted soon!

52 Leningradsky Prospect Apt. 87-Our Building, Floor Plan, and our Crazy Door!

Part of our building and our red gate and the security hut. Once I go through the red gate, I go to the left and inside the automatic sliding doors to the elevator. We have 24hr. security and underground parking which will be awesome for Darron in the winter. The guard always lets us in. If not, we have a little sensor on our keys that opens the red gate. Sometimes our security guard appears to be drunk and passed out OR sleeping...but hey, it's Russia! Nothing like a little vodka for breakfast! Just FYI, little Russian lesson, the black and red sign above the red gate..that K word means Kitchen in Russian. It's just an advertisement.

And here is our apartment front door. It looks fairly normal, but it's not. It's the Mr. T of all doors. You can see the circle digicode. We've got a 6 digit number that we punch in and the door beeps and then we can open it. What's really nice is I really don't have to take keys because the guard lets me in the gate! (unless he's sleeping but then I ring the doorbell and wake him up!)

So here is our crazy door opened. It's like a bank vault--very heavy and safe! You can also see we have a "normal door" as well which serves absolutely no purpose. You might notice there isn't a peep hole--no problem. We have a camera in our apartment so we can see who's at the door and also the elevator area. As you are looking into our apartment; to the right is the three bedrooms and to the left is the guest bathroom and living/dining room and kitchen.

Finally, for your viewing pleasure, I posted a picure of our floor plan to make it easier to get a feel for our apartment. I even wrote rooms in English to simplify your reading. I'm nice like that. The writing that is cut off is the guest bathroom (off the hallway to the left of the entry). We really like the layout and that the bedrooms are away from the livingroom/dining and kitchen.

Inside apartment pictures forthcoming...stay tuned for more fun, witty, blog postings!

Why it's important to be able to read that darn Russian language...

Today they turned off our hot water. When we moved in, our landlord explained that sometime between May and August the city turns off the hot water for 2-3 weeks. It happens every year and it's not the same time every year. No consistency here in Russia! Apartments have separate individual water heaters just for this special annual occasion. I did notice a sign posted downstairs by the elevator for the last couple of days but didn't have a clue what it said. Think it said they were turning off the hot water May 14th! I sent our landlord an email so he'd come over and switch our hot water on. Hopefully it's sooner, rather than later! Poor Darron is going to have to take a cold shower in the morning before work! I went downstairs to take a picture of the sign but it's already gone.

We've got the keys!

We officially have keys to our apartment! We met our landlord today and he showed us how to use the fancy oven, tv and cable, crazy masterbath shower (still can't figure it out), and our front door. The front door looks like a door to the money vault in the bank. It's a bit intimdating. We were given several sets of keys (read cleaning lady and VISITORS) and signed lots of paperwork. We then experienced what could only be described as a shopping day from hell. Since the landlord had purchased a new king size bedroom set, we had to buy a European comforter, sheets, etc...to fit it. Along with a few other necessities since our shipment won't arrive for about 2 weeks. We went to a Bed, Bath, and Beyond type store and let's just say it was stressful-we couldn't explain what we wanted to the Russian speaking sales staff. We could say yes and no, that was about it. Thank Goodness we've got charades skills and were able to communicate a bit. We managed to buy some kitchen things and new bedding. Tomorrow Darron is dropping me off at the apartment before he heads off to work. I'll spend the day cleaning and organizing everything we brought in our suitcases. Darron will pick me up on his way home from work as we are staying at the Marriott for the first few nights. Good Night!