Doin’ the New Digs Tango

I have a breakfast nook!

Due to a series of unfortunate events (not the least of which was finding out I was paying for half the rent of my roommate’s 3-bedroom, 4-person apartment), this past week, my husband and I moved into what is now our third apartment in seven months. In the same city.

This last move was quite possibly the most arduous, back-breaking process of them all too. Granted, it was only about three blocks away, but the entire move was done on foot, just the two of us, across one of the most touristy areas of Barcelona – The Rambla. Let me just tell you, you haven’t experienced life until you’ve nearly taken out a street performing “statue” with a 6-foot tall bookshelf.
So, after three days of transporting 70-pound suitcases and large pieces of furniture across this:

Don’t be fooled. That’s a third of a mile according to Google Maps. And did I mention the wheel on my suitcase broke?
we’ve finally managed to get all our things in our new (and hopefully last) place. At least until we leave again.
So now begins the process of getting to know our new digs. It’s the usual dance of learning the steps around the apartment, figuring out the placement of furniture, and discerning what issues were not covered in the introduction by the previous owner.

For example:
-Bathroom 1 works, however, the sign stating “The Sink Doesn’t Work” in Bathroom 2 is disconcerting. The fading ink leads me to believe it’s been there a while.

-The spice rack attached to the door of the cabinet will take some getting used to as the sound of the spices rattling around when opening the door always makes me squinch my eyes in preparation for something falling out of the cabinet. (Because, as we all know, this reaction will keep whatever falls out from breaking and/or hitting me on the way down.)

-In more sink news, the kitchen sink has that funky draining issue where the water from one side of the sink fills into the drain of other side of the sink and then only drains out under duress (i.e., me with a plunger screaming obscenities).

-By cooking for the first time in this apartment, I discovered that a) the burners on the stove are freakishly close to one another, and b) the oven temperature settings are not to be trusted.

-Aside from Bathroom 2’s sink, it does have a functioning shower and toilet, though their proximity means one must be a certified dwarf in order to avoid hitting one’s knees against the side of said shower when using said toilet.

-The old shower curtain will be burned.

-The marble top of the coffee table is not attached to its base.

-We need a new mop.

And on it goes until all our new issues have been assessed and presented to our landlord, who can then begin the complicated business of ignoring us. All things considered though, the new place vastly outweighs the cave we were overpaying for before. The age of the new place, with its bright colours, wood support beams and stone walls is actually charming, where in the old place, the decrepit tile, peeling walls and lack of sunlight were reminiscent of an age where people were ritually locked up in mental institutions for things like herpes. The new roommate lends some light into the new sphere too, especially considering sparkly dispositions will forever outweigh people who try to make a buck off unsuspecting foreigners.

Category : barcelona, new apartment