Yesterday we took possession of our new apartment and moved our “start up” furniture and boxes in. It involved renting a massive cargo van with 14 cubic meters of space, which we filled with our bed (out of our guest house since we’re trashing out old mattress from our room which is well over 10 years), Mack’s new “big girl” bed from IKEA, the sofas from Mack’s bedroom (which we’ve got in the living room temporarily but will also move to Mack’s room or the office), one of our dining tables with 3 chairs, bedding stuff, a few additional boxes and some stuff which was laying around.
Our official move won’t take place for another two weeks, but we thought it would be nice to get the basics moved in so we can crash comfortably once everything is packed up from the farm and we’ve made the 5+ hour drive from Frankfurt to Berlin.
After about 30 trips up and down the 3 flights of stairs leading to our apartment (more stairs than are in the Empire State building), we got everything in the apartment and then I finally thought about taking a few photos.
The Photo Tour
(I know you’ll excuse the boxes and chaos 
)
Our apartment is in Schöneberg, on a quiet side street where we can hear the birds chirping when the windows are open and kids playing in the street. That’s actually quite a change from the farm because the busy street out front is quite loud most of the time. The building is an old one with lots of ornate accents on the outside…and the inside too.
Our new living room
This beige couch will be moved into Mack’s room and will be replaced with our brown leather sofas. We’re going to have a bit of an Asian-influence in here ultimately.
Our new bedroom
The bedroom connects to the living and dining rooms. So for the most part, that will be the adults live, and Mack has her own area off of all this, down a long hallway.
Our little balcony off of the bedroom
Here is where the growing magic will take place. There are already enough planters in our basement to fill all the trays around the edge of the balcony. Then we just need to see what else we’re able to stick up there. The plan is to move some of our tomatoes and strawberry plants with us from our courtyard garden to see how well they do for the future.
The Dining Room
This room is just massive. Huge. Many of the rooms are. It would easily hold both of our dining tables at once, to seat 12. And a few additional pieces of furniture as well. Which is good since we’ll need some extra storage outside the kitchen.
The Kitchen
The kitchen is wonderful. Big side-by-side fridge, an amazing gas burner stove and wide oven. It’s so pretty that I almost don’t want to cook on it. But believe me, we will. Often. We’re thinking about putting in an island of some sort since the kitchen opens up to the dining room.
The Office/Playroom
Since Mack usually plays nearby while I’m working, we decided to use one of the rooms back here multipurpose. Her toys will be there near my desk and all can be happy. There’s also a large walk-in closet with storage space above which is a nice touch. And the room connected to this will be where her bed and the beige sofa live. So far she’s loving having her privacy where we can still hear her and make sure she doesn’t tear the house down.
Mack’s Bathroom
Mackenzie gets the biggest bathroom in the house since it’s attached to her room but hopefully she’ll let us use it from time to time too. And it has a big bathtub for her to splash in which will be a nice change from the enormous pool is essentially has to bathe in now.
So that’s a brief tour of everything. There’s a lot of decorating to be done and we’re really looking forward to settling in. We’re really in love with the place and the beautiful floors and ceilings.
After getting everything moved in and cooling down a bit (all that stair climbing equaled a lot of exercise), we set up Mack’s new bed, our bed and the dining room table. So after an hour or so of work, things looked a lot more lived in. And now we’ve at least mostly got things laid out and ready for when we move in. We feel quite at home already even though we’ll be going back to Frankfurt tomorrow. I have no doubt that the next few weeks will fly by as we do the final bit of packing and prepare for the big day.
Looks like a fun new adventure. And here I was having fun watching you do the old house.
It was a sudden jump for us too. But we just couldn’t pass up this opportunity. And after our last few days in Berlin getting our feet wet, we’re pretty sure we’re going to love the place and our surroundings. 🙂
Gorgeous! I love the floors, ceiling, kitchen, balcony…beautiful.
Thanks so much. It’s just an amazing space. We’re looking forward to adding our own flair to the place. It’s certainly making it easier to leave the farm since it’s such a beautiful new home. 🙂
I hope you guys are happy as clams in your new digs. All the rooms are beautiful.
Why are clams so happy anyway? LOL
Thanks Charlie! Your question actually made me “go ask google” — it really does know everything. Apparently the full phrase is actually “happy as a clam at high tide”, which is when they are hardest to pluck and thus avoid being eaten. Let’s hope we keep ourselves at high tide all the time! 😉
It looks great! Thanks for the tour, and welcome home! 🙂
Thanks so much! We’re really looking forward to getting settled in. Just over 1 week until the big move. Soo much to be done still 🙂
It’s beautiful!
Thanks! We’re really in love with it 🙂
It looks beautiful. I love how much light you get in those enormous windows! Good luck with the move, you’ll have to post photos again when you have everything set up. 🙂
Thanks! The windows are amazing, aren’t they? Kind of making things tricky for us when it comes to drapes since they are about 3 meters high — but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. We’re looking forward to actually having some time to decorate for a change, instead of just renovating. 😉 I’m sure there will be lots more photos to come!
Sehr, sehr schön!! Ich liebe Stuckdecken und alte Wohnungen.Viel Glück in der neuen Wohnung!!
Danke! Wir freuen uns sehr über der neuer Wohnung! Und auf Berlin 🙂
Love love love the new flat! The floors are phenomenal and the layout sounds/looks perfect.
Thanks so much! It’s really quite ideal for us. We’ve basically been able to give Mack her own suite and we’ve got a big living area to ourselves with the bedroom, dining, kitchen & living — and it also makes it nice for entertaining since she’s sleeping 2 doors away down a LONG 9m hallway! 🙂
It feels a bit like living in a hotel because it’s so posh, but our legs and butts are also finally getting used to the 3 floor walk up…which we’re definitely not complaining about. It’s just far enough to make you appreciate that you don’t have to go another floor 🙂