Our New Apartment

Well, we have moved out of the mold & water damaged apartment at Dawn Garden.  We were able to find a couple of attractive options, but decided to go with a 2-bedroom apartment in the Green Court Serviced Apartments.  This complex was just renovated and opened again on October 1.  Chris wanted to see an apartment here over the summer, but they weren't available.  So, we are some of the first people to move in.

Basically, a serviced apartment is somewhere between an apartment and a hotel, which may be a great choice for us, given that I will be spending about 1/2 of the year in Shanghai and 1/2 in the U.S. and Chris will always be traveling a lot.  We are in a nice complex with a lot of services, including a health club, restaurant, bar, indoor swimming pool, and English-speaking front desk staff.  This apartment is smaller than the last one, but given that we are still only a couple of blocks from Peter & Nickle's house, we chose location and convenience over size of the apartment.

We are on the 16th floor of a 19 floor building, which is wonderful because the top and bottom couple of floors have more likelihood of water damage, and the resulting mold and mildew.  We have a wrap-around porch on 3 sides of the building, which gives us some wonderful views.  In addition, at the end of the living room, there is a glass-enclosed porch, which, given the weather in Shanghai, is essentially additional living space.  We just moved in last night, and haven't really gotten everything settled yet, but so far, I think it's going to be great.

Our master bedroom is a good size and has a large bed, but unfortunately, it is too large for the IKEA mattress we bought because the last apartment's master bed was too hard.  Fortunately, this mattress is softer, but that means we not only don't have use for the new mattress (the guest bed is too small, Goldilocks), but we also can't use the pretty bed linens we bought to go with the IKEA mattress.  So, we're back to white bedding, which really makes it feel like a hotel.  Part of our services includes twice a week housekeeping service.  They will change the bed linens once a week, but if I buy my own, colorful linens, I think I'll need to wash them myself, as I'm sure the housekeeper just brings in the standard white linens to change, as is done in a hotel.  I'll have to figure this out, as we don't want everything to be white, white, white.

The guest bedroom is pretty good sized and we are planning to make that into Chris's home office, once we buy him a desk.  When our guests come to visit, they should be comfortable there, with their own guest bathroom, but we're also thinking our daughters may also abandon us sometimes to stay with their cousins.  


The kitchen isn't huge, by American standards, but it's pretty good sized for a Shanghai apartment.  I like that the stack-able washer/dryer is hidden away in a tall cupboard in the kitchen.  I also like that I have a built-in oven, which we didn't have in the last place, as well as 3 burners instead of just 2 on the stove-top.  I was hoping for a dishwasher this time, as was in our 2nd choice apartment, but with just the 2 of us most of the time, and Chris traveling so much even when we're in Shanghai, I don't think it'll be that big a deal.

The dining room table is a good size, although we're planning to buy another table and some chairs as we have the space and we'd like room to have Peter, Nickle & the kids over, as well as other company.  The dining room and living room are in an "L" shape, so they are connected but also somewhat separate.

The living room couch isn't as comfortable as the couch in the first apartment, but that was one of the most comfortable couches I've ever sat on.  This one is also an "L" which I really like and the room is pretty good sized, especially when we open the sliding glass doors to the enclosed porch.

We want to start collecting some decorative items, particularly some traditional Chinese art work, porcelain, silks, linens, and other colorful, local decorative items to put in the apartment.  I went shopping with the wife of one of Chris's business colleagues on Saturday and we started our collection with some beautiful red and gold rice bowls, which are displayed on the shelving behind the couch.  We have a long way to go to make this feel like our home, but I think we're going to be very happy here.  Especially if there is NO MOLD!  :)