house tour :: craft room and terrace

Here's the cole's notes version of us finding our flat...

Feb 1: leave vancouver

Feb 2: arrive in london

Feb 3: viewed 22 different flats, found "the one" - signed papers, offer accepted, listing removed

Feb 4: deposit paid, waiting for references, move in date finalized

Feb 7: reference approved, landlord is coming to the city to sign the papers on Wednesday

Feb 8: received call to say that since we don't have an UK income (eventhough they knew we didn't have this at the beginning), they need 6 months rent plus 6 weeks deposit. On a side note, it doesn't matter how much money you have elsewhere, they only care about what you have in the UK. Lots of back and forth. We negotiated 3 months, 3 months and then a monthly contract.

Feb 10: 30 minutes to us leaving to meet the agent for the keys, we receive a call to say that the boiler is broken and we are banned from the premises until who knows when.
(5 hours later): Finally moved in! Apparently partially furnished can be deteremined differently depending on the person. Let's just say, I started the next morning eating cereal with a plastic fork that I stole from the Waitrose deli.

(keys onto the terrace - love the skeleton keys here!)

We spent the last few days settling in and shopping for all the necessary staples. I know that a few of you have been asking for photos, so here is the first set. Our new place is technically called a maisonette (little house) that is split over three levels and built around the 1930's. We have a private entry with our own mail slot, two bedrooms, one full bath, one half bath, a craft room / den and the best part, a private rooftop terrace (see above)!

We had a few peaks of sunshine this afternoon, so here are some quick snapshots!

To get onto the terrace, you have to walk through the third bedroom which I have turned into my craft room (it's way too small for a bedroom!). In the UK, you can rent flats fully furnished (very popular!), unfurnished or partially furnished. We chose partially furnished, so that we could add our personal touches which is why it's looking pretty empty right now. We are still figuring out the furniture bit, so I will post "after" pictures when we are ready. Anybody know of any car boot or thift stores I should check out here?

Photo taken with the terrace behind me looking in. Not sure what they intended to do with the two display areas they made in the wall (picture above). Thought I would make some cute roxypop displays. ha! Suggestions?

Main bedroom pictures coming soon!