Our life in London

9:57 AM

For the first 7 days in the UK, we stayed in a spare room that a sister in the Hyde Park 1st ward had available. 

We were determined to move into our own place ASAP so we spent two days looking at 17 flats and three days after that eye deep in offers and negotiation. 
She lives in a lovely area called Fulham and we enjoyed our time there, despite the jetlag and stress of flat hunting! Just realised it's a repeat pic but I just love it so much...


I explained about gazumping in my last post (and when we have wifi, I'll share the links to all the following information. Mobile posting has its limits) and we moved in on Saturday, 23 August. Our nine-monthiversary!

Our street in Maida Vale, London 

It was a quick move. We don't have much and we didn't have enough storage room to put everything away. So off to IKEA we went. Wouldn't you know, there's a bus that only takes 30 minutes to get us right to the door? Perfect. 

I have officially been to IKEA more in Europe than I ever did in Utah. (Not hard to beat when I only went once in Sandy) 

Sooooo much stuffff

Taylor loved building our new furniture. He tackled it all in one day. 

We had plenty of hanging room so we got this dresser for everything else. For perfectly and we love the green!

There was no getting around the double bed. We tried to graciously let them take the bed off of our hands and get our own bigger one only to let it go and deal with this for a year. Oh well. 
*interesting note: the Brits don't use flat sheets. There are only fitted sheets and duvet covers to be had. The only flat sheets we have seen so far were meant for/made to mimic hotel style beds and cost as much as our furniture. For a flat sheet?!? 
So if you're a lover of sheets, definitely bring your own. We might ask the USA Santa for a flat sheet or two for Christmas. 

You can't really tell from this picture but we raised the bed frame just a little in order to slide our shoe and extra bedding storage underneath. The storage bins came from IKEA. 

Cutest little bedside table and book storage. Lamp from HomeBase

The dresser, our iron (in the flowery box), and our wedding book :)

It's a studio so we got the 'open concept' all built in. The closet and kitchen. For tour reference: that blue blanket in the bottom left corner is the corner of the bed. 

Our closet with a handy dandy mirror inside. This chest of drawers came with the flat (partially furnished=bed, drawers, washer, and the table you'll see in the kitchen) 

Our kitchen. We weren't thrilled about the table since we could have gotten a more space friendly one but it was non-negotiable. Oh well! 
This is mini fridge land. The washer is brand new, installed about a day before we moved in. Hooray! No dryer so we just hang everything and it works. 

It looks so sad without wall decor but this cute little bench was a struggle to get! We saw it in the showroom at IKEA but everyone loves it as much as we did so it was on back order until December! Luckily, there was another IKEA that had a handful in stock so we wrangled possession of one. 

Our bathroom is a pretty decent size and works for us. We had to get a Suzette-height mirror because even on tip-toe, I could only see my forehead in the normal people mirror #shortpeopleproblems

And that's all folks! The tour of our lovely flat. Home until August 2015. 


*****

What we've learned and what we like here: 

Viber is our app of choice. It takes a little wiggling to make sure the contacts are correct but it's great for messaging and quick phone calls (unless you're on wifi, then long talks are just fine!) Videos, images and texts: check! 

We use Giff Gaff SIM cards in our unlocked iPhones. We are doing ok with it so far. It's a month-to-month provider with various options called goody bags that you purchase for the number of minutes, UK texts and internet data. Ask me next month if I still like it. We might switch to Vodafone even though it's not as cheap, just for the better service, actual people to talk to (Giff Gaff is cheap because it's all an online community. No store front) and for the 4G and more reliable coverage!

We like to shop at Sainbury's for dinner and love the Tesco take-away lunch options. The hoisin sauce duck wrap is a particular favourite. 

Waitrose is awesome but this really great one with lots of variety is too far to be an every day type of shopping destination. 

I like to get our produce from the little shops around the corner from us. The outdoor fruit and veggie scene is something I love. 

People are not the most courteous I've ever met (especially when it comes to the tube) but friendly when it counts. Like if you're totally lost. I feel like native Londoners like to show how well they know their beloved city and help you out with directions. That's ok with me. 

We love it here so far!




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