Life in general

We’ve been living here in the UK for a little more than two months now and I realized that I’ve yet to blog about some of our daily life stuff. So over the next few days, watch for posts on some of the differences we’ve encountered and some of the stuff we love.

Home Sweet Home

Let’s start with the most important, this place we call home. As expected, living space is at a premium here. When we were looking for flats in Glasgow we saw quite an assortment of shapes and sizes. The first one we saw was in a stunningly beautiful neighbourhood and was one of many flats created out of a very large house. But it was so tiny for the price they were asking. Comparatively, the one we very nearly moved into was huge for the same amount of monthly rent.

When we decided on Edinburgh and started looking here, we found that prices were higher than Glasgow and the sizes were smaller. Most flats that rent for less than 700 pounds a month are one bedroom or studio style, and are smaller than my old apartment in Calgary. For centuries Edinburgh, like many European cities, has embraced the up vs. out approach to building dwellings. At one point the tenement buildings in the Old Town were up to 14 stories tall. Now, most we’ve seen are around four stories, like our building. The entire building takes up about a block but it’s broken down into sections around the staircases. For example, we’re on the ground floor of number 18 and there are four flats per floor. A neighbour told Brandon last week that the building was put up in about 1911 – practically brand new by Edinburgh standards. There’s a garden out back but as just renters, we don’t have keys to get in there. The neighbour promised a key to Brandon but we haven’t seen it yet.

Though we’re definitely used to more than double the space, this flat is suiting us very well. We rented it furnished which included a bed and wardrobe, a chair and a loveseat, a coffee table, a dining table and chairs, a little bit of décor, some kitchen essentials and bed linens. The first thing we did after we moved in was go to Ikea for a few extras like a lamp, extra pillows and better pots. We also bought a second hand TV, and picked up two small side tables at a charity furniture shop, which are currently employed as TV and fish tank stands.

The kitchen is by far the smallest kitchen I’ve ever seen. There’s really only room for one of us in there at a time. Like most UK flats, there’s a washing machine in the kitchen which has been such a good thing. But there’s no oven, just a four burner cooktop and a microwave/convection oven combination that sits on top of the fridge. Ours is actually a pretty decent sized fridge which was a big plus to this flat, as most are only what we would call a bar fridge. Not having a drier is a bit of a pain since it takes forever for things to air dry. I quickly run out of places to hang things and often we’ve both had to put on pants that are not quite dry.

We’ve done a good job so far making this place feel like ours. We’re decorating as we go with bits and pieces we pick up in our travels. We’re trying to find magnets from each place we go since they’re usually inexpensive and they’ll be easy to pack back to Canada. Last weekend I bought a print from a street vendor that depicts a view of the castle in the autumn and I found two cute little sheep figures that just had to come home with me. In the next week or so we’re going to find a little Christmas tree and make the flat feel as warm and Christmassy as we can. Brandon’s brother Graham is coming to spend Christmas with us so no need to worry, we won’t be alone over the holidays. It will be tough on us both though, and we’re both expecting to be homesick.

Oh! And of course the addition of Simon Fish to our little home has added not only something fun to look at, but a pet to love since we’re both missing Charlie rather badly. We’ve both become so attached to the little guy that we’re already dreading what we’ll have to do when it’s time to leave here. He’s gets excited when you go close to the tank and feeding time is a twice daily event that is impossible not to smile through!

We both admit that we settled on this flat because we were tired of looking. While we were staying the guest house here in Edinburgh, we were so cramped for space and just needed to get settled. The longer we live here though, the more we like it and we’re so happy with the location. It’s easy to get just about anywhere and just about everything we need is within about a ten minute walk.

I know I’ve been very delinquent in posting photos of our flat. I promise that something is coming on that topic – we’ve got a fabulous idea to give everyone a virtual tour. It’s just taking a little longer in the planning stages than we originally thought. So please be patient!