Our Apartment

This is for the inquiring mind out there (Sabrina) and anyone else who is interested in such a detailed explanation of our living situation... there can't be too many of you, but here goes!

There are 3 housing towers at Osan - so it is all apartment living, baby. Luckily, I think someone was actually thinking when they built these things. The buildings are designed so that there aren't very many joining walls between apartments (from what I can tell). The hallways kind of jet off from a center point. We can hear everything that goes on in the hallway area, but otherwise haven't been hearing much from above or below (I'm wondering if they're empty). I am nervous that the people below us will hate us since Luke and Rayna are just constantly running up and down the hallway, and they don't exactly step lightly. Amazing how a 3 and 4 year old can sound like a herd of elephants! And there's only so much shooshing I can do! Anyway, hopefully the sound proofing is good.

The building we live in is pretty new (about 3 years) so the kitchen and bathroom are still clean and new looking, and I'm not grossed out by it and feeling like I must pour bleach over everything! In Minot, the housing was 50 plus years old... that's a lot of years of grime buildup. For the size of the place there's a decent amount of storage. The hallways are wide and the laundry area is nice and humungous with lots of storage. The floors are tile and carpet - the thin kind of hotel looking carpet. I'll be taking a steam cleaner to it ASAP, that's the only thing that I am itching to clean - our feet are dirty at the end of the day and that is grossing me out!

The bummer is that I had in my head (I don't know why) that we would get a 4 bedroom, what with the 3 kids and all. But we got a 3 bedroom - I guess their calculations were different than mine! - so it will be a little challenging figuring out what to do with all the stuff I thought would go into that nonexistent 4th bedroom! I had planned for the girls to share a room, Luke to have his own, and to have a little playroom. But oh well, we are makin' it work! The bedrooms are too small (I think) to cram all three kids in one, but there are lots of places where I could stick our toy storage furniture (we have an excessive amount of these shelves from IKEA), like the super wide hallways, the laundry room, closets, some in kids rooms. I have lots of ideas and a couple months before our stuff arrives to get it all sorted out! We also have a little storage area in the building, so some stuff may be going out there. It is important for me to make some place in the house where the kids and I can have separation... enough room for them to go play somewhere else and get out of my hair for a few minutes! It may be Luke's room since he is no longer a napping child.

I met the woman across the hall with 5 children (thankfully she has a 4 bedroom). They are moving out, but she was kind enough to inform me that yes, "I think you have the smallest apartment in the building". Info I could have done without knowing for sure, although I suspected. :) Here is the floorplan:

Click on it if you want to see it larger.

My FAVORITE part of our housing situation is this:

Dan's work is literally across the street from our building. I keep telling him that means I better be seeing a lot of him. I'll just drag the kids across the street when they're losing their minds (or I'm losing mine) and he should be home! Okay, just kidding. Maybe. We'll see how desperate I get.

And true to what we had heard, it definitely is a walking base, and I'm already glad we dropped some dough on a new tricked out double stroller. I think we'll use it more than our van, so well worth it. And the rain cover. It has been raining since we arrived (I guess they weren't kidding about monsoon season), so definitely a necessity. Here is a picture of our building taken from the parking lot of the BX. A short little walk. I think our life will revolve around this stretch of road.

Across the street from the BX is the base movie theater, and in between our house and the BX is the base chapel, the community center, the library, the hospital of course, the Chili's restaurant (very random), and maybe some other stuff. Just beyond the BX is the standard Burger King/Popeyes, and the commissary (grocery store) is pretty close by in another direction. The main gate is also close enough to walk, and I guess just outside the main gate is a Korean market/shopping area where you can get lots of stuff - Dan went yesterday to get us cell phones. Mine is cute and pink, and sometimes tells me things in Korean... I think I've at least figured out how to call Dan. :) The phones were only $30 each and no contract.

That's enough for now, I think. Here's some more pictures of our place, empty as it is. Will be nice to get our thing so it feels less like a hotel and more like home.

Bathroom

Living, dining, and kitchen

Luke in the living room

the smallest bedroom

dining and kitchen

down the hallway

laundry/storage

looking down on the playground from our balcony

the balcony