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Apartment Tour: Korea

Here’s a tour of our cozy place in Seoul. We live in a villa, which sounds quaint and romantic, but in Korea, that means a small apartment building. Most villas we’ve seen have two to six apartments.

So, flashback to July – we were in Ankara and I thought I would be efficient and pack our luggage in a way that we wouldn’t have to touch the majority of it until we got to Korea. That was wishful thinking. I had forgotten how stressful it is to pack most of your worldly possessions into a few suitcases. We went through MANY rounds of revisions and paring down. After three weeks in the States, we arrived in Seoul with five checked luggage pieces, two rolling carry-ons, one backpack, and one guitar.

This is what our home looked like the first day we arrived. I am sharing this to remind myself to rejoice in how far we’ve come since then:

 

When we first moved in

 

We are fortunate that the school furnishes our apartment with the essential pieces. They also stocked our kitchen with new dishes, silverware, pots, and pans.

Here is our entryway. The air conditioner is on the left. We keep our shoes in the built-in dolap. The hall tree and shelf are both from IKEA. The orange sticky notes around the place are my labels of Korean words!

 

Entry

 

Entry shelf - calligraphy plate

 

I killed most of my first round of succulents. I’m blaming it on the low light. We have only three small windows. Here are my succulents take two:

 

Entry succulents

 

This is the view from the front door. The couch from IKEA (mentioned here) dominates so much space, but it’s comfortable and we live on it when we’re home. I like how it matches our Turkish rug!

 

Entry view

 

The walls are concrete and are covered in a textured wallpaper. We tried every kind of Command hook out there, but nothing stuck. (The only hooks that held were from Daiso. You melt a dot of glue on the back with a lighter and stick it to the wall.) I had to get creative and hung our map tapestry (from GMarket) by sticking sewing pins through the wallpaper. Isn’t it interesting how the Americas are on the right side of the map?

 

Living room

 

 

Tapestry hung with sewing pins

 

Hanging photos

 

Air plant in driftwood from Pida (피다):

 

Air plant and decor

 

Next to the couch is a door that opens to where our washing machine sits. We keep cleaning supplies and other storage items back here:

 

Washing machine area

 

Behind the dining room table is the main bathroom. There’s no tub or separator wall, so we use a squeegee to push the water towards the drain after a shower:

 

Main bathroom

 

Kitchen and dining area:

 

Kitchen and dining area

 

Stove and microwave:

 

Stove and microwave

 

Wedding photo and succulents

 

Fridge

 

Here’s the master bedroom. We call it the cave. There are no windows, so if we close the door, we could sleep for daaays. We are creatures of habit and purchased the same bedspread we used in Turkey from IKEA:

 

Master bedroom

 

Master bedroom

 

This is the bathroom connected to the master. (I can’t imagine anyone taking a shower in this tiny space!)

 

Master bathroom

 

Also connected to the master is a storage room. It was really humid in here during the summer months, but we may move more things into this area once the cold weather hits.

 

Storage room

 

Off of the kitchen is a spare bedroom:

 

Spare bedroom

 

This bedroom has my wardrobe closet. We use the dresser in here for things like office supplies, electronic cords, and medicine. Our suitcases are in the corner for now so they don’t mold in the storage space. This room usually serves as our laundry drying area.

 

Spare bedroom

 

Spare bedroom

 

While I can’t say I adore our apartment, I am very grateful for it and appreciate having our own space to call home. We have what we need and live comfortably here. I’m also thankful we live in a safe neighborhood that is conveniently located to the school, shopping, and public transportation. Our longing for natural light may push us to move next year, but that’s a ways off and we’ll see.

What do you think of our new place?

 

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