Regardless of how tired we all were, there was a definite air of excitement as 10:00am on Friday, August 29th approached. Our realtor, Roy Hsu, met us at the Hyatt to take us to our new home. The furniture we picked was already delivered and since we heard that our belongings were actually in Taiwan already, there was promise of our shipment being delivered that day as well. All went quite smoothly from this point forward. The apartment was clean and arranged beautifully. The furniture exceeded our expectations and we were thrilled with how everything looked. By 10:30am or so the moving company called and indeed, our shipment was in Taiwan and they were going to deliver it that very day. The Internet/cable companies called and they were all lined up to install those connections as well. It all came together so perfectly!
The office is one of our favorite features. It's a glass and teak enclosed room right off the main living area. It's just so striking! Unfortunately, Matt will be spending a lot of time in there. At least he'll be able to see what the rest of us are doing.
About our new dwelling...
It's hard to say
exactly how big it is because the Taiwanese measure space by "pings" which doesn't really translate into anything that makes sense to us. We originally thought that it was about the size of our 1st house in Raleigh, but after being here some time we think it's a few hundred square feet bigger than that. So, let's say this place is about 1,550-1,600 square feet. It has 3 bedrooms, an office, kitchen, dining room, 2 full baths and a living room. The washing facilities are on a little porch area outside with the water heater. We're in 1 of 2 buildings in this little complex on the 5th floor. There are 12 floors in our building. There's a very well landscaped little courtyard and beautiful decorative gates to mark the entrance. The floors in the main living areas of the apartment are white marble. The bathrooms and kitchen are tiled while the office and bedrooms are mahogany stained bamboo (I think). Most of our doors are pocket doors in teak. Fortunately, Caitlin hasn't discovered all the fun a pocket door can offer so we haven't had to deal with smooshed fingers just yet. Another neat feature of all these washable surfaces are the drains in the floor. Each room has a little drain in it so that when you're cleaning you can let the water drain down instead of pooling up. It makes cleaning so much easier! The downside are the granite thresh holds that divide each room. They stick up about 3/4 of an inch off the floor, so poor Miss Caitlin trips over them and is "splat" all over the floor a hundred times a day. I've been teaching her to watch her step (by pointing and constantly sing-song saying, "watch your step!" and so now she repeats me every time she gets to a doorway...very cute! Anyway, Caitlin's room has carpet in it that we were told was custom designed and made of wool. We tried to roll it up and store it elsewhere, but it didn't fit so we bought a carpet to put on top of it (another trip hazard for the poor child). This way if she has any sort of bodily spontaneous combustion or gets a hold of a writing utensil, we've got most of this custom made carpet covered. Phew!
exactly how big it is because the Taiwanese measure space by "pings" which doesn't really translate into anything that makes sense to us. We originally thought that it was about the size of our 1st house in Raleigh, but after being here some time we think it's a few hundred square feet bigger than that. So, let's say this place is about 1,550-1,600 square feet. It has 3 bedrooms, an office, kitchen, dining room, 2 full baths and a living room. The washing facilities are on a little porch area outside with the water heater. We're in 1 of 2 buildings in this little complex on the 5th floor. There are 12 floors in our building. There's a very well landscaped little courtyard and beautiful decorative gates to mark the entrance. The floors in the main living areas of the apartment are white marble. The bathrooms and kitchen are tiled while the office and bedrooms are mahogany stained bamboo (I think). Most of our doors are pocket doors in teak. Fortunately, Caitlin hasn't discovered all the fun a pocket door can offer so we haven't had to deal with smooshed fingers just yet. Another neat feature of all these washable surfaces are the drains in the floor. Each room has a little drain in it so that when you're cleaning you can let the water drain down instead of pooling up. It makes cleaning so much easier! The downside are the granite thresh holds that divide each room. They stick up about 3/4 of an inch off the floor, so poor Miss Caitlin trips over them and is "splat" all over the floor a hundred times a day. I've been teaching her to watch her step (by pointing and constantly sing-song saying, "watch your step!" and so now she repeats me every time she gets to a doorway...very cute! Anyway, Caitlin's room has carpet in it that we were told was custom designed and made of wool. We tried to roll it up and store it elsewhere, but it didn't fit so we bought a carpet to put on top of it (another trip hazard for the poor child). This way if she has any sort of bodily spontaneous combustion or gets a hold of a writing utensil, we've got most of this custom made carpet covered. Phew!
The office is one of our favorite features. It's a glass and teak enclosed room right off the main living area. It's just so striking! Unfortunately, Matt will be spending a lot of time in there. At least he'll be able to see what the rest of us are doing.Our furniture...
One of the perks of this little overseas adventure is being able to work with an inte
rior designer and pick out some furniture. It's so much fun to pick out things that you don't have to pay for and you only have to look at for 2 years! Everything we/I picked is more colorful, sparkly and edgy than anything I would normally pick. And guess what, we LOVE it!! Perhaps this will cure me of my obsession with beige...hmmmm, guess time will tell. So this dear, sweet, interior designer spoke pretty good English and we were able to communicate pretty well throughout the furniture/color process. She knew I didn't like the drapes in this apartment and that I wasn't allowed to change them. Thankfully she talked me into this apple green couch to offset them! She got a little stumped when we were picking furniture for Caitlin's room. I wanted a changing table and a convertible crib since she may work herself out of a regular one and into a bed while we're here. Apparently changing tables aren't all that common here. I showed her a picture of one on JCPenney.com and she got the idea...only it's about 7 inches too short. The changing pad from home hangs over the edge. Someone hand crafted this piece of furniture out of real wood (not particle board)! They did a great job otherwise. Then there's the crib...It's a beautiful sleigh style white crib and it's ENORMOUS!! Also hand crafted just for us. It doesn't fit any of the sheets I brought. I can't reach to lay her down in it (I tried once and wound up dumping her into the bed). I can actually fit in there with her (more on that later). So now we're on a mission to find sheets for this giant crib. 
One of the perks of this little overseas adventure is being able to work with an inte
rior designer and pick out some furniture. It's so much fun to pick out things that you don't have to pay for and you only have to look at for 2 years! Everything we/I picked is more colorful, sparkly and edgy than anything I would normally pick. And guess what, we LOVE it!! Perhaps this will cure me of my obsession with beige...hmmmm, guess time will tell. So this dear, sweet, interior designer spoke pretty good English and we were able to communicate pretty well throughout the furniture/color process. She knew I didn't like the drapes in this apartment and that I wasn't allowed to change them. Thankfully she talked me into this apple green couch to offset them! She got a little stumped when we were picking furniture for Caitlin's room. I wanted a changing table and a convertible crib since she may work herself out of a regular one and into a bed while we're here. Apparently changing tables aren't all that common here. I showed her a picture of one on JCPenney.com and she got the idea...only it's about 7 inches too short. The changing pad from home hangs over the edge. Someone hand crafted this piece of furniture out of real wood (not particle board)! They did a great job otherwise. Then there's the crib...It's a beautiful sleigh style white crib and it's ENORMOUS!! Also hand crafted just for us. It doesn't fit any of the sheets I brought. I can't reach to lay her down in it (I tried once and wound up dumping her into the bed). I can actually fit in there with her (more on that later). So now we're on a mission to find sheets for this giant crib. 
All in all, it's starting to look like home. We have toys here an there and Caitlin has already scribbled on the white, marble floor with a purple crayon. We've started to cook meals here and eat around the table. The TV and our million channels of cheap cable are completely useless (they're mostly in Chinese), but hey - it's cheap! We are so thankful for the Internet, Skype and our WebCam to keep us close to those we love. I'm quite sure now that this is really going to work out just fine.
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