Home furnishings update
As my photos show, the new place was lacking in just about every way when I moved in. That’s changing.
On 19 April, I went to Ikea to see what small things I could find for my place. I left with a set of dishes (dishes, cups and bowls), a toilet brush and a couple wooden kitchen utensils for a grand total of €7.
On 22 April, I was driving to my old flat to get some boxes to move to the new one when I came across Sperrmuehl. Knowing how low I was on money, I decided to have a look. Luckily, three no longer wanted living room chair were amongst the items, and I decided that they’d due for the time being. I took the two smaller ones on the first run and returned for the bigger, more comfortable one (next year all three will be replaced by a sofabed).
I’ve rarely ever taken things from Sperrmuehl because it doesn’t feel right to me. I feel like I’m stealing something that belongs to someone else even though they don’t want it anymore. So, I just about made a sunroof in the car when, after loading the bigger chair in and getting in, someone knocked on the window. I was worried that he was going to yell at me, but when I rolled down the window he said, ‘I would have helped you get the chair in your car if I had seen you sooner. I also have a desk that I don’t want and will be putting out. Would you like to have a look at it?’ ‘Sure,’ I replied and went into his flat with him to have a look (unfortunately, it was much longer than I had hoped). I also found an Ikea footrest across in Sperrmuehl across the street from my new place that same day. Sperrmuehl really is a way of life in Germany.
It’s common knowledge among my friends and colleagues that I’ve just moved and am looking for furniture so I wasn’t at all surprised when Jg approached me at work and told me that he had a cabinet he wanted to get rid of for free. He then told me it was 1.90 metres long, and I declined it – it was way bigger than I wanted. However, Detroiter is in the same situation (we’re sort of competing for whatever we can get for free) and he and I are keeping each other posted when we’re offered something, so I informed him but it was much longer than he wanted too.
In casual conversation at the end of April, I mentioned the fact that my new place didn’t have a fridge to Js and she said, ‘I have a desk I don’t want. Do you want it?’ to which I replied, ‘It depends on the dimensions,’ so she went home and measured it and I agreed to take it after finding out it was literally a perfect fit for the place I had in mind for it.
Detroiter and I managed to fit it into one of our school’s minuscule cars and brought it over on 9 May. She also gave me a shelf that she said was supposed to sit on the wall above the desk for books, but I’ve decided to use it above the sink in my kitchen for more storage.
Having made due for a couple weeks without a fridge, it annoyed me enough at the beginning of May (a four day weekend for me) so I went out looking for one before the next one. I had been out price shopping before, but just browsing. Knowing that another long weekend coming up and everything would be closed on Sunday and Monday, I was determined to have one before then. Saturn had one that I liked, but I didn’t like their delivery charge. They charge €10 through one door - fine for people that live in houses – and €49 if the delivery people have to go through more than that. My situation is the latter. Even though I am the only one living in my structure, you have to go through a building door, up a narrow flight of stairs and out a second door to get to my Hinterhaus. So, I returned to MediaMarkt. I had looked there a few weeks prior, but didn’t see anything I wanted – inexpensive and not too large, but not one of those box style ones either. I first asked the information lady how much it was to deliver a fridge to Old Town and was told €25 – perfect. I spent a bit more time looking than I had before and found one that I liked (with a proper freezer and different doors for the fridge and freezer) for the reasonable price of €247, and it was delivered on 9 May.
As you can tell by the photo, it’s relatively small so I probably could have enlisted a friend to help, stuffed it into one of the school’s cars and then carried it up the narrow stairwell after navigating a tricky corner at the bottom of it, but, quite frankly, I couldn’t be bothered. Something else that I really like about it is that it’s only 130cm high. There’s a cabinet on the wall that is 147cm off the floor and I wanted a fridge that I could fit under it and most were about 142cm – 146cm. This one is 130cm, which leaves me 16 cm of much needed storage space.
The day after my electric kettle died, I found a new one at Plus for €9.99. It was bigger and better than the old one and was exactly what I had wanted and I also found a toaster at the same supermarket for the same price.
You might notice that the past few posts have had photos – which should tell you that I’ve bought a new camera. After mine was stolen, I went looking for a new one and the same type that I had (Canon Powershot A series) at Saturn for €99. That was €50 less than I had paid for mine a few years ago and the lowest price I had seen them for ever. I almost bought one but decided to have a look when I was at MediaMarkt to see if they had a lower price (which is often the case). After doing the paperwork for the fridge, I wandered over to the camera section and saw that they didn’t have the A460, but they did have the new A470 for about the price I paid for mine. I was taken aback to find that even though it’s a newer model, the optical zoom was only 3.4x instead of the 4x my older camera had and decided to go back to Saturn to buy one. I was in the car at that time and decided to buy it at the one near Ikea (across the motorway from MediaMarkt) since it has free parking (the one in the city doesn’t) and was shocked to see the A460 there in the bargain bin for €119! Right! Like I was gonna pay €20 more for free parking? Not! So, while I was returning from the doctor’s office on my bike (to wait for my fridge to be delivered), I stopped at the one in the city and bought it and also a 2 gb SD card (€13.99) for it.
So far, so good.
Posted by: J
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