Our New Home Sweet Home (With A Month's Delay)

More than a month after we moved in, we're now ready with some pictures of our now not-so-new home. Thanks to all of you who offered your support and encouraging words when we were fighting the bed bugs - your support was much appreciated.

In the mean time we have new beds and sofas and have not seen any live bed bugs for several weeks. We did find what might have been a dead one the day before yesterday but we aren't sure. K also had something resembling two bites but they looked different and we are hoping that it's just insect bites. So I am not completely ready to declare victory over the bed bugs but we have come a long way.

So, welcome to our home in Kuwait:

Two apartments on each floor - ours is the one to the right:


(Our apartment seen from the elevator)

...And looking towards the elevators from our front door:


(View of the elevators from our front door - fire escapes/stairs to the left and right)

Our living room as it looks when you enter the front door (it's with the old sofa set that was rotten but it was the best picture I had):


(Our living room - dining table to the left and sofa area to the right)

From the windows there is a nice view - this one is the window close to the dining table:


(View of the sea from a living room window)

Here is the full view from that window (sorry, I have no photo software with me to make a decent panorama picture):


(View from living room window 1: the sea, parking lot in front of a mall)


(View from living room window 2: the mall and views of Salmiya area, at the front are some restaurants)


(View from living room window 3: the mall, views of Salmiya and more restaurants in front)

So what a few weeks ago looked like this...:


(Our living room in April)

...now looks like this:


(Our living room in May - new leather sofa set and traces of white powder poison...)


(Our living room May - new sofa set. On the right hand side the hall.)

From the right hand side of the living room (next to the sofas), a hall leads to the rest of the apartment. On the left hand side is our guest bedroom, on the right hand side is our guest bathroom. Further down on the left hand side is our bedroom and on the right hand side our kitchen:



Our guest bedroom with a brand new bed - we are still using it to store our things, most of which are still in plastic bags just in case...:


(Guest bedroom)


(Guest bedroom)

Our guest bathroom:


(Guest bathroom)


(Guest bathroom)

This is our master bedroom - and what a few weeks ago looked like this...:


(Our master bedroom a few weeks ago as the poison spraying was still ongoing)

...now looks more like a real bedroom again (with a new bed):


(Our master bedroom in May - with powder poison to keep any potential survivor bed bugs out of our bed)


(Our master bedroom in May - the built in cabinet wasn't torn down as we had demanded but I completely sealed off all cracks and joints with silicone and we had poison sprayed into two holes at the back twice)


(Our master bedroom May)

One of my absolute favorite things about this apartment is that when I wake up in the morning, this is exactly what I see from my side of the bed:


(View from my bed - before I even get out of it)

Right before exiting the master bed room is our bathroom:


(Master bathroom)


(Master bathroom)


(Master bathroom)

Across from our bed room is the kitchen:


(Our kitchen and access to the small balcony)


(Our kitchen)


(Our kitchen and the maid's room)


(Our kitchen - washer and dryer behind the door)

Although our apartment is not a luxury apartment by any means, it is still intended for people who are fairly well off and therefore has a maid's room. In this part of the world it is common to have a live-in maid to take care of children, household, cooking etc. I think most of the people who live in our building just have a cleaning lady who lives somewhere else and comes in once or twice a week - and then they use the maid's room for storage (as we do).

As seen on a previous picture, the maid's room is behind the kitchen - away from the family and close to her main workplace (kitchen). It has a very small bathroom:


(Maid's bathroom)

And the room itself is so small that it was difficult for me to take the picture (when I stretch out my arms I can almost touch both walls!):


(Maid's room)

This is taken from the bathroom - as you can see it's only as wide as maybe twice the door and about the same length. K and I spent some time pondering how you can put a bed in there - if you put it on the left hand side, the door will not open. If you put it on the right hand side, you'd have to climb over it to go into the bathroom...


(Maid's room)

From the kitchen there is access to a small balcony:


(Balcony)

I was quite surprised when I first saw that the gas is kept on the balcony in the direct sun - with a hose leading through the wall into the kitchen (the stove is right on the other side of the wall). However people say there has never been any problems with this...


(Gas on the balcony - with the hose leading to the stove on the other side through a hole in the wall)

The view from our balcony (from left to right):


(View from our balcony - on a clear day the sea can be seen. Salmiya is almost like a peninsula which is why we can see water from both sides of our apartment)


(View from our balcony, restaurants)


(View from our balcony)

Despite all the problems we had in/with this apartment (problems that by the way could have happened in any country and in any apartment) we are very happy with our choice of location. We are within walking distance of the nearby mall as well as an area with restaurants and cafés by the water and the restaurants right below our building. It takes 15 minutes to walk to the nearest supermarket (which is doable outside of the midday heat) and it takes K about 25-30 minutes to get to work in the morning.

If any of you would like to come see for yourself, you are more than welcome!