April 21, 2013 - My New Place

I’m in my new place! A two-bedroom in a “housing society” called Orange County, really. It’s well known as a pretty swank place to live, apparently. It’s nice enough. The rent is $450/month. The utilities (water, gas, electricity and society fees) are approximately $60/month. I pre-pay cash to the maintenance folk on the first floor.

For all the talk about India’s bureaucracy, the paperwork didn’t seem worse than renting an apartment in the U.S. The owner, the real estate guys and I gathered in a room on a Sunday, the day after I looked at the place, and we signed all the pages of the lease. Then I handed over a bunch of cash. (Everyone involved insisted on cash and the real estate agents got a full month’s rent commission.) I learned the daily limit of my ATM withdrawal (about $1000) but the owner let me pay the deposit and first month’s rent the following day.

Tower 10, 12th Floor
(Notice lack of a 13th floor)

The friendly owner and his family (three other adults and a small child – wow, what a squeeze) were there when I came to see it the place both times and he told me he was willing to leave major items for me to use, like a couch, chairs, bed, table, coffee table, and TV. Because of the rent savings from my only other viable option (a 3-bedroom fully furnished for $560), I agreed, not realizing he did not intend to include a fridge, stove, microwave nor any other furniture whatsoever.

The front door.
(No, that is not a demon over it. No, that is not a swastika. Keep telling myself that.)

I discovered later that he never intended to leave anything at all. This left me wondering why I had even been shown this place as I had specifically requested fully furnished. The owner and his family apparently really wanted to help the foreign lady out. (Honestly, it’s just making me feel guilty.) What’s irritating is that all the money I saved by not getting the three bedroom, I’ve just blown on appliances. The owner said that he could reimburse me for any cost I spent in buying appliances, and I believe he intends to… it’s just that once I’m back in the U.S. that is one of those really easy things to “forget” to do. Even before I started looking, I assumed that the chances I’d actually get my security deposit back were about 1 in 5.

Living Room / Bedroom / Kitchen

The owner is super nice and not only left the active cable box but went out of his way to renew it with additional English movie channels so it wasn’t all Hindi. Apparently, the furniture (which is really quite nice and looks brand new) was something he got at the start of his marriage. Feel sort of bad about that and even offered to let him have it back. But he said the ladies (his mother and wife I assume) insisted. He gave me an excellent tour of the facilities and basics before he left and has kept in close contact with me ever since, making sure I’m doing well and have what I need.

Bathroom

My apartment has two bathrooms. One more than I need, but that’s fine. No bathtub, of course, but I’m lucky just to have a barrier between the (overly gadgety) shower and toilet.

A Geyser

A “geyser” in India is something you really need, as it heats the water for the rest of your apartment. It is pronounced “geezer” and apparently does not spark thoughts of water spurting out 100 feet in the minds of the locals. And it creates some HOT water.

Guess what my apartment does not have any of? I did not realize it until I started moving things in. Look at the floor plan. Anything missing?

This has everything! Except…

The floor plan is almost a perfect mirror image of mine, except for the location of the sink. Yep, three balconies! I am not a fan of the living room as it is narrow and right in the circulation zone, one of my biggest pet peeves left over from architecture school, but the kitchen is quite spacious. Architecture school also taught me one thing that is often overlooked, as it doesn’t look good in a floor plan: storage space. Yes, ladies and gentleman. There is not one single closet. To be fair, yes there is a wardrobe in each bedroom. So my clothes have a place to go. Know what doesn’t have a place? Linens. Towels. Jackets. General-purpose stuff that I don’t need out in the open. Even the bathroom does not have a single shelf. Nowhere to put vitamins, antibiotics, extra toilet paper, or my feminine hygiene products. Because I didn’t get any furniture either, my books and desk supplies also don’t have a place.

I do suspect I just have more crap than most Indians. That wardrobe in the second bedroom is my current storage area. How four adults and a child lived here is still beyond me as this feels just adequate for me. And this is without the room full of stuff I still have in the States.

Fun from the 12th floor
View from my balcony

So I bought a fridge and a microwave from the nearby Orange County shopping center’s electronics store. From a very attentive saleswoman. At absolutely full American-level prices. (The microwave was about $130, even! Where’s Target when you need it?) And when I saw the washing machines I just melted. I am SO SICK of washing my clothes. Even though the owner of the apartment mentioned the location of a self-serve laundromat (which I still have not found incidentally), I decided that I probably wouldn’t want to be carrying laundry in the heat/rain. It has already hit 100 degrees here. Luckily, it’s not humid, but it is starting to get pretty uncomfortable being outside for too long carrying groceries, etc. And it is not even the hottest month yet.

They have “semi-automatic” washing machines. What’s that, you ask? It means you have to take your clothes out of the main compartment and put them in a smaller compartment for the spin cycle. I was easily talked into fully automatic.

Anyway, so once they realized I was serious, I got sat at a comfy table, an air conditioner was put right beside me, I was served water and tea, and generally was treated like a queen, despite wearing the silly T-shirt I got from our St. Baldrick’s activity day at work. I admit, it is kind of nice to be pampered. My “asking for a combo purchase discount” got me a free $40 stainless steel electric kettle I had my eye on. Something, anyway.

More fun from the 12th floor

So a couple days later, four young guys delivered all my purchases. More accurately, they delivered the fridge and kettle. Then when I pointed that there was a third thing on their sheet, they came back up 12 floors with the microwave. Then when I pointed out the washing machine on the second sheet, they had to go back down for that as well. Then, and only then, did I sign their form.

Very luckily, a neighbor lady of mine had stopped by. Without her there, they might have made me figure out on my own how to get the fridge and washing machine out of the boxes where they were tightly styrofoamed. (It took three of them working together to do it successfully.) They unpacked, plugged the fridge in, and put it in place. I only realized two hours later that they never turned the outlet on. Seriously, people. I’m the one from a country where we don’t have switches next to the outlets.

But the real challenge was the washing machine.

Spatial Conundrum

Yeah. The only place for a washing machine is on the balcony off the kitchen (and indeed, that is where I’ve seen it at other apartments.) But the only outlet is behind the door. The water inlet (cold water only) is also behind the door. The drain? You guessed it. On the opposite side. WTF?

A drain on my resources

So, my washing machine ended up at an awkward angle right in the middle of the balcony. Giving the problem a little thought, I figured putting a bucket with a hole in it was a clever solution. Except that the hole was not quite overlapping the drain, so I painstakingly poked additional holes in the hard plastic. That worked slightly better. Keeping the hose up with plastic and packing tape: not working as well. But good enough until I get something better.

Still, I am loving my washing machine and its automatic spin cycle (my clothes dry so fast!) even if it causes a bit of a wet mess on the balcony when it drains.

I hung out with the neighbors today. The owner of the place knew them well and introduced them to me before I even moved in. The couple and their two sons lived in New Jersey and California (their younger son is, in fact, an American Citizen) as did the brother and his wife and two daughters, so they are easy to talk with and understand (and have already been translating for me). I met the whole extended family today. Along with having a lovely time chatting with the 10-year old girl who speaks English in a wonderful American accent, I also learned that they had a similar conundrum with their washing machine. Their solution: extending everything. The input, the plug, and the drain pipe. Only the middle one I can do on my own.

Go home, architect, you’re drunk

The club is quite nice. The facilities are similar to Cabana’s. Four treadmills, two stationary bikes, two ellipticals, and a variety of weight machines and free weights. There is a spa with a jacuzzi and sauna apparently. I haven’t tried it yet. My favorite is the room clearly signed “Restaurant” but is just an empty room where they hold yoga classes. My neighbor told me the yoga classes are at 5am and 5pm and cost about $15/month. Hmmm.

View from neighbor’s balcony

I have a maid.

I decided to just keep the owner’s maid at $20/month since that was the easiest transition for both of us. She speaks Not One Word of English. I was very nervous the first day. I thought it would be really awkward. However, it wasn’t awkward for her. She is obviously way more comfortable and familiar with the house and her duties than I, so (after showing her where I had put the supplies I had purchased based off an extensive list the owner had texted me a few days previous) she just did her stuff and even helped me dispose of the refrigerator and washing machine styrofoam and boxes. She seems pretty on the ball. She mops / wipes the whole floor, including balconies, and does the dishes. I thought it was weird that she came 7 days a week so I had the neighbor tell her not to come on Sunday (but that I’d still pay her the same, which I’m sure she disapproved of. Except the girl is already getting more money out of me than from the owner. He first said 800 rupees, then suddenly switched to 1000. Yep. Foreigner tax. Whatever. It still comes out to less than $2/hr which, you know, yikes.)

There is an older guard at the bottom of the elevator. He seems super friendly and smiles a lot. Also: Not a word of English. Even numbers. I actually got to use my Hindi numbers to tell him the flat number (this is when I was just visiting the owner on my own.) A few times, he really tried to tell me something and I really tried to understand. Just wasn’t happening.

One thing I like is that this place, unlike Cabana, has a really easy address to tell people over the phone. Everyone knows Orange County. I tell them my tower number and flat number and that’s it. So far, I’ve had all sorts of delicious food delivered with no problems.

Other things I like:

• That I have an apartment
• Cool view from, count ’em, three balconies
• Big kitchen with RO (reverse osmosis water filter) built in.
• Good-sized bedroom with wardrobe and master bath (that has decent water pressure even)
• An exhaust fan in the kitchen and bathroom (most places I have lived have NOT had one of these – or a working one at any rate) and ceiling fans everywhere else
• Cable and a good-sized flatscreen TV
• Nice, helpful neighbors
• Nice floors, fake wood in bedrooms, tile in living kitchen

Things I don’t like:

• Insufficient outlets in kitchen. One for the fridge, one for the RO, one too high to reach, and one for everything else (microwave, rice cooker, kettle, etc), all of which have high-voltage plugs that regular multi-plug power cords do NOT have, so I have to use the devices one at a time
• The lack of closets or shelves anywhere except for the wardrobe
• Difficult washing machine setup
• That the bedroom and balcony doors lock. Just seems like a bad idea.
• No A/C in the living room! (This will be the end of me.)
• Small living room
• Lack of a screen front door (like the neighbors have) but at least I have screens on many other windows.

A video from my balcony taken from my camera. Not all that exciting, but you know.
(Should work in Chrome and Firefox if all my converting worked.)