We Found a Place

Our Russian connection worked out and we found an apartment yesterday. We met Marina at the apartment and had our choice of a 2 bedroom or a 3 bedroom and we picked the 2 bedroom. The 3 bedroom had the extra room and it had a shower/tub combo in the master bathroom but the rooms were so small and there would be no way we could get our bedroom furniture in any of the rooms unless we split it among the rooms. The 2 bedroom is really big for an apartment in Abu Dhabi (in our price range) and the master is huge with an entire wall of built in wardrobes. Most places only have a small armoire looking thing and then you have to buy racks to hang your clothes outside of your closet. The living room is a really good size; we'll be able to make a living/dining combo out of it. It has raised ceilings, down lighting and central a/c which is unheard of for Abu Dhabi. The kitchen is plenty big and has granite counter tops and room for the stove, refrigerator (no keeping it in the living room) and dishwasher. It even has a separate laundry room, which again is not common at all in this size house. It's all on one level, which I love because in our current house our bedroom, Artem's bedroom and the laundry room are on the 3rd floor and the kitchen and living area are on the first floor. Just to get downstairs I have to do 48 stairs (I counted) with either 30 lbs of toddler in my arms or go as slow as a three-toed tree sloth while helping Artem navigate 48 slick marble stairs. Then we get to go back up "the 48" as we refer to them, to get back up to our rooms.

We wanted to stay at 200,000 dirhams/year and we tried to negotiate but the owner wouldn't budge on the 210,000 rental price, but he did say he would pay the water and electric, which like everything else in this town is pre-paid upfront for the whole year and it's 10,000 dirham/year, so that offsets the higher rental price. The apartment is also on a skinny street so parking is very crowded but the landlord agreed to put a reserved sign in the driveway for us so we have our own designated spot and I won't have to park on the street with Artem, which we have to do now. I think it will be a nice place to live and now I get to have a project to work on...decorating a new place!

The living room with pop up ceiling and down lights. To my left there is still a large area of the living room that you can't see that we'll make into our dining room. I'll do something about that single light bulb in the middle of the ceiling.


The kitchen has a nice size window and plenty of cabinet space. Our stove will go to the left of the sink, our refrigerator will go where that little white one is at and the spot to the right will be the dishwasher. When you walk into the kitchen there is a 4 foot long granite breakfast bar to the right that you can't see in this picture.

Master bedroom, again with pop ups and central air. There are more closets to the right that you can't see and more closets in the hallway with drawers inside. We have a sleigh bed, 2 night stands, tall dresser and long dresser and it will all fit easily inside this room.

I loved meeting Marina, she was your typical beautiful Russian woman, about my age, with strong facial bones and virtually no makeup but still very pretty. We told her that we adopted Artem from Russia and when she asked his name we said, "Artem" and she looked at him and said, "Ohhh Archum!" It was so good to hear a Russian say Artem's name again. I love how it sounds in Russian, especially how they are heavy on the 'r' in his name and do this tongue roll thing on the 'ch'. When Artem first came home from the orphanage, he would go to the front door and say, "ahn-ya" or he would come up to us and point to the door and say, "ahn-ya". We figured it meant outside and looked it up on a translation site but couldn't find anything that closely resembled what he was saying. We told Marina what he did and asked her what "ahn-ya" meant and she said it's a woman's name. We finally figured out that Artem must have been looking for one of his caregivers that he was close to and her name must be Anya. It made even more sense when I remembered that he called me "ahn-ya" for at least 3 months when we got home. If he was in another room and looking for me, he would yell, "ahn-ya". It made me sad to know that he was missing her like that and wanting to find her and we joked with Marina that she should have told us it meant something else like dog or cat.



We should have the keys within a week or so and can go over and start cleaning the place. Cleaning is the responsibility of the party moving in. It's already clean but I'm a freak and have to go in and bleach everything, especially any surface my tush will be on, and put my stamp of approval on it. There are a few odds and ends pieces of furniture still there, emphasis on ODD, but that will be moved out within a few days and we'll be able to start moving things in.