Our New Abode

Now that we have finally waded through the river of military paperwork, we have gotten into an apartment (that is half of our allowance for housing) and are finally settling in.  The relief of not being stuck on base is indescribable and most significantly having our own space to make our own meals.

First, the location:

Spain

Southern Atlantic Coast

Rota

Old Town Rota

Second, the surroundings:

This is a view from the balconies.  There is about a one foot ledge that we can step out on.  Next door is a library. Across the street is the church.

This is the back entrance to get to the garage.  To the right is the fish market. The ole wall to the left is the prior sea wall from the old town.  This street, the fish market, and the marina are all relatively new infill areas.

Here is the garage entrance.

This is my parking space.  There is enough space for us to put our bikes in front of my car.  That wrapped up stuff is our bed frame.  Our landlords let us use their mattress and bed during our time here.  They just got a new mattress so we saw it as an opportunity to not need to buy something new.  

This is the key to get into the garage. Given its monstrous size, I leave mine in the car.  Damon sadly has to cart his around so he can get it to park his bike.

This is the elevator. To go to the basement, you press "-" and then "1".

The light house.

The view of the church out the windows.  The bells will go off during the day at no schedule I can figure out.  Not during the night though, which is nice.

View from our level into the courtyard.

View from the room into the courtyard.

View from the bottom floor to our apartment door.

Our view of the ocean and the light house from the roof.

The very last line is our assigned clothes line.  

Third, the apartment itself:

 

The kitchen with it's mini washer, oven, and refrigerator.   The washer is a washer and dryer combo that our landlords got special for us.  The dishwasher is normal sized, but it really is easier when it is just the two of us to do the dishes by hand.  Then weekly I will run everything through the dishwasher to make it all sparkle.  There is only cabinet space enough to keep four place settings.

Here are the control panels for the washer/dryer.  I was tickled when I did get it going. It is a LG and the end of cycle song is the same as the washers back in the US.  It was a delightful reminder of home.  However, all of the settings are written in Spanish so I went to the glorious internet to find the English manual.  The dryer will only do half of what it washes, so I just use it for drying undies and socks.  Everything else goes up on the roof to dry on the line.  I take the bedding and towels to the base laundromat to get them nice and fluffy.

Here is the oven.  We have discovered that the oven cannot operate at the same time as having the office transformer on, or it pops the breaker. It also doesn't fit a regular cookie sheet, so I need to find a smaller sheet.  It does fit a 9x12 baking dish though.

The fridge with all our magnets!The bottom is a freezer space that has three drawers that pull out.  Damon can't get the "family size" ice cream container again because he has to take out the drawer entirely to fit the ice cream in.  

Our water is heated by butane tanks to a tankless water heater.  The water heater occupies one of the upper cupboards, and the bottles take up one of the bottom cabinets.

 

The plugs and light switches are funny looking.

This is the entry foyer/hall.  The kitchen is immediately to the left and to the end of the hall turn left is the living/dining room.  Then to the right are the bedrooms and bathrooms. The front door has a "knob" type thing in the middle that has no purpose for opening the door except to push it open.  To actually turn the latch uses the key.  Then to dead-bolt the door has two levels of dead-bolting.

This is the door key. The main door and roof door keys are normal looking.

From the main door, this is the phone that rings so I can buzz people in and talk to them. I haven't tried just picking up the phone to yell at people...maybe this weekend I will test it on the drunkards.

Living room view #1.  Thank goodness for a flat screen TV that fits on the bookshelf.  The overhead fan is nice, but it is the only one.  No overhead fan in the bedrooms.  The apartment stays fairly shaded so it doesn't get too uncomfortable.  Since we aren't the top floor, we don't get the heat from the roof, and since the floors are all tile, they stay pretty cool. 

Here is the transformer that we got from the base.  Quite the science fair project down there, but at least I can turn on the TV, DVD player, AFN receiver, and phone!

The two big bookshelves.  With the walls being concrete, hanging anything is a total pain in the hiney so most of the pictures are on hooks that were already existing.  The lamps work with just a plug adapter, and then new light bulbs special for the 220 system here.

The double-wide! It made it.  Damon's first comment upon seeing it again after all these months was "wow, we picked an ugly color".  Much like the father in Fraiser, I think that is the most comfortable chair ever created and have no intentions on ever parting with it. 

I organized the books by color :) Isn't it pretty.

The dining room.  

The small bathroom.  The awning windows are nice mostly for privacy.

The toilets have push button flushers, small button for small things, and then the big button for big things.

The master bathroom.  It has a bidet which I have no intentions on ever using. People here seem to prefer baths over showers so the shower head is a handle on the wall that points almost directly down.  I like going to the gym on base and using their water and towels for taking a long shower.  We don't get reimbursed for having a cheaper rent than our allowance, but we do get to pocket any utility bills that are less than that allowance.

The office/guest room.  That spot on the floor is where the blow up mattress will go.  I think it will fit.  I haven't tested it yet. Guests will get their own bathroom though!

Here is the office transformer.  Damon was given this one from the prior oral surgeon.  It is also very science fair looking.

Another view of the office from the window.  The built in closet has it's own drawers inside and the upper cabinets are great for storage.  

The master bedroom.  The full-length sliding doors are really great for air flow. Against the wall is an air conditioner and heater unit.  We have one in each room against that wall.  We haven't tested the units yet so hopefully they work! The door/windows are double with latches on each side.  It does a pretty good job of keeping out the noise. One thing that is neat is the overhead light has switches on either side of the bed as well as on the wall near the door so we can turn off the light from the other side of the room.

The master bedroom closets.  These closets also have an upper cabinet for storage.  We have the suitcases in one of them.

 So, there you have it.  Our nest for the next three years! It is so lovely to not be homeless.