Our apartment is in the Degla section of Maadi, which is where the highest concentration of Westerners seems to be. We’re way down at the end of our
street-it’s probably a mile long. The far end of our street connects to Road 233, which has quite a few businesses on it (think strip-shopping, Egyptian style), and our end dead-ends into a mosque. We can clearly hear the prayers being broadcast over loudspeakers atop the minaret, even in our apartment. That was one of the things we were told to consider when shopping for a place to live. As I’ve come to find out, though, it seems that there’s at least 1 mosque per square mile or two, so I don’t know how well we could have avoided hearing the prayers. Also, we don’t hear them at all when we are asleep in the bedrooms with the air conditioning on. So it’s not really a worry.
Anyway our apartment is on the ground floor. You enter the building through double glass doors, turn to your right, and there’s our front door. It’s very pretty, made of wood, with no doorknob, just a gold pull-handle smack dab in the middle of it. It opens with the key and locks automatically behind us.
When we enter our apartment we’re in the living room. There is a TV (17 inches? I think 6 of them would fit on Daddy’s TV screen.) with satellite TV, though there are only 5 or 6 English stations. (There are also about 50 porn stations—free. So much for those good Muslim values, which require me to wear pants or skirts past my knees and cover my shoulders!) Our living room is painted white, with the exception of one wall with a gold (think metallic!) faux paint treatment on it. It’s not too bad, except that it totally clashes with the couch, loveseat, and 2 armchairs, which are denim blue and bright yellow stripes and plaid with flowers on them! (I can only imagine what YOU’RE imagining! I will try to upload a picture later.) There’s a large area rug on the floor that sort of matches the gold wall—khakis, browns, rich burgundy, and greens—but does not match the furniture at all. So far I’ve lived with the combo, but slipcovers for the couches may be in the offing, depending on the price to have them made. (Supposedly it can be done cheaply here. We’ll see.)
Off the living room is the hallway. All our floors are marble tile, and those are white everywhere except the bathroom and bedrooms. The kitchen is the first door in the hall, and it’s not my favorite, but it’s better than lots I saw. I sacrificed a dishwasher and a good sink for a kitchen that is neutral, clean, and somewhat attractive. The sink is one single basin with no disposal or spray nozzle. The water pressure is variable, so I may have water spurt out and go over the counter at any time! I wash dishes in a plastic basin and rinse them in the sink before drying them. (I HATE TO WASH DISHES!!!!)
The cabinets are a pretty dark brown color with off-white/pinkish marble tops. There is enough storage so far for the basic supplies and food I’ve bought. The fridge is bigger than the midget fridge we had in Hong Kong, but not as large as a standard American apartment refrigerator. And it’s avocado green! There’s no pantry. As I read over this, the kitchen sounds terrible, but I actually like it just fine.
Opposite the kitchen is a little inset area about 1 foot deep that would be perfect for a little narrow table…but I’m not planning on investing in one! Also, the little niche is the beginning of our green walls—sort of the green of my guest bedroom in Justin—and I like them! The hallway is all green from the kitchen/niche on.
Back to the hallway…up two little black marble stairs…on the right is the dining room. I guess it could be turned into another bedroom, but there’s no room for the dining table anywhere else. So for now it’s the dining room, soon to be dining/office/scrapbooking room. There’s a ceiling fan in there of all things, but no air-conditioner. The walls are peach. (Ick! But bearable.)
Opposite the dining room is the bathroom. The washer and our new dryer (yay!) are in there, and there is a pedestal sink, a toilet (which you flush by pulling up on a little knob on top of the tank), and our bathtub. The bathtub is my least favorite part of the apartment. They did not peel all the adhesive label stuff off of it when it was installed, so it says “CAIRO CERAMIC” or something like that all around the edges of it. It’s not sticky, though, but the labels are still there. Also, the water from the shower head instantly runs off the tub, sneaks around the shower curtain (the cute one I made that was upstairs in our bathroom at home) and onto the floor, so that if you’re not SUPER careful, there’s a puddle the size of Lake Michigan on our bathroom floor. We have to squeegee after almost every bath. The tile in the bathroom is brown and beige marble. It’s actually pretty pretty!
Luke’s bedroom is also peach. It has two double twin beds in it and lots of space to play. There is no closet, but there is a large wardrobe that has room for all his clothes and toys, as well as some other stuff I’ve stashed there.
Our room is at the end of the hall. It has peach walls, a queen sized bed, and a matching vanity table, wardrobe, and nightstands.
The main thing I wish we had that we can’t get here is bedding. There are no such things as fitted sheets here, and all that good Egyptian cotton is exported! I will be ordering bedding online and having it shipped to Clay’s house for Jason to bring back in October!
The things I really like about our apartment are:
-the spacious feel of it.
-the high ceilings (11-12 feet?)
-the fact that it’s on the ground floor!
-the location—on a quiet-ish street near shopping, groceries, and our new friends, who live one street over
-it is an oasis of cleanliness compared to outside!
I will try to post pictures soon!
street-it’s probably a mile long. The far end of our street connects to Road 233, which has quite a few businesses on it (think strip-shopping, Egyptian style), and our end dead-ends into a mosque. We can clearly hear the prayers being broadcast over loudspeakers atop the minaret, even in our apartment. That was one of the things we were told to consider when shopping for a place to live. As I’ve come to find out, though, it seems that there’s at least 1 mosque per square mile or two, so I don’t know how well we could have avoided hearing the prayers. Also, we don’t hear them at all when we are asleep in the bedrooms with the air conditioning on. So it’s not really a worry.Anyway our apartment is on the ground floor. You enter the building through double glass doors, turn to your right, and there’s our front door. It’s very pretty, made of wood, with no doorknob, just a gold pull-handle smack dab in the middle of it. It opens with the key and locks automatically behind us.
When we enter our apartment we’re in the living room. There is a TV (17 inches? I think 6 of them would fit on Daddy’s TV screen.) with satellite TV, though there are only 5 or 6 English stations. (There are also about 50 porn stations—free. So much for those good Muslim values, which require me to wear pants or skirts past my knees and cover my shoulders!) Our living room is painted white, with the exception of one wall with a gold (think metallic!) faux paint treatment on it. It’s not too bad, except that it totally clashes with the couch, loveseat, and 2 armchairs, which are denim blue and bright yellow stripes and plaid with flowers on them! (I can only imagine what YOU’RE imagining! I will try to upload a picture later.) There’s a large area rug on the floor that sort of matches the gold wall—khakis, browns, rich burgundy, and greens—but does not match the furniture at all. So far I’ve lived with the combo, but slipcovers for the couches may be in the offing, depending on the price to have them made. (Supposedly it can be done cheaply here. We’ll see.)
Off the living room is the hallway. All our floors are marble tile, and those are white everywhere except the bathroom and bedrooms. The kitchen is the first door in the hall, and it’s not my favorite, but it’s better than lots I saw. I sacrificed a dishwasher and a good sink for a kitchen that is neutral, clean, and somewhat attractive. The sink is one single basin with no disposal or spray nozzle. The water pressure is variable, so I may have water spurt out and go over the counter at any time! I wash dishes in a plastic basin and rinse them in the sink before drying them. (I HATE TO WASH DISHES!!!!)
The cabinets are a pretty dark brown color with off-white/pinkish marble tops. There is enough storage so far for the basic supplies and food I’ve bought. The fridge is bigger than the midget fridge we had in Hong Kong, but not as large as a standard American apartment refrigerator. And it’s avocado green! There’s no pantry. As I read over this, the kitchen sounds terrible, but I actually like it just fine.Opposite the kitchen is a little inset area about 1 foot deep that would be perfect for a little narrow table…but I’m not planning on investing in one! Also, the little niche is the beginning of our green walls—sort of the green of my guest bedroom in Justin—and I like them! The hallway is all green from the kitchen/niche on.
Back to the hallway…up two little black marble stairs…on the right is the dining room. I guess it could be turned into another bedroom, but there’s no room for the dining table anywhere else. So for now it’s the dining room, soon to be dining/office/scrapbooking room. There’s a ceiling fan in there of all things, but no air-conditioner. The walls are peach. (Ick! But bearable.)
Opposite the dining room is the bathroom. The washer and our new dryer (yay!) are in there, and there is a pedestal sink, a toilet (which you flush by pulling up on a little knob on top of the tank), and our bathtub. The bathtub is my least favorite part of the apartment. They did not peel all the adhesive label stuff off of it when it was installed, so it says “CAIRO CERAMIC” or something like that all around the edges of it. It’s not sticky, though, but the labels are still there. Also, the water from the shower head instantly runs off the tub, sneaks around the shower curtain (the cute one I made that was upstairs in our bathroom at home) and onto the floor, so that if you’re not SUPER careful, there’s a puddle the size of Lake Michigan on our bathroom floor. We have to squeegee after almost every bath. The tile in the bathroom is brown and beige marble. It’s actually pretty pretty!
Luke’s bedroom is also peach. It has two double twin beds in it and lots of space to play. There is no closet, but there is a large wardrobe that has room for all his clothes and toys, as well as some other stuff I’ve stashed there.Our room is at the end of the hall. It has peach walls, a queen sized bed, and a matching vanity table, wardrobe, and nightstands.
The main thing I wish we had that we can’t get here is bedding. There are no such things as fitted sheets here, and all that good Egyptian cotton is exported! I will be ordering bedding online and having it shipped to Clay’s house for Jason to bring back in October!
The things I really like about our apartment are:
-the spacious feel of it.
-the high ceilings (11-12 feet?)
-the fact that it’s on the ground floor!
-the location—on a quiet-ish street near shopping, groceries, and our new friends, who live one street over
-it is an oasis of cleanliness compared to outside!
I will try to post pictures soon!
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