The New Apartment

We had our mattress delivered yesterday so I took a few pics to share with you ladies while I was there. The pics are from my iPhone so not the best quality.

Our kitchen

Dining room

Living room with large balcony for Mr. Milk's bbq :)

Main bathroom

Master bedroom...

...with a sort-of walkin closet, that leads to an en-suite bathroom with a shower 

We are very happy that we found a place so quickly and one that not only fits all the things we ordered but that we really really like. Hopefully soon enough, I'll be able to show you after pictures too. For the next few days we will be busy unpacking, receiving deliveries, and cleaning :)

The Apartment Fell Through

As some of you may recall, Mr. Milk and I had found an apartment a few weeks back that would be ready beginning of August for us to move into. Here is the apartment we had put a downpayment on. Well we met with the building owner this past Friday so we could sign the rental agreement. OMG!!! This woman was from another planet. She was probably in her late twenties but for some reason or another had also made some money. And it had gone straight to her head! All she cared about was getting/making money. The best way to describe her is a redneck from a Cyprus village!

When Mr. Milk asked her what type of tenants she was looking for (a question he had asked all landlords we had visited), her response was "Those who pay." She went on to tell us that she didn't care if tenants had issues between them, and if such problems were to arise we should just call the police! All we wanted to know was that we wouldn't be in a building full of rowdy college kids! She started telling us how they had built the building for personal use but decided to rent it out instead, how much money they had spent on it, and blah blah blah.

Since it was a new building, and everything in Cyprus shuts down in August, the phone company would not be available to put a phoneline in until September. Neither of us can live without internet but were willing to wait, if she showed some good faith and gave us a reduction in rent for that month. She had initially agreed that we would not pay maintenance fees for the month of August, but when we met with her on Friday decided to tell us that even though she was willing to give us the reduction, it was basically our problem since we were in "a rush" to move in. At that point I was like, we've been waiting 2 months, clearly noone is in a huge rush. Since there were a few things left to be finished in the apartment (mirrors in the bathrooms, toilet paper holders, aircondition controls, and some freaky wire thing in the bathroom) we left the lease as was and arranged a meeting for today at 1pm, to do a last inspection of the unit and sign the contract. I was soooooooo happy we didn't sign. I hated her! Everything in me said go look for another place to rent on Monday. Mr. Milk was infuriated by her, and he doesn't get angry easily at all. The poor agent called us within 10mins of leaving her place and apologised profusely for the other woman's behavior. I remember telling my mom that night that I would rather take the rent money and throw it in the streets than give it to this woman! But Mr. Milk is so tired of living at his parents house and not having his own space, that he couldn't even think about postponing moving for one more month!

Well this bitch decides to call the agent who was working with us and tell her that she was no longer interested in renting us the apartment! She said we were too demanding and she worried that she would have too many hassles with us as tenenats (keep in mind that she had already told us that she wanted nothing to do with the tenants, as long as they paid ofcourse)! Mr. milk was yelling up a storm. I don't think I've ever heard him swear so much! His initial reaction was that we are moving back to Canada :)

So we are left with furniture that has been ordered to fit the size of that apartment, appliances, and a mattress, that are ALL to be delivered at the end of this week! We are basically freaking out a little. The only good thing that came out of her backing out is that we got our deposit back.

Monday night I pack a few things and drive the one hour to Mr. Milk's parents house. I spent ALL day yesterday with my MOH in the car calling up rentals, following agents around int the hope that we would find a new place to rent, big enough to fit our purchases, and in time for the Thursday 1pm delivery of our furniture! Oh and it was about 105F outside with about 70% humidity. Gross!

Someone up above must have been looking out for us because yesterday afternoon we signed a new lease with a very sweet man, who was not only reasonable and cooperative, he offered to help us move our stuff! He bought this apartment for his daughter and we met with her at the lease signing too. She mentioned that several people had come to see her apartment but it was the first time she felt comfortable actually signing a lease. Of course we promised we would take super good care of her house. But my, what a difference! These people are just good, down to earth folks. Since I was in such a craze yesterday, I didn't get a chance to take any pics of the new place, but since we have the keys and will start our move today all through Saturday, I will take plenty and post as soon as I can.

As for the other woman, i refuse to waste any more tought or energy on her, and all I have to say is, karma's a bitch...

Looking For A Place To Live

So we've been here for about a week now. Mr. Milk started his new job yesterday and it seems to be going well so far. He is excited and impressed with what he has seen thus far. We've both felt that we are here on vacation. It still doesn't quite feel real, but at this point I think it will just take time. 

We took a couple of days to just relax and get over the jet-lag, and last Wednesday we went out searching for apartments to rent. We spent three days looking around Nicosia, the capital city, where Mr. Milk will be working. We found a vast number of places, but what stood out was how small many of the bedrooms were! We saw one apartment that boasted a roof-top garden, but the bedrooms were barely large enough for a baby! What good is a garden when there is hardly any space to move around within the apartment?! The other thing that Mr. Milk was rudely awakened to, is that most apartments don't come with appliances, aside from the stove. Stupid? Yes! Common? Very. I don't know why this is the status quo but it is. 

We've narrowed down our choice to 3 apartments. Unfortunately most of the pictures are on Mr. Milk's iphone so I can only show you one. It's our first choice anyway, but I only have pics of the outside at the moment. It's still under construction and will be available August 1st.

This is the building from the back/side view. The apartment we are interested in faces this way. 

Here's some of my handy, childish photoshop work, to show you which one we are interested in. Its "L" Shaped so isn't as big as it might seem from this picture, although it is one of the largest we have seen. 

Here it is again from the very back. The balcony doors are for the joint kitchen, living room, dining room, and the 2 windows to the left are for the master bedroom which has an en-suite bathroom. It's a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment, which I think we could be very comfortable living in for several years if we had to.

The other apartment we saw is furnished and belongs to a friend of Mr. Milk's. Basically its a bachelor pad. While Mr. Milk was very excited when he saw this apartment, I was less so. It wasn't as bright, or roomy, or clean (men!), as many of the others, especially compared to the one above. But the catch is, that since he is a friend, he will rent us the apartment for the same price as the unfurnished ones we've seen! This would help us out a ton financially. Problem is, I can't see us staying there for more than a year, at which point he will also likely want the apartment back.

So this is our dilemma thus far. Our stuff should be arriving mid-June and it would be nice to have a place to put it all! Luckily there is space at my parents house to keep it for a while if we decide to take the apartment in the pics.