Our Living Conditions

This is a little guide to our apartment, which is slightly larger than our Montana house minus the yard and basement, of course. Upon entering all Russian apartment's there is a hall for removing your shoes and coats.  You then put on your tapichky, or house slippers.  We are slowly stocking up on extras since you typically provide them for your guests.  We can only accommodate two guests at this point, but that has as much to do with the number of plates, silverware and glasses we have.

In the photos you see that there is a long hall leading to the stair well/elevator.  There are 36 apartments that use our stairwell.  The door at the end leads directly to the stairs.  There is also a door to the right of the end door that leads to the neighbors apartment.  Russians typically double or triple up on security.  In our case there is a magnet door opener (more later in another blog) at the entrance to the building, then each floor has four apartments; two to one side and two to the other.  From the stairs you enter a steel door and proceed to a second steel door and finally you close your own inside door.

Entry 

Steel Door closed

The kitchen is a model of efficiency.  We actually have a lot of counter space compared to most apartments. Often times they have no counters, just a table to prep form and eat off of.  All appliances are 24" wide.  Our appliances are Bosch and these models are not sold in the US.  Ironically, in the US we get Bosch dishwashers, but we don't have a dishwasher (or we have three dishwashers by the name of Jones).  I love the refrigerator!  It is 6'-6" tall and has plenty of space, especially in the lower freezer section (3 bins).  Why don't we have these tall refrigerators in the US?  There is so much wasted space above a frig!

Refrigerator - Clothes Washer - Sink - Stove  Note the cabinet above the sink doubles as a drying rack with a removable pan below it to catch water.  This is the most efficient dish washing scenario I've ever used, besides having a  dishwasher, of course.  Why not throw in a double bowl sink as well?

The living room has the only carpet, the only soft surface and sound absorbing qualities in the house. A whisper get's the attention of the someone in the back room!  Just think what the bathroom does.  We call them the megaphones.  Aside from that, our concrete box does a great job of drowning out the neighbors, the only true way to stop sound is with mass.  Even the windows are sound proof (triple pane glass, double sealing weather stripping and vinyl) I guarantee they don't sell these in the US.  If they did they would put all other window companies out of business.  Our flimsy vinyl in the US is designed for temperate climates such as Florida and sold to cold climates in the North.  Maybe these are actually composites here?  I'll do more research and open up a window store upon my return.  These things are bullet proof!

The comfort couch that all psychiatrists should invest in

Danielle's office

Living Room

This is our porch outside the living room.  This is good for extra storage and acts as a cool room for our vegetable collection acquired from the locals.  Most Russians use this as a smoking porch.

The bedrooms...

Lika's bedroom and Kreg's office - She moved  from a closet sized bedroom in Montana to sharing a room with her Dad.  Contrary to what one might guess, she loves this configuration because we can sit side by side and draw for hours!

The megaphones...

Big Bathroom. Note the towel warmer/towel bar.

Kreg's bathroom with the efficiency of a Yacth.  I love this space!

Curtains are always some shear material that lets light in and minimally obscures vision.  On moonlit nights it is hard to sleep, but our shortened days are fast approaching.  We are losing about 5.5 minutes of day light per day (40 minutes per week). This will happen until about December 1st when we are down to about 5 1/2 hours of daylight.  We are on the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska.

K&D's Bedroom - bathrooms are between the bedrooms.

A Walk in the Rain - Chocolate Overdose

To stay current with activities we are doing at this exact moment we submit this post of dinner on main street.   The downtown has a beautiful boulevard where we can normalize to high end European standards.  It went like this... Lika coaxed us out into the rain this fine Saturday so she could demonstrate her skills in keeping dry under her new umbrella.  What wonderful activity.

Well, there were other attractions along the way, such as visiting a pet store and Kreg using his mapping skills to deliver us (via bus) to the downtown AND Danielle's favorite new attraction, the Piotrovsky Bookstore.  Afterwards we searched for a meal and found a Southern Fried Chicken restaurant (Actually written in English).  These are quite popular all over Russia because we have been to them in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Ufa, I think???  While the chicken was good, it still didn't complete the day quite right so we ventured next door to splurge on a tasty dessert.  This Chocolate Dessert Store is more on the scale of Take-your-date-out-in-pearls-and-an-evening-gown than "can we three wet rats have a seat?" But, our English skills (and my lack of Russian) not only got us admitted; it also landed us three free molten chocolate desserts served in espresso cups, along with our own desserts and coffee.

Huckleberry Cheesecake & Molten Chocolate Dessert

 While I took in the high end interior design, Lika and Danielle watched the newest styles on the TV Fashion runway show (or whateverUcallit).

Chocolate house & Southern Fried Chicken

We are all a little stuffed with chocolate now so we'll spend the night reading books to come down from the high.

Getting Settled

Having made the trek half way around the world (Exactly 12 time zones away from Mountain Time Zone) we know exactly how this banana feels that came from Ecuador! (I can't wait for the those Cuban mandarins we had last time we were here) One of my favorite things to do is see where the produce comes from whether we're in the US or Paraguay or, you guessed it, Russia. But that is another blog for another time.  The point is, after so many hours of travel we found our place of residence and started to get settled in.

 We live in an apartment on the 5th level, of a 9 story building, of Building 29 on Decembrist Street.  The Decembrist movement was a revolt of the Tsar in 1825.  There is a Decembrist Street or square in nearly every city.  These names were typically changed during the Lenin-Stalin eras and renamed after favorite generals, but almost unanimously were returned to their original names in the 90's.  Likewise, our apartment is nearly identical to thousands of others in this city and across the former Soviet Union. When I tell someone we live in a 9 story building they know that we have one of two apartment plans depending on whether you have a 3 room or 2 room flat.  We have a 3 room, which means a two bedroom with a living room, enclosed porch, and split bathroom (toilet in one space and the sink and tub in the other).  Our apartment has been upgraded so we also boast a washing machine (in the kitchen) and an extra toilet added to the bathing bathroom.  We still lack a dishwasher and clothes dryer, but we're accustomed to that already after lived at the Jones cabin.

 Now that we are back in Russia we can enjoy pelmeni and beet salad.  As you can see, our apartment is brightly colored.  I was apprehensive about the color scheme, but it contrasts with the typical drab coloring seen everywhere else.  This will be an oasis when winter hits!

We will keep you posted on all our happenings and tell you what life is like here in further posts.  Keep tuned in for blogs such as "The Art of Garbage Collection", "The Walking School Bus", and "We didn't get (or understand) the Memo".

For now you can follow the link to see Kreg's first house built in Russia (in a village outside Moscow)  http://intellihouse.ru/homebuild/Vehi/Stranic/Otdelka.html#31  Google will translate the Russian so you can see the entire project from start to almost-complete.  If that doesn't work simply click on the photos:)

I will walk you through some of the construction techniques in later blogs when I analyse "How Buildings are Constructed in Permafrost".