our 700 square feet

Welcome to our new home! Please take off your shoes as you come in.

We don't have a doorbell, but go ahead and ring that little bell under the cow on the wall. (Isn't that weird?) We can kinda hear it inside. And that's as wide as the gate opens, so you might have to turn sideways. If you still can't fit, we can move the whole thing.

This is what you see when you walk through the front door.

There's a door to the right (that you can't see in the picture above) that leads to the bathroom. See the water heater over the toilet? Don't worry, you can still pop a squat, you won't hit your head.

Straight ahead when you walk through the front door is our bedroom. We're not keeping that white table in the corner, it's just a place holder for now. In another 6-7 months we'll put the crib (co-sleeper) along the wall beside the bed. At least we think it will fit.

It is very rare for Hong Kong apartments to have closets. You have to buy wardrobes to put in the bedrooms. We have managed to fit all our clothes in this wardrobe and set of drawers.

Did I mention we haven't replaced the curtains yet? The curtains in the whole apartment are hideous, so just ignore those. We're working on it.

And that's the view outside our bedroom window.

Ok, so back to the front door. The rest of the apartment is to the left.

And here's a look back at where we were standing.

The dining room and living room is one long room. And yes, the refrigerator is not in the kitchen. This is not uncommon in Hong Kong, as kitchens are usually super tiny. Our refrigerator also super huge. Well, for HK standards anyway. It's still smaller than your typical US fridge.

Did you notice our little bar beside the fridge? That's where you'll find all the glasses and mugs. It makes sense right, since it's right beside the fridge? I should also comment on the blue chairs. We got them for free from a friend of a friend and though I was initially not crazy about them, they've grown on me. They have washable white cloth covers and these blue vinyl ones. Vinyl chair covers make a lot of sense with young children.

You can see doors to the kitchen, Josiah's room, and the office along this wall. And this is my piano. I'm so very glad we were able to bring it with us. We plan to get a large wall hanging of some kind to cover up the hideous air con piping, air con remote, and outlets on the wall.

Continuing around the living room, there's a peek in the office/guest room. Notice that white wall above the love seat. I'll mention that again in a minute. All the walls are blank at this point, as we haven't really gotten to the decorating phase of moving in. So in another few weeks, there should be pictures on the walls (except this one), pillows on the sofas, and reasonable looking curtains.

Standing back by the fridge, here's a look at the living room. Did I mention all our furniture was free? We got one batch from a friend of a friend and the rest came from Home Essentials, a company that does rental furniture, primarily to expats living abroad. But the owner of the company is a Christian and connected with SALT people, so he has given us all free furniture. Praise God! And it's nice stuff too! :)

I'm still not completely sure what to do about the color scheme in this room. We got the black ottomans (which I love... they have a ton of storage inside and the top flips to a little table) in the States, the brown sofas from Home Essentials, and the navy blue chair from the friend of a friend. It's all a bit dull right now, though the quilt helps. There will definitely be decorative pillows in the near future. Also, I just want to point out that that is not a balcony. Just a window with a railing and extra bars to hang clothes. Most buildings like ours have balconies, so it's kinda weird that we don't.

Oh well.

So I know what you're thinking: "Look how missionary-ish they are with no TV." Although we don't care enough to pay for cable in order to get channels in english, and although I love the extra space we have without a TV, we definitely still have screen time. See that slim little projector down there? It's stored in an ottoman, sits nicely on top of one, and gets directed at the blank wall above the love seat. Brilliant. So movies it is! We're looking forward to making movie night a family event.

Ok, back to the rest of the house. This is the kitchen. Along with not having closets anywhere in the apartment, the kitchen is the most different thing from typical housing in the States. The Asian kitchen is treated like a bathroom... you go in, do your business, and get out. It's not typically a place to socialize or spend more time than necessary. It's small, dirty, hot, and typically has a door so that it can be closed off. We removed the door. Our kitchen is actually a bit bigger than a traditional Chinese kitchen. We actually have lower cabinets, a pantry, and a double sink. We also have a good amount of counter space.

We had to get our own shelving for the lower cabinets, but we've made it pretty useful.

Most Chinese don't have ovens, so you don't often find Western style ovens in HK. This is an electric oven and although I've only used it once, I think it will work for our baking needs. Below the oven is the washing machine. We will likely get a dryer to put on top of it at some point, unless I figure out a quicker way to get clothes dry. Again, most people in HK don't have dryers.

This is a very typical Chinese stovetop. Just a two burner unit, sitting on the counter. The only adjustment here is that these flames are HOT. There won't be much simmering done here... simmering leads to burning real fast. Besides the dryer, the one thing I miss in this kitchen is a garbage disposal!

This is the built in pantry. Again, rare, and something I'm thankful for.

Although, unfortunately this gas tank (connected to the stovetop) takes up half of the bottom of the pantry. You regularly see delivery guys carrying these things around on their shoulders, bikes, or carts. Nearly every home requires one.

Josiah's room! I assure you that he does not usually sit so nicely at that little table. There's a primary color theme going on in here and once we get new curtains and the quilt my mom is making, that theme will be more obvious. He seems to really like his room and feels at home here.

This shelving unit from Ikea is great! Lots of buckets to cram lots of things out of sight. We still need to get a small book shelf for this room.

No more crib! Josiah has been doing great sleeping in his big boy bed. And those drawers are all the closet I need for him. All his clothes are in one drawer and the other is storage.

Finally, the office/guest room. This room is probably the biggest of the three. We wanted to keep the built-in bed because it has so much useful storage, but we didn't want that to be our bed. So we took a smaller room.

See that book shelf? Do you see what we are obviously trying to hide?

See, the problem with building concrete buildings, is that when you want to change something, you can't hide those changes very well. So when the split-level air con was put in the main room, the hoses had to get outside somehow. They run all along the wall in the office. It's a beautiful addition to the room.

But regardless of the quirks, doesn't that bed look inviting? Don't you want to come visit us and stay in our guest room? Actually, that mattress is as hard as a rock. It came with the apartment, but we'll be getting a new one sometime soon!

So there you have it! We are so thankful for these 700 square feet that God provided. I am especially thankful for the unexpected 3rd bedroom and a large living area. We look forward to lots of ministry and memories here!