Keeping Up With the Joneses: House Hunter's International Part 3

Ok, so now for part 3. As promised I will talk about two apartments in this post because both were an important part of our decision making process.

Apartment 3 - In another Life

Apartment 3 would have been the perfect choice if there were no kids involved in the decision-making process. This is the dream apartment for anyone moving to Moscow that wanted to be right in the middle of it all. I can just imagine going to the theater, fancy restaurants, shopping, etc...So, in another life, the one where we move to Moscow with no kids, and enjoy everything Moscow has to offer at our leisure and on our own schedule, we would have chosen this apartment. I know I am giving it away that we didn't choose this one, so that is why I am throwing in the 4th apartment :) So in true House Hunters style you can all sit there and wonder which one out of the 3 we chose.

Apartment 3 is located on Tverskaya, which is one of the main roads that leads directly to the center of the city (aka Red Square). This is one of the most expensive roads to rent out a place for business since it is expensive real estate. This is a picture of the outside of the building as I walked down Tverskaya towards the building. The apartment we looked at faces Tverskaya and has 3 Romeo and Juliet balconies, each located outside one of the 3 bedrooms. The other side of the building faces a large park area with two newly-built playgrounds. We played here quite a bit over the last month since our temporary place was nearby. The kids call this playground the space ship playground. One of them is built like a large ship and the other is built like a large castle....not sure why space was added to the ship, but I am sure its part of S's imagination...

The inside of the apartment wasn't really anything special. It was smaller than the others we looked at, which was to be expected given its location, but it did have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. they were just all crammed-in stacked next to each other. There were several child-unfriendly concerns which included a lot of white furniture, the squeaky floors I can't stand (we had them in our temporary place), balconies that both could probably easily fit through, and lots of glass. I am sure the squeaky floors are a neat piece of history...or they at least look like it...but they are really annoying when you are trying to not wake up kids in the middle of the night while walking around. They are hard wood floors and the planks are placed in the shape of V's or would I would call these days, chevron pattern :) But they are really old, so the planks squeak up and down next to each other as you put weight down on them. We had many screaming nights with K at the temporary place and I really didn't want a place with squeaky floors for 3+ years.

The apartment location, as I mentioned before, was just amazing. Khachapuri, Pizza Express and Cafe Pushkin are all right around the corner (some of our faves). Of course all the other main chains are nearby....and yes there is a Starbucks up the street from this place too.

So every time I walk by here I will just sigh and think of what could have been.....

Apartment 4 - By the Pond

Apartment 4 is located in a building that faces Patriarch Ponds. This is a neat little park, with a large pond in the center. The park has a nice playground area that the kids love. This is where their favorite merry-go-round is :) This is also the playground where K will go down the slide all by himself....for some reason he needs to hold my hand everywhere else. It also seems as though they have several activities every weekend at the park. So far we have seen bands playing, swing dancing and music and a mini-fair with pony rides, jumping areas and games. I also think there are a lot of expats that live in this area since I heard a lot of English spoken at the park.

This apartment isn't too far from Apartment 3 location, so there is access to a lot of restaurants, shops and stores. There are actually several little restaurants located down the street that we haven't had a chance to try yet, but they all look yummy and are always busy!

The inside of Apartment 4 didn't really peak our interest incredibly when we first walked in, but it has everything on our must-have list. This apartment has 2 real bedrooms and an office room with sliding doors. The living room is kind of small, but open to the kitchen. The kitchen has all full size appliances, including a washer/dryer. The apartment also has 1.5 bathrooms and no squeaky floors :) It also has some of the fancier amenities like warming floors and air conditioning. Really the only big negative is that is up on the third floor and the main option to get up there is stairs....tough with kids and strollers and grocery bags (this thought takes me back to college when I lived on the third floor and was always hauling stuff up and down....). And the stairs are old....so some are crooked. They are installing an elevator, but its a little scary. It is one of those elevators they install after-the fact on a building. So they cut a big hole in the wall and the elevator then sits just outside the wall of the building. They are really tiny, but its the only way to really get an elevator in a really old building without renovating the entire thing.

Here are a couple pictures of the kids playing at Patriarch Ponds