Our New P[a]lace

Living and traveling around in
Europe, we've seen the homes of a long list of royalty - ancient emperors, modern queens, and heaps of wealthy men in between. From Palantine Hill in Rome (from which the word "palace" originates), to Windsor Castle, to the Napoleon Apartments, these homes are adorned with rich tapestries, crystal chandeliers, and tiled murals, boasting enormous kitchens, spiral staircases, and luxurious gardens. They are ornate and expansive, delicate and yet completely grandiose.
Fit for a king, as the saying goes.

Well, rest assured, none of these palaces seem nearly as spacious, to us, as our new one-bedroom flat! That's right - after officially surviving 328 days living together in a studio (alternatively known as 10 months-24 days, or approx 46 weeks, or 7872 hours, or 472,320 minutes, or 28,339,200 seconds), we moved into a new place just a few weeks ago. Turns out the word "palace" is actually quite relative, and it doesn't take a whole lot of space to feel completely free and unrestricted after living for so long in a walk-in-closet-sized-studio. Here's a virtual tour of our new flat (a quick warning - this flat tour video is considerably longer than the last one, for obvious reasons)...

As cliche as it sounds, in all seriousness, the upgrade to a one-bedroom has completely changed our lives...

• The Washer/Dryer: given us a completely new lease on life, and made the chore of laundry much less cumbersome. Laundry Saturdays are a distant memory....
• The Full Kitchen: allowing us to properly cook dinner together, without having to resort to the DVD player as a flat surface for mixing ingredients.
• Interior Walls: enabling us to have our own separate morning routines, something we definitely used to take for granted when living in San Diego.
• The Stairs: or rather, the complete lack thereof. Need I say more about this?
  
• The New Neighbourhood: fit with plenty of new restaurants, pubs, shops, and a local play theatre, all begging for exploration and attention.
• The Morning Commute: with Brandina being able to walk to work, and Bryan now only having to take one tube line to work (as opposed to two), the days are starting off with a bit more serenity.
• The Grocery Shopping: living about twice as far from a grocery store as we did before, we've had the perfect excuse to buy, and sport, this lovely invention (horribly tacky, but so convenient!):

The challenge now, of course, is to not take these new-found freedoms for granted. As memorable of an experience as it was to climb 93 steps up to our studio flat every day, it is an experience that is so easily (and pleasantly!) forgotten. As an exercise of thanksgiving for our new upgrades, we'd like to revisit, and comment upon, "The Top 5 Reasons You Should Try Living in a Studio," which we posted on our blog last October.

5. Only takes about 2.5 minutes to heat up the entire place. - Very true; but it turns out that when you live in a space the size of a shoebox, it is always hot, even without the heating turned on. Lack of cross-ventilation + 5 stories above ground = a recipe for unpleasantly warm temperatures pretty much year-round.

4. You can see the gorgeous city view, from just one window, standing almost anywhere inside. - True indeed. Now we just have double the amount of windows from which to take in a view.

3. By the time you are finished cleaning the bedroom, the whole house is basically clean. - Probably still the biggest upside of living in a studio. Simply can't argue with having only one room to clean.

2. You can brush your teeth (and spit), wash your face, and almost turn on and warm up the shower, all while sitting on the toilet (not necessarily recommended practice, but nevertheless still possible). - Great for one person....VERY tricky to pull off when two people are trying to get ready!

1. And, our personal favorite - Not only can you eat breakfast in bed...but you can literally just about make breakfast from bed! - The flipside, of course, being that when your bed is right next to the kitchen appliances, your bedding constantly smells like whatever you've cooked recently.

We all know that hindsight is 20/20. Looking back, if we were to do it all over again, would we live in a studio? Hard to say really. What we can say is that living in a studio, in Notting Hill, did enable us to explore a lovely neighborhood, where we could be at Kensington Gardens in less than 5 minutes, go to £3.50 movies on Tuesdays, and visit Portobello Market with ease. It is an experience we truly will never forget.

So, on to bigger things! We apologise for the massive delay since our last blog post - September was an extremely busy, at times stressful month. We have ushered in October with open arms, and look forward to a gorgeous start to the Autumn season, where we can view the changing colours from our modest palace windows.

Lots of love to you all!

-B&B

"A throne is only a bench covered with velvet." - Napoleon Bonaparte