London Apartment

We put a reservation on an apartment for our first 3 months in London a couple of months ago and it's a huge weight off my shoulders, knowing we'll have somewhere to stay when we arrive and that we won't be in a hotel, moving every five minutes until we get settled. We'll be staying in a lovely apartment in this building, West Kensington Court.



When we first started looking into a place to live in London, it was getting very frustrating. Certain parts of renting work differently there than here or the US or at least in my experience. For example, you're required to pay your rent by direct debit, meaning you need a bank account, which is something else we won't be able to get until we get there... you can see the frustration. So I decided to start searching for Holiday Rentals, which are basically apartments owned by people who rent them out short-term for people who'd rather stay in a proper flat as opposed to a hotel. It's usually much cheaper than a comparable hotel as well. We managed to get a pretty good deal since we'll be in the flat for 3 whole months and the rent includes all the utitilities and taxes. It's still more expensive than what we'd pay for a normal lease, but for the increase, I'm very relieved that we're totally sorted from arrival through the Christmas holidays, giving us plenty of time to find a wonderful more permanent apartment after we get there!

The decor wouldn't have been my first choice by far, but the leather furniture looks nice and the apartment is quite cute, with all the amenities we'd want!

The couch folds out into a hide-a-bed, which is handy. I doubt that we'll have guests right away, but it's possible that my MIL could come over for a week or two, so at least we'd have somewhere to put her.

There's a cute little dining table... not much, but it will do for 3 months.

The bedroom is okay... when we were looking, believe it or not, we saw much worse for more money! We'll each have a little closet (VERY LITTLE - EEK!) and it's nice that there's a little desk. We'll probably bring or buy our own bedding... I like my own bed stuff... creeps me out to sleep on someone else's sheets!

I'm very happy that there's a bathtub!!! A lot of people in Europe don't have bathtubs! None of my in-laws do nor did any of the homes I visited in England in 2003. So I'm very pleased that this one has a tub so I can pop over to the nearest LUSH for a bathbomb and get back to taking baths frequently as I did when I lived in NYC! I love a good bubble bath!

Cute kitchen.

All photos from www.holidaylettings.co.uk

View from the window inside the flat. It's lovely!

The apartment is rather small, but I think from my limited experience of travelling abroad that rooms and flats are smaller in parts of Europe. It's changing and don't get me wrong, there are huge homes with tall ceilings as there are anywhere, but most of the accomodations are definitely different that what us Southern girls from US are used to. So I'm going to have a good attitude about it and see how they do things on the other side of the pond! I'm nervous and scared, but so excited as well that I nearly can't stand it!!! Also, West Kensington is a great area right in the thick of London! I think it's the perfect place to start... at least I hope it is!