So what DOES the apartment look like?

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Last time, we talked about how we got our apartment. Today, we’ll show you what it looks like.

The front door opens to … an excellent view of the bathroom:

The hooks on the wall where the backpack and leash are hanging were here when we arrived. VERY sturdy, they’ll hold a lot of weight. The bedroom and kitchen are on the right, living room is on the left.

Moving to the left upon entering, this is the living room:

Other than the wardrobe on the left and the pouf, all of the furniture in the living area was here when we arrived.

All three of us agree that the floor-to-almost-ceiling French doors are one of the best features of the apartment.

It’s fairly common for us to just leave these open 24/7. We’re on the second floor - that’s the third floor to you Yanks - so we don’t worry about someone getting in. A few times, it’s been warm enough that we’ve closed them to keep the heat out. We’ve yet to have a drop of rain.

On the rare occasions where we want some air but not a gale force wind blowing through the apartment, we can do this:

Just turn the handle straight up and the door opens only from the top! Genius!

And if it gets too bright (it happens, Amy has migraines), each set of doors has its own shade and curtains.

Just like the ability to open the door only from the top, we’d no idea these shades existed until we got here. Already smitten with the doors before seeing them in person, the two amazing additional features were frosting on the cake!

We’ve done this once and these do an excellent job of blocking the light.

Unfortunately, life requires us to do more than just stare out the doors all day. Sad but true.

When we are forced to turn our attention away from the view, we are often sitting here:

The couch opens into a bed. It’s not particularly comfortable. And it has been smoked on and/or near. Possibly dating back to the days when the apartment was used as an Airbnb. It was steam-cleaned several weeks ago (it was disgusting!) and it’s less smelly now.

When we’re on the couch, this is our view:

The board games are in the drawers of the white unit. There’s room for a few more. Only a few, though. The TV, sound bar, and color laser printer all came used from Cash Converters. Inexpensive and in great condition.

If we have to do something that resembles “work,” it usually happens here:

Our apartment is not pictured in the image on the wall. It’s not far off to the right, though. As striking a feature as the mural (our word for it) is, we spend most of our time pretending it’s not here.

Just to make sure you’re all properly oriented, here’s a shot from the living room towards the foyer, bedroom, and kitchen:

It’s also the best view of our gecko, which is the real reason to include this pic.

Next up, our kitchen. We don’t love it but it works. (Well, except for the oven, which is both tiny and unimpressive - its entire operating manual fits on one sheet of paper. And the microwave is hard to use at the best of times. And the sink goes from “off” to “torrent” with the slightest of touches - not ideal in a drought.)

It’s overwhelmingly white. The new fridge adds a bit of color. And loominess.

And finally the bedroom:

Note the unit in the upper right hand corner. This is both a heater and an air conditioner. These are not common in Portugal but are becoming more so as buildings get renovated, particularly in Lisbon.

The bed is actually two “European twin” beds pushed together. Measuring roughly 180 x 200 cm it’s close to “Grandma’s Feather Bed” territory. But, we imagine, not nearly as comfortable.

The entire apartment is 56 square meters, (we’ll save you the google search: roughly 600 square feet). It’s not large. We moved from a 1,616 square foot house to a furnished, 600 square foot apartment. This is one reason we left nearly everything behind.

Renovated in 2014, the unit is quite energy efficient and well sound-proofed. When the windows are closed, the city noise quiets to nearly nothing, and we only rarely get noise from above or next door (though, full disclosure, we don’t think anyone has lived next door since the end of June and upstairs is an Airbnb that is not consistently occupied).

Our landlords live in China (our local contact is their apartment manager) and they own a couple of other units in the building - we’re not sure which ones as we’ve only met one other renter. This unit (and, we assume, their other ones as well) began life as an Airbnb. We are the second tenants since it was switched to a long-term rental. At the end of our last post, we mentioned that our landlords told us we’d get the unit if we signed a two-year lease. Our real estate agent said they were tired of vacationers being disrespectful to both the apartment and the building’s long-term tenants. They wanted stability, so did we. Because of the laws we outlined last time, we are obligated to pay rent on this unit through mid-March, 2023 (while we actually moved in on June 23, we started the lease on April 15). Our lease runs until mid-April, 2024, and we can renew if we want.

We are glad to be here and look forward to seeing how the seasons change in Lisbon.

That’s all for now. What questions do you have? Let us know in the comments.

Love from Lisbon,

Scott & Amy