A Trip to Ikea

With every new home there's stuff to buy, so we were thrilled to learn that Beijing has Ikea.

Like most Ikeas, this one was packed. Here are some fun photos from our day, which show a few differences between shopping in an American Ikea and a Chinese one. Take a gander.

The approach to Ikea!

The Home Saga

Dear readers, this is a bit of a long post.

After our initial house-hunting trip we zeroed in on our favorite place: a two-bedroom, two-bath home that's about 1,200-square-feet. It came with a washer and dryer, dishwasher and a garbage disposal -- something we haven't had in years in NYC.

Nia loves her new view.

After a slew of back and forth with the fickle landlord -- at the last minute he raised the rent by about $80 a month because, well, I guess he can do that -- we got the place. We were super happy and our move in, while hectic, seemed okay. After more than two months of living in temporary housing we were thrilled to have a place to call home.

And then we showered.

"Oh That's Different" No. 2

It's been about a month since we came to Beijing and here are a few other interesting tidbits about this city of 20 million.

1. Communal toilet paper. Okay, you don't actually share your pieces of TP, but when you go into the bathroom, there's often only one toilet paper holder, typically near the sinks. (I learned this the hard way when I entered a stall and a little too late realize there wasn't any TP around. Okay, TMI.) Maybe it's too expensive to put toilet paper holders and rolls in each stall?

At least there's not a one-piece-per-person rule.

International House Hunters: China Edition

After living in a temporary residence for almost a month to get our bearings of Beijing, we were finally ready to start the apartment search.

Despite my knowledge of U.S. real estate, I knew next to nothing about Chinese real estate and it's a bit different. One of the first things we were told by our relocation specialist was that real estate agents flat out lie -- particularly on their websites about unit pricing, just to get you to give them a call -- and that landlords are more fickle than a two year old. One minute the landlord may decide to rent his space and the next he could decide he doesn't want to, but fail to tell anyone about it, leaving the current tenant to deal with surprise guests (more on that later).

The other major thing in Beijing is that the market is ridiculously expensive. Let me repeat; it's expensive and this is coming from a New Yorker, who knows a one-bedroom can easily cost $2,500.

We're looking for a two-bedroom, two-bath, semi-furnished apartment and the places we saw ranged from under 900 square feet to a colossal 2,000-plus-square-foot duplex. Most of the kitchens don't have dishwashers or disposals (same as NYC) and water jug systems (think of the Culligan man back in the 1980s coming to your home) are quite common. Many of the places have wood or wood composite floors, wallpapered walls, railroad kitchens and built-in closets. Most of them are in decent condition, though a bit outdated, and could definitely use a personal touch.

Can the couch be recovered, please?