Our Upstairs Uplift

Our apartment is nice, but the thing I really like is the 'free' apartment upstairs from our living abode.  It was built at the time of the initial apartment building and although illegal at the time, has now become legal due to the length of time (kind of like squatter's rights).  Course, as a side note, most things here in Taiwan - while not necessarily illegal - are imbibed deeply with the attitude of "Do it first and apologize later - if someone finds out."  So the vast majority of buildings here have these 'illegal' apartments but everyone is happy (or paid off).

Anyway, this 'free' (as I prefer to call it) apartment basically came with our 7th floor apartment but as the value can not be added per se in to the price of the house, we did indeed get a great deal - or at least 4 more rooms to put junk.

Putting junk is what it has been for the time we have been here.  Sure, we have converted one of the rooms into my classroom, one of them into a semi second living area (ok, I admit - my board game area for my buddies), as well as one room being a rentable room that we have used in the past - but will now use it as a temp guest room, and a true (messy) storage room.  All in all, 4 rooms, plus a nice balcony that is now Mocha's residence.

 However, this apartment is nowhere near as nice as what I am trying to envision.  That is changing, but slowly as we have more time (and more importantly - more money...).

We recently decided to get some (cheapy - but nice looking) shelves to help with the eventual remaking of the living room area into our main "Library."  Here are some before and after pics.

Here is the hallway looking towards the classroom (on the left) and the stairs leading up the 9th floor (on the right)

Here is the view upon entering our 'free' apartment looking at the living area

This is in the living area looking back at the door

Another view of the soon to be shelved area in the living room

Here comes trouble!

From the living area looking through the window into the classroom

My Space Theme part of the classroom

My Book Collection theme (with all of my students' names on a book for each of them) in the classroom

My (messy) garden experiment area

Looking out from the living area out to the balcony

 And here are the new shelves we made and put around the living area.....there is much more to come, but this is a work in progress....

Damn, I did not realize I had so many books....

We covered up the windows, but all we could see was the apartment across the street....

Now to think about how to make it even more cozy......hmmmm