Moving back to Europe

[explanade]

It's not true about dryers not being used in Europe.

One of the reasons I picked a place on Airbnb on a recent trip to Puglia was that it had a washer dryer combo unit.

It was a modern apt, also with a dedicated parking space in busy Italian city.

Other alternative would have been to either pay for wash and fold or spend a morning at a laundromat. Have no desire to do the latter, only as a last resort, because time on vacation is precious than the few dollars I'd have spent for wash and fold.

Line drying would have been way more time consuming. At most they have a couple of lines, which is not enough for a week to week and half of clothes.

This was in the middle of a 3 week trip so doing the laundry was essential.

And about the AC, when I search for hotels, one of the filters is AC.

 

[FIREd]

It's not true about dryers not being used in Europe.

One of the reasons I picked a place on Airbnb on a recent trip to Puglia was that it had a washer dryer combo unit.

It was a modern apt, also with a dedicated parking space in busy Italian city.

Other alternative would have been to either pay for wash and fold or spend a morning at a laundromat. Have no desire to do the latter, only as a last resort, because time on vacation is precious than the few dollars I'd have spent for wash and fold.

Line drying would have been way more time consuming. At most they have a couple of lines, which is not enough for a week to week and half of clothes.

This was in the middle of a 3 week trip so doing the laundry was essential.

And about the AC, when I search for hotels, one of the filters is AC.

Nobody said that dryers were not used in Europe. But as you wrote, you pick places specifically because they have a dryer or AC (as they are probably catering to American tourists). It says nothing about what is prevalent here.

 

[explanade]

One year I stayed at an apt. in Paris in the summer for 3 weeks.

Heat was brutal and that Ikea bed killed my back.

But they bought a new fan after a couple of days.

More seriously, of course Paris and other parts of France suffered casualties a few years ago due to heat waves.

I bet air conditioning has become more popular since, not just at places which cater to American tourists.

 

[Freedom56]

Stacked washer/dryers are pretty common in Switzerland. At least in the urban areas. We have had ours for over 20 years and still works well as it has seen limited use ( a couple of months per year). The apartment units that my FIL rents, all have washer/dryers. Some municipalities do not allow outdoor clothes lines here (it would spoil the beautiful scenery). As for A/C, residential homes are not permitted to have central units but can have portable floor units which are fairly in-expensive. We have two of them which we sometimes use during the summer months if we are in Switzerland.

 

[braumeister]

My building also has a kind of "attic fan" which pulls warm air out of my condo at ceiling level. The warm air is then replaced by fresh cold air when I open the windows at night. Of course such system might not work well in Florida, but it is efficient in our temperate climate.

We had a house in Cincinnati with that (built around 1920) and it worked pretty well. You're at a higher latitude so it sounds like an excellent idea to me.

 

[FIREd]

Before and after taking down the old (gunky) kitchen. The plumbing and electric have to be upgraded. The walls will be refinished and the tile floor will be replaced with hardwood.

 

[NW-Bound]

It's not true about dryers not being used in Europe.

One of the reasons I picked a place on Airbnb on a recent trip to Puglia was that it had a washer dryer combo unit.

It was a modern apt, also with a dedicated parking space in busy Italian city.

Other alternative would have been to either pay for wash and fold or spend a morning at a laundromat. Have no desire to do the latter, only as a last resort, because time on vacation is precious than the few dollars I'd have spent for wash and fold.

Line drying would have been way more time consuming. At most they have a couple of lines, which is not enough for a week to week and half of clothes.

This was in the middle of a 3 week trip so doing the laundry was essential.

And about the AC, when I search for hotels, one of the filters is AC.

In our most recent 5-week trip through Spain and Portugal, most of the Airbnb apartments we stayed in had a washer. None had a dryer. The washers were small, but worked great as we only had travel clothes. And we used their indoor foldable drying rack. Works great for the little clothing that was washed. We washed every 4 or 5 days.

It is a lot better than staying in hotels. Next time, we will pack fewer clothes.

 

[ivinsfan]

Before and after taking down the old (gunky) kitchen. The plumbing and electric have to be upgraded. The walls will be refinished and the tile floor will be replaced with hardwood.

My goodness you are going to be without a kitchen until October..that's a long time....hotplate, toaster microwave living good luck...

 

[FIREd]

My goodness you are going to be without a kitchen until October..that's a long time....hotplate, toaster microwave living good luck...

Summer is coming up and I can grill outside and eat salads. Some family members also take pity on me and I get invited for dinner several times a week. October will be here before we know it...

 

[Dreamer]

Wow, very nice. It looks like it will be perfect.

I have been air drying more and more of my clothes. My jeans dry overnight in our attached garage. I shake them out, put them on a hanger and hang on a bicycle hook. I should probably look at getting an indoor drying rack. My niece, mid 30's, had an Amish clothes line, installed at her house in Richmond VA. She is married, both work full-time, and she had her third child about a month ago. They are both very down-to-earth people.

 

[deserat]

Update:

The renovation of my condo is well underway now. I have completed the demolition work and I put a downpayment on a new kitchen this morning (see the 3D drawing of my proposed new kitchen below).

The contractors are now all lined up. In July, a mason will build a laundry closet in the hallway. Then hardwood floors will be installed throughout. Then electric, remote-controlled rolling shutters will be put in (I'll be able to open and close the shutters without getting off my bed or sofa, ). August should be quiet (around here, most everyone is on vacation during that month). Then, in September, the painter will completely refinish the walls. In October, the new kitchen should be going in. I am also having an armored front door put in (the front door is the only entry point into the condo and there are quite a few burglaries around this nicer neighborhood). Finally, probably in November, the suspended ceiling and recessed lighting will be installed throughout.

So what will I be able to fit in just 540sqft of space (see floor plan below)?

- A full kitchen with: 1 dining table for 4-6 people, 1 full-size fridge/freezer combo, 1 full-size stovetop and oven, 1 oversize kitchen sink, and 1 dishwasher (could have fitted a full-size DW but went for a compact one).

- A laundry closet with a washer (could have fitted a full size stacked washer and dryer, but went for a compact washer instead - no dryer as most people here air dry their clothes and I will too)

- A bathroom with a soaking bathtub

- A bedroom with: 1 queen-size bed and bedside tables, 1 large desk with desk chair, 1 wardrobe (5 ft wide), 1 armchair

- A walk-in closet with 30 linear feet of shelves and a small coat rack

- A living room with: one 96" sofa + ottoman + coffee table, 2 armchairs and a side table, 1 large display bookcase

All the furniture is full-size and there is still plenty of room to move about.

Love your design and you've got quite a bit of storage in there - are you going with a tub with a hand held shower appliance or will you have some other way to shower or do you prefer the tub? In Italy I noticed they just put a drain in the bathroom floor and then you showered in the whole bathroom, Older houses in Germany have tubs with the attached shower appliance. I will be wanting a walk in shower as the tub walls are quite high and can be very interesting to 'hop' in and out of when taking a shower.

My movers come 17 June and I leave 24 June for Germany. My house goes on the market 28 June. I am moving for 3-5 years then returning, but am going through the purge. store and move cycle right now. I won't be in as small as a place as you but I still love the way you've designed it.

I've been salivating over the trips I can take and rejoining the ski club to ski in the winter. Although I will be working, I managed to negotiate a *very* generous vacation package, so will have more time to explore some more.

 

[FIREd]

Love your design and you've got quite a bit of storage in there - are you going with a tub with a hand held shower appliance or will you have some other way to shower or do you prefer the tub? In Italy I noticed they just put a drain in the bathroom floor and then you showered in the whole bathroom, Older houses in Germany have tubs with the attached shower appliance. I will be wanting a walk in shower as the tub walls are quite high and can be very interesting to 'hop' in and out of when taking a shower.

My movers come 17 June and I leave 24 June for Germany. My house goes on the market 28 June. I am moving for 3-5 years then returning, but am going through the purge. store and move cycle right now. I won't be in as small as a place as you but I still love the way you've designed it.

I've been salivating over the trips I can take and rejoining the ski club to ski in the winter. Although I will be working, I managed to negotiate a *very* generous vacation package, so will have more time to explore some more.

The bathroom was remodeled a few years ago and it is the only room that I won't be touching at the moment. I currently have a tub with a hand held shower head. In a few years, I plan on replacing the tub with an Italian shower and a rain shower head.

The construction work has finally started. Last week I built a laundry closet out of an unused part of the hallway. It is big enough for a stacked washer and dryer and a laundry basket. Then I poured some self-leveling compound on the floors and this week I am putting down hardwood floors (everywhere except in the bathroom). I chose a premium oak flooring with a grey finish.

 

[ivinsfan]

Looks good and when you say I, are you doing some of the work yourself? That's what you will do all day...

 

[FIREd]

Looks good and when you say I, are you doing some of the work yourself? That's what you will do all day...

I am doing some of the work myself. But I let professionals handle the projects that are well above my skill level.

 

[rodi]

FIREd - your design and progress are great!

On the topic of clothes dryers, AC, etc... We used those folding racks for our recent Italy trip... No problem. 5 people, we just took turns on a daily basis. AC was non-optional for southern Italy and I filtered vacation rentals on that. At home we have a dryer - but I hang about 1/2 the laundry on our outdoor clotheslines. More for reasons of lowering my energy use... But we live in a warm, dry climate so clothes dry quickly and I'm rarely rained out from using the lines. I do use the dryer for socks and undies... that's too much work to hang on the line... (Clothespin for each sock multiplied by two teenagers and two adults.... nope - my time is worth more than that.) But all the big stuff (pants, shirts, towels, sheets) is fair game for the line.