Things that Matter: Serviced Apartment Life

This is my second long term stay in a serviced apartment. It is an unusual situation. The apartment is furnished and provides the necessities. But we will stay long enough that a few additions are necessary. At the same time, this isn't a permanent situation like our second house in Kansas. We can't invest in things the same way that we do for the farmhouse.

This apartment is better outfitted than our Dubai apartment. We have four complete sets of dishes and silverware. We have two frying pans (medium and large), two saucepans (small and medium) and one larger pot. The oven includes a roasting pan that doubles as a shelf and cookie sheet. We've got kitchen scissors, several knives, a toaster, a microwave, and an electric water kettle.

Setting up a kitchen here has caused me to reflect on the things that are important to me. The things that matter enough to buy again. This has also raised some questions about my decisions at the farmhouse, but that's neither here nor there.

Things That Matter

Coffee Machine - At home, Craig has Moccamaster, a very particular machine that he likes very much. At the farmhouse, Craig has a Chemex, which I think he enjoys for the novelty of it. At both houses, we have the same coffee grinder so that he can buy whole bean coffee. (This duplication might suggest that the grinder is actually the most important to him, but I'll have to ask.)

Here, the apartment provided us with an electric water kettle and a small supply of instant coffee. Craig travels with Via, the Starbucks brand of instant coffee. But that would not suffice for a trip of this length. On our first trip to the hypermarket, we bought a cheap coffee maker. He picks up ground Starbucks coffee from the mall near work. It isn't perfect, but it works.

Coffee mugs - At home, we have a wide selection of coffee mugs. Craig likes to rotate through his favorites. For Christmas, Craig got me an Ember - which is a mug that both maintains the temperature of your drink and alerts you, through an app, that your drink is at your preferred temperature to drink. I love that mug, ridiculous as it sounds. At the farmhouse, we have a different selection of coffee mugs, but it's enough of a selection that we each have our favorites.

Souvenirs?

It's possible that these make the list because they are not terribly expensive. Or we've convinced ourselves that new coffee mugs make a reasonable souvenir, though we aren't, typically, souvenir people. But one of our early purchases was two new coffee mugs. The apartment has four tea cups and four two handled cups we can only assume are supposed to be coffee mugs, but all are very small.

Two good knives - At home, we have a set of Global knives. We love those knives enough that we bought two more, a paring knife and a small chefs knife, for our bar, despite the fact that it is steps away from our kitchen. At the farmhouse, we have an enormous collection of kitchen knives, many of unknown origins. The only reason I can think that we haven't replaced these knives is that they were all very sharp. When I lived with Grandpa Earl, he would take a knife sharpener to whatever knives were handy whenever he found himself without something to do. Given the number of knives and the infrequent use, until recently we always had a sharp knife there. It's only now, reflecting on our last trip, that I think I may finally need to replace at least a couple knives with the Global knives I love.

Here, the apartment provided us with five kitchen knives. None of them are sharp. And none of them really "work" for me. If I don't break down and buy a knife here over the next week, I am going to check my bag on my return so that I can bring those two Global knives from the bar. A paring knife and a chef's knife are all I need.

Just Stuff

Tableware - At home, we have a set of white plates and bowls that I think Court actually picked out when I moved to Los Angeles. Overwhelmed by decisions at the time, I asked her to pick because I thought that if I did hate them, she could take them when she eventually got a place of her own. She moved out several years ago and I kept the set. This might give some indication of how much I care about my tableware. But at least the set is inoffensive. For an even better indication of how little I care about plates...at the farmhouse, we still use an everyday set my grandparents had. It isn't sentiment that led me to keep them (no one else wanted them), but practicality. There's nothing wrong with the flower decorated, beige plates. Okay, there might be some sentiment, because those plates are about as far from my preferred design aesthetic as it is possible to be.

You need tableware, of course, if you plan to eat at home. We are lucky to have plain white tableware provided with this apartment, as that is my preference. But whatever the plates looked like, I would use them (after washing them, of course).

Flatware - For our house in Los Angeles, Craig and I spent ages searching for the "perfect" flatware. Like our plates, we settled on a "temporary" solution that wasn't too expensive, always thinking we would find something we liked better. We haven't, though we continue to look. At the farmhouse, we have my grandparent's everyday flatware. This, I kept because I happen to love it. It's very plain and probably antique by now. But it's functional and, well, I really like it.

Here, we've only really a setting for four. There are two different spoons - one so small that it's only useful for tea and the other so big that it isn't pleasant to use. There are two different forks, large and small. Perhaps because we have four of each of those, we have eight butter knives. If there's a difference between the butter knives, I haven't found it. They are also awkward in the hand and they roll off the plate, which is annoying. But I wouldn't bother to replace them. Not least because I probably could not find another set I didn't hate before our time here is over!

Glassware - In the now familiar pattern, Craig and I spent some time finding glassware for our house in Los Angeles. We may actually be on our second or third set now. But I like what we've got now enough that we ordered extras, to store in the garage, to replace these as they break. And I won't even start on the glassware in our bar. At the farmhouse, we have a much more eclectic collection of glassware, ranging from my grandparents table glasses, to some of their occasional glassware, to the first glasses I bought when I went to college, to the blue and purple wine glasses I collected when I belonged to the Harlequin book club during law school.

Perhaps following our trend of collecting glassware, we've managed to collect a few glasses from our room service orders to add to the glasses provided in the apartment. For some reason, nothing from room service matches the items in our apartment. As a result, we've enough variety of glasses to serve perfectly well.

Microwave - We don't actually have a microwave in Los Angeles and I never miss it. We do, however, have a microwave at the farmhouse and I plan to incorporate one there when we redo the kitchen. Having a microwave here is handy, because I don't have my toaster oven to reheat leftovers. But would I buy one if it weren't provided? Certainly not.

Crockpot - At home, Craig bought me a special crockpot that has a metal pot so that I can brown meat on the stovetop and transfer it directly into the slow cooker. At the farmhouse, I have a more typical ceramic crockpot. While it would be nice to have one here, I am here all day. I can keep a pot on the stove at a low boil. As an added bonus, I can't nap when I'm cooking that way, so I'm not tempted to destroy my jet-lag prevention schedule!