66 Keerom Street

We moved into a new studio apartment in the City Center on February 1st. We wanted something fairly close to Rob’s internship so that he can walk or take a short bus ride to get there, so staying in the City Center was the best option for us. Our new place is only a few blocks from the Airbnb we stayed in for the first couple weeks in Cape Town and it’s about a 15 minute walk or short bus ride for Rob to get to his internship. We pay a little more to stay in the city as opposed to some of the surrounding suburbs, but it’s well worth it to save the time it would take to get to downtown from outside the city. Traffic here during rush hours is a nightmare. Some people spend 2 hours each way getting into and out of the city for work everyday.

We live at 66 Keerom Street. We are on the third floor and have a wall of windows that face Lion’s Head and Table Mountain, which we are thrilled about! Our flat (much more commonly used term to refer to an apartment) is fully furnished, which is not something you would find in the states, but we are so grateful for it. Fully furnished literally includes pillows, towels, silverware, plates, cups, spatula, one pot and one pan ( we also brought our trusty own cast iron pan – couldn’t live without that for 3 months), broom, vacuum, mop, hand towels, area rug (made out of little pieces of Levis), coffee table, couch, and even a pair of classic yellow rubber gloves!

Our kitchen is complete with a small fridge, an electric stove/oven, two cutting boards, a big storage cabinet, four kitchen chairs, a large table with a gorgeous wood top, and a cute cactus centerpiece (it’s fake so even I can’t kill that)! We love the kitchen!

One thing that we both noticed about the countertop around the sink is that it’s actually made out of an old wood door. If you look at the top corner of the countertop, you can see where the old hinges use to be. A repurposed countertop! We like that tarnished/raw look too. Very cool and unique.

The bathroom is nice too. I love the planked wall behind the toilet! I think it adds a nice natural element and great texture to the bathroom. The tub/shower combo is not bad, but seems to be made for a small family of tiny trolls. The shower head comes up to about Rob’s shoulders – ha ha! It is even almost too short for me, and that’s saying something!

There are no outlets in the bathroom. I wonder if that is normal here, because we didn’t have any outlets in the bathroom in the Airbnb we stayed in either and it was pretty new. Another lovely feature in the bathroom is the sliding plywood door separating the bathroom from the living space. It’s light, inexpensive, and it gets the job done. Pretty resourceful! 🙂 But our very favorite feature about the bathroom, which we didn’t find out about until Rob took his first shower, is we have HOT water! Come to find out hot water is the norm!! Who knew?? We sure didn’t! The cold showers weren’t the worst thing in the world, but dang it’s nice to take a hot shower if it’s an option!

Our apartment keys are very large and we just have one set. We have a white wood front door to our apartment and a white security metal gate in front of it. We have separate keys for both the door and the gate. Also at the entrance to the apartment building there is always a security officer or two at the reception desk, and a finger print entry is required to gain access to the remainder of the building interior. Security is really important, and I do feel safe here.

The only downfall about this apartment is the noise level in the evenings. We live in a corner apartment above what we have quickly learned to be one of the busiest and most tourist frequented streets in the city. The noise begins about 9:00pm or so in the evening and usually continues until 3:00 or 4:00 am, every night.

Usually there is a cool breeze in the evenings, especially after the sun goes down. We wouldn’t notice the noise so much if we kept the windows closed in the evening, but it gets so hot at night, we really need that fresh, cool air to cool the apartment down a little bit before we go to sleep. We have been sacrificing the cool air at night to reduce the noise level and have been keeping a fan on to try to drown out the noise. Rob can sleep through almost anything so he doesn’t seem to mind too much. I don’t sleep quite as easily…. as I have pretty sensitive hearing. I like our location and don’t mind so much that we don’t have air conditioning during the day, but I have a hard time sleeping during the night when it’s hot. I am considering getting ear plugs in the near future so we can keep the windows open through the night. :} Other than that, we couldn’t be happier about our little flat in Cape Town! We are happy as clams 🙂