Saturday, July 25, 2009

Apple tart pie streusel squares

Yesterday evening found us out shopping again for the apartment. Not quite the adventure that the other night was, but wore me out all the same.

We went first to look at mattresses. I refuse to make a decision on a mattress without first being able to lay on it, so this is delaying our purchase somewhat, as not every place that sells mattresses has them all there in stock, or enough space in the small shop for them to lay out. Insha'Allah we'll get to the place soon where they are laid out and I can test them. Hubby founds one that he thinks we should get, which is at least a move in the right direction.

Next we went to a furniture store that hubby's barber had just told him about in the morning. When hubby first told me the name I laughed. The name sounded like "tacky", and why would I want to buy my furniture from a place named Tacky? lol
However, it turns out that though it sounds like "tacky", it is spelled "Taki".
Anyways, we went and actually found a few items that we REALLY liked.

The first was kitchen cabinets. I liked the wood color and we could pick the color of marble that we want for the counter tops. My only concern is that I might need a small work table in addition, as there isn't a huge amount of counter space there. There's no way I'm rolling out dough there, ya know what I mean?
I did find out later that it would take 10 days, or 7 in a rush, to get this made for our apartment. *sigh*
We weren't supposed to take pictures in this place, according to my husband, so I had to try to be sly about taking them.



Next we found a couch that we agreed on, which is nothing short of miraculous.
lol
We would change the fabric of course. But it was comfortable and the price was fairly decent.
The only slight issue with this was that I thought we were looking at it for our personal living room, and hubby was thinking about it for the reception room.



And last, at the Taki store, we found this little gem. Perfect for the little area in front of the balcony doors and we both love this piece! Very comfortable and the wood on the arms looks very nice. The only slight issue is the price, as it's imported, and so this will not be one of our first purchases, though insha'Allah we will be able to buy it at some point.




After that we went to a different branch of B*tech then we had been to the other day, which is where we had found the stove and fridge that we wanted.
In this branch, we looked at the washing machines. If we're going to get a front loader, I want to research the machine that we want to get to see how it rates, etc.
We found several within our price range, and I wrote the model numbers down.
In searching for them this morning, I was rather disappointed to find that the Ariston model only came up with pages in Vietnamese, which is not helpful AT ALL!
When looking at the Zanussi models, I had a hard time finding any reviews of the 3 models we looked at in the store.

Honestly this process of furnishing out apartment is unbelievably frustrating. Nothing is simple or easy about it and everything is so spread out in this city and hubby does still have a job to work at so this is just taking forever. In another two days, it will have been 2 weeks since we signed the lease on the apartment, and we are not any closer to moving in. The only purchase we've made is the new front door lock.

My guess is that it will be at least two more weeks until we can move. At least.
No matter how much you want things to get done in a timely manner here, it just doesn't happen.
I'm feeling pretty discouraged about the whole process, but insha'Allah we will be done soon.


In happier news, I made the recipe I was wanting to try that combined the crust from lemon squares and the topping of apple pie.
It turned out soooooooo good!!! Wow, I wanted to eat this for breakfast lunch and dinner. lol
I searched around online to find the right apple mixture and then decided that I better add a type of coffecake/streusel topping on it.
It basically tastes like an apple pie, but way less work than making a pie crust, as the lemon square crust is very simple to make.
It's not anything to eat if you're on a diet, though it does have fresh apples, so that has to count for something.
If anyone wants the recipe let me know and I'll email it to you.




Now off to this afternoon's activities, which will amount to hiding out in the bedroom and watching movies. lol

2 comments:

LONDI said...

It must be unbelievably expensive to get into an apartment when you have to buy all the cabinets and counter tops too! So then, if you move, you have to drag all that stuff around with you to the next apt. or what? And what if it doesn't fit? That sounds so bizarre! I'd like that recipe. My email is HDLADY316@aol.com

Melissa said...

Yup, it is fairly expensive. Of course, you could buy really cheap stuff, but as in most places, you usually get what you pay for.
And yes, a pain to drag stuff around when moving, particularly since they don't have big moving trucks here, since they would never fit on the streets. Usually I just see pickup trucks packed to overflowing with people's belongings when they are moving.
Will mail the recipe!