How Do We Live in Israel?

Several friends have asked for pictures and explanation of our living standards here in Israel.  I'm therefore going to make a series of posts in the blog, of everyday life in Israel.  In this post, I'm going to start with the most intimate aspect of live - or at least, the most intimate I'm willing to share on my blog!  I'm inviting you into our living quarters...

I've mentioned before that Israel is a very 'vertical' country; land is expensive, and the population is dense, and therefore Israelis tend to live in apartment buildings.  Not so overwhelming as before the early 1990's.  After the Oslo Accords, the country experienced a spurt of prosperity that has seen an explosion in numbers of Israelis (1) driving private automobiles, and (2) living in private homes.  But Israelis still overwhelmingly live in apartment buildings, mid rise to high rise.  I supposed that the building where Clara and I live, qualifies as a 'high rise'; it has 15 floors.

Unlike in the USA, where most apartment building are owned completely by one entity, in Israel the apartments are all sold individually as what we call 'condominiums' in the USA.  My Australian friends are, of course familiar with this arrangement, as it is the standard pattern of ownership there. (Although they are not called 'condominiums' there, but simply 'units.')

Here's a view of our building from the outside (building right of center); it is somewhere between 10 and 15 years old and is in a neighborhood of buildings of the same, or newer, vintage.  As you can see, amidst the buildings is a pleasant park for the children.  I jokingly refer to our neighborhood as 'Co-op City'; if you've been to that huge development of apartments in the northwest Bronx, you'll know why!  Truth is, I could just as easily call it 'Parkchester' after another huge complex in the Bronx, of look-alike buildings.  I'm sure there are such complexes in other US cities, but after all I'm a New Yorker - and a Bronxite - through and through.

The neighborhood is pleasant enough.  The only notable problem is parking, which is always a problem in densely-populated vertical neighborhoods.  The builders provided parking lots and garages with, in most cases, one space per unit.  And of course, many families have more than one vehicle - either an extra personal vehicle or a work vehicle - plus visitors need parking spaces.  So in the evening and one the Sabbath, parking on the street becomes very scarce.  I'll deal with the issue of personal conveyances in another post to come.

Our apartment is fairly typical of family-oriented apartments of its age, both in its size and appointments.  It is a 'four room' apartment, which equates to three bedrooms plus the common space.  This is the most common number of rooms; five-room apartments exist but in smaller numbers.  Three-room apartments are also found, especially in buildings optimized for older occupants.  Many of the country's older buildings - circa 1960's through 1980's - provide smaller apartments for young couples just starting out, as well as for new immigrants and others at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale.

Here's a view of our main room, including a glimpse of the balcony.  One of the reasons Clara choose this particular apartment was for the open floor plan:  living, dining, and kitchen in one large room.  Other buildings have the living space more segmented, but this is the most popular arrangement.  Note a standard feature,  tile floors; and a non-standard feature, central heat and air conditioning.

Here's a view of the dining area.  This apartment is furnished, which is not very common.  Since we did not ship furniture and appliances to Israel, we thought it would be good to rent an equipped apartment for the first year, to save us from having to immediately go out and spend thousands of dollars to furnish and equip an apartment or house.  The bookcases and books, the area rugs, the pictures on the wall and the flat-screen TV, are ours.

Here's the kitchen area.  Note that there's no dishwasher.  That's a bit unusual in an apartment of this age and standard.  If you can see the details, you can see that we have some of the standard kitchen additions one would expect in any modern country:  microwave, espresso machine, and blender.  The butcher block-topped cart, which we bought at IKEA and which I mentioned in an earlier post, gives a bit extra counter space.

This is the master bedroom.  It faces east and is of a decent size.  The bed, and the beds in the other two rooms, is queen size.  King size beds - and bedrooms large enough for them - are no so common here.  Again, this is the furniture that belongs to the unit owner; the bed linens and pictures on the walls are ours.

This is the master en suite; the toilet is behind me, so you don't see it.  Next to the toilet is a window.  What I'm trying to show you here, is the typical shower in an Israeli home.  It's not really a 'stall shower,' as there's only a very low sill that separates it from the floor of the rest of the room.  So when you shower, water spills out into the sink area.  After showering, you take a large squeegee and push the water into the drain in the shower area.  It keeps the bathroom floor clean!

This is the second bedroom.  Interestingly enough, this is the only room of the three with a built-in clothes closet.  The other rooms have the freestanding kind.  As you can see, this room is rather small.  It seems dark because the trissim - roll-up blinds - are closed.

This is the third bedroom.  Legally this is not a bedroom at all, but a ma'amad, or shelter room.  Since the SCUD attacks during Operation Desert Storm, every new dwelling unit in Israel must have a reinforced room where the occupants can shelter with a few seconds' notice.  The shelter room has double-thickness walls, heavier shutters, and its window and door are sealed with gaskets to keep gas from intruding.  Note also the heavy duty filter on the air conditioning intake to this room.  Although the ma'amad is not legally a bedroom, everybody uses them as either an occasional bedroom - for guests or for children who have gone on to the army - or as a work room.  We were warned that WiFi signals often don't penetrate the ma'amad, but ours seems to be okay in that regard.

As I said, the shelter room is positioned so that anyone in the house can step into the shelter within a few seconds.  Of course, that assumes that one hears the alarm!  Since I've been here, we've had two alarms when missiles were launched in this direction from the Gaza Strip, which is only about 10 kilometers south of Ashqelon.  The problem is that in both instances, we slept through the alarms...

This is the other bathroom, looking inward from the utility space and towards the second bedroom.  It is a full bath, with a tub-shower.  The exposed electrical cable above the door is for a radiant heater, the typical way of heating a bathroom in the winter.  The master en suite has one, but the owner never installed one in this bathroom.  I also might as well mention that our water heater is electric and must be turned on 15-20 minutes before one wishes to bathe or shower.  Solar hot water, with an electric back-up, is more common in Israel but for some reason our building does not have the solar panels incorporated in its design.

Here's the clothes washer and dryer, in the utility space adjoining the bathroom.  Note that their size (8 KG capacity) is similar to what we call 'apartment sized' washers and dryers in the USA.  But these are the largest size appliances typically available to the consumer in Israel.  Of course, anybody who has lived in Eurpoe recognizes this as the 'standard' sized washer and dryer for a private home.

Finally, the views from our apartment.  We live on the next-to-highest floor, so the views are magnificent.  The top picture is the view from our balcony, looking west towards the Mediterranean Sea.  The picture to the left is southeast, from our bedroom window.  You can see the neighborhood park, then the small neighborhood shopping center and finally, an area of private homes further to the east.

Since many of my readers are curious about the cost of living here, I'll tell you that our monthly rent is NIS 4,300, the equivalent of about US $1,160.  On top of that, we are responsible for another 200 or so shekels monthly (just over US $50) for va'ad habayit, what in the USA is commonly called 'condo association' and in Australia is called 'body corporate.'  Although housing costs in Israel are traditionally high compared to the USA, this compares favorably to what one would pay for such quarters in an American city.  And in some major cities in the USA, one would pay far more.  Of course, location, location, and location are the three largest determinants of cost of housing in Israel also; for a similar apartment in the Tel Aviv area or in Jerusalem, one would expect to pay far more.

We are living in this apartment with a one-year lease.  It is our intent to buy a home towards the end of the lease.  I hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse and explanation of our living conditions here in Israel.  In subsequent weeks, I'll offer glimpes into other aspects of living in Israel.  If you'd like to read about something in particular, please don't hesitate to ask!