Old locks

I looked at yet more apartments today -- this business of looking for a place to live takes a lot of time. Today's set included one plain but nice building in a great location near restaurants, cafes, and transit. Its main drawback is that all of the windows look southwest, which could make it a bit warm in the summer with no cross-breeze. Lovely balcony, though.

The second and third places were almost identical in layout, and both from the earliest years of the 20th century. When we arrived at the first one, we couldn't get the door unlocked. It had three locks. One new one at the top, and two older ones at the bottom. The lock at the absolute bottom turned out to be a deadbolt. The middle one was a latch but the key never seemed to catch. My agent tried. Another agent who had brought the keys tried. Finally a third agend with other clients showed up and used a credit card to slip the middle latch open.

The apartment had lovely pre-WWI details on the ceiling and along the walls, and genuine turn-of-the-20th-century locks, but the kitchen needed total remodeling and the bath was not far behind. The electrical wanted modernizing from the fusebox to the wall plugs, several of which were essentially extension plugs with cords tacked on the wall. Not pretty.

The lion in the picture above was on the bannester of the second apartment.

The third apartment was much like the second, but in the Tiergarten district and its locks were a bit easier to open (though not fundamentally any different). It had a modern kitchen, an OK bath, and better electrical.

I tried to persuade our agent that we did not absolutely have to have a large (100 square meter) apartment, and that we really would like to see some high rise places. I don't think he believes me. He is, after all, the expert.