Our Home

Bed Room

We will leave empty spaces for you in the wardrobe (right side).
The thermostat for the bedroom is behind the wardrobe and is annoying to get to. We'll leave it on for you if it's in the winter.
There are spare sheets and towels in the large drawer in the center section of the wardrobe.
There's extra sheets and duvets for guests in the fabric boxes on the top of the middle section of the wardrobe in case you need them.
Make sure the window is closed at all times to avoid the cats getting out. You can leave it open at the top for ventilation if you want to.

Living/Dinning Room

There's a yellow bird on the wall. It monitors the CO2 levels of the apartment. If it dies, it might be a good idea to open a window. It's not urgent though. You'll be fine even if the bird stays dead.
Feel free to use the desk. It's really easy to destroy things when moving the desk from the standing to the sitting positions, so we'll leave it down and locked.
There's a little white sensor on the book shelf. Its a light, temperature, and movement sensor. Not a camera.

Balcony

Balconny is netted so the cats can't go into the neighbor's balcony.
The cats are allowed to go out under supervision.

The Cats

Our cats are two sisters from the same litter from 2018. They get along well enough but sometimes like to fight. If they do, it's usually Mochi who starts it. Please break it up.

Maki (Left) and Mochi (Right)

Maki

Mochi

Personality

Cuddly, calm, and gentle. Maki can take a bit to warm up to people, but she is very affectionate and loves attention when she gets to know you. She prefers to be the one approaching you, not the other way round. If you enjoy lap-cats, you are in luck, because once she warms up to you she will want to be on your lap an awful lot! She’s really playful as well and loves to shuffle against the side of our couch. You can also relax a lot more when Make is around food compared to Mochi - sometimes she counter surfs but that's about it. But she is quite fussy with the litter box. If it’s not clean she might go somewhere else!

Playful, SMART, and food obsessed. She WILL get into any food you leave accessible to her, even if its inside a package or your bag. We recommend to put Mochi in the bedroom when you’re cooking or even eating. Please don’t let her eat any of your food either, we are trying to train her to not expect food from people. Also, be careful when she gets very playful and starts rolling around on the floor. If you pet her she can play very rough and bites hard. Just disengage and play with her using a toy instead. Despite her quirks, she’s a very loving cat and loves cuddles and attention. She likes to get pets on your lap, and when she’s in a good mood she’ll often go to the kitchen and start rolling around the floor. This means she’s happy and wants to get a bit of attention.

Food

Eats in the bedroom by the drum kit.
70g of wet food per meal.
Gets easily nervous when others are nearby when she eats. Try to leave her alone while she does.
Likes the large gray food puzzle for her dry food.

Eats by the front door.
80g of wet food per meal.
If you ask say "paw" before you put her plate down, she'll give it to you.
Likes the orange ball for her dry food. Make sure to leave a hole thats barely large enough for the pellets to fit.

Food (both wet and dry) is found in the cupboard above the freezer in the kitchen.
There's a scale next to the fridge you can use to weigh their food. If you put the empty bowl on the scale without turning it on, it'll turn on by itself and tare to zero automatically. Be fast cause the scale goes to sleep fairly quickly.
They eat wet food twice a day (once when we have lunch and once before we go to sleep) and dry snacks once a day (when we have dinner).
To make things easier for you, serve both plates with food first, add water, take both plates with you to the bedroom and put Maki's food down, then go next to the front door and put Mochi's plate down. They'll know whats going on and follow you around accordingly.
Please add a bit of warm water to their bowls when you feed them wet food. Enough to almost fill the plate. We don’t have a separate water bowl so we give them their water through their meals.
You can use the cylindrical Tupperware to store leftover wet food in the can. There may already be some stored in this Tupperware in the fridge when you arrive.
It’s not so important when you give the dry food, as long as it’s in between the wet food meals.
We will leave their food bowl where they normally eat so you know, and their food puzzles on the kitchen counter so they're easy for you to find.

Exercise & Play

Cat toys are found on top of the shelf above the TV.
Both cats love the wand toy with a worm on the end. There are extra worms in the blue bag.
Please play with them whenever you can but don’t leave the toys out without watching them because they will try to eat them.

Toilet & Grooming

Both cats use the litter tray in the bathroom and the tray in the living room.
Both litter boxes need to be cleaned twice per day, ideally right before they eat. It’s very important to get everything out, especially the stuff that’s stuck on the sides.
We use clumping litter and throw the clumps into the green bin near the washing machine which we take out when full. It’s really important to keep on top of the box cleaning because otherwise Maki might pee somewhere else! She is very sensitive to a dirty box.

Health

No medications or allergies.

Tierarztpraxis Dr. Peter Vogel

There are 2 folded backpacks to carry the cats in the middle section of the wardrobe in case you need to take them anywhere.

Logistics

House Rules

Please don't smoke inside.
Feel free to invite friends over. The walls are super thick so you probably won't bother the neighbours.
As long as nothing is damaged and things are cleaned we are perfectly happy.
Make sure the cats always have access to both litter boxes i.e. don't leave the door to the bathroom closed. It's ok to throw Mochi in the bedroom while you're cooking/eating though. Just let her out once you're done.

Special Considerations

⛑️ First Aid Kit

We have bandages, band aids and ibuprofen in the top cloth drawer of the set of three small drawers in the living room, behind the couch.

⚠️ Appliances

We don't have a hair drier or coffee machine.

⚠️ Tatami Mats

The mats under the dinning table are made of straw and are imposible to clean so please make sure you don't drop anything on them. And if Mochi starts scratching it, please stop her.

⚠️ The Oven

Please do not let any food drop on the bottom of the oven. It’s very hard to clean once it gets there. Use a tray, foil or baking paper.

Doors and Keys

The building, apartment, and trash room doors all unlock with the same key.
Our front door closes by itself so make sure you always have the key with you when you go out.
We have two spare keys in case things go wrong: A neighbour in the same building, and a friend who lives nearby. We'll give you their contact details over whatsapp.

Activity and leisure equipment

We'll share the wifi with you over whatsapp.
We have an apple TV with Netflix and Disney plus. You'll have to use the Apple TV remote to control it. It's a terrible remote, sry.
We also have a PS5, feel free to play anythign you like. Just make sure to start a new save.
There's an electronic drum kit in the bedroom. We normally keep a rug under it to protect the floor but maki likes to pee on it sometimes so we take it out whenever we leave. Please don't use it as you'll damage the floor.

Heating

The apartment stays at about 19ºC with the heating off in the winter. You can turn it on by rotating the dial next to the front door and in the bedroom next to the door.
We usually leave it at the 11 o'clock position.
We have underfloor heating so it might take up to 8 hours for the apartment to heat up, so there is no point switching it off at night.
We have a thermometer above the tv if you're curious about the temperature inside.

Cleaning / Washing

It gets dusty fairly quickly because of the cat litter and fur.
There's a feather duster and a rag to dust surfaces on the white kallax above the washing machine.
You can use the vacuum cleaner (next to the washing machine) or the Roomba (on the washing machine). When using the roomba, please make sure to empty it and remove hair and dust from the moving parts. The roomba cannot handle the rugs, so you'll need the vacuum cleaner for that.
The washing machine is next to the bathroom. Feel free to use our detergent. We usually wash our clothes with the MISCHWÄCHE program.
We recommend washing the sheets and duvet cover at least every other week. If you wash them in the morning they should be dry by the time you go to sleep at night.
There's a drying rack behind the door.
Please use the squeegee (hanging in the shower) to wipe water off the glass panes after showering. Berlin has very hard water so calcium deposits build up fast if you don’t do this.
If you see that water in the shower is not draining well, please clean the filter of the shower drain. You might have to do this every 2-3 weeks.
Feel free to use the dish washer as much as you like. We use P2 usually. Put detergent in both areas (Yes, both. Just a little is enough), turn it on, use the arrows to choose a program, then close the dish washer. It'll start on its own. Usually takes 1-2 hours.
Cleaning supplies for the kitchen are found in the kitchen under the sink.
Cleaning supplies for the bathroom and toilet are found in the bathroom cabinet.

Trash and Recycling

Trash bags are all kept in the kitchen under the sink.
The trash cans in the apartment are color coded: red takes plastic and composite packaging, and grey is for other trash. There is a paper bin lined with a tote bag we use for paper trash, and a special bio bag for food waste (it’s green- we’ll leave one out for you). The cat litter goes in the green bin next to the washing machine. It’s generally good to double bag this as the litter gets quite heavy.
Trash can be taken out to the building trash room, which is accessible through the basement. To get there: go to floor -1, exit to the underground car park, walk straight to the other side of the room, on your left enter the door labeled “Bossestrasse 6a”, go up the stairs to the ground floor, exit to the garden, and walk right for a few steps. There will be a door on your right which you need your key to enter. The trash cans are also color coded. You can check the pictures they have to see what goes where but the classification goes as follows: Yellow is for plastics and packaging, black is for general rubbish (restmull), brown for food waste, and blue is generally for paper (the ones with a weird hamster). Cat litter goes in the black (restmull) bin. Feel free to leave the glass in the apartment. Just wash it and we'll take it out when we're back.

Shopping

Netto is the closes one, located on the ground floor of this building.
Liddl is slightly bigger and further away.
Edeka offers much more variety at higher prices.

Netto

Lidl

Edeka

Restaurants

Kurhaus Korsakow

Great traditional german (Swabian) food with good service.

Ishin

Not a fancy place, but is still our favorite traditional sushi place in Berlin! Go on Wednesdays or Saturdays for Happy Hour deals.

Hako Ramen

Delicious ramen with amazing hot plum wine.

Iro Izakaya

Japanese food with a great selection. Their Yakisoba is delicious! (Don’t go for ramen here though. Hako is better for that!).

1990s Vegan Living

Delicious asian inspired vegan food. Great ambiance and good prices too. Its a must if you're after some filling vegan food to share with friends.

Perbacco Ristorante & Pizzeria

Super super close by and really great traditional Italian pizza.

Dalbhat

It’s far but very worth the trip. Traditional Nepali cuisine. Better to book in advance.

Brammibals

A bakery with fantastic vegan doughnuts.

Welcome