Dana and Matei grew up and spent their childhood in Drumul Taberei. They knew each other from high school. Their Bucharest began with the Favorit area and ended in Ghencea, at the end of the line of tram 41. They knew every streets and alleys and they had never imagined they would ever move out. Then they went to college and their Bucharest got bigger, to the University or the Polytechnic College, to Romană or Victoriei Plaza, to Berceni or Tineretului or to wherever their new college mates lived.
After that they moved their clothes and books together, still in Drumul Taberei, in a house with pink walls and pieces of furniture randomly collected by the owner of the flat. It didn't look nice and they didn't get along with the owner, either. They did not invest too much in the apartment and they never felt at home, as "on rent you are never home". They took a credit and moved in their home near Bragadiru, in a residential compound. When they moved in, the compound was still under construction, there was a whole construction site around them, but they were at home and there was a smell of lime and freshness everywhere.
First, they bought a mattress, and they had their first breakfast at home on a box of books. Then came the table, the chairs, the bookcase, the desk; the drapes and the carpet came later, almost a year after moving in. The third room is still waiting for its furniture and for the third member of the family as well. Their parents gave them a lot of help and very few objects. Dana's parents bought the drapes, which Dana had chosen, matching her image on how they would look like, when she first stepped in the apartment. Matei's parents bought them the kitchen table and the chairs, which Dana had chosen when strolling through the furniture stores.
However, because they chose what they wanted to receive, they never saw these pieces of furniture as objects with emotional value. They also chose their flooring and tiles. They had an amount of money set by the real estate developer, and they chose the color, the shapes, the patterns and the quality, taking care not to exceed the budget.
Matei supervised the work, he used to go there once a week to see how their apartment was growing, how the walls were tiled, how the floor tiles were fixed, and when in the end the parquet was in place, they moved in: the two of them and a mattress.
They liked the new apartment because it was larger and cleaner than any old apartment they had ever seen, and the distance from the city does not scare them away, on the contrary, they enjoy it, as even the air is cleaner here.