The house survey - late to the party! in Spring time, sunshine and flowers, 2015

YOU LIVE IN A HOUSE OR AN APARTMENT?

we live in a 1970’s suburban cube.

WOULD YOU SAY IT IS BIG OR SMALL?

it’s pretty small, but it’s a decent enough size for us. We have three bedrooms, all of which are quite small so we bought Ikea beds for the girls which pull out to create double beds therefore creating a spare room - the girls share one room and the visitors can use the other. Upstairs is bigger than downstairs because we have an integral garage, we’ve considered converting it into another room but it’s a nice barrier between us and our neighbour.

DO YOU HAVE A WELCOME MAT?

I’m not convinced I would describe it as a welcome mat due it’s lack of the word welcome, we do have a place to wipe or feet when we come in though…

DOES IT HAVE A FRONT PORCH?

That depends on your understanding of the term porch. Yes, we have a porch which is a small, square area between the main front door and the inner front door. It houses the coats, shoes and our unwelcome mat, as well as one person at a time!

DO YOU HAVE A DISHWASHER?

Yes, he’s six feet tall, has dark blonde curly hair and wears glasses heh heh heh ;-) I usually cook and he usually cleans up afterwards…

HOW MANY PLANTS DO YOU HAVE INSIDE?

Eight, but you can read about them if you go backwards in this book.

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE THAT YOU PUT YOUR KEYS?

Usually in the door - seven years of childminding trained me into automatically locking the door whenever we come in!

IS YOUR REFRIGERATOR STOCKED WITH ANYTHING?

Not a huge amount, fresh veg, cheese, one egg, milk and various sauces, jams, olives etc…

Asda delivery tomorrow.

WHERE DO YOU KEEP YOUR BREAD?

We have a bread bin - it houses various items including a pair of baby socks!! It does also have the bread, of course ;-)

IS YOUR BATHROOM CLEAN?

Hmmmm.... The problem, I think, is the quantity of bottles of lotions and potions that we (and by we I mean me) own… gazes innocently skyward

WHAT IS YOUR BATHROOM’S THEME?

Lush - lots of lush!

HOW MANY RUGS DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR DWELLING SPACE?

One, in Talaia’s room, just so that she had a warm surface in winter as most of our floors are laminate. Lila’s room has a carpet which we had put in when Talaia was a baby (she had that room then) because it’s above the garage so it gets cold.

DO YOU KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS?

Yes, we have a fairly friendly road and most of us speak to one another. Earlier I was in my next door neighbour’s garden on my ladders mending a leak in our conservatory roof, she was in her living room with a friend and happily letting me get on with it.

ARE THERE ANY STRAY CATS AROUND?

Not strays, no, but it’s a very cat filled neighbourhood. There’s Aggy next door. Tintin behind, two doors down has several cats and various others wander around, in and out of garden.

DO YOU HAVE A DVD PLAYER IN YOUR BEDROOM?

No, I don’t like tellys in bedrooms. When we looked around the house before buying it - considering I’ve already told you it’s a small house - they had a telly in the living room, one in the conservatory, one in each bedroom (they had a 6 year old girl and an older boy (age undisclosed)) I wouldn’t dream of putting tv’s in our room, let alone the girls’!

WHICH ROOM WOULD YOU SAY YOU SPEND THE MOST TIME IN?

That’s tough, possibly the bedroom because of amount of asleep I get, but during waking hours it must be fairly well shared out between the kitchen and living room (as well as the conservatory and garden in the summer).

DO YOU HAVE A POOL OR JACUZZI WHERE YOU LIVE?

No, it would be lovely, especially to use an outdoor Jacuzzi on a winter evening but it’s not high on the priority list.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DVD THAT YOU OWN?

I’m going to count to three, then we can all say it together…
1.
2.
3…
Fried Green Tomatoes…

I do like The Pursuit of Happiness too, and Toy Story and Monsters Inc (although technically that one’s a video) and Totoro.

HOW ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE CD THAT YOU OWN?

That’s far more difficult, I have such a wide taste in music and prefer variety to sameness that I can’t answer. I’m currently loving Handmade Moments, an Argentine band who sing in English; they’re currently touring the States.

WHERE IS YOUR STEREO OR RADIO LOCATED IN YOUR HOME?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha chortles you said that like we have one radio!! While we may not be big on tv’s (in fact, the one we have is currently black& white (sporadically but it’s becoming more monochrome than not)) we have way more than our fair share of radios.
Living room: radio that is part of the stereo and digital radio.
Kitchen: radio behind the kettle that is always plugged in plus one on top of a cupboard for taking into the garden/conservatory/camping.
Bathroom: one watertight radio which, unfortunately, only receives medium wave and on mw only 5 live, talk sport, absolute and smooth....
Talaia’s room: one radio which is part of a cheap stereo I bought when she was a baby as she loves music, it calmed her down back then.
Our room: the radio alarm and a radio attached to an old tape player (double tape deck so you can record tape to tape!)
Lila’s room: Surprisingly, nothing!
Most of the radios are set to five live and Rich leaves them all on so that he can walk around the house without missing out on any sporting event. Ever!

DO YOU HAVE A COFFEE MAKER?

Yes, is six feet tall, has dark blonde, curly hair and wears glasses… mind you, we only have one coffee drinker too, he fits the aforementioned description!

DO YOU HAVE AN AREA DESIGNATED FOR ALCOHOL?

Rich’s belly..? Ha ha! Lager in the fridge, anything else on the top shelf, but it doesn’t last long with The Coffee Maker in the house ;-)

HOW MANY TELEVISIONS DO YOU HAVE?

The answer may surprise you - four… One in the living room and three in the garage which is becoming a sacred spot for deceased tellys…

DO YOU HAVE STAIRS?

We most certainly do.

WHAT KIND OF STUFF DO YOU HAVE ON YOUR WALLS?

Ooh, good question. In the kitchen there’s the calendar in which we write all our appointments and happenings as well as a fire blanket. We also have a very old clipping from a newspaper which says which anniversary is which (coming up to linen I think…). The living room has some photos of the girls, taken by my dad (who’s a photographer), a signed print of a painting by an artist called Tiana Marie. It’s called Eternal Memory of Summer and it’s so evocative of my childhood summers. We also have a plate that we bought in Ibiza which is like a tribal sun and a plate bought in Wales with tulips on. There’s a boomerang, some bells from my cousin’s wedding, two Green Men (different sources), the birthday calendar (made by my dad and Judith each year), one of me doing Great North Run (it looks as though I’m smiling until you get close and look at my eyes…). There’s a postcard of an artistic impression of Glastonbury Tor which I framed and hung up, a Welsh Love Spoon which Rich bought me for our wooden anniversary and lots and lots of ‘notes home’ from the girls’ teachers.

DO YOU HAVE A DEN OR AN OFFICE?

No.

DO YOU LIVE CLOSE TO ANY STORES?

Little Tesco (as it’s locally and lovingly known) is about 5 or 10 minutes walk away, along with a Chinese take away, hairdresser, library, pub, church and community centre, all built in the seventies when our suburb was built.

DO YOU HAVE A WALK IN CLOSET AND IF NOT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE ONE?

I guess I could try to walk in it but I think it would collapse… It’s a piece of wooden furniture.

DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING HANGING FROM THE CEILING?

Lights, lots of light. A ridiculous quantity, in fact. Each light has at least three bulbs!

DOES YOUR KITCHEN HAVE A THEME?

Food. Yup, my kitchen is all about the food…

IS IT A PAIN TO DUST YOUR LIVING SPACE?

I try to keep the nick nacks to a minimum to avoid inane dusting.

WHAT’S UNDER YOUR BED?

It’s a divan bed so dust, the odd, escaped sock…

DO YOU HAVE A GAME SYSTEM?

No, I have a telly plug in that’s got Outrun on it!

HOW MANY TELEPHONES ARE IN YOUR HOME?

One landline and several mobiles, though only two mobiles are actually in use!

DO YOU HAVE A FIREPLACE AND IF SO DO YOU USE IT OFTEN?

No :-(

WHAT KIND OF MICROWAVE DO YOU HAVE ?

A white cheap one from Tesco. It cooks my porridge every morning, yup I’m happy!

DO YOU HAVE ANY FIGURINES OF ANGELS AROUND?

No, although I have faeries behind my Buddlea Bush…

DO YOU LIKE TO OPEN THE BLINDS OR CURTAINS OR KEEP THEM SHUT?

Wide open during day, super glued shut at night! I love the light but I hate thinking that people can see in when I can’t see out.

HOW MANY COMPUTERS ARE IN YOUR DWELLING SPACE?

A couple of old, dinosaur laptops. Rich and I use our phones for internetting.

WHAT COMPANY DO YOU USE FOR INTERNET ACCESS AND HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

Virgin, about £15 per month.