The Domicile Survey (with some pics) in Scottish Meanderings

It's atrocious weather outside - snow, hail, wind, rain - you name it - we've had it. No-one ventured out yesterday although the snow was only a smattering at first (much worse now) but it WAS bitterly cold - well I tell a lie - Willow braved the Arctic conditions.


When you gotta go you gotta go (even if it IS in rather a drunken fashion)!!


The forecast purports to be like this for the next few days so I've amused myself by completing this survey which is doing the rounds. Thought I'd shove a few photos in it to brighten it up!

DO YOU LIVE IN A HOUSE OR AN APARTMENT (FLAT)?
A two storey terraced house. Mine's the whitish one sticking out.


WOULD YOU SAY IT IS BIG OR SMALL?
Fairly small as houses go but fine for me.

DOES IT HAVE A WELCOME MAT?
Yes - one of those thick brush mats for scraping dirt off your shoes.

DOES IT SAY SOMETHING?
Well you'll see from the pic of my hall rug further down that it almost says 'Welcome' - except it's been pretty much worn away with age and dirt. I’ve seen lots of cool designs I love in the shops but the size of the well into which the mat fits is weird and not anything near the size of normal welcome mats. I remember it was a lot of work to get that one cut down to size so it’s unlikely I’ll be buying another one anytime soon!

DO YOU HAVE A DISHWASHER OR DO YOU HAVE TO DO YOUR DISHES BY HAND?
By hand - I had a dishwasher when I moved in and gave it to my nephew. I don’t mind doing dishes😊

HOW MANY PLANTS DO YOU HAVE INSIDE?
Seven but don't ask me to name them. Two are orchids - one mauve and one blue, one is a Christmas cactus and one is an Amaryllis I know that much. One has been pretty much dead for years but continues to sprout new leaves every now and then so I continue to water it. Another is a miniature rose plant which Nikki gave me at Christmas but was pretty much on the way out by the time I got it - it had very likely been sitting in her house for days and she doesn't 'do' plants so wouldn't have thought to put it in water or water it herself!

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE THAT YOU PUT YOUR KEYS?
I usually keep them in the right-hand pocket of my jacket which I’m really glad about because when I was working I had a habit of keeping them in my handbag but would occasionally change the bag and get to work with no keys. (I kept work and house keys separate). Thankfully I’d changed the ‘keys place’ to my jacket by 2012 which was just as well because I got burgled one night at 2.30 a.m. (while I was in the house!) and they went off with my handbag so I would have been really stuck had I still been keeping them there. As it was my spare car key was in one of the zipped compartments but it was going to cost hundreds to get a new one so for days afterwards I kept checking for a red blur every morning through the glass of the front door to make sure my car was still there!

IS YOUR REFRIGERATOR STOCKED WITH ANYTHING?
At the last count - milk, eggs, cheese, ham, orange juice, bottled tap water, blackberry and apple juice, a Coronation Chicken sandwich, a chicken and bacon sub roll, some red apples and 5 small pots of natural yoghurt.

WHERE DO YOU KEEP YOUR BREAD?
I normally buy a large Warburtons seeded batch loaf and divide it into sections, 4 slices in each, then pop them in the freezer and just take one out when I need it. Otherwise it goes stale too quickly.

IS YOUR BATHROOM CLEAN?
Depends what day you ask me!

WHAT IS YOUR BATHROOM’S THEME?
I suppose you could say ‘sparkly’?


I realise it looks anything but sparkly there but that splashback is really difficult to take a photo of and just comes out dark. I'll try another pic closer up to see if that shows it up better.


It's actually really pretty and the 'sparkles' are all different colours especially when the light's on - here's a panel of it which shows the colours in it better -


I have to say I never would have picked that colour of splashback from just looking at it online - the bathroom is tiny and I thought the dark colour would make it look even smaller but the guy who was supposed to be doing it for me had it in his kitchen so was able to show me how it looked over a large area and I loved it! Unfortunately he also waltzed off with over two thousand pounds of my hard-earned dosh after doing absolutely no work at all so that marred the experience somewhat (I finally got another company to do it). And - just now - whenever I go somewhere in the car which has pushed the boundaries a bit further than before, I buy something small to celebrate the occasion. Last week I saw these rather lovely black sparkly storage drawers which go perfectly behind the bathroom door!


I know they don't look sparkly here - it's a little easier to see in a close up I think.


HOW MANY RUGS DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR DWELLING SPACE?
Dwelling space?? Are we living in the Dark Ages now?? I have a total of one just inside the front door. The other day I managed to take the car down to a little shopping centre at the beach and meandered into The Range where I decided to treat myself to a new rug. So this is the old one -


and this is the new one.


I’m still not sure about it hence why the tag’s on it in case I have to take it back! It’s really colourful though - does cheer me up I have to admit.

Please ignore the horrible manky carpet and peeling wallpaper. That was the same carpet I told Nikki was the first thing to go once I bought the house. Which was 10 years ago. To be fair I'm in a homeowner's nightmare at the moment - paying off my mortgage but having to use savings as necessary income so now with no spare cash to do up the house which desperately needs it. On the one hand I'm jolly glad I didn't get round to doing anything because it would have eaten into the money which I'm now having to use to live on - but on the other I wish I had because it's made the imprisonment of the last few months that much worse not being able to get away from the grottiness everywhere.

DO YOU KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOURS?
I know the ones in my part of the cul de sac we’re in (5 houses) and a couple from across the road but just on a ‘Hi’ when we see each other basis. The girl who lives on one side of me has 2 aunts who come round twice a week (at least) to help her and they’re very chatty so I’ll have a natter with them if I see them outside. The girl herself is in her twenties or thirties and works full-time so I’m not sure why they’re round so much. I know she had problems with an eating disorder at one point so I think it’s just to keep an eye on her and make sure she’s looking after herself. She got married last year and then he ran off with someone else 3 months later so I think they were a bit worried about her. She herself is a bit more private and very shy so isn’t very chatty but she got a black lab a few years ago and that’s helped I think - Dexy bounds up to speak to me if they’re outside and helps to break the ice! I must admit I get pretty jealous though - the aunts and one uncle do her washing, hang it out, make meals, clean the house, cut the grass and do weeding - I’ve often wished I had such attention - especially when I was really ill.

ARE THERE ANY STRAY CATS AROUND?
There used to be a very vocal cat which came round every evening without fail and let us know he was outside very loudly but I haven’t seen him/her for ages. Not sure it was a stray though - looked pretty well fed.

DO YOU HAVE A DVD PLAYER IN YOUR BEDROOM?
Nope. I watch stuff on my iPad and that does me just fine.

WHICH ROOM WOULD YOU SAY YOU SPEND THE MOST TIME IN?
By default at the moment, my bedroom. It’s only recently I’ve been able to spend time in the sitting room downstairs in the evening - for months I could rarely get past 7 p.m. before I had to go and lie on the bed again. Now it’s better and recently I’ve been managing to stay down there until 9 or 10 p.m.

DO YOU HAVE A POOL OR JACUZZI WHERE YOU LIVE?
I live in Scotland. We’d freeze to death if we derobed enough to get into either of those outside! We do have a good choice of a few local indoor pools we can go to and the local Bannatynes gym has a jacuzzi - think you have to be a member to use it though.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE DVD THAT YOU OWN?
Brief Encounter hands down.

HOW ABOUT YOUR FAVOURITE CD THAT YOU OWN?
Gosh it’s ages since I’ve listened to a CD - probably because the only place I can listen to it is in the car. The music I listen to changes according to mood so I’ll just say Eva Cassidy’s Songbird for now.

WHERE IS YOUR STEREO OR RADIO LOCATED IN YOUR HOME?
I don’t have either. I can access music and the radio on my computer, iPad or telly so tend to use those. I can’t stand background noise when I’m doing something or reading though so only really have music on when I’m cleaning!

DO YOU HAVE A COFFEE MAKER?
Nope.

DO YOU HAVE AN AREA DESIGNATED FOR ALCOHOL?
There are fairly ancient bottles of various kinds of alcohol sitting on top of the fridge so I guess that must be the bar!


HOW MANY TELEVISIONS DO YOU HAVE?
One.

DO YOU HAVE STAIRS?
Yes.

WHAT KIND OF STUFF DO YOU HAVE ON YOUR WALLS?
Pictures and photos of family and friends everywhere and part of one wall in the kitchen has pics Lily and Lilah have drawn for me. One of the pictures on the sitting room wall is a drawing Open Diarist friend Ainetheon (Annie) did for me which I love called 'Blackie' - she wouldn't take any money for it either.


For anyone who was friends with her (she came over to Prosebox but doesn't write any more) - she finally got her little art studio she dreamed of (in Scotland) and last I heard was running very successful art workshops there.

I was sorry I missed out on Northern Seeker's paintings which she was auctioning off in aid of hurricane relief for the Red Cross - I would have loved her 'coffee cups' one on that wall to join Blackie but unfortunately that was the time I was really ill so wasn't on Prosebox to see the entry.

I also love my Art Deco mirror which is on one wall of my sitting room. I think it's one of those things you either love or hate - Nikki absolutely detests it!


WHERE DO YOU KEEP YOUR TOOTHPASTE?
In the bathroom funnily enough!

DO YOU HAVE A DEN OR AN OFFICE? Not really. My own bedroom has the desktop computer so it's there I sit if I need to do work type stuff. In one of my previous jobs I worked from home every Friday so the drawers of my desk are generally full of office stuff and one drawer in the chest of drawers in the spare bedroom is full of stationery - another drawer is full of all kinds of envelopes. There's a small table in the spare bedroom which I've used for studying at various times - I wrote there in 2012 when I did the Open University Creative Writing course and it came in handy again last year when I started my postgrad Counselling course at the University.

DO YOU LIVE CLOSE TO ANY STORES? I have a TESCO about 10 minutes drive away in one direction and an ASDA about 15 minutes drive in the other but that’s it. I have to admit I was craving a ‘corner shop’ when I was ill - at the point when all I could do once I started to get better was walk for about 10 minutes, it would have been really handy to have somewhere I could have popped into to buy a few items of grocery shopping every few days.

DO YOU HAVE A WALK IN CLOSET AND IF NOT, WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE ONE?
No thanks. I have a fitted wardrobe in each bedroom and that's just fine.

DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING HANGING FROM THE CEILING?
What an odd question! I have a ceiling fan in the sitting room and one in the spare bedroom - otherwise normal light shades everywhere else plus the odd cobweb or two!

DOES YOUR KITCHEN HAVE A THEME?
Not that I’ve noticed. It’s mainly black and white if that counts. Here's one half:


and this is the other half:


If I ever get enough money to do the place up I'd like to get rid of that old boiler (in that white cupboard beside the fridge freezer) and get a new compact one which would fit in somewhere else - then I can shove the fridge along and have room for a table and chairs. In the meantime I plan to get rid of the girls' little table and chair which they've outgrown and get this set -


which folds up like this -


so should go nicely in that same space. I've held off for ages hoping I'd see something else because I know for a fact that those chairs are pretty uncomfortable to sit on having no back and only going up half way but I keep thinking for all the time I'll probably be sat on them it might still be worth getting.

IS IT A PAIN TO DUST YOUR LIVING SPACE?
No - that’s one advantage of being in a small house - dusting doesn’t take long!

WHAT’S UNDER YOUR BED?
Dust bunnies no doubt and the odd cat or two when I have visitors.

DO YOU HAVE A GAME SYSTEM?
Nope.

HOW MANY TELEPHONES ARE IN YOUR HOME?
Just my mobile. There is a landline but no corresponding telephone. I was always going to get one of those Bakelite 1930s/1940s jobs but couldn’t settle on a colour.

DO YOU HAVE A FIREPLACE AND IF SO DO YOU USE IT OFTEN?
No. I realise there's one in the insert in that first photo of the house but that was the previous owner's and they took it with them! I have thought about getting one put in to make the sitting room look a bit more like a sitting room but the room’s so damned small it would mean getting rid of something else and I also don’t know if it would be worth the money. I’ve had a weird relationship with that room ever since I moved in - it’s never felt like a proper sitting room. I think it’s because of its size - I have a very clear memory of peeking in through the window when we finally got the keys and being appalled at just how tiny it was. I don't know if this gives you any idea - it's taken from the kitchen doorway -


- the other side wall starts just a little bit along from the end of the settee. I also can’t shut the doors because there's no hall as such so the cats need access from upstairs for the cat flap, food and litter tray. I say that because I remember one evening years ago being so cold that I shut both doors for a while to try and keep the heat in and marvelling at how much more of a room it seemed to be if that makes sense!

WHAT KIND OF MICROWAVE DO YOU HAVE?
Em ..... a red one?! Got it from Dunelm Mill - think it's their own make.


DO YOU HAVE ANY FIGURINES OF ANGELS AROUND?
I almost answered no but then remember I have these 2 on my bookcase in my bedroom. They were actually bought for the garden but never got there! Now they sit on either side of Trooper’s photo which is quite fitting as he’s in doggie heaven😍


DO YOU LIKE TO OPEN THE BLINDS OR CURTAINS OR KEEP THEM SHUT?
The only blind which ever gets shut is the blackout one in my bedroom which I roll down at night. Everything else is always open because I hate a dark house and being ‘shut in’. I've been known to leave all the lights on in winter when I go out for a walk or shopping or something because I hate coming back to a dark house!


Mind you I’m lucky in that I live in a sort of cul de sac although it’s not a real one - it’s just a small closed off section at the top of my road which means there’s no-one passing to look in the windows and at the back is a field so equally private.

HOW MANY COMPUTERS ARE IN YOUR DWELLING SPACE?
Just one Mac Mini but I have an iPad and iPhone as well.

WHAT COMPANY DO YOU USE FOR INTERNET ACCESS AND HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Plusnet and it’s around £25 a month.