Home, Sweet Home

The purpose of this entry is to give you a virtual tour of our new home. We are fortunate to have such an amazing and large house. The photos and videos might seem a bit bare because we haven't received our furniture shipment yet. Hopefully it comes soon! The house has 5 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, so we hope everyone who reads this blog plans to visit us in the next few years while we live here. It would be a shame to waste all the extra space! (Plus we'd love to see you all!) Since the house is large, this blog entry is too!

The following video takes you through our front door. The 3 doors to the left are the living room (French doors), dining room and half bath. I also made sure the video shows the cute space underneath the stairs (Harry Potter fans will think it could be our 6th bedroom). To the right of the stairs are the kitchen (notice its distance from the dining room-?) and the study (/Rachel's office).

The Bathrooms

There are no electrical outlets and no storage spaces in ANY of the 4 bathrooms. It was also a bit distressing to discover that neither of the 2 bathroom color schemes we're bringing from Albuquerque (chocolate brown and red/black) will work in ANY of the 4 bathrooms. Color possibilities are dictated by wall colors, tile colors and other fixture colors. So we've already begun to purchase ALL NEW bathroom rugs and towels for the bathrooms.

The Master bathroom doesn't have a shower, so we're using the hall bathroom extensively. It's the largest bathroom in the house and the only one with both a bath and a shower. Jacob feels that this photo of the hall bathroom shows an area where we have to exercise a bit of "English Patience." Can anyone spot the issue?

There are a few items in the house that the owners don't want changed. For example, we have to live with the curtains in all the rooms, whether we like them or not. Here's a video (dedicated to Nancy) of the guest suite, where you'll stay when you visit us. It begins at the top of the stairs and shows you a great, unusual feature for a British house--built-in closets! The guest bathroom has perhaps the most objectionable feature in the entire house: the dolphin toilet seat. Just something to look forward to when you visit! (:

The Kitchen

We love almost everything about the kitchen, and thankfully we'll still be able to continue our yellow/green color scheme there. However, there's a strange, built-in table jutting out into the otherwise roomy space. The trouble with the table is that regular chairs are too short and bar stools are too tall. Wish us luck finding something suitable!

After watching that video, you might be wondering where the fridge and dishwasher are. They're actually hiding behind what looks like more cupboard space! (The freezer is on the far left, the fridge on the right and the dishwasher in between.)

The Garden
In Britain a yard or lawn is referred to as a garden, even if it's just grass. At the front of the property there is a charming "elderly brick boundary wall" (according to the property description); we'll let you know if we find out how elderly it is. So here's a video of part of our garden. We especially enjoy the deck area where we can barbeque!

Miscellany
This video of the dining room is great because it shows the lovely French doors that lead out onto the deck. Also, out the other window you can see our double garage (pronounced with greater emphasis on the first syllable). Any garage at all is a rarity in England, and we'll barely be able to do it, but we intend to park both cars in it.

Here's a photo of the back of the house. As we mentioned before, we'd love for you to visit (just not all at once), and you're welcome to stay in our house!