I took these pictures on a super bright day, which – since we don’t have a lot of windows – means just about every picture inside is kinda dark. Sorry about that. I tried to brighten ’em up.

This is a picture of the front of our house that the Snook’s Mom took while we were moving in. To the right of our house is another terrace, and then a large backpackers’ hostel on the corner (but a nice one, not a scary one, although they do smoke a frightening amount of pot). To the left the terrace houses stretch on for quite a ways. Our street is really more of a lane, in that the houses are only on one side. On the other side are the back gardens of the next proper residential street.

Here’s our front door! Good ol’ number 28. Give it a knock.

Step right in. Our house is almost like one of those American Southern “shotgun” houses, in that it’s very narrow and deep and you can see right through all the way to the back. Here you can see into the living room, then the dining room, and even a little bit of the kitchen and bathroom. Oh, and note the Snook’s tasteful wiring job that runs down the sideboard and goes up over the door frame. Is it any wonder I want to go wireless?

This is our entertainment center. For those of you that saw it before, you’ll note that we added another side piece of IKEA. This means we now have more shelves than we have knick-knacks. So a bunch of them are empty now. The fish live over on the right side.

Looking back towards the front door, you can see our sofa and coffee table. That’s my quilt on the arm there. (I like to watch telly while working on it.) Since we have an office now, I don’t spend nearly as much time on that sofa.

Continuing onwards we come to the dining room, featuring our new dining room set. It’s a little large for the space, so we’ve set aside the sixth chair just to leave some extra room. I’ve got the back door open, but we’re not going out there quite yet…

Here’s the opposite wall, which features a nice big fireplace. We think it was functional originally, but now it’s all filled in. Still, it looks nice. Those framed photos are watercolours of London some friends gave us before we left. You can see where we stowed the sixth chair. The bookcase on the right is full of toys.

Looking back towards the living room you can see our lovely little liquor cabinet. Nice. You can also see the stairs that led up to the bedroom and office. We’ll be heading up there in a minute. But first, the kitchen…

You’re now looking into the kitchen from the dining room. We’re pretty sure that the kitchen is an extension to the original house, and the bathroom is a further extension onto that. (Mr. Snook informed us that in new buildings it’s illegal to have the bathroom so close to the food preparation area, but they let it slide with the old houses because there’s just nowhere else to put them.)

You’ve got to step up into the kitchen. Check out our benchtop. There are a few things you should note: 1) Very crappy lighting. Those hanging lamps are all we have. I wanna get a halogen and put it in the corner or something. 2) No dishwasher. My childhood hatred of washing dishes has returned, mostly because of… 3) The weirdest sink in the world. It’s copper. It’s round. And there’s only one basin. Doing dishes is a challenge, to say the least. Yeah, the kitchen is the worst part of the house. But so far we can handle it.

Continuing onwards you come to the bathroom. Despite its odd location, I like it. I especially like the stained glass window. It’s really pretty. I do not like the mirror over the sink, which only comes up to my neck. I have to hunch to put in my contacts. (Hey! You can see me in the mirror! Cool.)

This is the famous tub that I love to rave about. It’s huge and deep and baths in it are the best. Showers aren’t so great, what with the hanging curtain, but the baths make up for it.

Leaving the bathroom you get a reverse view of the kitchen. We’ve got a little table set up there for me to sit at while I watch assist Rodd with the cooking.

Okay, let’s head out back. We’ve got a paved little corridor that runs down the length of the kitchen and bathroom. The green box is my worm farm. See the dirty looking spot on the tile right before the watering can? Yeah, there used to be a ceramic planter on the wall right above that. Then… SMASH!

The back courtyard is pretty small, but it really is very pretty. It reminded me of an Italian villa or something when we first saw it. There’s a wall in the back with climbing ivy all over it, and a tree in the back right corner. We’ve also got lots of planters (that I haven’t yet shattered) full of flowers.

The other side of the courtyard houses the shed, which is where our washing machine lives. (Have you gotten the idea yet that living in an old house is one compromise after another?) I like the big bed of ferns too. Above the planter on the wall is a retractable clothesline that pulls across to the other side.

Turning back towards the house, you can see the outside of the bathroom extension. The weird trellis thing on the right holds the water heater. On the ground is a new flower plant the Snooks brought us but we haven’t had time to transplant yet. Behind it is a barren little planter with evil non-germinating basil seeds from hell. Above it is one of our new marigold seedlings, which are blossoming…

See?

Our lemon tree has little fruits on it! See the tiny green nubbins?

Our neighbour has an incredible grape vine that runs all down the length of the dividing fence. It even has tiny little grapes on it!

So that was our lovely little garden. Of course, most of the time it looks more like this… but you get the idea.

Last stop on the tour… upstairs! Be careful, there’s no handrail on the right side.

Turning right at the landing takes us into the office. As neither room upstairs has closets, we have a standing wardrobe in each room where we hang our clothes.

Here’s my side of the office. I just got a new Apple Pro Keyboard so I can sit a little farther away from the laptop. Yes, that is a Mac OSX poster on the wall, right next to the Star Wars: Episode 1 poster. We are nerds.

Behind me is the Snook’s side of the room. There are lots of mechanical bits and computers all connected with wires. I try to just avoid moving over there for fear of breaking something.

Leaving the office, the doorway on the opposite side of the landing leads to our bedroom…

…which is pretty much dwarfed by our bed. (I should’ve taken down our dressing gowns off the bedposts.) Nice quilt, eh?

To the left of the bed is our other wardrobe and our wire drawers. We also have a dresser and underbed drawers. Most of that space is needed for my clothes (as I have, like, four times what the Snook does).

At the foot of the bed we have another (non-functional) fireplace. It looks nice though, doesn’t it? I really like our bedroom. It’s a good, relaxing space (except for Sunday mornings when the Greek Church a block away goes nuts with the bells). But even that has its charms. 🙂

That’s the end of the tour, folks! Like I said, living in an old house entails a series of compromises. It’s drafty and it wasn’t designed for modern convenience. Nevertheless, we’ve got beautiful walls and floors and a lovely sunlight-filled courtyard. I’m happy with that.

The End!