Creature Comforts

It's a Saturday night and we are both sat, happily, in our lounge! Yes there is a world of partying going on in Christchurch but we would rather be in...tonight. Maybe, we are beyond that 'going out thing' or maybe we just want to spend some time in our new home. It's probably a bit of both, really, but we certainly have not spent enough time relaxing and enjoying our home comforts. In any case, that is what we are doing tonight so as I write the log fire is roaring, the cat is sat on the settee beside me and a bottle of wine has been opened! Oh, and I scored a last minute equalising goal in our hockey game. Life's not bad!

So what is life like in our new home? Pretty grand really. It's certainly a lot bigger than our Redbridge house! Chantal is really pleased with the spacious kitchen. I'm not sure why really as curries and pasta bakes taste the same no matter what. Seriously though, we do have gas cooking; were left a huge, shiny double-door fridge-freezer, a dish washer (a first for us) and a decent microwave.

Once the food has been prepared we can enjoy it in our dining room. It is a versatile room as it has french doors that flow on to the patio and also connects to the lounge, via sliding glass doors. It is also the first time we have had a dining area large enough for a table to be placed in the centre of the room.

One of the things we like best about our house is the shower. If we had more time in the mornings, we could spend hours under it. It is hot and powerful; another first for us! Fantastic! We will repaint the walls a colour that is more complimentary to the wood pannelling but that is a long way down the jobs list!

Of course, we are both lookingforward to summer! Not only do we have a good indoor/outdoor flow but we also have a good sized garden. Even though, the double garage takes up a good chunk of space, we still have a good sized private back garden. Not only is the garden mature with plenty of shrubs, a nectarine tree, feijoa bush, lemon tree, huge walnut tree, asparagus patch and rhubarb plant but there are also plenty of interesting little white markers dotted around the bare patches of earth. Obviously, there will be some perennials popping up in the spring. I can't wait to see what appears. Rather wrongly, though, there are some bulbs pushing though the mid-winter soil already!
Finally, the bedrooms. Like most kiwi houses, we don't have central heating and as the bedrooms are either south or west facing, they see less sun than the rest of the house so are the coldest rooms in the house. That's not a big problem as once we are snuggled up in bed with our hot water bottles we are warm enough. Having said that, we are thinking of investing in an electric blanket. As you can see, the rooms do have a couple of character features, such as the art-deco fireplace and the box window seat. And yes, redecorating our room is on the jobs list as the lovely, floral wallpaper does give the room a B&B feel!So that's pretty much our house apart from the fact that we also have a laundry that leads to the original toilet. At the moment it's just a room that we dump things in and close the door!