No. 12

We've had a request from some folks back home who haven't been over, for some photos of our flat. So, after much scrubbing and cramming junk into closets, I present No. 12.

Our flat is what they call a Tyneside - it's very English and very much a Newcastle-styled flat. Built around the latter part of the 1800's, it's a brick structure with lovely high ceilings and tall windows. Our street is a terraced street; that is, all the flats/houses are built in terraced style - each flat sharing a wall on either side. It's a good way of squeezing a lot of houses into a small space. That said, we all have our own patch of yard out back, so that's nice.

Our flat (which we rent) has a lot of "original features", such as fireplaces (although we have the desk in front of the pretty one), wood floors, wood doors and mouldings. It's compact, by American standards - you have to remember little Britain has very little land space for a lot of people - but suits us perfectly.

We have the ground floor with our own front door, which is really nice. I don't like communal entrys, which is what is more common in the Scottish tennant-style of flats. Our neighbours, who's door is like 6 inches away from ours, have the upstairs flat. They, like many, have floored their loft, so in effect they have 2 stories. They're super lovely folks. Jim came down today to help drill some holes for a new clothesline. Handy!

I've arranged the photos sort of as if you were walking from the front to the back. English houses, especially terraced ones, tend to be long and narrow. It's nothing like how they are in Amsterdam, but our flat is only 1 room wide. From the entry is a hall which T's: at the right of the T is our bedroom; the left leads to the lounge, kitchen, bathroom & yard. In the middle of the hall is our spare room/office/wine cellar. This is a huge room with a beautiful bay window that looks out mostly onto the street (save for a hedge obscuring some of the view) and originally would've been a sitting room.

Our bedroom is at the back and overlooks the yard. The lounge & dining lead into the kitchen, which is really a good size. I've had much smaller! At the end of the kitchen is the bathroom. Yes, it's really there. This is typical of the Tyneside. Think back to when the house was built - there was no indoor bathroom, so these are later additions. You get used to it.




Some of the plants I'm trying to grow in pots with little sun or warmth:

 

So, there you have it! Our little flat. As you can see, we have plenty of room for visitors...