Domestic Living

I guess it’s fitting for me to write a post about domesticity while Tom is off at his first day of teaching and I’m at home (looking for a job, of course?!). No worries, though, I’m far from playing housewife.

I’m including photos of the flat for those interested or those wishing to scope out the facilities for their future visit. You’ll likely notice the spartan furnishings, but we’ll sort that out before the first guests arrive. The place is already on its way to becoming an IKEA-special - although, unfortunately, this does not likely jive with my usual tendency towards sustainable purchases…

Flat Stats:

- 1 living room (reception in Brit speak) / kitchen, 1 bedroom & 1 bathroom
- 4th floor
- Double-glazed windows – seemingly enough of a rarity that it figures into rental ads
- Location: Maximum 10 minute walk to High (main) Street, train station, pubs (naturally), main shopping centre, grocers, cinema, great park for running, library.

We live in Croydon, a former village, but now swallowed up by Greater London. To my happy surprise, there’s lots of greenery. You can tell from our view that it’s mostly small-scale development and that we’re a mean highrise. It’s a new building and comes with that new building smell which just means it’s not VOC-free. Nice enough, but poorly planned – was the structure coordinated last by any chance? The column in the middle of our bedroom leaves just enough usable space to squeeze in a bed. The building design also seems to treat the first four floors as second-rate tenants with a back entrance and separate, tiny lobby/elevator landing. This is either some lingering Victorian snobbery or (more likely) the fact that there are two building owners.

Another oversight is the absence of storage – this is, at least, typically architect-y of them. I agree that we should not have cupboards large enough for items to disappear into never again to be seen, but, since the Fall of Man, we are required to have at least certain possessions... You can see our solution in the photos. Tom remarked that he feels like he’s shopping in a store when he gets dressed in the morning with the clothes rack and glass shelves.

Odd bits: Switches are on in the down position and off in the up position. Outlets have switches! Does this mean we should fear the 220V or the electric bill? We’ve generally developed a healthy (?) paranoia about turning off switches or the gas (for hot water and heat) while we await the inevitable utility bills in the mail. On the plus side, water pressure is great – something I remembered being problematic when I was here 10+ years ago. The water, however, is lime-filled and needs filtering to avoid an unappetizing white coating on tea...

Other odd bits: I need a stool to access the bath. All the doors have door closers – why? – so, we have them all wedged open. There is a mixer tap in the kitchen, but not in the bathroom – I don’t get it (I’ve been told you fill the sink to wash your face, but this seems very inefficient). We have ‘fobs’ to open the front gate and door (works like a key card). As a sort of mixed blessing, we have our own washing machine / dryer – yes, everything happens in the same chamber, but this combo appliance takes 4.5 hours (or longer!) for a full wash-dry cycle (standard according to the guy at the appliance shop on the corner)!! More concerns over electricity costs... At least the brilliant integrated clothesline over the bathtub saves us the 3-hour drying cycle.

We’re still sorting through much administration over the flat – big delays and confusion just to get the post box (more Brit speak) key. And once we finally opened the box, we were immediately harassed by months worth of letters from the London South West Enforcement Division of TV Licensing – a license to simply watch cable-free TV. It should be interesting trying to prove that we don’t actually watch TV – in this rare circumstance they must visit the premises and confirm that we have neither the means nor intention of watching TV – I’ll let you know how that goes over.

So, we finally caved in and got a mobile phone. It seems difficult to maintain my anti-cell phone position now, but I am still and particularly anti- I-have-a-free-moment-and-instead-of-letting-an-independent-thought-enter-my-head-I-must-play-on-my-phone. How uninspired! (please do not send hate mail, I acknowledge the loneliness of this opinion).

And, I’m in a bit of recycling distress since last Friday. After a chat with the friendly neighbourhood garbageman, I discovered that the green bins and black bins are all equally rubbish bins contrary to what the landlord told us – we don’t have recycling! And since they don’t have deposits on bottles here, this means we’ll be storing incredible amounts of recyclables until this gets sorted out. I’ve got a call in to the City and am expecting a visit from one of their environmental agents this week...

Finally, a warning for anyone thinking of renting over here: it’s called inventory madness. Well, that’s what I call it. Your lease comes with an elaborate document listing the appliances, built-in furniture, windows, doors, door hardware, finishes, etc and the state they are in, including everything from cracks and chips to fingerprints!! It’s expected that the place remain as you found it – surely I can wash away the fingerprints??!