Sunday Self Secrets Week Six 'The Flat'

Goodness, this week I'm doing Sunday Self Secrets on time for a change! It must be because Spring is in the air or it could be that for once I'm not doing anything until work at 5 today (not that I have too much interest in going after yesterdays disaster of a day!). I could be washing up or doing laundry but there isn't anything I like better at the moment that doing a blog post, mainly because I love reading your comments, they always make me smile. I have a huge list of blog post ideas I'm working through so keep a look out for those.

Today's Sunday Self Secrets is a bit of a cheat. My camera is currently on charge so I can take pictures for ebay (free listing days are today) for tomorrow so I'm using pictures I already have in my iphoto. These pictures are of the flat, which is good in the way because the flat is a completely mess at the moment since my day off isn't until Tuesday and the boys isn't until Friday! Our flat is lovely it's perfect for two twenty one year olds, oops I mean one twenty one year old and one twenty two year old! We both know the next time we move it'll be into a house and then we'll start settling down into marriage and children. This is our second home together, we moved in last year on the 18th July. It's proper professional lettings and not some grotty student flat like we had the previous year. It's big, bright and full of Ikea furniture. It's as close to home we can get without being able to decorate or replace the pictures on the walls.

So here is a guided tour of our own little world.

When we were looking for a new flat, one of the most important things was a nice kitchen with lots of storage this one was the best. Beautiful marble like tops, gas hob, big sink everything I wanted. The kitchen is my favourite room in the house (when the sink isn't piled high with dishes, next house much have a dishwasher!). It looks small in this picture but infact it's really spacious. From the sink the counter continues on with the washer underneath and more cupboards above. On the other side is the fridge freezer and a place to stand the brush, mop and hoover. There is also a gap for the bin. It's not huge but since i'm the only person who is ever in the kitchen it's big enough for me. One of my favourite features is the fact the sink has a seperate little bit that I can drain water from pans even if I'm washing up in the other sink already!

Along from the kitchen and down a small step is a our tiny dinning room but after not even having a table last year this was a dream come true! Even though it is only a small round table with four chair at Christmas I squeezed another chair in for my sister. I'm not a huge fan of the glass table, it's really hard to keep clean but I haven't found a table cloth yet that doesn't make it look like it should be in a old ladies house. I'm still hopeful though! It's usually the warmest place in the house due to the french doors hence the clothes drying in there. I love the french doors and mini balcony and can't wait for watching the sunset in the summer with a bottle of pear Kopperberg and a nice salad like we did last year.

Our lounge is so big that I needed four photos to show all the features of it! I love our lounge, all of it, well almost. I hate that the fire is old fashioned and that its wood like flooring. I'm a firm believer of carpet for sitting rooms, it makes the room quite cold in winter otherwise and the sitting room should be the warmest room of all. The sofa is hideous, its small and so uncomfortable, I wish we could replace it. It's my least favourite thing in the whole place. The two bookcases either side of the TV are ours as is the lamp beside the chair & the table the gerbil cage is on (I think you can just make it out). I guess the good thing about everything being from Ikea is that everything matches. The TV is ours too. The walls and curtains are lovely, I'd probably of picked them out myself. The boy lives in this room, so much so when the boiler was broken we have been known to bring the matress into the sitting room and sleep there since the bedroom faces North and the North Wind is the worst.

I always have to have a house with a bath, I much prefer to have a bath than a shower and this bath is HUGE! Even the boy at 6ft 3" fits in this bath! I also love having storage in the bathroom so I do love the little ledge behind the toilet, the cupboard under the sink and the mirror cupboard. We stupidly went for black in the bathroom so the mats and towels are all black, I do not recommend this to anyone as once you get out the bath you get covered in black fluff and yes I have washed the towels, about a million times and they're still covering us in black fluff! Disaster. The other problem about the bathroom is the shower is not powerful enough for my liking but I think that has something to do with the fact it's an over the bath shower rather than a stand in shower like I would one day love.

We do have two bedrooms but one is the boys office (or junk room), I'm not even bothering to show that one off as it's always a mess. The only time we tidy it is if someone is coming to stay as it has another double bed in it.

Finally, our bedroom. The bed is a comfy divan that you can just make out in the bottom of the picture. We have cream and plum bedding on it and the blanket that was a gift from an American friend, I believe it even appears in an episode of Friends! We have a wardrobe each mine is the one with the soft toys on top. Finally after twenty one years I have a make shift dressing table seen on the right. The mirror is also from Ikea. Next to the drawers is my own bookcase. We also each have a bedside table for our individual junk. I love how simple and uncrowded the room is, I always shared with my sister so our bedroom was always full of stuff. This is just perfect for me and again like with the sitting room the colours are perfect. My only nag is the sun hits our window so early in the summer months that I rarely get a lie in but at least the room is lovely and warm.

I hope you all enjoyed seeing where we live, the problem in renting is you can't make it as personal as you like and that's what I do look forward to when the time comes that we can buy (which at this moment wont be for another million years) but home is where your heart is no matter what it looks like and since the boy lives here too this is where my heart really is.