Ever since I started working on my crazy plan to take my family on an overseas adventure next year I've been wondering something.
How does the "typical" house vary from country to country?
You see, I'm cunningly planning for my family to live in real people's houses when we travel rather than stay in hotels. And I'm offering that if anyone that I get to know over the interwebs would like to visit Australia, I will happily allow them to stay at my place and will especially enjoy showing them around a little.
Whenever the idea of house-swapping comes up, or the concept of hosting visitors from overseas, everyone starts to get a little bit nervous. What if my house is too small, too messy, doesn't have a nice enough yard, isn't decorated elegantly enough or is located in an entirely boring area totally bereft of interesting tourist attractions?
What if my guests cut their stay short or move to a hotel because they can't possibly live in the hovel that I call my home? What if they cancel their plans to let me stay at their place because one look at mine has demonstrated that I'm "not their sort of person"?
Every insecurity about our homes seems magnified when faced with the prospect of opening it up to people from another country because we're not always sure what is considered "normal" or "acceptable" in their homeland when it comes to living arrangements.
Firstly I'd like to say that when it comes to being hosted overseas my family will be easily pleased. We are excited about the opportunity to see new things, meet new people and learn about other countries and we're not at all fussed about staying anywhere fancy. As far as we're concerned, our accomodation will simply be somewhere to lay our head at night; a "home base" from which to explore our surroundings. We are extremely grateful to the people who have offered to host us, and it is their company and conversation that we are looking forward to, not a king-size bed and back yard swimming pool!
I'll share with you a little bit about my house so you will know where I'm coming from.
I live in a single story house on a 700 square metre (7500 square foot) block of land in a quiet suburb. My house has four bedrooms, one of which we use as a study, a lounge room, dining room, kitchen, laundry and bathroom. Chris has undertaken a couple of renovations, one of which extended the kitchen to give us a "family room" or "eat in kitchen". The other was to convert our garage to a games room in which lives a couple of lounge chairs, a desk and computer, a big screen TV and the Wii and Playstation.
My house is not nearly as big or fancy as some others in my suburb, but it's enough for us. If I had one thing I'd like to improve it, it would be an ensuite bathroom for Chris and I. Also, I wish all our furniture wasn't second hand and that we had new carpet! Also the garden could do with a bit of a makeover! All in all, however, I'm satisfied with what we've got.
I'd love to hear a little bit about your house and how it compares to others in your area. Are you looking to upgrade, downsize, renovate?
I'm not going to bother with a linky because I'm not anticipating a flood of responses, but if you do post about your house then let me know by leaving me a comment.
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