our "loft apartment"!

For those of you who have been worried about us living in very difficult conditions for the past 7 years ... worry no longer! It isn't finished yet, but the upstairs apartment finally resembles a proper home. We have a combined living/dining/kitchen space - it's about 5 metres by 6 metres in total (a little over 15 feet by 18 feet) and when everyone is home at weekends it's a bit squashed, but we prefer to say cosy! Most of the furniture and fittings were given to us by friends in the UK, the cooker etc were from my mum because her apartment here included all white goods. We brought everything over in the minibus on various trips. The bathroom isn't finished yet, the lights aren't yet fitted (we use lamps) and the two bedroom doors you see in the photo have no frames yet, though as of last week they have handles!
As you can see the kitchen might be called "compact" but we're just so delighted to have our own kitchen that we don't have to share with dozens of people that we don't care. You can stand in the middle of the kitchen and access every cupboard without moving your feet, but it's fine unless there's three of us all trying to do something, then it becomes a bit of a challenge.

The dining area is small too but nice with the window overlooking the garden and, in the distance the next village. We can just about all get round the table, it's a big squashed but it's only weekends now that we're all here and baby Yasmina has her own high chair.

The downstairs of the house is now just for visitors, volunteers and teams. We have three bedrooms and they have the use of separate kitchen and bathroom. We still have some work to do downstairs, some plastering and painting to get everything as nice as it could be but that will have to wait until we have some help I think! After 6 years of building Kenneth is thoroughly sick of it and says that once he's finished our apartment he never wants to see another brick, plank or tile. Ha ha ... Johanna and Philip are counting on dad's help in his "free time" to help them with their wee house in the country!