In which Rebekah describes her home

Our apartment is quite a lot smaller than our house, about 78 square meters, or 860 square feet. That means we have to be very efficient when it comes to space. Fortunately that hasn't been a problem this far. Our apartment building is six floors, and is located in a cluster of about a dozen similar buildings with a wide paved court going down the center. The outer edges are all grassy field space, which seems to be in constant use by picnicking families and playing children. We've discovered that the fields and their surrounding bushes make ideal territory for a rousing game of hide and seek. Earlier the year, the city installed quite a nice playground along the side of our complex, so there's lots of opportunity for outside play, though at least in the case of Cherry it requires an adult be out there.

Our apartment is on the second floor ( European style, third American), and there is an elevator though we rarely use it unless we're toting lots of groceries or library books. There are three other apartments on our floor. As you enter the apartment, there is a largish entryway, with a big closet off to one side. The toilet is in a small room just off the entrance and has a large photo of the Eiffel Tower in it. In proper French style it contains nothing else.

To wash your hands you either go into the kitchen ( if you're an adult) or into the shower/laundry room (if you're a kid). The kitchen is also off the entryway, and is quite large given the size of the apartment. We have, fortunately, a dishwasher, and a reasonably large refrigerator by french standards. I've also gotten over any qualms I may have had about using up and throwing out other people's old food. There's a lot more space now that we've finished all of the wine that was left in it. There are twice as many dishes (plates, glasses, silverware, etc) and pots and pans as I have at home. Unfortunately, not much in the way of baking/measuring supplies, but I'm planning to augment what there is somewhat. I'm not planning on baking any bread while we're here, and even the grocery store cookies are better than the American versions, so I'm not planning to go crazy. There are 3 sizes of tart pans, should I decided to take up tart making.

We have a largish living/dining room (just how big was made clear when we had someone over for dinner, and discovered that his entire studio apartment was half the size of that room) with a table and chairs, flat screen TV (which only gets French programming), computer station, and a big (seats our entire family) couch. It has a big window, and French doors out to a balcony.

Down the hall is the bathroom (actually a shower room), which has our shower, bathroom sink, and the washer and dryer. I'm loving the front loading washer, though I'm still amazed at the fact that the hot water setting for the washer cleans the clothing at 95C (around 200 F)! We also have 2 bedrooms. The first has a wardrobe of sorts and a big bed. That pretty much fills the entire room. It has French doors out to its own smallish balcony. The second acts as the kids' bedroom by night and Blaise's office by day. Sapphire and Ezio sleep on a fold out sofa which is taken out each evening and put away every morning. Cherry sleeps on an air mattress on the floor. There is also a table which Blaise is using as his desk. The second bedroom has a set of doors out to the balcony adjoining the living room.