Take Two

It’s been a month since the last post and the initial excitement over the architects’ first plans. So what progress have we made since? Good question, I was asking myself the same thing.

First and foremost, we have a decision. A big decision which we decided together. And that decision is not to put the kitchen in the basement. I won’t bore you with the arguments for and against (not least because it would sound one-sided…).

Suffice to say that this means that we will not be i) separating the kitchen from the rest of the living space (so keeping the cook happy), ii) demolishing the lovely mosaic hallway and perfectly good staircase to the cellar to build a new set of stairs; iii) avoiding what little sunlight we could hope to get with the kitchen down in the depths, and a terrace which we would rarely use); iv) messing around with supporting walls, v) traipsing through the kitchen with lawnmower and muddy boots, and vi) vacating the grandiose ground floor for the spiders to party.

What it does mean is a big open plan kitchen the width of the house, on the same level as the sitting room (i.e. the upper ground). On top of that a flat roof, high enough to catch the last rays of the evening. And underneath, a room to keep the said lawnmower / muddy boots, as well as seedlings in the window. In fact, it may even come to be known as the “potting room”, along these lines:

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. First things first: we need an updated version of the plans, and before that we need to sign the contract with the architect, and before that, a certain someone needs to get back on to this continent…

In the meantime, to look forward to: a visit to one of Brussels’ “batiment exemplaire” a few streets from ours. It's open day coming up and we’ll be checking out the Extensive Vegetative Roof and the triple glazing.