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Hello everybody,

my name is Ana and I live in the Basque Country. You can find here small villages as well as cities.

I live in a city, San Sebastian, so I live in a flat. It is a quite big flat, with a balcony in an eight floor building. Flats are typical in San Sebastian, like in every city, but an eight floor building is not so typical here. In the city center, in the vicinity of the city center and in the old town, you won’t find high buildings, the buildings there have maximum four floors. I think that’s good for the aesthetics of the city and also to avoid the choking sensation a few cities provoke.

Let’s talk about the villages here, I don’t live in one, but I like the life in a village. The houses are made of lime or stone, and have bricks on the roof. They are often two floor houses and have quite a few windows. I think windows are so important to let the light get in, I also love balconies. In my opinion the villages here in the Basque Country are really beautiful.

But returning to my home, of course I like living there. I love my flat and my neighbourhood. I love the luminosity of our flat and also its distribution. We also are very good located, 5 minutes with the bus or 20 minutes on foot away from the city center, surrounded by bars and shops. In our neighbourhood there are many green areas and that’s nice to walk our dog.

About changes in my flat, yes, we made quite a few about 10 years ago. The flat belong to my great-grandmother, so when we came in, the furniture was a little bit old-fashioned. Doors and windows were brown and there was a fitted carpet. We removed the fitted carpet and have now very beautiful parquet, which was under the fitted carpet. We painted the whole flat and also the windows and doors, and bought new furniture. Our flat looks great now.

Hi Ana, thanks for the description of your flat. Yes I'm glad that the fashion for fitted carpets has passed - I really don't like them. What about the kitchen and the bathroom? Did you change them too, or were they modern? When I bought my flat in Barcelona the kitchen was like a museum piece: there was an enormous marble sink like they had in the 18th century! And there was a special tub to wash the laundry. The woman who lived there did her laundry by hand I guess. And in the bathroom there was a tiny little electric water heater from the 1940s.. I wanted to keep the marble sink, but it took up too much space.
Your description is very good - just a couple of suggestions for you:
bricks on the roof.= with tiles on the roof. We have tiles on the roof and the walls are made of brick.
We also are very good located,= Maybe you can say: we are well-located, but that sounds a bit strange to me. Better: We are in a great location, we are 5 minutes from the city centre by bus, or a 20-minute walk.
so when we came in= When we moved in...
See you!
Pieter

Hello Pieter,

Oh yes! I forgot to write it, but the bathrooms were the very first thing that was changed in our flat. Inmediately after we came in. I was two years old so I can't remember how they had looked. But they are modern yes. Not as the kitchen, which has not been changed. It is very old, we still use gas to cook, and it is a little bit awful also. There is so much to do, wiring has to be redone in example. The work will be so expensive and complicated, that we couldn't make the decision to start with it until today.

Okey, amazing. I'm sure it was really interesting to see such an old flat with such curious things.

Thank you for the suggestions!

Ana

Hi ANa, I know, refurbishing a kitchen is complicated and expensive. My kitchen sink is from IKEA. It was cheap, but of course the material wasn't good quality. So now I would like to change it, but really at the moment it's impossible! :) Maybe one day.
See you,
Pieter