This used to be my playground

I don't go about referencing Madge much. Why would anyone? I'm certainly not going to embed the deadfully boring video on here. Anyway it seems like a fitting title, because this will be the end of an era for me. Some things end, only to have beautiful new beginnings somewhere else.

Personally I feel at home pretty much anywhere I hang my hat - or am. Moving somewhere new is not a problem for me. On the bus to work the other day, I counted and I've lived 8 (9 if you count a little move to London that didn't last long, where I stayed in a dreadful hostel) places in my life.

My family moved into my childhood home in 1975, years before I was born, so I've never experienced moving with my parents. This also means they've lived in the same house for 35 years. As my parents aren't getting any younger, they've decided to move to a gorgeous designer appartment in the center of town with a view of the (tiny) harbour, the lakes and forest. Only a stone throw from the town square, as the realtor states. This means they put their house on the market. Less than two weeks later it was sold. They've since closed the deal on the designer appartment and they are now waiting to take it over on December 1st.

Personally I couldn't care less if they sold the house. I have no feelings towards it. It is, afterall, just a house. My memories from there are also primarily bad, because it wasn't a fun time for me. Evil bro on the other hand, is miserable. He lives about 200 meters from there in his own house, and his evil spawn are often spending time at my parents house playing etc. So it'll be impractical for him, when they move.

Anyway, I was looking at the realtor website and it doesn't look like the house I grew up in. Partly because they've upgraded the house a lot since I moved out, and then of course because they've tidied up a lot and partly because realtors are magical. They can make even the crappiest shack into a fabulous mansion. Both in words and pictures.

Now, this is where the pictures are coming in. I thought I'd take a trip down memory lane with you. Remembering my childhood home. This is the overview of the house





We start by looking in the multiroom where evil bro lived for one summer before getting a flat of his own.


The only thing in this room that has changed is the content. The two boxes behind the chairs are mine. There's old books and other junk in there. The wooden chairs are going into my storage room because I'm getting the table that goes with them. Let's go to the hall.



Back when I lived at home the walls were yellow bricks, the floor had brown carpet tiles and the door was wooden. My room was up there to the left, across from my/guestbathroom and straight forward is the master bedroom.

There is no photo of my old room, I don't know why, but this is the view from my room.



My bathroom.



Notice the characteristic blue 70s tiles are still there. The bathtub is divine, and it's the only thing from there that I miss. The best thing ever was to be lounging in the bath with loads of foam, something to drink and a fashion magazine or five. I'd spend hours there. There is also a shower cabin behind the door. Somehow that's less divine.



This is the master bedroom. In the old days it had a fuzzy carpet and a weird purple type colour on the walls. Maybe it was a forest berry.



On to the master bath, which curiously enough does not have a bathtub which is ia little underwhelming if you ask me. Anyway, it does have a bidet. I grew up there, and never found out what one actually uses a bidet for. We used it to wash our feet in because it took less water to fill that than the bathtub.



This used to be my evil bros room. My parents call it the office now, but I only know it as the peach room. The curtains are hideous. Notice the door to the sun room. We (well, I only did it to piss off evil bro) used to use that door to the sun room more than the one from the living room. I guess my parents did it to try and guilt evil bro to tidy up his room. It didn't work.



From evil bros room to the living room which is quite large (but not as large as it looks on the photos). In the old days the dining table was over to the left by the black chairs.



This is where the black chairs and TV was in the old days, and we had these hideous brown curtains. I used to be scared if I was home alone and the curtains weren't drawn when it was dark outside.



In the old days the fireplace was brown bricks, and the furniture antique furniture that was inherited from my mothers mother and her family. We never sat here. Now, we find that it's the only place we sit when we are not at the dining table.



This is the sun room. It was built in 1993 I think, and it's not a place one would want to sit in winter time. It's a nice place for Sangria on a late summer evening. Not that we ever did that when I lived at home.



The kitchen. The colour of the room is awful, and before this green colour, it was orange and yellow.



The floor used to be multicoloured orange, yellow, green linolium.



The utility room which looks much larger (like all the other rooms) than it is. Notice the authentic 70s green tiles. It used to be dark.

This is the back garden.



This all used to be my playground.

On top of all this selling and buying of real estate, my dear (and odd) aunt passed away in her sleep about four weeks ago. May she rest in peace.