Musings on the sixth week

Well I am here with my cup of coffee and thought I would write. I wasn't planning on publishing to the blog this morning it was just as I was searching through the pantry for some coca to sprinkle on top of my cappuccino (yes I have becoming a coffee snob!) I realized just how new everything is.

Lets start with the pantry. It is basically not my pantry but the owners of the house. It is in two parts, the top part has the water heater, about 15 gallons, and the bottom the food storage. Nothing major there just different. Now the kitchen in general looks like any other kitchen you have seen. Except for the fact that the fridge is well ... small. Very small, Say a good bar fridge with a college fridge size freezer.

The house itself is about 120 years old, it is wood construction and quite beautiful. I love the character. I suppose very typical of an old house in Chicago. Then there is the fireplace, or should I say the firebox. It is a coal firebox which is shallower, narrower, and shorter than the traditional US wood fireplace.

The house is made of wood has wonderfully large windows which capture light for about 5 hours during the day. For the north (remember the sun is in the north here) and west side of the house are "protected" by a mountain. As an aside the kiwi's call it a hill, Tinnakori Hill, but any hill 1000' high qualifies as a mountain in my book. So we have the best 'south' light you could imagine. Just no warmth, and living in NZ in winter you want the sun.

Then there are the views. Those windows are big and afford some breath taking views. We can see Wellington, The botanical Gardens, The harbor, Hutt Valley, the road to Wainuiomata, and we can see the Westpack stadium (rugby in the rain with the lights on!)

The road we are living on is a private road with a foot path at the end of it that leads up the hill. I have never lived so close to nature, nor to something so big! It is another 300' or so up the hill and quite the climb. But the road itself is worth describing. It is narrow, width of two cars, except for the fact that there is parking on one side of it. On our side of the road each house is about 20' above the road, on the other side the houses about about 20' below the road. I am not exaggerating. We see right over the trees on the other side of the road. There is nothing that prepared me for the terrain here.

It is a quaint road, I feel like I am in the middle of a Charles Dickens story. With the moss covered stone walls, old wooden houses, and open storm sewers. (septic is all up to modern standards.) The houses are built on top of each other and there is no semblance of the standard US grid here. Just fit in wherever possible. Quite charming actually.