Home Sweet Sweet Home!!

Finally!

An update on our Hanoi hacienda...
Mal, Simone, Houdini (the magic kitten) and I are now fully installed in our beautiful house...

Yes, it’s true for a weekend while we were here it was still a fully functioning school with 100’s of small children running up and down the stairs yelling and screaming. Yes, it’s true, the building was dirty, the walls had been drawn on, there was no furniture, no gas...

...and yes, the idea of moving into a school although bold and exciting, was probably not the most well thought out plan, but looking and living in this incredible living space now, I am glad we did.

It took a while but the house is fully equipped, sign taken down, oven included (which is rare here), beautiful bamboo furniture, walls freshly painted, floors scrubbed clean. It’s tall and thin like most Vietnamese houses, 5 stories in all.

My bedroom and bathroom are on the 4th floor. This means there are 54 stairs from the ground floor to my bedroom... I’ve counted. (But considering I'm in a perpetual state of butter-chicken-bliss here in Vietnam, I view these stairs in a positive light.)

So starting from the top...

Yoga/ exercise room on the 5th floor (again who can complain about stairs when you are working out), a roof terrace which houses a gigantic Vietnamese altar and our laundry. My room is on the 4th floor with the band room directly opposite (lucky me). Mal and Sim’s room is on the 3rd complete with ensuite and opposite them is a guest room for friends and family.

(deep breath, there's more)

...the 2nd floor holds the office and three desks and what will be a movie/lounge room. On the ground floor we have a lovely kitchen and a chill out space. There are a good 15 living spaces in this house, 7 rooms, three bathrooms, two lounges… and a fish pond (still to come).

Beeeeeeaaaaaaaaauuuuuuutiful!

For those of you viewing this on a click through from the house advertisment, click for bigger pics or visit www.flickr.com/tabithatravels for MORE!!!