What was the house like that you grew up in?

The first house I lived in as a child was in Portsmouth – Cosham to be exact. It was a typical 1920’s/30’s style end of terrace house. There was a small, walled patch of garden in front, and quite a long garden at the back. I will post a photo when I can find one. Downstairs there was a hallway, a long kitchen, a dining room and quite a large sitting room. There was also a cupboard under the stairs. Upstairs there three bedrooms – one large one at the front of the house, and two smaller ones at the back. There was also a bathroom, and it had glass in the door – you know the sort of glass that is patterned so you can’t see through it. I only lived there until I was 3½ but Grandma and Grandad had bought it I suppose in the early 50’s. I don’t remember much about it apart from the fact that it always felt like a home, but I suppose that’s because my mum, aunt and uncle had all spent a large part of their growing up years there, and even though they were overseas a lot, it was always home to them when they came back.

When we lived in Malawi we lived in a rented house that my dad already had. It was a bungalow with a corrugated iron roof – bloody noisy in a rainstorm! As you want through the front door off the khonde (veranda) you stepped into a very large room which was, to the right a sitting room and to the left the dining room. Off the dining room end, to the right, was the kitchen and pantry. At the back of the kitchen there was a small area where the Rhodesian boiler was which was used to heat the water. More on this later. At the end of the dining room there was a door which led into quite a dark corridor – it seemed dark, but maybe that’s just because the doors were shut! The first door on the left was my bedroom which was a light, airy room. On the right there was another bedroom which always seemed quite dark to me. At the end of the corridor was my mum and dad’s room, which was another light airy one with lots of windows and a frangipane tree outside. Just before you got to their room in the corridor, on the right was the bathroom and a separate toilet.
The garden was massive. There was a vegetable garden, a large chicken run where we also had ducks, and a wooded area. I loved playing in that wooded area – it was “my” forest! The front part of the garden was terraced and there was a swing, which I loved. There was also a seesaw to start with. It was a cool seesaw, which not only went up and down, but round and round too! Unfortunately, after one little girl broke her arm at a birthday party the seesaw was put away, and never again saw the light of day.

When we moved back to Scotland in 1986 we lived in a typical Galloway cottage which was between 300 and 350 years old. It was beautiful, made from granite, and had originally been two cottages, presumably tied cottages for farm labourers. You can see quite clearly in the stonework on the front of the house that there were originally two front doors. On the right hand side of the house (from the front) was an extension which had been added in 1865 to accommodate the village post office. By the time we moved there it hadn’t been the post office ofr a very long time, but there were the odd clues as to it’s former occupation – the floor was concrete in that room, rather than the wood of the rest of the house, because it had housed the post office safe which needed a solid floor. It became our study.
Anyway, as you walked in the front door, you came into a hallway. To the left was the sitting room with a granite fireplace that we built ourselves, replacing the ghastly green faux marble one that was there when we moved in! In the hallway itself were the stairs and the bathroom which was partly under the stairs. To the right was the dining room (which became a sitting room in the winter as it had three inside walls and was much cosier). At the back of the dining room was a door into the kitchen, and on the right of the dining room was a door into the study.
Upstairs there was a landing with airing cupboards. On the left was my bedroom and on the right was a small box room, converted into a cute one person bedroom with a skylight window. Also on the right was my parents’ bedroom. Both of the bigger bedroom were a good size, with lovely dormer windows.

The garden was a large one, for a village house, and went all around the house, which was detached. The garden was surrounded at the front and one side by a hedge, along the other side by a dry stone dyke (dry stone wall), and along the back by a fence. Our view out of the kitchen at the back of the house was just fields full of sheep or cows, a small forest of pine trees, an old motte and far in the distance a large hill (not quite a mountain) called Carsphairn. It was beautiful, and we used to watch the lambs playing in the spring.

When I was a student, I lived in halls at Heriot Watt, Edinburgh for the first year. I had a room which had a single bed, a desk and a wash basin – and that was it!

After that, I moved into digs in town which was ok. It was a town house in a quiet street just off the Dalry Road near the Haymarket. Downstairs there were offices, and a kitchen which I could use, and upstairs there were three large bedroom rented out. It was comfortable, and eventually Colin moved in with me there. We only moved out because I got pregnant, and we couldn’t comfortably stay there.

We moved from there into a flat in Moredun. Not the most salubrious of places, and we were on the 10th floor! We had a fantastic view over the city – we had an almost 360° view from the Pentlands, across the city with Edinburgh Castle and Arthur’s Seat all the way across the Firth of Forth. The flat itself was quite nice, and we decorated it and made it homely. The kitchen was a bit crappy though! As you walked in the front door immediately in front was a large walk in cupboard, which quickly became a dumping ground for junk and boxes! Then there was a hallway – the first bedroom on the left was Isla’s, once she was born. The second room on the left was our bedroom. On the right was a small bathroom. There was also a cupboard on the left for linen etc. Then there was a very large sitting room, and the kitchen. It wasn’t the best area in town, but it was ok.

Then I came to France. Our house now is a lot different to what it was then . When I first arrived there were the four of us in the same bedroom, but quite quickly we renovated another room for me and Isla.

Now we have three bedrooms, and a hallway! From the front door you enter the sitting room with big old beams, and a massive fireplace with a woodburning stove. To the right is a door into the kitchen. To the left is a door which goes into a hallway. The first door on the right is my bedroom, which has a door into Isla’s room. The second door on the right goes into the bathroom, which also leads into Isla’s room. The door on the left goes into my mum and dad’s room, which is in the process of being plastered and decorated. There are another couple of big rooms downstairs to be renovated, and two large rooms and a massive balcony upstairs to be done.

The garden is massive, with a few straggly vines at the back, loads of fruit trees and the pièce de résistance – the pool!