A Monday morning still life, sometime in summer 2008.I have long promised you a quick look at the inside of my flat. Some parts are still provisional, nearly two years after my arrival... Shame on me! However, I quite like the way this place looks.
Here's the hallway, before the doors were painted white:
And my kitchen, not very good photos but the best I have just now:
This is my sitting room in its evening incarnation:
The wee sofa is only a two-seater but at least it doesn't take up all the space in this cosy room.
Yes, it's a real nineteen-sixties gas fire. It hangs squint on the wall and is really ugly. But I kind of like it. And it certainly pushes out a lot of heat, none of which goes up the chimney as is the case for most log-burning fires.I would love to have a real log-burning stove, though.
The artwork above the huge armchair is a lithograph by Lily Keller called Gri-gri. The door leads to my airing cupboard with an ancient, not very well-insulated immersion heater, which is where I dry virtually all my laundry.On to my guest bedroom -- the artwork above the bed is an early-ish gouache by Katrien Caymax, the Belgian artist.
Sometimes, fine dining occurs at my flat:
And I spend a lot of time reading in this lovely armchair. It's a nursing chair, actually, with a comfy tall back and a low seat -- just right for me.
Those of you who have been following this blog since I got to Oban will know that I had a wee mishap in the early days of staying here. I'm glad I pulled out a manky old built-in wardrobe that stood in the wrong corner and made the small bedroom look much smaller still. But the gap in the parquet flooring was pretty expensive to fill. Still, well worth the trouble:
Above is the new piece and the almost cream coloured, freshly sanded older parquet.
Sanding off the old varnish, then taking off the horrible gunk that I painted on, has given the lovely parquet floor a lot more character. I understand that this very type of flooring is making a comeback. Maybe I could now buy that replacement patch for less than nearly £300! But I wanted it then and I wanted the same type of floor. Should have gone for the bleached version, though, or taken out a few of the old tiles and dispersed the new ones randomly across the old floor. Ah, well, you live and learn...Finally, the bathroom:
The new thermoblinds make a HUGE difference. At last, this essentially unheated space warms up when the rest of the flat is being heated. 
And last, but not least, a glance at the shower cubicle. The weird structure on the left is a very useful narrow cupboard that holds all my toiletries, medicines and towels.
