Favourite room

You are all making me realise just how much I need to (a) de-clutter and (b) re-decorate. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

ariadne you will know from your trips to SA that more than one bathroom is standard in many homes. However, when I got to the US for the first time and discovered "his and hers" basins in each bathroom, now that was luxury.

I'm very envious of anyone who has a view. We lived in a house for many years with a marvellous view over distant hills. I still miss it. Now I just have my patio (although it is quite big and beautifully planted up) and other houses' roofs.

I agree, a view would be make our lounge even better but we do have a view of our tiny, secluded, garden from our kitchen window. I spend a small fortune on bird food so it is usually alive with movement from birds and pesky squirrels! The view from our lounge is often quite busy as we live close to the centre of the village.

The best view in our house is from our 'glass corridor' which is between the two halves of the house and has views of roof tops and treetops and wide expanses of sky.

Mine's my kitchen. Big farmhouse table that the family gathers round to eat and chat, where I bake with the grandchildren, get out my sewing machine, got two windows and glass door to look out on the garden and the woods beyond. I had it completely re-done when I retired, so it has everything that I like and everyone gravitates there when they visit.

That's what we did when we moved down here, what some of us have called "future proofing" as well as comfort proofing. Everything is exactly how we wanted it (I will NOT mention the en suite because getting that done is a work in progress on DH to get him to admit it needs updating..)

I also have my own bedroom now, I had an accident several years ago and slept so badly I moved to the spare room for both our sakes. I do love that it's all mine, space to spread out, can read in middle of night if I want.

Now I have it decorated in country style shades of cream with green/pink touches, with pretty patchwork bedspread, and a favourite picture from my Dad on the wall. I have windows on 2 walls overlooking fields etc, and can also see down the corridor to the tall landing window facing the pond. I hear the owls at night right outside.

I would really love a conservatory, or a great view.Unfortunately our lounge faces north, so I miss sitting in the sunshine.

My kitchen, although we only have a small personal courtyard garden, our garden gate opens on to extensive communal gardens which lead down to the Thames, although in the summer our view of the moorings is obscured by a large oak tree so we can't always see the boats bobbing around like we can at the moment. We live in a town house and whilst we can see the river from the lounge on the first floor and our bedroom on the second floor, I love the kitchen the most because it has immediate access to the gardens which are beautiful.

Right here, on the computer in a corner of the sitting-room. It's a long room, this end is mine really. I have the computer and desk, with a nice storage unit above for work/singing stuff/paperwork. The stove is to my right, a window to my left overlooking the back garden and the bird feeders and I have planted a buddleia against a wall nearby so that I can watch butterflies in the summer and bluetits and coaltits in the winter. There is a big radiator to my left as well, so this is probably the warmest place in the house. My computer chair is really nice, a cream sort of sculpted form that is very comfortable.

Behind me is a small pretty white table with a Lloyd loom chair where I can read or sew if I need a small table, using the daylight, rather than go to a sofa at the other end of the room where sometimes the sun is a bit too much. Sometimes I think I should give up this area to a bigger sofabed for DD&Co, but I love it too much.

Our lounge/dinner which runs the width of the rear of the house. It has a large picture window in the dining end and patio doors the sitting end both of which look out onto our 40' x 55' South facing garden.