Flat Living

 At the end of June we moved out of our lovely house and into a Flat.  Our flat was in the middle of town, but on the opposite side than where we had lived, next to some really great old churches and surrounded by a lot of buildings with character.  It was a two bedroom flat and one of the bedrooms had 2 sets of bunk beds in it.  The room was so small, that you could just barely open up the wardrobe without hitting the first set of bunkbeds, and if you pushed the other set all the way against the far wall you could just barely put a pack and play in between the two sets.  Hilde and Enoch were thrilled to both have a top bunk to themselves and despite our fears, Phinn actually slept pretty well in the pack and play.  The worst was just that the sun didn't set until 9:30 or 10 and the curtains didn't keep much light out, so bedtime was not always as scheduled.  Other than that, the Flat met our needs.  After a few trials and errors, we figured out the washing machine/dryer combo and as long as we remembered to run a load every day while we were out of the house we could keep up on laundry.  This was important because a) every load sounded like an airplane taking flight in your living room and b) we timed it and it took 4 hours to run.  Even then, the clothes came out mostly damp half of the time and you would have to hang all your laundry up to dry overnight.  Lovely.

 The kids learned to get by in a tight space without a whole lot to do.  We got a coloring book and some washable markers and they went to town.  Notice the fruit bowl in the pictures?  Despite our best efforts we couldn't keep that thing full.  Our kids were fruit destroyers - eating all fruit within sight. 

 One of the things I am going to miss about Harrogate are all the gorgeous flowers everywhere.  This is just a random flower patch that we passed whenever we walked into town to get dinner.  The roses were taller than us, and just so beautiful.  Old English gardens can't be beat, even regular English citizens know how to make a garden look effortless and posh all at the same time.

I am definitely NOT going to miss the lumpy, small, uncomfortable couches in the flat.  Man, they were awful!