The House

There is so much going on, I don't know where to start. So why not start out like the kindergardeners, with the home, then branch out into the world. The house is very nice. Hats off to Ben, again, for choosing a great place for us to live. The rooms seem quite large. Of course that will change once they get some real furniture in them. The little fenced in back yard is nice. We are surrounded with a wall of green hedges, trees and shrubs. There are always birds tweeting or cawing outside. There are numerous electronic gizmos throughout the house with which I must become more familiar. Appliances! I have managed to wash 2 loads of laundry. The equipment is the same as we had in Belgium. It takes 1hr & 15 min. to wash 1 load. The oven has various attachments like a pizza stone & spit! The cooktop has a warming thing at the back of the burners! The dishwasher is easy to use, but we have so few dishes right now that we have to wash them by hand because we need to use them over & over. Each room has its own heater/air conditioner and you use a remote control to operate them. All different, some easy to read, others impossible. The ones I haven't figured out, I've just turned off. So some rooms are quite cold, while others are boiling. Especially when the some is shining. The south side of the house has all the big windows. The floors of the nook and kitchen are heated. At first our feet were almost blistering with the heat, but we have figured out how to regulate it properly and its a very nice feature. Also heated, is the toilet seat in the master bath. There are buttons for that, plus cool water, hot water, stream or spray and dryer. I tried the drier once, but got tired of waiting and just wiped it dry by hand! The phone is also an intercom for all the rooms and the front gate. The postman brought a package yesterday, pushed the button on the gate. I picked up the phone thinking it was one of the kids on the intercom, but heard someone speaking in Japanese! It dawned on me to push the camera button and sure enough, I saw someone moving at the front gate. I rushed out through the 2 front doors, only to discover that I did not have any keys with me to open the gate. Thus he had to hoist the package over the gate to me, once I had signed the paper. I now know which button to push to open the gate! There is also a security system which I have not used yet, but may try today. They said there was no charge for false alarms! I guess that's enough for now (more than enough actually). I just want to say that I really like the house and the location and can't wait to get our own furniture here in a few weeks.