Jay & Nicole's Rental
 in Harare, Zimbabwe

Note: Click any picture to get an enlargement

BACKGROUND:
Location: Zimbabwe is located in south-eastern Africa. 

Borders: Zimbabwe is bordered by Zambia to the north, Mozambique to the east, South Africa to the south and Botswana to the west.

Area: About the size of Montana and 10x the size of Switzerland.

The entry gate is on the west side of the property; the guard shack, driveway and garage are on the right as you come in.

From the driveway, you pass some hedges and the yard is to the left, the pool straight ahead and front entrance to the right.

The front yard faces north (top).

The entry area consists of a large covered "social veranda".

We still plan to get some outdoor furniture for this area.

For now I use this area to dry the "found art" from the yard.

Our Swiss cowbell provides a way for the guards to alert us when we are needed.

The front door has a lock, gate & Trellidor ... ugly, but secure!

From the inside, the heavy teak front door doesn't look too bad.

The entry area utilizes stuff we've carted around for years.

Heading right, we come to the bar; the furniture is the Owner's 

Let's hope they don't mind how we are using the china cabinet!

The bar is also made of teak ... we're happy we can use it!

The next room is what we decided to call the "game room".

The Owner also left this furniture ... the table is good for puzzles.

We haven't used this room much, so I work on projects in here.

In the back is a door to a room that currently gets a lot of use ...

... the wine cellar ... which was an unexpected benefit of the place.

 We've built up a big inventory of nice South African wines.

This is the view as we head back past the bar to the entry area.

This is by the front door, looking left, towards the living room.

Nicole's Venetian masks and 
sea shells fit nicely here.

The living room is about 34 sqm (360 sq ft) in size

The blue painting was done by our friend Elaine; perfect!

The fireplace is great, but the room is begging for more use! 

We tried to make a theme for each room ... but this room has a random collection of stuff from all over.

Heading back to the entry area, let's go through the archway to the "informal" lounge area.

This room is for relaxing; the painting is by our friend Chantal

Nicole put only African stuff in this room; it's quite comfortable.

The cats end up using the furniture more than us though!

 Behind the chairs is an open sun room that I am using as our nursery; this is also our fondue & raclete area, as in the pic.

These shelves contain more of our African trinkets

The lounge leads to the kitchen (left) and dining room (right).

Let's visit the dining room ==>

The sunroom provides lots of light, as it's name suggests

In the back is our golden sisal tree, one of Nicole's projects

This window faces the back yard and also lets in a lot of light.

The stray cats sleep in this room; changing chairs weekly!

The dining room gets the most use when it gets chilly outdoors

Next is the kitchen, past yet another painted sisal "tree".

We are very happy with the kitchen, which is pretty long and loaded with cabinets.  There are lots of windows, so it's also quite bright.

 We've never had so much kitchen space before; it's nice to be able to spread things out ... but then I forget where things are :)  

The back door gives us access to the backyard and herb garden.

At the rear is the dishwasher, washer & dryer. 

There is also a semi-hidden pantry/scullery area for ironing 
and our cleaning supplies ... plus more storage!. 

We haven't hired a maid yet, because we aren't too messy and since we use the appliances. 
We may change our minds though, as people need jobs and don't charge too much ($20/day).

Let's return to the entry area and head down the hallway on the right; past the living room.

... and the shelves are for smaller trinkets; the pictures came from Nicole's co-workers in Israel.

A social bathroom is at the end.

Here we have a 10m/ 30ft ==>
 hallway with a bathroom on the right and two guest rooms on the left. This was part of the original house; the rooms at the end of the hallway were added later.

The bathroom is for our guests and has has a shower, tub & all the essentials ... but it gets little use.

The first guest room is a bit small and houses our glass wardrobe unit & more of my project stuff.

The second guest room is decently sized and ready for some guests ... hint, hint!  

This picture shows as you continue down the hall

Before the next doorway, there
is a little alcove to the right ...

 ... and a nice-sized storeroom; 
it's great to have space! 

From the red arrow on the diagram, you enter our study, which was once a big bedroom

The study is the biggest room in the house, at 42 sq m (450 sq ft) and it gets the most use.
This room is home to our desks, computers, television & stereo. 

These shelf units have our travel memories & archived paperwork

Nicole's desk area ... which 
isn't fully set up yet.

 The TV area; the quilt on the wall was made by our friend Pam.

This is my desk; the pictures are
my memorabilia from work.

At the back of the room is a set of doors that lead outside ...

 ... to an open veranda ... 
and a shortcut to the kitchen! 

At the back of the room is an archway that leads to Nicole's dressing room ... lots of closets, for only her to control! 

A doorway leads to Nicole's bathroom ... guys not allowed :) 

The bathroom is quite spacious ... and now full of girlie stuff; a heater is brought in during winter.

Returning to this point & going left takes us to our bedroom.

The heavy dresser completes the bedroom suite ... simple, functional and we love it! 

There are plenty of closets, which allow me to finally have
all my clothes in one area. 

My bathroom has a shower & tub ... basic stuff.  It's nice to have this room to myself, but Nicole still makes me keep it clean.

We appreciate every bit of space, as we realize the living space at the next posting will most likely be quite small.

That concludes this part of the "tour".  

If you haven't seen the pictures of the yard area yet, click here:

Nicole & Jay's Place in Harare