Jay
& Nicole's Rental Note: Click any picture to get an enlargement |
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BACKGROUND: 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. |
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We rented a house at
15 Maxwell Road. The place is only a 10 min. commute for Nicole, so
she comes
home for lunch. The 4,000 sqm property (1 acre) is on the corner of 2 dead-end streets ... so it's pretty quiet! |
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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. |
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The front yard faces north (top). |
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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. |
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This is the layout off the house; it's about 200 sqm (4000 square ft) |
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Our Swiss cowbell provides a way for the guards to alert us when we are needed. |
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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. |
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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! |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 |
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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! |
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We tried to make a theme for each room ... but this room has a random collection of stuff from all over. |
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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! |
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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 |
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The lounge leads to the kitchen (left) and dining room (right). Let's visit the dining room ==> |
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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. |
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The stray cats sleep in this room; changing chairs weekly! |
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The dining room gets the most use when it gets chilly outdoors |
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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. |
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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. |
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At the rear is the dishwasher, washer & dryer. |
There is also a
semi-hidden pantry/scullery area for ironing |
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We haven't
hired a maid yet, because we aren't too messy and since we use the appliances. |
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The cabinets are for large things |
A social bathroom is at the end. |
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<== Across from the social
bathroom is a small doorway that leads to the
"safe haven" ... an even
more secure area, containing the bedrooms.
Here we have
a 10m/
30ft ==> |
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The bathroom is for our guests and has has a shower, tub & all the essentials ... but it gets little use. |
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The first guest room is a bit small and houses our glass wardrobe unit & more of my project stuff. |
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The second guest room is decently sized and ready for some guests ... hint, hint! |
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This picture shows as you continue down the hall |
Before the
next doorway, there |
...
and a nice-sized storeroom; |
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The study is the biggest room in the house, at 42 sq m (450 sq ft) and it gets the most
use. |
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These shelf units have our travel memories & archived paperwork |
Nicole's
desk area ... which |
The TV area; the quilt on the wall was made by our friend Pam. |
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This is my desk; the
pictures are |
At the back of the room is a set of doors that lead outside ... |
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to an open veranda ... |
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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 :) |
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The bathroom is quite spacious ... and now full of girlie stuff; a heater is brought in during winter. |
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We recently found an excellent wood-working shop and ordered new teak bedroom furniture. | We then found a company that made us a removable mosquito net; needed for 6 months :( |
The heavy dresser completes the bedroom suite ... simple, functional and we love it! |
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Admittedly I have more clothes than I use, but I need to keep varied arrangements "just in case". Luckily we don't attend too many formal events and I can mainly wear casual clothing, especially around the house. |
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On the side of the bedroom is an archway leading to my dressing area and bathroom. |
There are plenty of closets,
which allow me to finally have |
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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. |
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Returning
to the bedroom, this side of the room has a big window facing north ... no worry about early morning sunlight! |
On the west side of the room is a set of doors that lead to a little covered veranda ... and the front yard ... and the pool. | We ordered the cushions from the same company that made the bed. During nice weather, this veranda gets a lot of use. |
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From this point we can
choose to sit at the table in front of the pool, or to hang out under the trees
in the lounge chairs ... it's a very comfortable property!
We appreciate every bit of space, as we realize the living space at the next posting will most likely be quite small. |
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That concludes this part of the "tour".
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If you haven't seen the pictures of the yard area yet, click here: Nicole & Jay's Place in Harare
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