La Maison - Part one

La Maison makes the house sound much better in French than it does in English.

Front gate to the street.  

Actually the house is beginning to grow on me.    There are many good things about our new home.  The location is excellent and it is spacious.  The garden is beautiful and the pool is rather nice.  Our internet service and electricity have been consistent too, which is always a very BIG plus!

  

Entrance to our front door is straight ahead.  We need some new
fencing around our water tanks and hopefully we'll
find another place to dry clothes.  :) 

It was our biggest concern, but I really think that it will be fine - 

especially when I concentrate on form over fashion.  

Front door on the left.  Carport on the right.

 I am working hard and my standards seem to be declining as I write, but I do think that it will be a comfortable home for a few years, especially when we put our own touches on it. 

Razor wire over our front gate, which also surrounds our property.  

The house has good 'bones' and a lot of potential.  We know that we will not realize that potential fully in this economy, at this time, but to know that it has potential, somehow helps.  :)

This is what razor wire looks like close up.  I have never paid attention too much in the past.  

Many have asked for pictures to visualize where we are living.  I'll do this in three parts to make 

it easy.  Some of it is just hard to capture, so you might have to use your imagination 

to go with the poor quality photos.  Just bear with us...We are sharing some of 

our need to be flexible with you as well.

Welcome to La Maison au Cameroun! 

This is the entrance hall.  The front door is behind the curtains.  The steel security door is behind the front door.  The black cable on the left is the back up in case the electricity goes off, so we can raise the security door.  Our split unit (air conditioner) is above the door. 

The black iron gate is the door to go upstairs to the bedrooms.  

It is also a security door.   The screen is hiding storage for under the stairs.  

We are having shelves built here next week. 

This the powder room downstairs.  I am sure that tile was popular in the 70s (or 60s).  

It is a beautiful two-toned pink. 

This is the living and dining room area.  

Yes, the wall is currently a bright cheerful yellow.  

There is also a POLE right in the middle of our living room. 

This area has been surprisingly comfortable and we are really enjoying having two recliners.

This is a little alcove in the living room.  Please send your suggestions of what 

to do with it.  The 'entrance hall' type table will go closer to the front door and the

 mirror is moving to another room.  HELP!! 

View from the front door.  We need some rugs!  

This is our media stand.     

This is our pink-tiled kitchen.  Charles explained that the kitchen is helping me prepare for retirement.  Charles wants to live in an RV for a year and he thinks this will help get me acclimated.  

He is not correct.  :)   

Thankfully, we have four nice gas burners.  

Unfortunately, they only have two temperatures; high and off.  

 In case you didn't notice, all our Starbucks mugs are at the top of the counter for decoration.  

It's the best we could do! 

And this is everything that most people usually keep in cabinets.  I am finding that shelves in the kitchen are not attractive, but it does make it easy to find things.   The shelf in the back is made 

of glass and wood.  You can also see our hot water tank hanging on the wall and the 

fire extinguisher in the back corner.  

And this is our tiny sink.  (No disposal, no dishwasher)  To wash dishes, we primarily fill a tub of hot water and put it next to the sink for washing, then rinse in the sink.  The cabinet above the sink does not have a bottom, but functions as a dish drying rack.  They just drip right into the sink as they are drying.   I've never seen anything like it, but it is certainly efficient. 

We have two refrigerators and a freezer, along with a microwave and a water dispenser.   

The blue thing is a commercial paper towel dispenser.    

I keep repeating...form over fashion... 

And this is Charles enjoying his recliner in his new Cameroonian home.  

I'll send pictures of the upstairs and outside soon.