The basement

I think nearly all houses in Geneva have large basements which have a living or play room, extra bathroom, laundry, store room and bomb shelter. Above is the bomb shelter door, a huge heavy thing! I seem to remember reading somewhere that by law all homes have to have a few months supply of tinned food at all times in case of nuclear attack and you have to survive down there! Inside there is a window with a very thick door/shutter, a drain under the carpet and a machine for re-cyling the air. Personally, I think death by nuclear gases might be preferable to being cooped up in that tiny room with two bickering teenagers having to go cold turkey without all their electronic gadgets and living on baked beans!

Pink and yellow has always been a combination I can't stand so I'm not fond of this pink paint on the walls. The rest of the house is yellow, fortunately, so it matches our belongings.

Only the basement has cat-flaps in the doors. I think it's nice to see evidence of the previous owners lives but we weren't prepared for how much they would leave behind.















This is their old work room! When we first looked at the house, I said to Mark that I'm glad I didn't have that much stuff to pack - the thought never occured that they might not pack it!













Actually, I love going into this room! So many interesting and surprising things to discover, it's a modern day Aladdin's cave! Even Mark has no idea what most of the things are. You just don't know what you're going to find when you open a door or drawer! Plenty of drawing inspiration down here! It's also much cooler than the rest of the house which is bliss at the moment but I dread to think how cold it gets in the winter.