Houses and homes

In my view, a man’s home is the reflection of his personality, as the clothes he wears, the food he eats, the friends he spends time with. Houses and flats reflect the ways of life and habits of their owners. It’s common knowledge that tastes differ. So, every person tries to furnish and do up his house or flat according to his taste.

For example, optimists prefer warm colors while pessimists are fond of cold ones. People who are romantic like fireplaces, cushions, carpets, flowers, romantic pictures and souveniers. Big fans are keen on decorating their houses, especially their bedrooms, with posters of the celebrities they admire. People who like to show everybody they are rich cram their accommodation with expensive furniture, pictures, souveniers and different things that cost much but have neither practical nor aesthetic value.

In my view, to live comfortably doesn’t mean to live in luxury in a detached house, which contains all modem conveniences and appliances, which is well- furnished and nicely decorated. I’m convinced that the most important thing is the relaxing friendly atmosphere at home.

The flat my family lives in reflects our characters and shows our tastes. I’m proud to say that my home is the place where everybody understands, respects and loves me, where even the kettle sings from happiness.

There is a living-room, my parents’ room, my sister’s room and my room in our apartment. We also have a kitchen, a bathroom, a lavatory and a hall there. Our flat has a good layout. All the rooms are separate. The flat is nicely furnished. All its rooms look attractive.

I can say that there is a lot of likeness between me and my dad both in ap­pearance and in character. My father is a very intelligent man, he is a cheerful person with a good sense of humour. He enjoys taking photos. So, there are a lot of photos in our flat which show different places we have been to, you can also see our relatives and best friends in them.

My mother is a quiet and charming person. She is very kind and she does a good job of being a mother. She likes to do up our flat with household china, souveniers and plants. She takes care of the place we live in and teaches me to do household duties and tidy up my room. I know I can be a real pain sometimes, but I try to follow her wise pieces of advice and keep my room clean.

Now I invite you to my room. It’s small but at the same time it’s nice and comfortable. Everything in it is dear and precious to me. It gives me the atmos­phere of independence and privacy. On the right there is my bed. You can see some posters and photos on the walls. They show my friends and me as well as famous people I admire. I am keen on music that’s why I have posters of my fa­vourite bands. You can also find a guitar in my room as I am learning to play it. On the left there is my desk with a personal computer on it. Here I do my homework, surf the Internet, watch films, listen to music and work with photos which I have taken. You can see piles of CDs on the shelves. They contain the latest releases made by the bands I am fond of and my favourite movies. There are also shelves with books where I keep my textbooks, especially English textbooks, fiction and magazines. You won’t find toys or dolls here as I’m not a romantic person.

When you enter my room, you can easily guess what my hobbies are and what things I find important in my life. In a tiny wardrobe you’ll find my clothes. There are mostly jeans, T-shirts and sweaters in it.

Frankly speaking, I’m not keen on tidying up either my room or our flat. But it’s a necessity for me. I can’t say that I am a messy person, but I am very busy during the week at school and with after-school activities. Every Saturday I do the room: I vacuum it, mop the floor and arrange books and CDs in their usual order. Although all that makes me a bit nervous, my room looks clean and attractive. My friends often come to my place and we like to get together in my room. They say it’s a cosy place for a teenager to live in.

MY FLAT

Before I start describing the flat our family live in, I would like to say a few words about the district we live in. First of all, of course, I must say that we live in Minsk. The district is called Uruchie and it’s a new one. If I’m not mistaken this district was planned and built about 10 years ago. You can find there everything you need: shops, garages, laundries, news-stands, post-offices, barber’s and hairdressing salons. The only thing we still don’t have is a cinema. But we do have a forest, so we don’t need to go out of the city to practice skiing for example.

Our flat is in a high-rise block of flats on the third floor. What I don’t really like is the block of flats, which is too typical of Minsk. Apart from it I enjoy our flat. There are all the necessary conveniences such as electricity, running water, central heating system, rubbish chute, lift. Our flat is large enough, it consists of four rooms.

In my own opinion the principal place in each flat, the place where we spend a lot of time with our familiars is the kitchen. Our kitchen is very small, but I think it’s very handy because you can reach anything you need without rising. The furniture is very simple and white. There is a kitchen table near the window, a refrigerator, a kitchen unit, some electrodomestics such as an electric mixer, a squeezer and a mincer. There is a painting on the wall near the fridge and some houseplants. I like the kitchen because it’s very cosy and comfortable. It’s wonderful to have a cup of coffee with my brother, for example, and to talk about everything in our lovely kitchen.

The other room I like very much is, certainly, the living room. I must say my mother did her best to furnish and decorate it, she could find a lovely combination of colours: a little white, brown and gold. My mother enjoys changing something in this room and after that it looks fresher than ever. Mum used to change the curtains here, she has one collection for winter, another for autumn and so on. I would rather say it’s a special room because all of our family can find here a favourite place to stay at. For example there is a big standing lamp and an armchair in a comer. This is my father’s favourite place, where he spends some hours reading newspapers or books. There is a wall unit of brown wood full of different books and knick-knacks and a big sofa in front of it. There are some small pictures on the wall above the sofa. Two of them were brought by my father from Moscow, and one was painted many years ago by my grandfather. There is a piano near my father’s armchair, I play this instrument a little, but Mum does it very well. In a comer opposite the piano there is a TV-set and video. There is a big nice carpet on the floor, but I don’t like it because one of my duties is to clean it up. Everybody says that our living room looks cheerful.

The next room I’m going to describe is the bedroom, but we’ve never called it like this. In our family this room is called our parents’ room. There is a double bed, two bedside rugs, a wardrobe, a dressing table with a big mirror. All the furniture is made of light wood. The window is decorated with light curtains and a very beautiful curtain rail. There is a big pot-plant in one of the corners.

Unfortunately I don’t have my own room, I have to share it with my brother. Our room is called nursery although I’m 17 and my brother is 14, but we’ve got already used to this. Our room is large enough. I love this room because sometimes I can find privacy only there, even if my brother is in. There are two beds, a desk, a book­shelf over it and a big wardrobe. There are Some posters over my brother’s bed. The walls and the curtains are blue in our room. This room is rather quiet because the window faces the yard.

My elder sister’s room is situated on the left of our room. It is the smallest room in our flat. There is a sofa and an armchair, a desk and a display cabinet unit. There is a wall lamp above the sofa. My sister is keen on plants so her room is full of different houseplants.

On the right of the kitchen there are a bath room and a lavatory. The hall of our flat is very small. When we all are there we even touch each other. There is only a big mirror, a coat rack and a chest- of-drawers.