The Feeling of Living in Your Own House is Totally Different

We have now began a new stage of our lives in Canada. The move took place quickly and smoothly. I am left with only a couple of scratches inflicted by the claws of our Denis. For whom I, of course, felt very sorry. Judging by the fact that the animal spent a whole day under the bed without food, water, or visits to the toilet, he had suffered an existential crisis.

 He wouldn’t even speak to us for a while. We should have been prepared with the phone number of a reputable cat psychiatrist. Although I’m afraid that the psychiatrist would have just prescribed him antidepressants and left it at that.

Right now, Denis is already at the stage when he runs around the house, poking his nose into everything, and enjoying rolling around the carpet in the rays of sunshine.

The house we bought isn’t new; it’s already about sixty years old. However, this is exactly the sort of house we were looking for – one with character and its own oddities. We are planning to repair it gradually. I would really like to maintain its originality.

 In particular, I would like to keep this chandelier, which must have been present in the house since the beginning. Although its metallic parts have darkened with time, I’m not planning to exchange it for something shinier.

The feeling of living in your own house is totally different. First of all, there are much less people around you at all times. And that is strange. In the apartment, you always feel the presence of somebody near you. Somebody who might be smoking on the balcony, or listening to music.

Second of all – stairs are an excellent type of fitness equipment.

And the third thing that makes it so different is the feeling that these walls are yours.

We are really lucky to live a couple of meters away from my artist friend. It happened unexpectedly; we didn’t even know that she lives on the same street as our new house. In Russia, there is an old joke about visiting your neighbour to borrow some salt. I bought a pack of salt, and wrote on it - “For Iren”