Mansion Meadows: Week One

Today marks one week since I moved from the home of the last five years, Meadow Towers, into a rather plush one bed flat the other side of Oxford. I am rather glorying in having a whole place to myself for the first time ever. Pictures will follow once I take some that don’t look awful. I’m planning on being here a while, so it would be nice to document what design changes I can make to put my stamp on the place (within the limitations of a rented property).

Step one, is to find a proper name for the flat.

Everywhere I’ve lived over the years gets a blogable name, and these have all referenced Bright Meadow as well as some characteristic of the property. Meadow Towers was at the top of a block of flats. Palace Meadows was on the grounds of a medieval palace (not as grand as it sounds, I promise!). Meadow Terrace was, you guessed it, in the middle of a terraced row.

The new place is in a 1930’s mansion block – very Poirot, lots of wood, oodles of charm and period features. So, should I call the new place Mansion Meadows, or Bright Mansion, or something else entirely?

For the curious, I’m loving it so far. Only drawbacks:
1) the bedroom faces east, and is INSANELY BRIGHT in the morning. I can sleep through most anything, but here the sunshine in the morning wakes me up, without fail. This is partly due to thin curtains (replaceable when I have the budget) and partly due to a design flaw that leaves a handy gap between wall and curtain (not fixable. Grrr). I need to get an eye-mask as an interim fix, methinks.

2) water pressure is passable. Just.

3) my glasses are always in the other room. Like now. Still getting used to this whole “living my life in multiple rooms” thing.

4) the hallway is a narrow, dark, wasted passageway of gloom.

5) no radiators. Heating is from two small storage heaters (and a gas fire in the living room). Perfectly good at heating the place, but awful when it comes to drying the laundry. Also, no handy landing with banisters to drape sheets over to dry. This is going to take some rethinking.

6) limited hanging space. This is todays task – reorganise all my clothes from where they were shoved during the move. And the shoes. Oh god. The shoes.

I’m going in. Wish me luck.