house

H bought a house in Halle, a small town in North-eastern Germany, more than 2 years ago. Halle is in the former GDR, so houses are plentiful and cheap but need to be thoroughly redecorated. The house he bought was built in the 1890s, is L-shaped and has three floors (with 4m high ceilings) and an attic. Two floors are rented out to pay for the mortgage (as will the attic be at one point), the middle floor is where we live on 140 sqm.
Right now, a lot still has to be done. Facade and roof need a make-over. The gardens in the front and the back are a mess and will be my task as soon as I get settled in (whereas I told H that I hate any decoration work like painting the walls etc, and am not too keen on helping with any of that). The two bedrooms in the back wing are a construction site with new windows to be put in and wiring and heating to be replaced. "My" room is a mess of books and boxes (and there are more to come). The living room has a massive old tiled oven, and apart from two sofas, the dinner table and the stereo not much decoration. We'll probably have to get some more furniture at one point, though the big empty spaces with the old wooden floors and the tainted sunlight through the curtains look pretty nice. Tuesday obviously enjoys herself wandering around and checking out everything. Though I wonder how long it will take before she starts racing across the place like she used to in Taipei.
Anyway, all our friends and relatives know that we have loads of space, so we'll have H's niece and nephew sleeping over in two weeks. And my brother will come for a weekend in August. And more guests will follow, I suppose.