The curtains are horrible! This is true of most any home in Central Asia, though. Curtains here are sweeping dust collectors of uselessness. They don't block light, you can't adjust them, they don't keep out bugs, and they're really ugly. Our home has many such nasties.
We have only one opportunity to get rid of our trash each week. There is no collective building trash dump site near us, instead we have 1 opportunity per week to rid ourselves of our trash, water bottles, leaves, etc. What's important to keep in mind is that we don't have large trash bins with lids on them. Only little plastic bags that fill quickly, then pile up and start to bake in the heat during the week. Nasty. So... on Sunday afternoons, sometime between 3 and 4pm, the trash truck slowly makes its way down our street and honks its horn the entire time as notification. (Side note: This horn is not to be confused with the fruit and vegetable truck that might come by on Sunday afternoon and also honk its horn. I have confused the two sounds before. I dropped what I was doing, ran inside, instructed Ryan to run out with our trash, he threw open our gate to the street, arms full of trash... and met a very surprised vegetable vendor. Was kind of awkward.) But when the trash truck blares its horn, people up and down our row bust out of their homes like they were all waiting behind their doors for hours, one or two trash bags in hand. No one has as much trash and we do, which is also awkward. Lastly, when Ryan and I miss that one opportunity for pick up - which we frequently do - we have to put our business in the back of the project car and drive it to a dumpster. Thank heavens the process for other communal services is much easier.
We live along a one-way street which leads out of town. It's a road frequented by speeding cars and heavy-duty transport semis. Many times in the office or in the bedroom upstairs, I've felt big trucks go by our house and thought it was an earthquake. Just interesting, nothing scary.
Our internet stinks this far out of town. It goes out all the time and it's usually weak when it is working. I used to have regular Skype calls to the US without problems, now I'm using my cell phone a lot more. Also, the electricity isn't as stable this far out of town, and it might go out for an hour or two. Not a big problem but a tad inconvenient. So far only on two occasions has it been out for almost the whole day. Luckily our range top is gas so we can still cook food without electricity.
There is only one bathroom in the house and it's on the first floor. This causes anxiety for me. What if I need to use the loo at night? I don't like having to turn on all the lights in the house to make my way around at 2am, but the alternative is Ryan waking up to a loud banging noise: me falling down the stairs in the dark. I'm clumsy and that could be a reality. :)
So there are a few cons and pluses to the new house. It's really spacious and I looooove having the outside area, the dining room, and a bigger office, but losing the conveniences of a centrally-located apartment are trade-offs we had to make. Mom and Dad likely told me once, "There is no such a thing as a free lunch." True dat!
I am including below additional photos of the house, these are upstairs.
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| Master bedroom |
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| Master bedroom |
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| Upstairs living room |
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| second bedroom (note the curtains!) |
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| converted bedroom-office |
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| office, i.e. command central |
