wiseheart | So, it is party time again, folks!

Each year this time, we launch my virtual birthday party, which starts on October 1 and ends on October 9 at midnight, sharp. The goals of the party are to post as many comments and collapse as many threads as possible, on as many new pages as we can. It is always great fun, as you can see if you check out the similar entries of the last few years.

This year, I'll also throw the real party at mid-time - and post the recipes of all the food that will be there for you, so that you can all participate if you want to. Virtual food has no calories.

Fandom-related discussions are as welcome as the ones about coffee or chocolate (just to name a few favourites from previous years), and, of course, pictures and recipes of birthday cakes. ;)

So, drop by, tell your story, post your pics or silly poems, ask questions you always wanted to ask and have a good time!

Soledad, in excited expectation

Oh, and by the way, to provide birthday gifts hobbit-style, I've got a revived story and a Kansas 2 update for you.

Enjoy!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I am in Boston, Massachusetts, and I live in a building style that is unique to the New England region called a triple-decker or three-decker. There are a number of variations, but the original idea was that the owner lived on one floor and rented the other two for income. As is usual, we have a built-in china cabinet with drawers below, and a small stained glass window high up in the bowed wall of the dining. Closets are small -- Victorian factory workers had not so much stuff to put away! And there are porches front and back, high ceilings (helps with cooling in summer) and tall windows all around. And although the houses are built close together, there's usually at least bit of space between them, enough for light and air to come in.

When we moved here, at the beginning of the century (it's so fun to say that!), many were being sold off and converted to condos. That was the arrangement in both our previous homes. Our current buidling is completely owned by the landlady -- she grew up here -- so we are pretty sure we don't have to worry about that this time!

Read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple-decker

They look beautiful, and nothing like UK buildings! Is the one you live in wood-framed?

Yes it is. I think the triple-deckers are always wood frame, although a number of them have asbestos shingles on the outside. The major variations include being 3 units, like ours, or a "double-bow" which has two units on each floor.

The part that sticks out on the side can have different shapes, as well. I found an online photo of the first place we rented: notice how the "tower" part to the side is like a half-hexagon, with straight walls.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/17-Victoria-St-UNIT-1-Dorchester-MA-02125/63710358_zpid/

In our current home (can't find a good real estate site photo), that part is round, like the silos of my childhood in the US Midwest! So, the front portion of our front room is curved. Nice for letting light in, but a bit challenging for arranging furniture inside! Fortunately, the low bookcases built by The Beloved (my husband) for our first flat fit into the curved spaces, so it's quite cozy.

Ah, it looks like Wikipedia got it wrong (not for the first time). The hexagonal tower part is lovely -- some of the terraces in our nearest town have hexagonal or circular towers on the end terrace building, but I've never been inside one. I can see it would be a challenge for furniture fitting though!

I agree with

espresso_addict, your triple-deckers look lovely! I assume you like living in them, too, since I conclude from your comment that you have chosen to move to a new one when you had to move from the old ones.

One of my main gripes with flats in the UK is that they so very rarely have balconies; in Sweden, where I grew up, most flats will have a balcony, and it is practically unheard of that anything built this century doesn't have one. Out of the flats I have lived in and visited in the UK very few have balconies. It is actually one of the reasons I bought a house when I moved here rather than a flat; one of my must-haves for my new home was some outdoor space, either in the form of a balcony or a garden. I had never actually had a garden of my own before, so I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it. As it turns out, I love having a garden, so I am most pleased with going with a house, but I still feel sorry for the people living in flats and not getting any outdoor space of their own!

I agree with you about the pleasures of a bit of outdoor space. These designs emerged around the turn of the previous century and were, as I understand, influenced by emerging thinking about the importance of fresh air and light for one's health.

I share your love of a garden. Alas! the pine trees in back make the soil unreceptive. We had some pots of plants this year, and I'm thinking to try some raised beds for shade plants next year.

I have been mostly growing (new) things in pots; my garden had well-established bushes of different sorts and heights along the borders when I moved in and I thought it prudent to see what they were like for at least a year before I started digging things up. I have had reasonable success with my strawberries, and my tomatoes are doing wonderfully with lots of fruit. My attempt at radishes, ended up with greenery and flowers, and very little root and my lettuce keeps getting eaten by the slugs. I do have two beautiful mini sun flowers in a pot though, which make me smile each time I go out in the garden to get my bike to cycle off to work.

I really wish you can stay for as long as you want to, this time. These seem to be lovely buildings in which to live.

So, it is party time again, folks!

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