House pictures

We had the formal appointment with the estate agent this morning. We paid our deposit. We got a receipt, and a photocopy of the title deeds of the house we're hoping to buy. The agent now needs our passport details so they can apply for us to become official residents of Cyprus (I'm not sure why, but apparently that makes things easier) and they will draw up the contract for us to sign. We're still considering whether to appoint a separate solictor (lawyer) - apparently that's quite uncommon here as the estate agent has the legal expertise to do all that's necessary. We're also thinking about whether to pay for a survey: again this is not usually done here, since any problems with houses tend to be obvious!

Here are a few photos of the house which we took yesterday... it'll be rather different when our things are in it.

This is the main kitchen, on the middle floor of the house. Lovely dark wood units, a built-in oven, plenty of cupboards (only half of them are showing) and there's currently a dishwasher.. of course the family will take that with them, but it means there will be the space and plumbing for us to have one!


The door just to the left of the photo is to an outside veranda which is a utility area. Lots of houses here have separate utility rooms, but this is the first we've seen where it's outside, albeit covered. Seems like a good idea to keep laundry away from the kitchen, although I'm not sure how we'll manage with only two short clothes lines. The washing machine fits under the sink unit.



This is the downstairs kitchen/dining room. We'll probably use this mainly for guests, and for parties. When cooking for a lot of people (eg at Christmas) it will be great to have two fridges and two ovens available!



This is the main living room on the middle floor. Very grand with Cypriot style furniture - it will look quite different with ours! It's a good size and pleasantly warm as there's even central heating, fired by huge gas cylinders. We won't have a dining table in the living room as there's a separate lounge area next to the kitchen, which we'll make into a dining room. At the other end of the living room (where I stood to take the photo) there's a smaller storage room which could be used as an extra bedroom, but which we all think would make a very nice study for me. And an extra guestroom if needed, since we have a sofa-bed in the study here.


This is the downstairs living room, a bit smaller than upstairs but otherwise very similar. We'll have this as another living room - we may put the piano there so it doesn't have to be taken upstairs! It will be a useful room when Tim wants friends over, or as an extra space for guests.

This is one of the downstairs bedrooms, the biggest one, which we'll probably turn into a 'music studio' for Tim (and Dan when he returns). He's been wanting a dedicated music room for some time. There's another bedroom downstairs, and also a similar sized room that's been used for a hairdresser - but when the equipment's gone it will make a second guest room.


This is one of the upstairs bedrooms, probably the one that Tim will have. Much smaller than the room he has here, but it has fitted wardrobes (closets) so without his various musical items, and without the need for a wardrobe and chest-of-drawers, he should have plenty of space.


This is the master bedroom, which also has fitted wardrobes - as do all the bedrooms. So we'll have this room.


One of those windows is actually a door which leads out onto a reasonable sized veranda, overlooking the Salt Lake and much of Larnaka. From there we could access the roof, should we need to.