Learning from an Apartment in Jerusalem

Our family - kids, parents and grandparents - recently spent the week of Hannukah together in Jerusalem.

We rented an apartment and boy, did I learn alot about house building from that experience.  

The apartment was lovely and in a great location. But it included a number of things that were (ahem) less than ideal for real life:

i) Too many light switches. This might seem impossible. But I assure you, in a large open room there is no need for three switch panels each with 4-6 switches on it. It is not only unnecessary, but downright confusing to have three different switches for the dining area in a single room.


ii) Be very careful with the placement of a switch that turns out all the lights in the place. Can be very annoying when one person is up reading in the salon and another hits the switch from the bedroom. Sudden plunge into total darkness.  
 

iii) Polished stone floors are pretty but cold and very slippery. Imagine 5 kids playing at skating. Constantly.

iv) I'm sure that a glassed in en-suite bathroom seemed like a good idea. But really, the glass needs to be frosted or something. Way too intimate. Enough said.

v) Electric curtains. Why?


vi) Electric blinds. See note above on electric curtains.

Oh, I'm sure there's more. Plus we got a lot of positive inspiration as well. But that's for another post...

And yes, we had a fabulous time in the holy city.