House or Flat?

Everybody has to decide where he or she would like to live. Would it be a house or a flat?
I think that this decision depends on the financial situation of the individual. Young people who are still studying or finished the school only recently don’t have money to buy a house. Therefore, they usually live with their parents or rent a small flat with one or two rooms, if they are lucky they can get a flat with three rooms. Young people are more adaptive and so they don’t mind living in a flat so much, I think. A flat starts to be a little uncomfortable when young people want to start a family of their own. This is the time when they start to look for a way to get a bigger flat or a house. In a house, family has more space for its members; children can play in the garden or by the house and don’t have to play on the street, where there is traffic.
The main advantage of living in a flat is that flats are not so expensive and usually situated in a town, so everything is near and handy. There are all the shops, offices, many places where to go when you want to have fun, many friends.

On the other hand, when you rent a flat, it is not your possession. You can have neighbours you do not like, they can be noisy, nosy, watching you where are you going, how often… They are so close and there is nothing you can do about it.
Houses are more spacious, but also much more expensive.
An average flat has a small hall. From this hall you can usually go to every room in the house. Kitchen is quite small too, with a cooker and several kitchen counters. There is a place for the table and chairs. If you are lucky, you can fit also a fridge there. The toilet and bathroom can be separated or be situated in one room. Because the kitchen, bathroom and the toilet are so small, people often re-build them, according to their own wishes. Of course, this happens only after an agreement with the council or owner of the flat. The other rooms are in general big enough. In the living room, there is usually a sofa, couple of armchairs, a coffee table. The television cannot be missing. In every living room, there are shelves, cabinets filled with porcelain or other decorations, sometimes flowers.

A house is more spacious, with many rooms. Usually there are at least two bedrooms, some room or rooms for children, a big living room, a kitchen with a junk-room, two bathrooms and of course an attic. In the house, there can be as well a cellar, as there is surely a garden outside, so there is a place where to store the vegetables and fruits from it. Some big houses have a laundry. Nowadays, nearly everyone has a car so there is certainly a garage by the house. The problem is that it is very difficult to own a house. The easier way of getting a house is to win a lottery or inherit after a rich relative who had a lot of money or a big nice house.
There are other ways of getting a house too. People can take a mortgage form a bank, or simply borrow the money they need and pay back every month, but than they have to pay also the interest payments.

There are several types of houses and flats in Slovakia. An apartment is a set of rooms that are usually all on the same level and are a part of larger building. Council flat (or house) is owned by the council and the people who live there pay a rent. Condominium is a building, where the people who live there own the flats. Detached house is a house standing by itself. It isn’t joined to another house and usually has a garden. Most of the houses in Slovakia are detached houses. Semi-detached house is a house that shares one side of the house with another. Terraced houses are more houses built in a row, which are joined together side by side. Cottage is a small house, usually built somewhere in the country, by the forest. Bungalow is a house built with only one storey.

Nowadays many shops make the upholstering easy. For example, you can choose if you want carpets, or wood parquets. There are many types of both floorings. Furniture like wardrobes, tables, chairs can be bought from the shop or made-to-order exactly according to your wishes. There is a great deal of sofas and armchairs to choose from as well. Lightning can be built in, or hanging from the wall or standing on the ground. And of course we cannot forget all the electronics like the television, radio, computer, video, DVD player, the kitchen robots, microwave, etc.

A stylish house would have leather sofas, no carpets, television with big flat screen, built in lights, maybe a small bookcase, some shelves full of decorations like candles, surely a hi-fi stereo system and a rack full of compact discs with music. A full-equipped kitchen would be a matter of course.
One who has the money and want to furnish and equip his house well can choose from many house accessories. In the kitchen, it would be a dishwasher, microwave, oven with hot air system, big fridge and freezer, modern table and chairs and all the kitchen counters. The bathroom would have a big comfortable bathtub, shower, basin, toilet, bidet, efficient washing machine, and drier.

The house of my dreams would be situated in a quiet village near a bigger town. It would have a large garden separated in two parts. One part would be a vegetable garden, where I could grow all the vegetables and fruits. The second part would have many fruit trees, some chestnut trees, with a place where I could hold parties with my friends and family. The house itself would have two storeys and an attic. All the rooms in it would be spacious and bright. The kitchen and the living room would be on the ground floor and would be fully equipped. Between these two rooms, there would be a big wooden staircase. Upstairs there would be a big bathroom and three bedrooms, one for me and my husband and two for our children. In the attic, I would have a library and a place for my hobbies. And there would be pots with plants and flowers all over the house.