Foreign Service housing (aka It's all about the kitchen)

Shannon's hosting the Foreign Service blog roundup this week, and her chosen theme is housing. I could go on and on about this, and probably have to various people over the past few years. But as the title says, it all comes down to the kitchen.
A light, airy kitchen is where it's at. Here's ours in Port of Spain:Why I took a photo with groceries still sitting on the counter, I don't know. But I do know that the bedrooms with the blue carpet definitely aren't where it's at (this was Laura's):OK, the lack of a bed skirt makes me think these photos were taken on the day we got some shipment, and I wanted to snap some shots before boxes took over. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking with it.
Our house there was far from perfect. It was small (smaller than the apartments in the housing pool, in fact), and the washer and dryer were on an outside patio. Ooooo, that reminds me, I haven't mentioned the toads:I'm not afraid of toads, and these were tiny, tiny toads. But I would have preferred to do laundry without their help, and by help I mean them hopping under my feet as I walked across the slimy tile floor with armfuls of clean clothes.
There also were some gaps (big enough to see daylight in the dining room) where the tops of the walls not-quite-met the ceiling. But the roof didn't leak, that hideous blue carpet was only in the bedrooms, and we did have a pool. Here's an action shot from it:
We also had a garden spot of a yard, complete with beautiful flora and fauna. We just had to overlook the moat.
All's well that end's well, though, and now we're in Milan where we have a lovely apartment whose kitchen is where it's at. And whose living room is oval.
Hmmm, the post in that last link really shows it all, doesn't it? It's a good thing Owen got that camera for Christmas.