As I walked around Mykola's house, I noticed that he had far more appliances than he had in his old apartment. Not only did he have a fully-stocked kitchen with an oven, range, microwave and dishwasher, but his he had a laundry machine. All of his light fixtures were stylish and all of them had the compact flourecent lightbulbs. Here is an example of how the middle-class in Ukraine has leapfrogged over the States.
The front porch has compact florescent bulbs in the ceiling. They came in handy after we finished dinner and kept talking after the sun set at 9pm when Mykola pulled out a large stash of photo albums with pictures from 1992 - 1996. I'll need to ask him to digitize those images so that we can share them.
Mykola said that he picked out all the lighting fixtures himself. He traveled around Europe, the far East and into northern Africa. No doubt he paid attention to what he liked, then found ways to get it in Ukraine. Last summer, I saw many retail outlets with home decorating goods. The selection of lighting is considerably bigger than it was just 6 years ago.Mykola said that he did not work with an architect as such, but it's interesting how he figured out how to use skylights to bring light into a large staircase. The second floor has bedrooms that all open out onto an open area around the staircase. The master bedroom as a balcony.
The fixture in the kitchen is of the same style as the fixtures over the staircase. When I asked him if he'd designed it himself, he scoffed and said that he simply picked it up in a store.
The laundry machine (which most definitely was not part of his old apartment) is in the dressing room. What a great idea. He doesn't need to schlep his laundry up and down any stairs. Of course, the appliance is the super-energy efficient European design.
Finally as someone who has renovated her apartment in New York City within the past decade, I could not resist taking a picture of the master bath and, specifically the *Happy D* model toilet. Our architect has specified this very model for our renovation. Unfortunately, we were unable to install it without doing major alternations to our Manahttan condo. It wasn't worth it. Kanish, however, in бідна Україна', built himself a whole house and put the the cool, and hip appliance right where he wanted it.
The front porch has compact florescent bulbs in the ceiling. They came in handy after we finished dinner and kept talking after the sun set at 9pm when Mykola pulled out a large stash of photo albums with pictures from 1992 - 1996. I'll need to ask him to digitize those images so that we can share them. 
Mykola said that he picked out all the lighting fixtures himself. He traveled around Europe, the far East and into northern Africa. No doubt he paid attention to what he liked, then found ways to get it in Ukraine. Last summer, I saw many retail outlets with home decorating goods. The selection of lighting is considerably bigger than it was just 6 years ago.Mykola said that he did not work with an architect as such, but it's interesting how he figured out how to use skylights to bring light into a large staircase. The second floor has bedrooms that all open out onto an open area around the staircase. The master bedroom as a balcony.
The fixture in the kitchen is of the same style as the fixtures over the staircase. When I asked him if he'd designed it himself, he scoffed and said that he simply picked it up in a store.
The laundry machine (which most definitely was not part of his old apartment) is in the dressing room. What a great idea. He doesn't need to schlep his laundry up and down any stairs. Of course, the appliance is the super-energy efficient European design.
Finally as someone who has renovated her apartment in New York City within the past decade, I could not resist taking a picture of the master bath and, specifically the *Happy D* model toilet. Our architect has specified this very model for our renovation. Unfortunately, we were unable to install it without doing major alternations to our Manahttan condo. It wasn't worth it. Kanish, however, in бідна Україна', built himself a whole house and put the the cool, and hip appliance right where he wanted it.
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