Houses

Almost without exception, houses have a rectangular ground plan, a flat brick façade and rectangular windows, giving some resemblance to our Georgian style. Unless it is a corner plot, the side walls are windowless and the roof only comes down at the front and back. They are built to sit right up against the next house, whether this is the real situation or not. Even detached houses often follow this form. The concept is different from a British terrace, which is built as a single unit. Each façade has a different type of brick and there is no shared wall.

The older style of house is slightly different - the roof slopes to the 2 sides so there is no blank side wall and the front gable may be stepped.

Bricks come in a wide range of colours from pale grey to dark red or brown. Some houses are faced with a kind of glazed brick look-alike. The bricks are considerably shallower than British ones - I often wondered why since that must mean it takes longer to lay a wall /build a house. But then again, why are British bricks the depth they are - why not make them deeper still and save more time?

Roofs usually have red pantiles, sometimes grey slates. They are steeply sloped, sometimes with a second steeper angle. Some houses have outside shutters of horizontal wood strips which are rolled down at night.

The front doors are quite distinctive. One style is made of glass with a large, ornate, rectangular handle to push. This style is common for shops - there's no door handle to turn. Double doors are also very common - each door is narrower than a standard one, but the whole is wider. Usually you just open one and squeeze through. It's common for houses /blocks of flats to have named door bells and a letter box for each flat, positioned in or next to the entrance door. The letter boxes are the same size as ours, so some front doors look more like a wall of flaps than a door.

Windows divide vertically and open inwards with a handle in the centre and hinges at the sides. Another typical Belgian touch is the net /lace curtains covering the bottom half of the ground-floor windows. These mean the owners can remain largely hidden, while allowing the sun in and letting them get a good view of what their neighbours are up to.

The Belgians are very house-proud. It's not uncommon to buy a plot of land and design and build one's own house. I know people who redecorated their whole house every spring. Cleanliness is also highly valued. Here it is normal to wash the "stoop" (the front door step and path) every day, and sometimes the pavement as well.

Inside, floors are often tiled and have a large rug rather than a fitted carpet. Light switches are huge - the actual button is about 5cm by 4cm and some stick out from the wall by about 3cm. Electric sockets often stick out like this as well. Toilet seats are made of off-white, non-rigid plastic and the toilet roll holder has an off-white plastic cover which makes it difficult to unroll. Pillows are square, about 50cm in size. Beds are often made with sheets and blankets rather than duvets.

From your correspondent in Belgium