House Description

[FAOLAN DELA CRUZ]

Brighton Home of the Dela Cruz

The house is designed to fit into the neighborhood so it's front presented to those passing by looks like any other home, just painted brightly. There are no side yards with homes pressed up against either side, but the back of the house is hidden from muggle eyes and filled with flowers of many kinds around an expansive lawn behind. Magic has prevented muggles and those from outside the family from seeing it (much as many wizard homes are designed) making it a safe place for wizarding games for the children, but no brooms allowed above ten feet. SInce the garden can only be entered by the interior courtyard it makes for a very secure play place, just what the parents wanted.

The Living and Dining Room

The entrance to this sunny yellow house is a short entrance hall with two closets at the front door, one for guests things and one for family things. In the guest closet are also stored the family brooms behind a divider.This short hall leads into three areas. First the hallway to the office (the start of the first wing on the north side), second a hall leading to the pantry (this is the beginning of the second wing on the south side), and straight ahead to a set of glass doors leading into the living room.

Made to be an open space, this is the only two floor room in the house, the other rooms lead off from it to create two wings, one on either side of the courtyard. The living room half is open and airy with lots of good air flow. The dining room is just in front of a large fireplace which is not on the Floo Network but had metal reflectors to provide far more heat then a normal fireplace. It makes for an open and long front room which impressively still has a casual feel.

The Kitchen

The kitchen wing has multiple rooms laid out in a row beginning with a large pantry as the very first space, In the back of the pantry are a pair of wizard cold boxes since having so many kids around who were boys they went through a lot of food in the house. After this room comes the Butler's pantry which leads into the Dining room space and is where all the dishware & utensils are kept for more formal dining.

The main kitchen (pictured) is where all the cooking and baking is done with a small rotisserie room attached, Further down the wing is a cooling room which is kept cool, but not cold for the storage of cans and canned goods. A small mudroom (used to keep the kids from tracking stuff through the house and often where mother stops Lan from bringing in new pets) is near the back leading into the courtyard itself. Outside tables and chairs are kept in a wizarding expanded cabinet in the cooling room entrance.

Inner Courtyard

Boarded by house on three sides (with an access from the kitchen and office through small mud-rooms) the courtyard has a back wall with a locked gate which leads onto the grounds. Used as a quiet outdoor patio, the fountain sounds bounce off the enclosing walls creating a delightfully cheerful space. A round table kept in the attic above comes in two halves to fit around the fountain for party dinner and special celebrations. Unlike the exterior front and back of the house, this space is decorated primarily Spanish to give the interior of the house a dramatically different look from the front presented to guests.

In addition, two sides of the courtyard (living room and office sides) are open walkways with short open iron fencing and arched roof cupolas for pleasant shade even in the hottest weather. This is the only access by those on a broom, though it is a tight landing and only exceedingly good fliers can manage it without crashing into a wall. The back wall is actually an enclosed hall with a top creating an Owl Roost access. With double layered roman wall set up, a simple fire in a stove there can keep the family owls in good shape in the worst British weather, a welcome relief, and still give them access for coming and going at night for hunting.

The Den Office

The Den Office is a long room with chairs for a few guests in front of the only Floo-connected fireplace in the house, though this one has a pair of glass doors in front of it spell enforced to prevent easy access without making a lot of noise. A few past unexpected visitors found their way impeded with great surprise and the few who have experience have taken to sending a message first off, which was the entire subtle idea.

There is also a magic window here giving a very pretty view across the Spanish countryside where this is clearly not located. Used more as a retreat then a full office, the space holds most of the house accounts and records as well as many of their children's memorabilia in the cabinets kept under lock to prevent certain items from being gotten rid of by the embarrassed offspring.

Master Bedroom

Behind the office is the Master Suite featuring a sitting room first (which was formerly used for the nursery till Faolan was older) meant for the parents and kids together, the parent's actual bedroom being off limits for privacy. After the sitting room is their closet room, large enough for plenty of clothes with room for expansion. The bedroom itself is the next-to-last room in this wing. A small hidden room behind the headboard (concealed by magic from any except a member of the family) which could conceal the entire family inside a stone and spell-enforced area to protect them during a house invasion if necessary.

This space was added during the first wizarding war and has fortunately never been used, but has been expanded carefully to allow for the growing family to hide here for quite some time. The space itself is hidden from detection by two things; first the fact it's a small space wizarding expanded and two, because the parent's Master Bath 'appears' to take up the end of the wing.

Master Bathroom

The Master Bath is preceded by a large wardrobe containing linens for the suite as well as the bathroom. In the bathroom itself (which can only be accessed from the bedroom itself) are all the modern conveniences from both muggle society as well as wizarding kind. This allows full access to all the possible ways of relaxing with as little effort as well. As the only space actually hidden from the kids for real, this is a haven for the parents especially when family is over visiting and the chaos gets to be too much.

[FAOLAN DELA CRUZ]

Second Floor Hallway

The Upstairs is far smaller then the first floor compromising of two rooms above the living room, a bathroom at each end, and two rooms which stick out over the lower wings. A pair of stairs lead up here, one from the Den hall and one from the Kitchen hallway, each coming up in the opposite corners of the house hallway upstairs. There is a fire ladder placed at the entrance to both of the single rooms which can be lowered down in an emergency to get out of the house into the courtyard. Windows look down into the courtyard, but are sealed shut. An attic fan here pulls air through the entire house up and out through an attic vent which has it's access here in the hall as well.

Kenzie's Bedroom

The only room over the North wing of the house, Kenzie has long had her room all to herself. Often the focus of sibling jealousy for that reason, her room didn't get redecorated for years as the parents tried to stay fair for the others who were all shoved together in rooms. Last year as a reward for being good about it, her parents surprised her from a year at Hogwarts by redoing her room before she came home. Her shriek of surprise was a sign of true success; they had tried for a mix of grown up and still 'play-ability' with the room.

Kenzie's Bathroom

Being the only girl of the children, her bedroom is over her father's office area and thus the bathroom on this end is set aside for her and the guest room's use. Small and covered in a cheerful green tile it is a pleasant enough space and off limits to the boy's, mostly because of the practical jokes brother have a tendency to do. The bathtub is a combination shower and tub and fitted into it's own niche in the wall space.

Guest Room

Once a room for the older boys (and quite a change it is from the way it used to look) it is still used by the older boy's when they come home for visits. Antony uses it as his own bedroom on a temporary agreement with his parents, moving into Nan's room (camp out) when they have guests, but he is looking for his own place at the moment closer to work so this is quite a temporary situation. While the boys are banned from Kensie's bathroom, guests here do share her bathroom when an infrequent one is here, often family. Not too many people drop in, but family is always welcome of course.

Nan's Bedroom

When Nan got to have this room, his father, in a playful mind after four kids, decided to build a treehouse for him, something he had heard many father's in the muggle world did for their own kids. He had fun with it, adding in lots of [url=concealed spaces as well as he went along and even added a swing. It certainly is the most unique room in the house. Nan loved it and began immediately using it as a primary play room as well, his secret headquarters if you will for games.

Boy's Bathroom

Because of the large number of boy's in the house, as the older ones reached age, the bathroom on this end was expanded with magic and redesigned to handle all of the boys at once. With two tubs, two showers, two sinks and a full length wall mirror and a bench, it can handle significantly more chaos then what can be found elsewhere in the house and has been the scene of many a grounding for soap bubble battles and wrestling. It made it far easier to contain all the noise and mess to one part of the second floor anyway so it created a lot more peace in the home as well.

Faolan's Room

This room has only recently been redecorated for the youngest of the family. It features a window seat bed with shelves for easy access to books and toys, several wall cupboards for clothes and art supplies, and his toad's stand sits in the corner next to the door, empty during the school year when it goes with him. A few of his inherited father's toys are used for decoration in the room including a large double decker Knightbus with real veering action wheels and realistic reappearances across the floor in different spots. It has been banned from the downstairs because of it's sudden appearances under foot in the kitchen.