The older homes are solidly built. All walls, including interior walls, are thick masonry walls. The exterior is covered in stucco and painted. Very little maintenance is needed. Windows swing open, rather than opening vertically like in American homes; Ukrainians ask whether our windows are hard to open! In addition to swinging open, they also can tilt inward a few inches to provide ventilation, yet the angle keeps out any rain. I haven't seen any homes with screened windows and doors, but then I also haven't seen any problem with insects. I was surprised that even though they keep animals, there are very few flies, and very few mosquitoes.
The basic floor plan is that of a single story with one long row of connected rooms, about 12-15 feet wide. There is no hallway; each room opens into the next, which limits privacy. There is only one door into the main living/dining room, and through here access to the other rooms. Some people have added and remodeled their homes, adding a hallway along the row of rooms, and individual doorways for each room for greater privacy. Some also have additional rooms bumped out to the side.
I didn't pay much attention to the flooring, but I did notice that many homes have laminate flooring. Except for the kitchen and bath, every room is also carpeted, not with wall-to-wall carpeting, but with large area rugs and runners. Ukrainians have a thing about drafts and cold feet. They think drafts cause illness, so they'll put up with heat before opening a window. And indoors, even in summer, you have to wear slippers, because if you walk on the heavily carpeted floor wearing only socks, you'll catch a cold and die!! Klara was always chasing me down with a pair of papuchki for me to wear , since I'm used to going about in stocking feet in my own home.
The older style homes I've seen, all have two kitchens - a winter kitchen in the main part of the home, and a summer kitchen, with it's own entrance, separate from the main part of the house. By using the summer kitchen, cooking doesn't add heat to the rest of the home. The thick masonry walls of the homes keep them relatively cool in the summer, without air conditioning.
Under the home is the pidval, or cellar. This is just a small room or two, for storage of wine and food; it doesn't extend under the entire house. Usually there are two doors, one inside the home, and one opening outside.
Bathrooms vary, according to the amount of remodeling done over the years. Some older homes have a very modern acrylic and tile bathtub, with shower and jacuzzi jets. Others have old claw-foot bathtubs. In the villages, the government has not yet put in sewer lines, so everyone has an outhouse. Even the $500,000 new homes being constructed in Baranintsi by businessmen have outhouses. (and there are some VERY nice homes being built!). The washing machine is usually in the bathroom; clothes are dried outside on a clothesline.
Every Ukrainian home I've been in is kept neat and clean. They are well furnished. Floors are carpeted with large area rugs with decorative designs; windows have light, airy curtains (usually white), walls are decorated with either traditional embroidery or with religious icons. In homes of the older people, with older furnishings, the style of furnishing is a little different from American furnishings. In the dining room, there is usually a large sectional sofa in the corner, with seating along the two adjoining walls, and the table in front of the sofa. On the other two sides of the table are individual dining room chairs. Klara's house is large enough that they also have a small sitting room, with upholstered chairs you could find in an American home.
Every home is surrounded by a zabor (fence), and is gated. Some gates are quite ornate! The homes are fenced, not for security, but for privacy, since the village people spend much of their day outdoors. If the weather is nice (and especially if it is hot), everyone will dine outdoors, either on a terrace or porch, or at a table underneath the grape arbor. Usually the neighboring house has no windows on the rear, facing your yard, so you get a lot of privacy. It's like having your own private little park - you can sit in the shade under your grape arbor, and enjoy the flowers which are in abundance in every yard. I have not seen a single home, no matter the condition, that did not have flowers growing. And not just ordinary flowers. Many varieties of roses, flowers I don't even know the names of. These people are natural-born florists - just think "Kraynak's"!!! I can see where Mr. Kraynak got his knowledge and love of flowers. Mr. Kraynak lived just a street over from my Grandparents, and worked at Westinghouse with my Grandfather. The plants and flowers he grew at his home were always the most beautiful in the neighborhood, and neighbors would buy them from him. That was the start of "Kraynak's", from very humble beginnings to a very successful nursery, garden, and floral center. At Easter and Christmas, people drive 50 miles or more to see Kraynak's displays.
Then there are the gardens. Every home is built on a long narrow strip of land, about 50 feet wide and and 100 yards long. Closest to the house you will have your normal garden vegetables - tomatoes, carrots, peppers, onions, leeks, garlic, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, beans, and kohlrabi. Farther away are large sections planted in corn, potatoes, and melons. The entire garden is tilled by hand. I would have thought that to prepare the soil for planting would take weeks by hand, but Klara told me that they get it done in one day. I can't imagine tilling an area half the size of a football field with only a matyka (mattock)! In addition to their garden at home, Ivan and Klara also own a larger piece of land in Baranintsi; here, they pay $10 to have the ground plowed with a tractor. The orchard has about 30 trees - apples, pears, peaches, plums, sweet and sour cherries, apricots, walnuts. There are several varieties of each kind of fruit. Along the fences grow an assortment of berries - strawberries, raspberries, some sort of little red berry growing in clusters, and some kind of larger round berry that is green when ripe. Except in winter, there is almost always some fresh fruit or berry avilable - and it's all organic!
The newer homes built over the past 10 years or so have a more familiar American style floor plan, with hallways that give privacy to the individual bedrooms. Some are two story homes; all have sturdy masonry walls, even on the interior. These homes could withstand a hurricane; they will be here hundreds of years after my stick-drywall-and-plastic home is long gone. Kitchen appliances are modern, modern ranges, refrigerators, microwaves. I didn't pay enough attention to notice if there were any dishwashers or not. The owners of these newer homes don't have the same amount of land as the older homes do. The owners are usually businessmen or government workers who don't have the time (or inclination) to take raise animals or care for a garden; they rely on their parents for fresh fruits and vegetables.
Every home has a satelite dish; satelite TV is free, and offers hundreds of channels in a number of languages. In Dravtsi, you have the choice of watching "National Geographic" in Russian or English. Free. History Channel - several varieties. Free. No $100 a month for a package of 80 stations, only 5 of which you will ever watch. In Ukraine, you buy a satelite dish and converter box for $100, and get free TV service. The TV networks are happy to send their signals for free, because their revenue comes from advertising. Everyone has a cell phone; cell phone service is cheap. Average Ukrainian might spend $5-10 a month for cell phone service. Most service is pre-paid; people buy SIM cards loaded with time. Uzhgorod is near the borders of Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary; Romania and Bulgaria are not far. Every country is on a diferent cell phone system, so you need a diferent phone in each country. It is easier and cheaper just to change the SIM card in your phone.
Internet service is just as cheap. High speed cable internet service is available in homes for $15 a month. Free Wi-Fi is available restaurants and cafes. I bought my internet service for my laptop through the cell phone company. I got something that looks like a flash drive to plug into a UBS slot, and bought one month service with 4GB data transfer. Total cost: $15. I was afraid of using my allowance too quickly, but I shouldn't have worried. I had more than enough; I used less than 1 GB. The service was great, too. I was a little worried about speed and bandwidth with cellular internet, but my service was faster with more bandwidth than that of people I know in America with DSL. I was easily able to hold group Skype calls with my $15 internet connection; I know Americans who are paying $100 a month for "high speed internet" with Roadrunner, who can't have a decent Skype call because they keep dropping "packets". I just Skyped with my relatives in Dravtsi this morning, and even though they had a thunderstorm going on, the signal was good!
(in progress)
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