Home and Hometown

Could you tell me where your home is?

Could you say something about your home?

Where do you like to live, in the city or in the country? and why?

 

1. Bill and Barri Hamilton didn't imagine that they would make their home at an old schoolhouse someday. One day they drove to Martindale. It is a small town located in the south west of the USA. They came for an old German car. Bill has a business of buying and selling old cars. Then they found the Martindale schoolhouse and fell in love with it. It was for sale and they wanted to buy it. Some local people were worried that their beloved schoolhouse would be a lot different, but the Hamiltons said they felt like its doorkeepers.

2. At last they bought it. They made the old schoolhouse into their comfortable home. They built a garden and a swimming pool behind the house. They built two kitchens, three bathrooms, four toilets, four drawing rooms and eight bedrooms inside it. They even had a dancing hall in the central part of the house and they repaired the playground. Most importantly, the schoolhouse looks almost the same as it was before.

3. Small town life, especially living in an old schoolhouse, might seem an unusual choice for the Hamiltons. So they started their new country life. Barri Hamilton says she and her husband have made many friends in Martindale. She didn't make so many friends in the city though she lived there for 30 years.

4. Buying the school was a sensitive thing for some residents, because so many had been educated there. It's important that Bill and I explain to everybody that we feel like the doorkeepers of this school, Barri says. "When we are gone, we'll leave it in better shape than when we found it."