somebody else's decoration

When you move into a curates house - which in our case was for free - one of your immediate reactions is to be thankful for the tremendous perk that is.

And I know from my work that the value of that perk is easily equal to some of the packages ex-pats get for working in the UK.

But one of the disadvantage is that you can't do a lot about the colour scheme - walls - curtains - ceilings - that you inherit.

When we moved into the curate's house my wife got with her job the parish, (who owned the property), arranged to paint the place in some neutral colours (they supplied the labour we paid for the paint).

But what we didn't pay to change was the carpets - because given we're only in the house for 3 or 4 years it didn't seem worthwhile.

Which means every now and then you notice the extreme colour clash between the neutral walls/ceilings and the remaining - and worn - carpet.

A 1st world problem if ever there was one