Why sorry ?
As to size of houses ... most people here had to live in apartments... and still do ... soviet dictated size. Once they could decide for themselves - of course they wanted massive individual houses. Diring the first few years of independence - prices were low compared to other countries ... and land was relatively cheap.
But once EU came along - that all changed. Land / houses are still cheaper here than example UK ... but for average person here with the typical salary, its difficult. Many houses were started, but now just part walls or foundations stay for years waiting owners to have money to continue.
My House is a 100yr old 'forest houes' built for 4 families. It still has 4 doors inside which gave access to each part. When I bought it - we combined the 4 sections and removed some walls.
The land it stands on is 3.5acres (about 14,000sq.m) .... largest single house residential land in the town.
For approx 20yrs it was a KGB Interrogation house and prison. The cellar being a waterlogged 10 man jail. The water was intentional - to prevent persons sleeping on the floor etc.
There is a sister house approx 200m along from us and that was the dormitory of the KGB interrogators.
Another period of the house was as an Orphanage. But dates unknown.
While removing floors and walls - we started to find odd bits of newspapers from 1900's ... and also a few photos. One shows a Latvian SS soldier .... Latvia was occupied during WW2 and the choice was Red Army or German Army ... all depending on where you were !
The house sits on the deepest / widest part of the river and we quite often have 'ringside' view of SAR / Fire Fighting Heli's doing practice water pickups / drops ...
.....
Nigel
