As Fantastic Mr Fox once said... Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a swimming pool and a fireplace. One might call it a house. One might also call it a rather cunning arrangement. The big TV room is built for fireside lounging, the dining room is ready for proper family feasts, and the spacious kitchen is where all good schemes begin. There’s a generous office for the business of being respectable, while the patio beside the pool provides an excellent excuse to abandon respectability altogether. Braais, lazy afternoons and long summer evenings? Naturally. And with a separate laundry room, you can keep the business of dirty socks well away from the business of enjoying yourself. Even the double Hollywood garage gets in on the act, offering convenient parking without making a song and dance about it.
But wait. There’s a little more cunning at work here. The separate flat comes complete with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and TV room — perfect for extended family, independent teenagers or a tenant who might help pay the bills. A delightful arrangement, if one does say so. Then there are two Wendy houses, best suited to storage rather than overnight adventures, ready to hide the tools, boxes and assorted treasures that seem to multiply when nobody is looking. It’s a home with room for family, work, visitors and the occasional secret stash of biscuits. Practical? Certainly. Ordinary? Not a chance. After all, a clever specimen like yourself never settles for just a house when he can have a whole operation.