>And, oh yes, closets! Practically the biggest concern of a homebuyer is how many closets, and how big? What other terms are there for built-in enclosed storage areas?
>Where else would i have my clothes?
As far as I know definitely not in a closet, although I remember them being much discussed in Pride and Prejudice & Sense and Sensibility, so they must have been stored there within living memory.
We have wardrobes, either great big wooden wardrobes or modern/retro fitted wardrobe built into the room. Cupboards are also used for clothes, some are freestanding but some were built as part of the house, especially those strangely shaped cupboards under the stairs Harry Potter's address in book 1 is "The Cupboard Under The Stairs".
In Edinburgh (and probably elsewhere in Scotland for all I know), there are cupboards called presses. The ones that I have seen have doors like the internal doors of the house and are not very deep, maybe about as deep as a chimney breast.
My father talks about the house where he grew up having a parlour in the way described previously, it was dusted but never used. He now considers this to be ridiculous as there were three children in the house and very little space but supposes that it was a matter of "pride" (and very probably prejudice). I can't say that I have ever seen a parlour (or a closet) mentioned in an estate agents, it all sounds a bit "Merchant Ivory" to me!
