Experienced travelers will recognize the two-level euro flusher on our master bath toilet. There's a little flush for "number one" and a bigger flush for "number two." You can't really see them, but these two buttons even have one bump and two bumps for the "one" and "two" functions. All Europeans worry about saving water, even though Belgium is basically one big flood plain.

Now, you'll notice that I said it's on our master bath toilet. The other two toilets have different models. We also have eight (I counted) different brands and styles of heater or radiator and about a gazillion different kinds of light bulbs. Every danged room has a different kind of bulb, sometimes two. This is all because of the way houses are built here: with lots of sweat equity. We have yet to see a house built entirely by a builder that somebody just moves in to. They all seem to be built to one stage of incompleteness or another, then the new owners take over and work on it as they have time until it's done enough to occupy, which is often before it's actually what we would call "done." Part of this has to do with money, but I think somehow it has to do with taxes, which are complex and high here. And nobody loves getting away with a scam like an overtaxed European.