Steeple Underfoot
Steeple Underfoot is the home of the Falkin family in the small wix district within Shrewsbury, England. It's an octagonal house with a large thatch roof said to look like a haystack from a distance. If a haystack had a shingled extension and a chimney in the middle of it belching yellow smoke. The adult children still regularly return home, so 'empty nest' has never really been a concept in the Falkin family.
History
The name "Steeple Underfoot" is contracted from how, when Shrewsbury was a younger village, a massive haystack was kept by the church, underfoot of the steeple. Before the cottage was correctly warded against muggles, lost folk hoping to use the church steeple and haystack as landmarks were confused by a haystack that had a chimney sticking out of it.
The cottage sits on what appears to be an empty field if you are muggle and looking outside the border of the property, although if you are muggle there's no reason to why you would want to possibly enter this empty field.
Quirks
Owing to the fact that the Falkin family is both numerous and quite poor, the whole two story cottage house is irregularly constructed and would implode if it wasn't for magic. Walls are bordered by driftwood, the upper master suite (including the bedframe) is made out of grey stone. A few muggle inventions have been adapted by Frederick given his work in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office although the charms are faulty. A standing electric fan now blows hot air, for example.
The interior decorating can be charitably called 'eclectic' given a lot of it was from charity. However, it is colorful and cozy in its own way with lots of fuzzy throws and repurposed items. The children share rooms based on age and gender, and the sleeping arrangements have rotated over the growth of the current Falkin generation. The largest bed shared by the kids is brass framed with room for four, passed down from great grandma Eglantine Price-Browne on Francine's side of the family. Foster & Felicia have stories about brief night visits to various areas of the world when they were younger, as the bed is supposedly a reusable any-destination portkey. Philo doesn't believe them, and the bedknob that would activate this marvelous piece of transportation is missing from the corner.
The chimney belches yellow smoke, although this is cosmetic. It sticks out of the exact middle of the roof somehow, right over the master suite, yet the fireplaces are on the north and south-east corners downstairs.
The closeline has a missing section two feet up from the ground on one of the posts. Yet the structure remains standing.
In the two car garage, Frederick's pride and joy is a refurbished 'Chitty Bang Bang' 1920s racing car. It features Mercedes parts, an aero-engine and buckboard siding, modified to seat 5 comfortably. It has no canopy and draws the eye as an archaic car, so Philo and his older siblings don't always fancy the idea of a road trip.
Creatures & Pests
There has been an ongoing war of Pixies and Doxies that both nest in the thatch roof. Attempts to contain them with chicken wire have only led to them to burrow into the inside on occasion.
The ill tended garden, mostly grown wild, is frequented by garden gnomes.
Whenever Felicia is visiting, the hippogriffs she works with are penned in the yard, under charms made to look like horses from any distant muggle observers.
