Wednesday, March 14, 2007

House hunting begins

We are beginning to wonder about moving house. The time has come to find my dream home. This is easier said than done as we have rather specific criteria.

a) accessible to Glasgow for Nick's job
b) accessible to Linlithgow for my job
c) Big garden for veg growing and chickens
d) Not to cause bankruptcy.

The other thing that annoys me is that everyone has been watching property ladder and has done up their houses to the nth degree. I know lots of people want to buy houses in walk-in-condition, but I flatly refuse to pay extra for someone else's bad taste in laminate flooring and hideous shell shaped basins.

We went to see a house last night that had been bought by a bloke who has done it up and extended it to sell on at a profit. What a disaster zone. The extension was badly conceived, badly designed and badly executed. The main house had some nice period features but was cheaply finished. The bloke's girlfriend had been left at home to show us round and she made some classic comments that were guaranteed to put off even the keenest buyer:

'Ooh these white floor tiles are a nightmare. I can never keep them clean.'
'This house has been fine as a temporary stop-gap but I can't wait to move to our new house.' (Showing us the brochure of a far superior house)
'We had terrible trouble with the council getting permission to build the extension (not surprised love, it's hideous) and now we can't get Building Standards to approve the final build.'
'There is a short cut to the station but I wouldn't walk down there'
'My boyfriend hasn't quite finished the work here yet because he has been busy working on our new house.'
'The neighbours have a window that looks on the the patio here, but we just lean this fence panel against it. It's fine.'
We don't have room for a wardrobe so we keep our clothes on these temporary hanging rails.'

No. I don't think we will be buying thank you very much.

(We are English and very polite so what we actually said was 'well, thank you for showing us your lovely home. Yes, we really like it. We will have a think and get in touch with the agent. Thank you so much, and good luck in your new home')

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Free Web Counters