We took the girls to see the one house that we liked among those that we saw on our first house-hunting outing. They loved it. Becky was quite amenable to the idea of having her own “apartment” made out of the ground-floor reception room. Kimmy was altogether enchanted by the bedroom that she called. We figured that most of the size limitations are surmountable. The biggest one that we did not notice before is actually the size of the bed in the main bedroom – we prefer “king”, and the ones there are all smaller than “queen”…
The location, of course, is nearly unbeatable for our desires. We decided to put a proposal to the owners. There are several conditions that they may or may not agree to. We’ll see how that goes.
In the meantime, we only saw one more house, on the most busiest and noisiest major road, albeit quite spacious. It was entirely unfurnished, which would require us to spend extra money on beds, curtains, etc. When we learned that the landlord would not be willing to install a dishwasher at his cost, we decided that space by itself does not make a winner.
Now that we contacted a bunch of agents, they are bombarding us with their listings, via email and post. Aside from the fact that many of the “offers” are in areas that we never indicated were acceptable to us, we come to the realization that there is simply not enough house inventory in our spec range in the immediate target area. Attractive houses seemingly can be found only in areas that do not improve our location that much – in which case, we’d better stay where we are.
We also invited a couple of moving companies (in England, they are called removal companies) to quote us their estimates. We were pleasantly surprised. I even asked for an overseas move quote, and that came in considerably lower than a corporate quote of two-and-a-half years ago.
Best of luck on getting the house. I like the idea that the furniture comes with the house. Less to move. Of course, my idea of furniture is something to hold my computer equipment, stereos, books, movies ,and music. The dishwasher is the sink and my two hands. I don’t even own a bed, just a futon.
Ah, being single and the pleasures of simplicity.
Interestingly enough, Vince, when I stayed home alone at intervals over the last couple of years, I always made do perfectly well with a single set of plates and utensils. Didn’t run the dishwasher once. The key factor must have been that there was no cooking – only take-outs and deliveries…