Saw five houses today in Canterbury, have a map with details of the things we saw. Clare's out tonight with Jenny, so it's a prime opportunity for me to do some fiddling about with maps and things, so sorry if it breaks. Not that you'll be on the computer on a Saturday night.
Some new icons on the maps now that I quite like... The monkey is Clare, the house is a house, the pint is a pub, and so on... Well, I saw "and so on" but that's the only three I've put in so far, [reply]any suggestions?[/reply]
As I said, we saw five places yesterday in Canterbury, the first was only a two bedder, but on a good street within the city walls, it was nice but far too small for us. Odd layout too, the entrance hallway was bigger than all the other rooms, so it gave the impression of going into a much bigger place than you were. The second had potential, claims to be a three bedroom but the third bedroom was off the second, so more a study type area. Very small kitchen and bathroom, a potential though I thought. The third was student let, just around the corner from the Whitstable Road place we saw last week. Very cluttered (had three students in situ) but had some good space that we could make use of with some rearranging. So getting better as we went on! Then, number four, we went to a four bedroom terrace on Black Griffin Lane, really a good location for us within the city walls again, the street leads to the side of The Hobgoblin pub (though we are not basing our move entirely on pubs). From the outside it doesn't look much, but inside the current owners have done a fantastic job. It's not quite four bedrooms, one is more like an upstairs lounge, but the decor was quite fab, lots of exposed brickwork next to very modern features. It's hard not to be wooed by the decor, but I am trying to see past these things. It is at the top end of our budget at 225,000, and I found out when I got home that it was only just sold in August for 189,0001. We did see the vendor though and she told us she'd only just bought the place and done it up, so best of luck to her. It's less of a percentage increase than the person who sold us this flat made, even if it does sell for that amount. No garage and parking is tricky within the city walls, but we don't have a car so not actually a deal breaker. Had a garden and shed and nice features like that, and a view of the cathedral which is apparently a plus. Definitely a contender, but I don't like the idea that someone's made all the profit out of it already and that it looks like the highest price house on the street. Would be nice to look at an unmodernised house on the same street and see if we could do the same "property ladder" on it.
The Mystery of the Secret Room
The last house was in Wincheap, out the other side of Canterbury past Canterbury East station, so not such a prime location, but you do get more for your money out there. It was an unassuming terrace from the front, but there was LOADS of space inside. Separate lounge and dining room, huge kitchen, and three big bedrooms upstairs. The dining room would just about have room to play the pool table in, but we're not basing this move on that either... I had a look outside to see if any of the neighbours had extended either out the back or into the loft, and saw some of them had, but then noticed a dormer window in the roof of this house. Confusing, as I know we didn't go up another flight of stairs in this house. The agent knew nothing about this, it wasn't in the particulars or anything, but we found a ladder and went up for a look. I was half expecting to find a radio transmitter or something up in this secret room, it was empty, but decorated, with lights, power points, radiators and everything you'd expect in a real room. All it needs is stairs, and there's room for that too.
So, if we go out to Wincheap, we get a lot more room for our money. Going to look at more in the area we really want next week.
💬 RE: Second house-hunting trip around Canterbury - 10862
💬 RE: Second house-hunting trip around Canterbury - 10880
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in A small town, Kent. Married to Clare + dad to two, I'm a full stack web developr, + I do js / nodejs, some ruby, other languages ect ect. I like pubs, running, eating, home-automation and other diy stuff, history, tree stuff, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.