As just mentioned, we've kickstarted our house hunt again, starting with three viewings yesterday. We've reduced our budget which I think is reasonable, basically knocking 20% off the top price of places we're looking at, because of house the market is panning out, but hoping to make an offer quite a bit lower than the asking price anyway, so looking to pay out about 10,000 in total, and get four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a double garage and helipad in central Canterbury for that. Including fees.
Viewing number one was good! We greeted the agent like and old friend, he was someone who'd taken us on viewings a year or so ago. In Wincheap1 this time, about as close to the centre as you can be in Wincheap, but now our priorities have changed this is not quite as important anyway. Three proper sized bedrooms (we're looking at nothing smaller, even if they are right next to a really good pub), a garden, two receptions, and plenty of character fireplaces in all the rooms and that. The downsides are common to most properties in central Canterbury; on street parking only (but we parked outside the house fine, on a peak shopping day, and so did the agent), the back garden is cut in two to allow next door to take their bins out, and the bathroom is downstairs. None of these bothered us, so this one could be a contender, if we knock them down to a good price.
Viewing number two looks good on paper, and it has some nice design touches. It's just about the cheapest three bed available in Canterbury at the moment, and that must be because of the area. It's a bit estatey, just off Thannington Road2, And just didn't feel right, so it's a no go. Shame because it has features that the first one didn't, such as a conservatory and an en-suite, but we are discarding it.
Number three was properly out of Canterbury in the village of Chartham, about three miles out. Chartham is quite big and some of it's not nice, but this one is actually on the village green, just a couple of minutes to the station. Trains run as regularly to London as they do from Folkestone and take the same time, so no difference there, not sure yet how it will be affected by the high speed rail link, I will investigate. Three bedrooms again, a bigger garden, no actual character in the house (it's fairly new) but THREE LOOS, including one in an en-suite. This one is also a potential, so that makes a good first day back in the house hunting game I think. You can see this house on this panoramic view it's to the right of the black and white beamed house and to the left of the massive tree, there's a short row of five mock Georgian places.
Rest of the day was great too. Started on a bit of an off note when I had to confess to Clare that my hard-ball tactics negotiating for a car have lost us the one we were after, the garage selling it has shipped it to another branch to try another market, and if I still want it it's 500 quid more than the best price they offered me before. He's having a laugh I think, fingers crossed I can just sit tight and we'll end up with the same car at a lower price, but it's a tense game... The day picked up when we went to Canterbury for a bit of a scoot round before the house hunt started. Got one of these vouchers3 so had a bargain pizza, from the new menu not listed here4 an artichoke pizza in the Romana style, very good indeed. I think they went a bit overboard with the oil to compensate for my lack of cheese. We got the best table in the house too, overlooking the river, as we were in nice and early before the rush started.
Shopped a little bit, bought a couple of books in a charity shop including a new copy of Who Murdered Chaucer5. Was going to buy it anyway, even though it was a bit expensive for a charity shop, so finding it was because it was signedwas a nice bonus.
Clare is still not 100% today, after 4 months of happy healthy pregnancy she's picked up a bug and is a bit low today, so off to do the shopping on my own, and probably do with out our regular Sunday night treat of chilli. Sitting in to watch a film tonight, maybe Wall E . Have watched a few films recently and enjoyed them, particularly Tropic Thunder5 last night, stupid but funny. Lots of murder too on the box, watched a bundle of [abe]Agatha Christie[/abe] recently.
To the shops!
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in A small town, Kent. Married and father to two, I am 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, family tree stuff, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.