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Wincheap, including wincheap in my blog, any mentions of wincheap in my family tree and wincheap talk in Folkestone.

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As that last Habitat Radius dining table went for over 400 quid in the end, and it was the small version, I expect this large Habitat Radius dining table to do well. It's in London too, not sure if that makes a difference. The last one was in Brighton, I suspect these things sell for different prices second hand in different areas. I should do some graphs, that would be fascinating... OK maybe not. this wardrobe might be a good case in point though, will it go for significantly less because it's in the midlands? We just paid over four hundred for one of these. Ah, they've updated it, it has some damage, ours does not. Still, keep an eye on it and feel free to bid, we have two of these now and will never have room for more... The way we're getting a three bedroom place is by buying a place that's been converted from a two bedder, so often the master suite is up in the roof and has sloping ceilings, so we might have to think carefully about our furniture. Also now we have settled on Wincheap I have more or less written off the idea of being able to reassemble the pool table any time soon. UNLESS I go for one of these at the end of the garden! The idea came to me yesterday. This one might be a squeeze, depending on the internal measurements... it really could be a goer!

Up quite early today, was planning getting some computer time in before Clare made me get on with the shopping and the housework, but now I have wasted most of that dreaming about log cabins.

Somehow hurt my knee last night, it was fine when I was loafing on on the sofa watching A Touch Of Frost (had seen it, must have seen a lot more of those than we think) but by the time I got to bed it was hurting, strange.

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Back on the house train

Jan11

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 Wincheap 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 Road, 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 vouchers so had a bargain pizza, from the new menu not listed here 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 Chaucer. Was going to buy it anyway, even though it was a bit expensive for a charity shop, so finding it was because it was signed was 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 Thunder last night, stupid but funny. Lots of murder too on the box, watched a bundle of Agatha Christie recently.

To the shops!

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Good day's house hunting

Jan17

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Saw the one I mentioned the other day, and it was not what I expected. The pictures don't do it justice, or I was a bit pessimistic when I was looking at the details, it's huge! And it has a ridiculous amount of character, it's all beams and half stair cases and unexpected crooked rooms leading off all over the place. It will make a wicked purchase for someone, unless there's something seriously wrong with it that we haven't spotted. And it's been reduced again. We have decided against that area, if we were to live in Chartham it would basically have to be on the green. In a house, on the edge of the green, not in a tent or anything. The location where the cottage is is a bit too remote, if we lived there we'd need to have two cars just to get by which is not on.

Have completely written off Thanington too, just outside Canterbury. Big houses for the money there with gardens and that, but there's something just not right about the place, few too many uncared for properties and sofas dumped in gardens and so on.

Saw another good place in Wincheap that we've arranged another view for next weekend, and we're seeing the one we liked there again too. The one we saw today is better on all counts except parking, it's on the main road and there is none, but it's significantly cheaper. The agent is convinced it's priced to sell immediately and has infected Clare with this view too. Apparently someone was doing a third viewing there today so they might put an offer in. After my disastrous poker bluff with the car maybe I should just dive in and offer the asking price, but that just does not seem right in the current climate. The agent is always going to say the property you are looking at has already been reduced by as much as it's going to be, aren't they? They do work for the vendor, and are charged with getting the best price, so even if someone puts in an offer before our next viewing they'd not be doing their client justice if they didn't let us know...

When we decided we didn't like the area of Thanington today, we were actually only a couple of hundred yards from the house we do like in Wincheap, but there is a major road between the two which quite clearly marks out the area.

Lunch in Wagamama today for a change. Was good, and practically free, we have two for one vouchers and I got some proper spending Wagamama vouchers from Kevin for Christmas so I really just had to pay the tip. AND, got a free coffee in Nero for having filled my card with ten coffee stamps. That's ten small takeaway americanos paid for to get one free large soya capuccino to have in, oh yeah beating the system...