Tag: house

I don't know why I'm afraid of our landlady. She's a lovely lady. She is. I told her that Katy'd found a job at the Sanger and that we weren't going to renew our contract because we'd found the perfect flat that reduced our commute from 25 minutes to 5, and it also let us have a cat, and that it was also a 3-bedroom semi. She said that she understood and was sad to see us go. I also said that the perfect property we saw was available now, so I kindly asked her if it would be possible to get out of our contract early.

She said that she had no problem with that provided she could get a tenant, so basically, she's going to start announcing the property now (I told her that we'd make certain to keep the place in a fit state to visit to give a good impression) and if she finds somebody, we can leave early, otherwise we pay the rent until april. It's a fair deal. I also told her that we planned to get a firm to come give the place a good scrub after we'd gotten all our stuff out. She said that we should coordinate on that as there are good places and bad ones, but I think she's happy about that.

I also mentioned the noise from the neighbours. I kinda feel bad about that because they are lovely people in person but bad neighbours. I told her about the conversations late at night, the frame-rattling walking and the fact that we had to make our TV louder so that we didn't have to listen to theirs. She was a bit surprised about that. I was really uncomfortable about that bit, to be honest, and I did mention that we spoke to them repeatedly about it and they made an effort for a little while, but quickly reverted to their old ways. I feel bad about getting them into trouble, I do.

Now, we're waiting from feedback from 3 letting agencies. Hope we get some good news.

We went to see another property yesterday, in Duxford. It's about a 5 minute drive from the office (compared to the 5 minute walk for the Hinxton one). The property is on a newly built estate, about 3 years old. The neighborhood don't look all that grand, but that might be because it's on an old military base so there's not a whole lot to work with. The house itself looks wonderful. 3-story, 3 bedrooms, one with en-suite, one main bathroom, one toilet on the ground floor. The white goods are included are look nice. There's assloads of rooms and we can have a cat.

The only thing that isn't making me jump for joy is something that might be purely circumstantial, but doesn't make a good impression. Our immediate neighbour's car has the front grill bashed in and there was an empty bottle of beer left on the outdoor light right besides his door.

Like I said, there might be a perfectly good reason, but still… it looks bad. We're moving to get away from annoying neighbours. We don't want to do this again in 6 months… We're going to get in touch with the current tenant and see what her impressions are.

There's a dampness problem in my apartment. The sitting room curtains are living in spots, even after a round of dry-cleaning. I already bought a de-humidifier and we're keeping the windows open as much as possible, but hell, winter's approaching so that won't be a viable option for much longer. My landlady isn't really helping with her “well it never happened before” attitude. I'm going to start looking for a new place in february. Hopefully, I'll be able to have a pet in that one. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that I can kiss my 1200 pound security deposit goodbye. I have a nasty feeling that she has a list of things that she's going to nitpick about – the curtains being one of them. I'm already thinking of that money, or a large chunk of it, as lost, and that pisses me off.

Katy and I went to see a house yesterday.

As in, seeing-for-interest-in-purchasing.

As in, man, I'm getting old.

The house is ok. It needs some TLC paint-wise, and the kitchen needs to be redone, but it has lots of potential and ain't that expensive. I'm tempted, and so is Katy. We've started talking to mortgage advisors to see what the costs are and how much we can borrow. Apparently, even though I make a damn good salary at the EBI, the fact that I'm a foreigner and that I'm not paying income tax in the UK will be a problem. Meh, we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, if you're curious about the house itself, have a look at it here.

Your comments welcome as to what you think of the place.