Two completely different properties this week

Saw two houses yesterday in Canterbury, wildly different, and they highlight the fact that we want somewhere exactly in between, which is something that does not exist, at least within our budget...


First house was in Vernon Place, and though we're ideally looking for three bedrooms, this one has two bedrooms and a converted basement, so we had to check it out. Location is good, right at the Dover Road entrance to Canterbury, just two minutes walk to the town centre, and the house itself is just the sort of place I thought we'd get. It's mid / late Victorian, all period features, floorboard and fireplaces, quite small but full of character. There's a small lounge, dining room, kitchent and downstairs (practically outside) loo, and stairs up and down. The basement is cool, I'd really like one, and it makes a great study, not big enough for a full on games room though. Upstairs we have a bit of a problem though. The main bedroom at the front of the house is great, but at the back of the house the only way to the bathroom is through the second bedroom. This makes the second bedroom more of a generously sized hallway, so it's basically a one bed house. It's a terrace in a conservation area, so not possible to extend, nor enough room to rearrange things I don't think, so this one's a write-off. Bah, it was lovely.


House number two doesn't look like much from the outside but it's three bedrooms, right by Canterbury West and has a garage, had to be worth checking out. It's huge really, three good sized bedrooms, proper garden, detached garage next to the house, a driveway, a workshop attached to the garage, big lounge, downstairs cloakroom, and big old built in cupboards at every turn. It's old lady decorated right now, the kitchen definitely needs replacing, and it's at the top end of our budget, but the main problem is just that it's so dull. It's 1960's built, and everything else we've seen has been so much older that the lack of character in this place really lets it down. We should probably buy this house, modernise it, and then move into a character property in a few years, but I really want beams and fireplaces and wonky walls right now. Not sure what to do...

Black Griffin Lane is still on the market, I expect everyone's hanging around waiting to see if the market crashes. If it does, we're in a good position and will be able to take our pick of properties. If it doesn't, both of the places we're into will be snapped up by someone else.

Check out the map, I will upload some pictures to it later, we're watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer right now. Season six (bad Willow!), to ease us into season seven (which we hardly remember), so then we can read the season eight comics that we bought yesterday.

[map]2008-01-26[/map]

The rest of yesterday was lovely, it was only stressing about non-existent property worries that spoiled it a bit. We had lunch in Wagamama and the noodles in my yasai itame weren't really cooked properly again, hmm, it's put me off going back there for a while. We went to The Dolphin for beers and Trivial Pursuit, it was heaving, and I beat Clare twice, again. She's not won against me in a while, maybe I've memorised all the questions now? We got the bus back just after seven and checked out The Bank Bar under Kalala. It's nice enough, a nightclub sort of vibe though, and full of let's say "fresh faced" punters. Nice inside though, we were sat on a sofa in what was once the bank vault. Then on to The Frenchman, quite a good covers band on, then we got a smashing takeaway from Hop Kweng.

The Bergerac oak dining table has been relisted, it didn't make its reserve. Bids on it already it's sure to sell this time.

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