Flat-hunting again...
Jul. 29th, 2012 12:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmic_llinSo, Cara and I are moving again at the end of August. It's a bit sad because this flat is wonderful, but it's much too expensive for what it is and there are things we'd rather spend the money on, especially when we can get a flat of equivalent size and niceness a ten-minute bus ride down the road.
We've been looking for a few weeks and seen a few things - nothing's been quite right. Yesterday's - which we got up early especially to see - was the most not right of all. I'd called the estate agent to ask about a flat near [tube station in our area that's near where our friends live] and he told me that one wasn't available any more, but he had one that was also near the station that they could show us. He mentioned that it was in a small, attractive block. We thought that sounded ok, so off we went.
We got there (finally - it was twice the distance advertised from the station, and in the wrong direction) and discovered that the block was huge, and on the main road, not a side road as described. We wandered around it and couldn't find the entrance, and spent five minutes trying to find the agent. We finally found him, upon which he tried to let us into the building, and realised he didn't have the right key. After asking some strangers on the corner how to get into the building, he went off and came back a few minutes later with the right key.
The flat we were due to see was number 1. We walked in, and found 2, 3, 4, 5 - no 1. We walked around the entire floor looking for number 1. At this point it dawned on me why the corridors looked familiar - it looked a bit like the hotel from The Shining. Long, gloomy, spooky passageways, eerily silent (possibly accounted for by the millions of To Let signs outside the block). We walked the entire square and came back to the foyer without having found the flat. The agent left us to wait there while he went to have another look. That was when Cara noticed that the residents' post boxes were there... and they started at 2.
So it ended with us not seeing the flat. If it even exists. I don't think the estate agent was honestly expecting anything other than the resounding 'No!' he got when he asked if we wanted to reschedule.
So, the search continues!
Meanwhile we're busy planning our itinerary for when we got up to the Edinburgh Fringe. And we seem to be accidentally rewatching Doctor Quinn: Medicine Woman...
We've been looking for a few weeks and seen a few things - nothing's been quite right. Yesterday's - which we got up early especially to see - was the most not right of all. I'd called the estate agent to ask about a flat near [tube station in our area that's near where our friends live] and he told me that one wasn't available any more, but he had one that was also near the station that they could show us. He mentioned that it was in a small, attractive block. We thought that sounded ok, so off we went.
We got there (finally - it was twice the distance advertised from the station, and in the wrong direction) and discovered that the block was huge, and on the main road, not a side road as described. We wandered around it and couldn't find the entrance, and spent five minutes trying to find the agent. We finally found him, upon which he tried to let us into the building, and realised he didn't have the right key. After asking some strangers on the corner how to get into the building, he went off and came back a few minutes later with the right key.
The flat we were due to see was number 1. We walked in, and found 2, 3, 4, 5 - no 1. We walked around the entire floor looking for number 1. At this point it dawned on me why the corridors looked familiar - it looked a bit like the hotel from The Shining. Long, gloomy, spooky passageways, eerily silent (possibly accounted for by the millions of To Let signs outside the block). We walked the entire square and came back to the foyer without having found the flat. The agent left us to wait there while he went to have another look. That was when Cara noticed that the residents' post boxes were there... and they started at 2.
So it ended with us not seeing the flat. If it even exists. I don't think the estate agent was honestly expecting anything other than the resounding 'No!' he got when he asked if we wanted to reschedule.
So, the search continues!
Meanwhile we're busy planning our itinerary for when we got up to the Edinburgh Fringe. And we seem to be accidentally rewatching Doctor Quinn: Medicine Woman...
