[Miscellany]

So today I went to a few open inspections for houses. At the beginning of the day I got onto that domain site and earmarked a few places within my price range. They looked pretty snazzy from the photos so I was pretty excited about them.

Now let me ask you a question: can you airbrush pictures of houses? Because either those pictures were airbrushed like any recent picture of Brittany Spears (and I ain't talking about the 'stars without makeup' page - cause we all know those are real) or they did a house switcharoo on me.

Here's the lowdown:

First house in a leafy street I liked...except that it leaned so far to the right I actually lost my footing. Also the guy doing burnouts in his driveway down the road didn't impress (though it *did* amuse).

Second - the apartment opposite a lovely park in a great central location had a bathroom with original fittings, circa 1971 (not in a cool kinda retro way - more like an "I play the organ and have the sheet music for Hawaiian Wedding song on the stand out for the whole world to see" kind of way). Plus I could hardly fit into the kitchen.

I actually couldn't bring myself to go into the third flat - something to do with the fact that I feared for my life in the neighbourhood. I'm sure it was just lovely though.

The fourth house was magnificent! It was my favourite (I'm not kidding). A gorgeous courtyard, perfectly sized bedrooms, exquisite original fireplaces (I love fireplaces). It was just darling. Of course it would have helped If I couldn't see the footpath outside the house out of the gap between the floor and the wall in the front bedroom. Also the wall actually crumbling before my very eyes earned it another black mark. And well..outdoor loo usually means redback spider bites on your bottom. But apart from that I am so going to that auction.

Fifth house? okay didn't quite make it - I was depressed by that point.

I had dragged bro along with me for moral support and he laughed his head off the whole time. In fact in the fourth house even the real estate agent (seiously are blonde hair tips part of the job requirement? Why do they all have them?) was laughing at it.

So either I've got to get a high paying power job or I've got to lower my standards because so far, I'm just not feeling it in any of these places. The thing with me is that I like cosy olden style with all the mod cons, but not delapetated. Somehow this doesn't quite seem to work in the real estate market these days.

posted by M at 6:29 pm 11 comments