House hunting

Never people to allow little things like the search for a new vacuum cleaner belt, the impossibilities of public transport or our ongoing court case against the powers of Evil to distract us from making our life slightly more complicated we have plunged into house hunting. Or rather, Nel plunged yesterday, as my employment yet again intervened in weekend plans (with less than 12 hours notice requiring me to work very early on Saturday). Nevertheless a potential bargain has been identified, namely the house with the red door pictured above.

While this abode may or may not be purchased at some point in the future, we will end up with something similar to this or one of the houses featured in the album below.




The exterior of these houses represents the view that a Canadian visitor might expect as they arrive for a short visit. As may be apparent, directions would need to be very specific to the postulated visitor.

The interior of the houses which are in our price range is revealing, as we are looking for an affordable fixer-upper. In our search area, houses that have been fixed up are between 15% and 25% more expensive than the ones we are looking at. Most of the houses are low-income rental properties, and the interior condition of some is not only shabby, but also dirty. Nel took some photographs. Among these photographs is one that she took while trying to demonstrate some flaking plaster, but the photo which features a small boy could be a picture from one of the great photojournalist magazines.