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I'm clearly out of touch
Jul. 12th, 2007 08:41 pmThis week has been about helping ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jenova_red find somewhere to live. Looking at rentals, and it's been utterly confusing. Every time I found something good on paper, it was in a crap neighbourhood; we looked at three today, and I think she's settled on what must be the most badly-decribed one I'd seen.
The first place, seen yesterday, had a billion cars-with-mums-in (including a Scenic or Picasso and a Freelander) occupying the driveway, and she literally rushed to get an application in only to be told someone else had just as we got to the road end. Whilst this was amazingly disappointing, Birmingham remains full of surprises.
Today's trio was made up of two semi-detached houses, and a maisonette/granny flat - the two semis were respectively very pretty, 1920s typical with a nice garden/patio and properly paved yard, and for a few quid a month less, a smaller, darker and dingier one in an... up and coming area. From the perspective of "buyer", that one had some appeal, but from the perspective of "You have to live in it", I thought it looked bad.
However, the real surprise was the "maisonette". The picture showed a fairly nice detached 5 bedroom 1920s sort of property, with a little stuck-on bit. As this was the cheapest of the lot, and the angle of the picture implied, I assumed the stuck-on bit was the rental property. And I also, after we'd found it tucked quietly away up a 40 yard or so driveway, thought "It doesn't look like it'll be too bad".
The agents arrived and opened the door. I expected it to go into a dining/kitchen type room. Instead, it went into a wood-panelled, tiled-floor stairway. Which lead up to a stained-glass leaded window in the hallway, leading to two MASSIVE reception rooms, kitchen, utility room - you get the idea.
And then stairs up to more space.
Obviously, she got the application in, and fingers crossed!
I don't understand the whole process of renting, it's very frustrating!
jenova_red find somewhere to live. Looking at rentals, and it's been utterly confusing. Every time I found something good on paper, it was in a crap neighbourhood; we looked at three today, and I think she's settled on what must be the most badly-decribed one I'd seen.The first place, seen yesterday, had a billion cars-with-mums-in (including a Scenic or Picasso and a Freelander) occupying the driveway, and she literally rushed to get an application in only to be told someone else had just as we got to the road end. Whilst this was amazingly disappointing, Birmingham remains full of surprises.
Today's trio was made up of two semi-detached houses, and a maisonette/granny flat - the two semis were respectively very pretty, 1920s typical with a nice garden/patio and properly paved yard, and for a few quid a month less, a smaller, darker and dingier one in an... up and coming area. From the perspective of "buyer", that one had some appeal, but from the perspective of "You have to live in it", I thought it looked bad.
However, the real surprise was the "maisonette". The picture showed a fairly nice detached 5 bedroom 1920s sort of property, with a little stuck-on bit. As this was the cheapest of the lot, and the angle of the picture implied, I assumed the stuck-on bit was the rental property. And I also, after we'd found it tucked quietly away up a 40 yard or so driveway, thought "It doesn't look like it'll be too bad".
The agents arrived and opened the door. I expected it to go into a dining/kitchen type room. Instead, it went into a wood-panelled, tiled-floor stairway. Which lead up to a stained-glass leaded window in the hallway, leading to two MASSIVE reception rooms, kitchen, utility room - you get the idea.
And then stairs up to more space.
Obviously, she got the application in, and fingers crossed!
I don't understand the whole process of renting, it's very frustrating!
