Home Sweet Home Sweet Home

Sorry about my lack of contact as of late – it’s been a busy week. Stephanie and I were starting to feel a little discouraged by the housing situation. She was getting tired of living in the hostel, and I was worried I might be moving from one couch to another. I was beginning to think we were going to have to pay an exorbant amount of rent, or end up having to go our separate ways, and get single rooms in house-shares.

Short story:
Wednesday – make an appt for a couple house viewings
Thursday - view house 1 – awesome. View house 2 – awful. Call house 1, leave message that we want it.
Friday – get confirmation that we’ve got it. MOVE IN Friday evening.

Long story:
On Wednesdays the BUNAC office is open late, so I decided I go after work to get my mail and to see if there were any new house/room postings on the board. (The nice thing about houses found thru BUNAC is that the landlords know that most of us are here for a short amount of time and give us short leases, or month to month). There happened to be a posting for a house with 2 rooms, in a decent area and minutes from the tube stop, so I got up the nerve, called the number, and set up an appt. to view the house for Thursday at 5:30. I also set up an appt. to view a couple of studios that were right next to the each other for later Thursday evening.

On Thursday, Stephanie and I met after work and took the tube out to the house. The landlord Robert, a middle-aged English guy, who lives in the add-on apartment next door, met us at the door. He’s apparently out of town a lot but when in town, shares the kitchen with the house. He gave us the grand tour – 3 empty bedrooms (we got Kara, another BUNACer that we’ve hung out with some to take the 3rd so it really is our house, and not a house-share full of strangers), a kitchen, a bathroom, and sunroom and a huge garden with a deck. We were very impressed, especially when he told us the price. I had really been expecting a shit-hole, but all the walls are recently painted, he’s replacing the carpet and bathroom floor, and the kitchen could almost be mistaken for American! The only downfall is no sitting room, but once we feel things out, we’re going to ask if we can rearrange the junk in the sunroom and make space for sitting room.

I think that Stephanie and I both knew we wanted it, but felt like we needed to go see the studios, which ended up really being bedsits, not to mention, they were far away, and smelled bad, As soon we left the real estate agent I was on the phone calling Robert to say we wanted the place. I had to leave a message and was so anxious for the rest of the night, afraid someone else and gotten to it before us.

On Friday morning he called and said we could move in that night, so we did. Kara, the 3rd girl had already paid for where she was staying, so she doesn't move in until Thursday. It's so nice to have a place. I'll post pictures soon.

oh and in case you're wondering, which I'm sure you are - I'm paying £85 per week - which equals out to about $680 a month - and that is a steal! (i think we're going to get internet - so the price will go up a bit).