Just like a dream

I was beginning to worry if we’d find somewhere in time. We didn’t really want to live in the house we had seen, so the following morning saw me back online searching for somewhere to live again. Suddenly my heart began to thump. There was ‘our house’. The agency had put it back on line as the tenant-to-be had dropped out. Within 6 minutes I’d phoned the agency and made an appointment for Saturday morning. I wanted nine o’clock but settled for 9.30. I had to keep pinching myself to make sure that I was awake.

Could this be the one?

As I said in my previous post, the agency with the apartment and another house were next on our list. I was due to visit the apartment on a Tuesday morning but never got to see it. The owner, who was having the apartment completely re-decorated, decided to let to one of her friends.

We went to visit the house during the afternoon. It had been built in the 80s and was quite small, there was no garage and it was reached by a small driveway behind a pharmacy. There was no kitchen as such, just a hob and sink a little off the main room. The bedrooms were large with fitted cupboards and the main room had big windows which slid open to go into a little walled courtyard. I rather liked the courtyard and could see it as an extra room during the summer months. Unfortunately the windows looked south and would have turned the main room into a hot house very quickly. Mr. Sosie didn’t like there not being a garage. There was a storage space behind, It was secure, but rather small.

 We decided to go home and think about it.

The house by the road - and a flight path!

We went to see the outside of the house next to the main road before the appointment because we were given the address. Not a wise move by the agency. It was in a sad and sorry state, looked as if it needed new window frames and there was a tiny shed in the garden which would fall down next time the wind blew. Mr Sosie thought that perhaps we should wait to see the inside later in the week before turning it down. Just at that moment a plane flew over. We were right in the flight path to the nearby airport! There was a post office nearby, a bus stop and shops. They would have been very useful.

When we got home, I phoned the agency  to explain that it wasn’t really what we were looking for. I asked about another house near to the first on their list. The lady on the phone was honest, we wouldn’t like it for the same reasons.

The search continues

It was with heavy hearts that we went into town the following week to see more agencies about renting. The first agency we went to were very snooty. All of the houses we asked about had been let, even the ones in the window! It was obvious that we weren't good enough for them. The second agency gave us the details a house. It was small, but close to the main road and near to shops and a post office. So we made an appointment to view a few days later. We went into a third agency and we had details and appointments for two more visits. One for an apartment that was being renovated and the second for a house in a nearby village that looked reasonably promising. Non seemed to be anything as good as the house that we really wanted.

Gone!

I was so happy on the Sunday morning that followed. I was online again straight away to see if I could find out more about the house. It was gone. There was nothing about it on the website where I'd seen it first. Needless to say, on the Monday morning following our trip out to see the house I was on the phone to the agency. The house had been let. I was so upset and disappointed. Mr Sosie didn't say much about it. He encouraged me to contact agencies about other houses.

A walk around

Reluctantly we had to leave the house. We couldn't stand there all afternoon staring at it! We set off to discover the village. It was like taking a walk back in time about 50 years. the roads and footpaths/sidewalks were in very bad repair and there were still a lot of overhead electric cables. There were alley ways between the houses which led on to parallel roads. Further on were newer houses. A lot of the houses were very large with extensive gardens and high walls - very different to the village where we lived, where large houses sat on much smaller pieces of land. We liked the village; it was comfotable and unpretentious. If we could rent the house we knew that we would be happy in the village.

Found it

Once we parked the car we headed towards the village shop. It was closed and looked pretty shabby. Two houses down from the shop we found 'our house'. It was obvious this time as there was an agent's notice attached to the gate. We knew that we couldn't visit the house - just observe from the street. At the side were upstairs and downstairs windows and the 'front' door. The other side of the house was a stone wall. It was very old but in good repair and we could see that the window frames were new. This was the house we wanted to live in!