Place in Bingley:
Good points - Driving up to it, I liked it straight away. It's a mid terraced house, probably built from the blood and sweat of the proletariat back when there were mills and stuff like that to keep the Northerners under the oppressive heel of the bourgeois. The front door opens out into the living room, which is comparable to the Northern Room at MaliTowers. Behind a door is the staircase which leads up to the first floor. There's a landing, a decently sized bathroom and the bedroom on this floor is large. Up another flight of stairs, and you get to the second bedroom, which occupies the whole floor. Everything is newly painted, new carpets and so on. The roof has been re-insulated and weatherproofed and there's gas central heating. Rent is acceptable, at a shade over £130 a week. The house is about 5 minutes from the railway station (£.80 to Leeds, takes 20 minutes every half hour) and thirty minutes walk to MrsA's new place of work. I liked it so much, in fact, that if it was just me, I would have bought it some years back. The surrounding area has houses with well kept gardens, no graffiti around and there's, soewhat comfortingly, several religious and friendly society buildings in the immediate surroundings.
Bad points - The kitchen is tiny. Only one door in and out. Getting stuff up the stairs could be filed under 'tetris for pros'. No garden, or yard, so the pig'll have to live inside. Dunno about bins. The cellar is basically bare, but with plumbing for a washing machine, and a pump to raise the water up to the sewerage level. No off street parking.
We've just seen another place on the internet, which is a couple of streets over. The house shape is pretty much the same, but it seems to be laid out better, and there's a proper room in the basement. It's a little more expensive, mind you.
Bingley itself seems to be a lovely place. We had a bit of a drive around, and a bit of a walk. We crossed over the river, and there was a Timothy Taylor pub, with 6 hand pumps of TT beer, a 'Sausage of the week', quiz on Tuesday nights and it was very, very smart. And two cokes came to £2.50! There were at least three curry places, too.
So, current plan is to call up the estate agents on Monday morning, to see if I can look around this other place. If I can, it'll be a straight toss up between it and the first, and I'll get the paperwork underway. It's been so long since I've done something like this, I can't remember what to do, but I think if I just offer all the cash up front it's probably going to be turned down. Anyways, back to Oxfordshire in a bit, and then do some more thinking.
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Mr Chris wrote: MaliA isn't just the best thing on the internet - he's the best thing ever.
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