Finding a Flat
Nov. 10th, 2000 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetOn Tuesday night we tried the Park Inn, a Chinese restaurant around the
corner from Barbara's flat. I had a very rich hot & sour soup and the "king
prawn fried noodle," which I very much enjoyed. Jason had the chicken &
sweet corn soup and the chicken with garlic and chili. I found his entree a
bit bland, but he liked it. We walked down the block to the Queensway tube
stop, but by the time we got there Jason's ankle was hurting him, so we
turned around and headed back to the flat.
On Wednesday we launched out of the house by nine and managed to see seven
flats in one day. The first was an "ex-council" flat, very cheap, but
depressingly dark and run down. We had arranged to call the second agent
and have her meet us, since the first two flats were on the same road. She
couldn't leave the office when we called, but we walked on up to the place
and the builders let us in to see it. From there we took the tube back to
Angel, where we met a third agent and were driven to see a third flat--too
small and far from the tube for the asking price. Dropped back in
Islington, we had lunch on Upper Street at Pizza Express, since Jason had
been craving pizza for days. Jason wanted to go back to Notting Hill to
change his shoes, so he left me on Upper Street and I wandered into a couple
of agents' offices. One of them thought he might have something for me, so
we went and looked at two places, both of which were too small for our
purposes. Jason met me in Archway and we looked at a very cheap, but quite
nice place in a nice neighborhood and an excellent location for us, right
near Finsbury Park, which is one of the stops on the line to Cambridge.
Unfortunately it, too, was just too small for us to contemplate with Jason
planning to work at home much of the time. We raced back to Angel and met
up with Quincy of Black Katz Estates, with whom I'd had several good
conversations. Unfortunately, he had only been able to make arrangements
for us to see one of the three flats he'd hoped to show us. That one was
lovely and workable space-wise, but in a complex, rather than a house or row
(as both of us prefer), very modern (read: no character to speak of) and in
a neighborhood that didn't appeal to either of us.
After that last viewing, we rushed down to Leicester Square to meet Leah and
her friend, Mark. On the way there, we decided that we'd probably take the
second flat we'd seen, so we called the agent from Leah's mobile and made an
appointment to actually meet with her and see the place again on Thursday.
We picked up second row tickets to The Mystery of Charles Dickens at the
half-price ticket stand and got dinner at a little pizza & pasta place
called Bella Pasta. Mark and I both had pizza (the one at lunch had left me
wanting more), Jason had pasta and chicken in a lovely cheese sauce, and
Leah had salmon cannelloni, which she said were very good.
The show was a one-man piece done by Simon Callow. He would be familiar to
many of you: he played The Rev. Beebe in A Room with a View, Gareth in Four
Weddings and a Funeral, and the Master of Revels in Shakespeare in Love.
The Mystery of Charles Dickens was something of a misnomer--basically Callow
took us through Dickens' life and work, shifting voices from narration, to
Dickens himself, to various of his characters and back again. He was best
at the comic bits and fairly unsuccessfully melodramatic with the sections
meant to be heartwrenching. It didn't seem to identify, much less solve any
"mystery" regarding Dickens and while it made a few suggested connections
between the stories of his life and those in his work, it didn't seem to
reach at all. Overall it was interesting--Jason and I agreed that we might
have liked it much better if we a) were English and b) had ever read any
Dickens. We'd had a terrible time picking a show to see and it became clear
in conversation that our tastes in theater are quite different from Mark's,
but we may try again and see if we can do any better.
On Thursday we made it to Davies & Davies in Finsbury Park just after ten,
met Christie, the agent, and went back over to the flat. It's in what they
call a "maisonette," which is pretty much what we'd call a townhouse. It's
free-standing, made of grey brick, with one flat taking up the basement and
ground floor and the other occupying the upper two storeys. The latter
would be ours. The front door has columns and a pediment done in a style
the builder tells us is called "podging," with leaves and flowers. Going
in the front doors, you go straight upstairs. At the head of the stairs is
a little room with the washer/dryer and the door out to a lovely little
deck, which runs the width of the house and about six feet deep, with wood
grates for flooring and a metal railing. (Jeff, you'll have to come soon
and tell me what to plant out there in the spring.) It looks out over the
fairly overgrown garden, which goes with the downstairs flat. Coming back
in that door, the kitchen is on the right. It's enormous and newly redone,
with laminate wood flooring, new appliances (gas stove, electric oven) and
wood topped counters. Next after the kitchen, in the front corner of the
house, is the self-contained living room. Turning back toward the stairs
from there is the very large full bathroom. On the next floor, the space
over the laundry nook is a half-bath. Then there are three bedrooms, large
(maybe 12' x 14') to small (maybe 8' x 10') from back to front. Our plan is
to use the back bedroom ourselves, the front room as Jason's study, leaving
the smaller room for our guests. It's not furnished yet, though it will be
and, according to the agent, we should have a fair amount of input on the
furnishings. The one down-side is that the entire place is newly painted
bright yellow. Walls, trim, railing on the staircaseall bright yellow. So
we're thinking of calling it "The Yellow Submarine." It's on Green Lanes,
directly across from Finsbury Park, which makes for a lovely view.
If you go to
http://195.217.205.227/streetmap.dll?grid2map?X=531750&Y=187750&zoom=1, that
will show you where we are, right where it says "Woodview Close," across
from the Cricket Ground, between the New River and Hermitage Street. If you
click on the camera link, you can even see an aerial view of our new home.
Pretty nifty, eh? The Finsbury Park station is at the southwest corner of
the park, so Jason will have a nice ride through the park to his train. The
Manor House tube station is maybe a five minute walk up the road and there's
a huge grocery store about that far in the opposite direction.
We went back to the office and signed some initial paperwork, handed over
our earnest money and tentatively agreed that we will move in on the 17th.
The landlord still had to OK us as tenants, since they can't get a credit
check on us (the long arm of TRW apparently not reaching globally as yet),
but the agent didn't think it would be a problem and called this morning to
say that a fax from RedHat confirming Jason's employment status and salary
will reassure the landlord sufficiently.
We came back to Barbara's, stopping for a quick bite along the way. Jason
picked up his laptop and headed up to Cambridge. I was incredibly tired, so
I napped for an hour before getting started on my chores for the day. I did
laundry and went grocery shopping and re-arranged Barbara's kitchen to be (I
hope) more functional. I made a tuna casserole (I tried a new secret
ingredient!) and Jason came home and ate it and we spent the evening hanging
out together with our laptops. Barbara came in from the gym and ate
leftovers and we talked until far too late, waiting for our sheets to be
dry.
Jason had been complaining of a sore throat for the last couple of days and
last night he was feverish. He is feeling better this morning, having slept
late and had cold drugs and a nice cup of tea and I have wrapped him up on
the couch and will run out for juice and soup momentarily.
corner from Barbara's flat. I had a very rich hot & sour soup and the "king
prawn fried noodle," which I very much enjoyed. Jason had the chicken &
sweet corn soup and the chicken with garlic and chili. I found his entree a
bit bland, but he liked it. We walked down the block to the Queensway tube
stop, but by the time we got there Jason's ankle was hurting him, so we
turned around and headed back to the flat.
On Wednesday we launched out of the house by nine and managed to see seven
flats in one day. The first was an "ex-council" flat, very cheap, but
depressingly dark and run down. We had arranged to call the second agent
and have her meet us, since the first two flats were on the same road. She
couldn't leave the office when we called, but we walked on up to the place
and the builders let us in to see it. From there we took the tube back to
Angel, where we met a third agent and were driven to see a third flat--too
small and far from the tube for the asking price. Dropped back in
Islington, we had lunch on Upper Street at Pizza Express, since Jason had
been craving pizza for days. Jason wanted to go back to Notting Hill to
change his shoes, so he left me on Upper Street and I wandered into a couple
of agents' offices. One of them thought he might have something for me, so
we went and looked at two places, both of which were too small for our
purposes. Jason met me in Archway and we looked at a very cheap, but quite
nice place in a nice neighborhood and an excellent location for us, right
near Finsbury Park, which is one of the stops on the line to Cambridge.
Unfortunately it, too, was just too small for us to contemplate with Jason
planning to work at home much of the time. We raced back to Angel and met
up with Quincy of Black Katz Estates, with whom I'd had several good
conversations. Unfortunately, he had only been able to make arrangements
for us to see one of the three flats he'd hoped to show us. That one was
lovely and workable space-wise, but in a complex, rather than a house or row
(as both of us prefer), very modern (read: no character to speak of) and in
a neighborhood that didn't appeal to either of us.
After that last viewing, we rushed down to Leicester Square to meet Leah and
her friend, Mark. On the way there, we decided that we'd probably take the
second flat we'd seen, so we called the agent from Leah's mobile and made an
appointment to actually meet with her and see the place again on Thursday.
We picked up second row tickets to The Mystery of Charles Dickens at the
half-price ticket stand and got dinner at a little pizza & pasta place
called Bella Pasta. Mark and I both had pizza (the one at lunch had left me
wanting more), Jason had pasta and chicken in a lovely cheese sauce, and
Leah had salmon cannelloni, which she said were very good.
The show was a one-man piece done by Simon Callow. He would be familiar to
many of you: he played The Rev. Beebe in A Room with a View, Gareth in Four
Weddings and a Funeral, and the Master of Revels in Shakespeare in Love.
The Mystery of Charles Dickens was something of a misnomer--basically Callow
took us through Dickens' life and work, shifting voices from narration, to
Dickens himself, to various of his characters and back again. He was best
at the comic bits and fairly unsuccessfully melodramatic with the sections
meant to be heartwrenching. It didn't seem to identify, much less solve any
"mystery" regarding Dickens and while it made a few suggested connections
between the stories of his life and those in his work, it didn't seem to
reach at all. Overall it was interesting--Jason and I agreed that we might
have liked it much better if we a) were English and b) had ever read any
Dickens. We'd had a terrible time picking a show to see and it became clear
in conversation that our tastes in theater are quite different from Mark's,
but we may try again and see if we can do any better.
On Thursday we made it to Davies & Davies in Finsbury Park just after ten,
met Christie, the agent, and went back over to the flat. It's in what they
call a "maisonette," which is pretty much what we'd call a townhouse. It's
free-standing, made of grey brick, with one flat taking up the basement and
ground floor and the other occupying the upper two storeys. The latter
would be ours. The front door has columns and a pediment done in a style
the builder tells us is called "podging," with leaves and flowers. Going
in the front doors, you go straight upstairs. At the head of the stairs is
a little room with the washer/dryer and the door out to a lovely little
deck, which runs the width of the house and about six feet deep, with wood
grates for flooring and a metal railing. (Jeff, you'll have to come soon
and tell me what to plant out there in the spring.) It looks out over the
fairly overgrown garden, which goes with the downstairs flat. Coming back
in that door, the kitchen is on the right. It's enormous and newly redone,
with laminate wood flooring, new appliances (gas stove, electric oven) and
wood topped counters. Next after the kitchen, in the front corner of the
house, is the self-contained living room. Turning back toward the stairs
from there is the very large full bathroom. On the next floor, the space
over the laundry nook is a half-bath. Then there are three bedrooms, large
(maybe 12' x 14') to small (maybe 8' x 10') from back to front. Our plan is
to use the back bedroom ourselves, the front room as Jason's study, leaving
the smaller room for our guests. It's not furnished yet, though it will be
and, according to the agent, we should have a fair amount of input on the
furnishings. The one down-side is that the entire place is newly painted
bright yellow. Walls, trim, railing on the staircaseall bright yellow. So
we're thinking of calling it "The Yellow Submarine." It's on Green Lanes,
directly across from Finsbury Park, which makes for a lovely view.
If you go to
http://195.217.205.227/streetmap.dll?grid2map?X=531750&Y=187750&zoom=1, that
will show you where we are, right where it says "Woodview Close," across
from the Cricket Ground, between the New River and Hermitage Street. If you
click on the camera link, you can even see an aerial view of our new home.
Pretty nifty, eh? The Finsbury Park station is at the southwest corner of
the park, so Jason will have a nice ride through the park to his train. The
Manor House tube station is maybe a five minute walk up the road and there's
a huge grocery store about that far in the opposite direction.
We went back to the office and signed some initial paperwork, handed over
our earnest money and tentatively agreed that we will move in on the 17th.
The landlord still had to OK us as tenants, since they can't get a credit
check on us (the long arm of TRW apparently not reaching globally as yet),
but the agent didn't think it would be a problem and called this morning to
say that a fax from RedHat confirming Jason's employment status and salary
will reassure the landlord sufficiently.
We came back to Barbara's, stopping for a quick bite along the way. Jason
picked up his laptop and headed up to Cambridge. I was incredibly tired, so
I napped for an hour before getting started on my chores for the day. I did
laundry and went grocery shopping and re-arranged Barbara's kitchen to be (I
hope) more functional. I made a tuna casserole (I tried a new secret
ingredient!) and Jason came home and ate it and we spent the evening hanging
out together with our laptops. Barbara came in from the gym and ate
leftovers and we talked until far too late, waiting for our sheets to be
dry.
Jason had been complaining of a sore throat for the last couple of days and
last night he was feverish. He is feeling better this morning, having slept
late and had cold drugs and a nice cup of tea and I have wrapped him up on
the couch and will run out for juice and soup momentarily.
