| RavenBlog |
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| Comments on Saturday 8 April 2006: |
| So, giving up on mortgages, being the untrustworthily not-doing-a-job-I-hate man I am, I started looking at renting instead. Then I got distracted and started looking at houseboats, because I could afford to buy one of those outright with no mortgage. Then I discovered the one houseboat that sounded perfect for me was already sold. Then I found that mooring fees for houseboats come pretty close to being equivalent to the cost of renting a 2 bedroom urban terraced house anyway. That's pretty damn expensive for a 500 square foot piece of water. So unless I want to go for a bluewater live-on-board yacht, such that I could spend a lot of time out at sea instead of mooring (which is still a bit tempting - it'd sound like even more exciting adventures than most people have with their horrible travelling, and I wouldn't even have to leave my house!), it seems my best bet is just to suck it up and rent a house, that one thing that was the thing I really didn't want to do (well, other than sharing a house, I wanted to do that even less). So now the question is, which of these best suits me? Option 1: 500 quid a month, 2-bedroom detached house, 25-35 minutes from Derby by bus (or 30-45 to Nottingham). Is also simultaneously for sale, so there's the possibility of maybe it not being sold by the time I'm sorted for mortgages, and thus being able to buy it and end up as my own landlord. Has a delicious Tesco supermarket a block and a half away.Of course to make this decision for me you need to know what my criteria are - as if it wasn't obvious from the options. My criteria are a subtle blend of price (lower is better), number of shared walls (lower is better), ease of getting to places (lower is better), and general awesomeness (more is better). Given that I can't actually make this decision myself, with full knowledge of what my criteria are, you, of course, can't either. Except I bet I know who can, and what information they will use, and they will be right, and I've actually answered it for myself by looking at the question from that point of view. But I'm not saying! You all must tell me where I should live and why! [17:19] |
| Nightshade |
| Well , the question as to which "best suits" is obvious - the one on Raven street. Because far be it from you to take practicalities like price or location into consideration when ego could possibly come into play. (I checked about moving to Raven Drive in our town, but there were no houses available for sale along at the time. ) |
| Jean DeVenn |
| At the risk of being boringly sensible, perhaps the best thing to do is go back to whichever option seems best at about 10pm on a Friday or Saturday night, and just watch the area for about 2 hours. That's the time when the drunkards and brats are out, and you'll find out which roads they stagger down creating mayhem and making sleep-wrecking noise. Assuming none of your choices have "neighbourhood" type problems, then I tend to choose a house based on what the indise is like. Is it quiet, decorated to my taste, nice-sized rooms (and enough of them), etc. Again, assuming all 3 options are roughly equal, then I'd go for option "C". Apart from the super-coolness of living in Raven Street, it's cheap enough that you'll still be able to put a little cash aside ready for the time when you do successfully find a mortgage ! So... that's two votes for Raven Street so far... I wonder if we're both right. Means all your English fans would know where to come and bother you, though ;) |
| RavenBlack |
| They'd have to go along the whole street knocking on doors until they got to number 88, though. Oh damn! (Not really, there is no number 88.) Turns out Raven Street is winning on location too, in terms of easy access to town. On the downside, there is a primary school on it. I suppose I shall see on Monday. I'm pretty much giving up on option 1 because I couldn't view that 'til Tuesday, and these hotels are getting on my nerves now. |
| SpasmodicMonk |
| Move in with my old housemate, he's about a 25-30 minute walk from the town centre. He's not at home for most of the week, he's not obsessive about cleanliness and the like and he could certainly use the money. Oh, he also has just about every games console under the sun and a tonne of games for them. |
| RavenBlack |
| A major point of my moving is to not share. |
| SpasmodicMonk |
| He also won't ask for much money, perhaps sub-300 per month. Incidentally, why Derby? |
| RavenBlack |
| No real reason why Derby. Middle of the country, easy access to everywhere else, relatively inexpensive, not as crowded as Nottingham, and knowing people vaguely nearby. |
| obsidian |
| Well the "letting" agent not giving you all the details, I'd make sure that the price hasn't magically changed.. had that happen to me before.. but I agree with Raven St. and the short walking distance.. Primary school.. I live near one..I'd just make sure.. there are no rocks in the front yard...(for windows safety) and actually biggest gripe I've had was candy wrappers strewn about my front walk. Eh, I vote for 3. |
| Anet |
| While I would always go for detatched, I'm in the Raven Street crowd for you... Enjoy, whichever you choose. |
| RavenBlack |
| I'm told that the location of the detached was really really bad (which explains the quite low price). Detached would certainly suit me much better, but for renting I'm probably better off with what I took. |
| Anet |
| I've just read the description of your new place. Sounds like you have chosen the best of the lot. Ilkeston would have been dreary... the fact that their forum is powered by Delphi would have ensured that. Welcome home, Raven. |
| RavenBlack |
| Yeah, Delphi was the thing that really made me think poorly of it. Though the 'community' link having two photos of people protesting something tedious didn't help either. |
| Anet |
| Urg... I missed that one. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.... It would have been a tragedy if you hadn't taken the Raven one anyway... so all is well. |