Oh dear, I’ve done it again… picked a template whose editing font is too small – you just about need a microscope to see it 
The trouble is, I really like the template, and I spent quite a bit of time constructing the opals for the header! I’ll see how it goes – I might just have to bite the bullet and change the font size while I’m writing and editing, and then change it back just before I put the blog online *sigh* Why can’t everything be as perfect as I am?! 😉 *snort*
So… what happened today.. Lemee see… Not much this morning – we went up to have a chat with the Bank Manager, and to get all the necessary papers ready for whatever eventuates in this mad, mad, house hunt 🙂 then we came home, picked up the dry cleaning that we’d forgotten to take with us when we went out to see the Bank Manager, and had a cup of coffee. “The ‘C’ House” was Open For Inspection between 12.00 and 12.30pm – we actually checked three times this time around – we didn’t want to miss out again! 😉 We arrived pretty much on time, to find the place absolutely swarming with prospective buyers. With a grin, I muttered ‘sotto voce’, to the Real Estate Agent standing watching everyone like a hawk “What are all these people doing, traipsing through my house!” to which he replied, also ‘sotto voce’ “I know what you mean! Dreadful, isn’t it” – we both laughed 🙂 So, once more we paraded around looking at everything – there is a bit of work to be done on the place… A new kitchen, for starters… The stove top is very unusual – it only has four cooking surfaces – two electric hot plates, and two gas burners! Julian and I have never seen a stove top like it – they’re usually either electric hot plates, or gas burners… Whatever! Four cooking elements are simply not enough, no matter how good your microwave and oven are! The bathrooms would probably have to be redone, too – the en-suite has a large spa bath in it, and a bidet – neither of which looks as though they’ve had much use, and they’d get even less than that from us! This place had a bidet in the en-suite, too – Mum always said that she used it as a foot bath, but I think she was only kidding (at least, I hope she was!) When we redecorated here after Mum died, and before we moved in, we had the bidet removed and the shower enlarged, and in the main bathroom, where there was a completely unused spa bath (the plumbing had never seen water, said the person who came to remove it!) the spa bath came out, and a nice, big shower, taking up the full width of the room was installed in its place. And that’s pretty much what we’d have to do in “The ‘C’ House”, too. Oh, and this time I remembered to count the stairs on the mini “Grand Staircase”. There are six, so six down, and six up = twelve… and I’ve just spent a fruitless five minutes trying (unsuccessfully!) to work out how many times I’d have to go up and down them to equal 128 steps, then multiply that number by three, because that’s how many times I do those 128 steps every day (one complete Stair Walk = 128 steps) But my maths is about as good as my Brain Surgery, and I get lost by the time I get to “20”, because that’s when I run out of fingers and toes. I usually have to get Julian to translate for me, after 20…. Getting back to “The ‘C’ House” – because the sun was shining and the ground was relatively dry, Julian was able to go outside in the back garden for a snoop and a wander around, but I stayed inside because (a) I was cold, (b) my bare feet are highly allergic to damp grass – but most importantly (c) my back was beginning to give out, so I borrowed one of the (highly uncomfortable, as it turned out) kitchen chairs and sat down, instead. The tiny little bit of garden looks very “manageable”, and it looks like there’d be room for a small veggie garden along the side fence, which would be perfect! 🙂 Julian also found a sort of an underground cellar/storage area, which isn’t mentioned anywhere, in any of the house details at all – he said it was quite big, too, because storage was one of the things that was making him just a trifle reluctant, in regards to us moving in next week – or the week after that 😉 We also found a couple of rather large storage closets inside, which was a pleasant surprise. There’s one thing that has both the Estate Agents and ourselves completely intrigued – at the top of the mini “Grand Staircase, and right in the middle of the passage way there, is a large, round, indentation in the carpet, as though a heavy table, or a large (very large!) heavy drum of some sort had sat there for long enough to leave this very obvious round “dent” in the carpet. To get past the top of the stairs to the rest of the house, you would have had to hold your breath to squeeze past it – that’s how large the indentation is, truly! Anyway, after we left there and were on our way to Shoppingtown to have my Warfarin blood test done (a day early!), and to pick up some Flipper Food, we passed another “Open For Inspection” sign, so we did a “U-turn and went to have a look. It wasn’t much, really – it was “alright”, but not what we’re looking for, and most definitely not worth even close to the six figures they were looking to sell it for. However, the reason I mention this place is because I saw something there that really floored me! I was standing just outside the kitchen/family room, with a good view of the kitchen itself. Now when you go looking at houses, it’s always been accepted that people – strangers – will open cupboards to see how far back they go, open drawers to see how well they slide, and turn taps on to see what the water pressure is like. In fact, anything that’s considered a “fixture” (that is, it’s remaining in the house after the sale, usually because it’s built-in, or partially built-in) can, and in most cases should be examined. But free-standing furniture and electrical appliances, unless specifically included in the sales brochures, should never be touched, right? A woman came into the kitchen with a group of what appeared to be her family. The examined the sink, the oven, and the cupboards – fair enough – but then, bold as brass, this woman marches over to the fridge, yanks open the fridge door, and started examining the contents, as though she was looking for ingredients for dinner! One of her “group” came over and muttered something to her, but I was too far away to hear what it was. The woman looked cross, slammed the fridge door, and moved off. I hope I didn’t look as amazed and horrified as I felt – but I was stunned that anyone would… would… do such a thing! Crikey! Julian gets cross with me if I open a ruddy cupboard! Anyway, we finished looking at that, went to Shoppingtown, I had my blood test done (no results have come through yet) and we did our few errands, then came home. I frittered away a bit of time looking for another blog template, and then made the header… and what you see before you is what I worked on this afternoon – I hope it meets with your (collective) approval?! 🙂
Weigh-in this morning. Well, my last fluid loving and retaining pill was dutifully swallowed whole yesterday morning… and, proving that miracles do still happen, I went down four points. “This is good!” you’re probably all thinking. No, it’s not good! It only means that I’ll almost certainly be bouncing back up again, either tomorrow or the day after! It’s too soon after finishing off those wretched pills to be a “genuine” four point drop, anyway! *sigh* Two points are a good drop, even one is acceptable… but four? *shakes head in trepidation*
So that was my day that was… I’m not sure what’s happening tomorrow, apart from the fact that our cleaning lady will be here, but I’m sure we’ll do something exciting, newsworthy, or interesting 🙂 The Vermont South “Water Feature House” wasn’t Open For Inspection today, but it will be on Saturday, which means that Saturday will be extra busy, for Julian, if not for me too. We both want to see the house again, and he wants to go and “observe” at least two Auctions. I don’t know whether I should go or not – I’d need to take the wheelchair, as there’s far too much standing and walking around at Auctions for my (pardon the French!) buggered back. I’d really like to go, and of course it’ll depend on the weather… but at the moment, it’s in the lap of the ghods 🙂 And that’s where I shall leave you, gentle readers! 🙂 Do drop back again tomorrow night, if only to find out if my weight did bounce back violently or not, and to see if I have to take more rat poison (Warfarin), or less… but as usual, there’s sure to be lots of news, anecdotes, fun facts and fiction for everyone, so… don’t miss out! 🙂 Until then, though…. please bee good, remember that the best way to destroy an enemy is to make them a friend, and also remember to take care of yourselves, drive carefully, and keep warm… but above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 