Moving house?

Saturday was, in the end a pretty reasonable day and the house got a little tidier and more organised and I made a start on trying to eBay a few items to bring in a bit of money ... I didn't actually get as far as putting anything on eBay but at least a made a start :D

Sunday was a little more rocky with arguments over the prospect of having to extend our current mortgage to use the equity in the house to afford a place for me to move to - renting really isn't feasible given the debts we have. My wife didn't understand any of this and had a go at me for not explaining to her about the 10 year fixed mortgage on the current house, she believed it was 5 years.

Anyway, things calmed down a little so we went to have a look at some new flats that you can get on this "Easi-buy" (why are people obsessed with spelling things wrong?) which makes them much more affordable given our tight finances (basically I'll be paying two mortgages and sets of bills). There are a few conditions on buying this way and also, for these flats, the service charge is quite alot (£130/month) but this is meant to include gas, electric, water, insurance (buildings only) and maintenance - the management company still likely make a tidy profit, but at least the costs are fixed.

The flats (there were still 3 available when we looked, all identical but different views of the surrounding building sites) are quite funky; only one bedroom but that, along with the bathroom, is on the bottom floor (and in this case, that's already on 1 level of a 3 storey building - there is a flat below) then there are stairs up to the living area which is open plan. It's not big but it would fit some cupboards, a small table, sofa and a TV along with maybe a book shelf without too much trouble.

The sales woman also pointed out a few stylish, but essentially useless points, the first being what he called a "Juiliet Balcony" - full length french doors with a metal frame outside. Of course this did get me thinking about what outfit would be suitable for wearing while standing in a suitably shakepearian pose and pleading to the world (other flats and remaining building site) to know where my true love was (I hate to think what answers I'd get back, "shut up" would be the nicest I could hope for I guess).

The other style item actually may prove useful with a little modification; there is a wide (maybe 60cm) beam over the top of the kitchen area and running the full width of the room. At this point the ceiling of the room is at it's highest point - probably a good 4ft (sorry to mix measuring systems there) higher then the lowest point. Essentially this gives about a 10ft long shelf at the back of the room and it would be feasible (given a ladder) to reach this shelf and even mount cupboards/shelves on this beam to increase the storage quite considerably. It would be kind of like a visible loft in many respects.

I did even wonder about a nice wooden ladder similar to those in libraries with wheels that could run along the full length of the beam! At the very least so some sort of access to this otherwise wasted space might help out. Certainly I did start to wonder about the possible wardrobe space in the adequate, but tight, bedroom! Need to go back and figure out the layout!

One more point - we looked in all three of these flats and at one point had two opposite each other unlocked; my son thought this was fab and was running between them and upstairs and was really taken with the idea of a bedroom downstairs! Sadly he did voice his desire to live with Daddy instead of Mummy but, we did both agree that this was entirely down to the fun he thought he could have running up and downstairs! Probably wouldn't be the same when the bedroom has a double bed and a whole wall full of wardrobes stuff with dresses, shoes etc!