Adventures of a Non-Binary Author – We’re never doing that walk again!
Saturday morning, and another early start if we want to get to the first house viewing on time. In the end we’re early enough to pick up a couple of things missed from the weekly shop. As of the bus trip into the city center we are down to only three properties today.
The first property is relatively easy to get to. We’re a little early, but not by much. It’s not long before the estate agent ushers inside. We take a look around. The kitchen by far is the standout feature, unfortunately the rest of the property isn’t quite what we’re looking for. We get out with barely enough time to make it to the next property. We hotfoot it as much as possible. My partner finds this more of slog. One of their legs is cramping up. They’re already a slower walker than I am, and this isn’t helping. Still, we make it with a minute to spare.
The second property is more spacious feeling than the last. It certainly has a lot more potential. But the lack of carpeting throughout makes it feel sterile. It’s certainly one to consider, but for me, right now, it just doesn’t feel like a home.
With all the cancellations, we have a long wait now until the next viewing. That’s fine though. We have a gift voucher that means lunch is on my younger brother and his partner. We’ve been looking forward to this bit. A nice sit down, and a good pub meal. My partner opts to bus the distance. I walk it, getting there just before my partner does, somehow.
We find a table, and decide on what we’re having fairly quickly. The wait for the food to arrive is reasonable, considering it’s a busy Saturday. Tasty too. Just what we need after all the walking so far. Little did we know what was in store for us next.
To a point we know roughly where we’re going. During the last round of house finding, we’d seen a property in this direction before. The post office. Or at least that’s what we called that one. It needed a lot of work. Way too much for us even to consider. It’s interesting walking past it now and seeing signs that work has begun on it. We’ve no idea who would have bought it, but we wish them luck as we walk past.
So far the walk has been long, but fairly easy. The hills aren’t too steep. The path relatively straightforward. If this property is nice enough, it’s probably a contender. At least that’s what we’re both thinking, right before it happens. I take a slight wrong turn, but correct myself instantly. If only that correction wasn’t needed. As soon as I see the path we’re actually meant to take, I swear under my breath. My partner has just about caught up, and I’m pretty sure I hear them swear at the sight too. This is going to be a tough one. Long and steep. At this point I’m pretty certain, even if this property is worth it, this hill is not.
Somehow we both manage to make it up. Because of the canceled viewings, we’re very early. So we find somewhere to sit for half and hour or so. We discuss the hill, and look for alternative routes. Is there a way to make this more viable? There is another possible route we could take. We’ll explore it on the way back. But, for now, we try to be as neutral as possible going into this house viewing. It’s the only three bed of the day. The neighbourhood is nice enough. The view where we’re sat is pretty nice. But the memory of that walk is still too fresh in our minds.
The house is homely and well presented. The garden is the biggest of the three we’ve seen today. But the house itself… It’s almost definitely the smallest, despite being the only three bed. It feels like a relief. Knowing we’d be saying no to something that doesn’t meet our needs. As we walk away, using the alternate route, we begin to discuss reasonable walking distances.
We know up to forty minutes is our outer limit. But this experience has taught us that terrain also needs to be taken into consideration. The area we were just in was a lot hillier than other areas we’ve been looking in. We need to be more mindful of that going forward. Walking distance should be comfortable. We never want to do a walk like that one again.
It’s disappointing to end the day with no strong contenders, but this is only the start of our hunt. We have time, so we should take that time. We need to find somewhere that’s just right. But, for now, it’s back to our new normal. There are already other properties booked in for next week. And more potential properties popping up all the time. We’ll find the right place eventually, for now all we can do is wait…
To be continued…
