Selling your house

Today we are going to learn how to market our houses properly, assuming we want to sell them and sell them for an optimum price!

The Builder and I set off on Sunday morning, through glorious sunshine, to drive to Bolsover to view a house. Now, we knew that this was not going to be the world's most beautiful house for it was only a tiny, tiny price. We knew that it was on a former council estate. We knew that it was pebble dashed. But really. We walked in and it was cold and damp and -- well, sad really. It certainly had potential, but a lot of work would be needed to make it a nice house. Even so. Had it been me wanting to sell it -- I would have lit the rather pretty solid fuel fire in the dining room to draw attention to it. I would have had the central heating on, because there was sunlight coming into the house and it wouldn't have taken much to make it cosy. I would have put vases of flowers in the windows to draw the eye to the stunning view of the castle to the front and the rather nice views of the plains to the rear. I would certainly have made the beds and smartened the place up. As it was, none of these things had been done and The Builder and I were not tempted. Besides, there wouldn't have been anywhere to put the van. But a very little effort and we might have looked at it a bit more eagerly! An excellent lesson in How Not To Do It.

There is an awful lot of property on the market in Bolsover. I wonder why. Where are they all going? And more to the point -- why?

We dropped by and looked at the outside of a rather splendid house in Chesterfield on the way back. Now that was tempting. Alas, by the time I rang the agent on Monday morning someone else had snapped it up :-(

So we ambled home, wafting around the centre of Chesterfield in a random manner. A cup of tea, then a wander down to the supermarket for some veg. We called into the Devonshire Arms for a glass of wine (me) and a pint of beer (The Builder) and then mooched home again where we passed the rest of the afternoon cooking and eating roast pork, drinking wine and generally lazing. Lazing to the point that I spent most of the evening asleep and still managed to sleep vigorously for most of the night. Missed Time Team and all the Sunday evening documentaries. Think I must be tired!

Today, Tuesday, I am at Collegiate. The academics are all on strike and are picketing all the gates in the rain. I have cheerfully ignored them. The Builder is working in Mansfield this week and disappeared off at 06:45!!!!! This left me loads of time before I was to meet my pal Jo for breakfast. So I made soup. As you do :-) I've been home and eaten it too. And had a cup of tea with Freyja. There are some advantages to living a mere 5 minute walk from work.

The Builder has made a new bird table. It has a roof!