The Arrival: finding our house - and our feet
The first 10 days
We got off to a rocky start. We had arranged over the internet to rent a flat for the first 2 weeks - to give me time to start work without having to look for houses at the same time, and to give us some space and time to get over the jetlag. Unfortunately it turned out to be an internet fraud.
We turned up at the advertised office of the place to pick up the keys and they had never heard of us. Another scam website was borrowing their details (office address, phone number and properties) to make their site look legitimate, whilst stealing people's deposits. Unfortunately for us we had paid in full online and so lost about $1600. Lesson learned - check Trip Advisor before booking any accommodation over the internet. We learned after the fact that in fact the site had been flagged on Trip Advisor before hand.
Luckily for us Tony's brother Julian and his girlfriend Sarah live in a flat in Kensington and offered us room on their floor (they live in a 1 bedroom flat...) So we spent the first few weeks in London sleeping on an air mattress on the floor.
Kensington is very pretty - close to Kensington gardens where Kate and Wills live, and close to Hyde Park, Buckingham palace etc. Its not a bad commute to work - but was hard. The flat was tiny. Smaller even than the flat Lizzie and Cam had in Curtin. The kitchen was a curvy bench in the lounge room - with one 2 seater sofa and one 1 seater chair. This means that not everyone can sit at any one time. Then we had to wait til they are ready to go to bed before we caould blow up our air mattress (luckily its an aero bed l so its electric and we didn't have to blow it up with out lungs) and go to bed on the lounge room floor. We didn't sleep very well because you don't on air mattresses, and also because the mattress suctions itself onto the floorboards, and when you roll over it noisily suctions itself off the floor and sucks on again in a different spot. Not very restful. In addition to that Sarah works from home - she is setting up a little business online making necklaces with messages in a bottle. So the fact she had two extra people, their luggage, and 3 shipping boxes in her flat is very noticeable.
We spent the weekend down in Dursely in Gloucestershire at Mum and Dad's friends Rose and Nick's. It was a merciful break from the claustrophobic little Kensington flat. We caught the train down on Friday night - £20 each each way - and Nick picked us up from the train station. They had put out an amazing spread of cheese, dips and nibbly things - including a baked Camembert with fresh bread - amazing. We then fell gratefully into a real bed, up at the top of the house in our own room with our own bathroom - the first bit of privacy we'd had since we left Australia - and slept until midday. I don't think we were over our jetlag until then.
We wandered down to the local pub on the Saturday and entertained the barmaid by wanting to try all the different beers - and by not knowing what pork scratchings were. It turned out they are crackling - but put in a little packet so you don't have to wait until you have a roast pork to enjoy them. They were so wickedly good. There was a lovely fire and all the locals brought their dogs down with them. We sat there all afternoon with our pints and some books we'd picked up for £1 at the local charity store, reading and patting dogs. It was bliss and made us want to bring Scout over so she could sit with us in the little pubs.
NIck and Rose took us out to a lovely pub for roast lunch on Sunday - it was horrible weather - sleety rain and windy - so we couldn't really appreciate the view from the pub over the valley below. We got back to London late Sunday night - back to the air mattress.
Luckily for us friends of some good friends of ours (who we had met for the first time on Thursday night) were going away for the week - and offered us their flat in Putney to stay in while they are away. We of course jumped at the chance - and so spent the second week in a real bed in a flat to ourselves.
Finding our Flat
Tony standing outside waiting to be let in
We also have finally found a place to live. We had found one initially in a East London which is these days the very trendy part of town. However the flat was a tired little place and it needed new floors and furnishings. We said to the agent we would take it anyway because the location was amazing. To secure a flat here you have to pay a deposit to take it off the market while your reference checks are completed etc. Once the checks are complete then you pay the bond and first month's rent (and the deposit is taken out of the rent). So we paid the deposit on the understanding that the flat was empty - but that the landlord was going to redo the floors and give it a clean and we could move in on the following Saturday. We then called the agent on the Monday before we were supposed to move in to confirm the references had gone through etc and he told us the move in date would have to be delayed by another week. We queried why (not wanting another week back on the air-mattress) - and if there was work being done couldn't we move in in the meantime etc They never got back to us. Tony did some searching and found a bunch of bad reviews of the agency - saying that this was a common tactic for this agency - get the deposit - then delay the move in date until the tenants 'changed their mind' and found another place. If you 'change your mind' you don't get the deposit back. Luckily for us the Agent did agree to return our deposit.
Our threshold
So we were back at square one - with at least a week of not sleeping on the air mattress - but with the prospect of being back on it as of the following Sunday if we couldn't find something quick. Tony did a search of the most reputable agents we could find - and found one with 250 good reviews and only 5 negative ones. A lovely agent showed him around 3 places in Highbury/Islington. I joined him at lunchtime and looked at 2 ordinary places in Whitechapel, but Tony wanted me to see the nice ones he'd seen in the morning. So we made time in the evening to go back. The 3 flats were each lovely - all in old buildings but newly furnished and finished. I could have lived in any of them - although one was on the high street and would have been very noisy (although right in the middle of everything). The one that we decided on was on 2 levels - with the master bedroom upstairs, a lovely living space with bay windows looking over the street (from the first floor), and a private rooftop balcony with a BBQ looking over the city. It opens up right from the master bedroom so you have views of the city from the bed. Having any outside space is unusual in London so we were very excited at the prospect of a rooftop garden of our own. There's also a second bedroom for visitors. We said yes on the spot.
Let!
The old Arsenal Stadium
Highbury is a lovely suburb - close to Islington which is really bustling - but has its own parks, little strips of local shops and charm. There is a a local independent butcher (everything in the UK seems to be part of a chain so independent stores are rare), independent fish monger, grocer, wine shop and cheese shop. There are also lovely little cafes and a local pub - all only 1 block from our flat! We can also see the old Arsenal stadium from our rooftop - so I guess that's our choice of football team done.
The first 10 days
We got off to a rocky start. We had arranged over the internet to rent a flat for the first 2 weeks - to give me time to start work without having to look for houses at the same time, and to give us some space and time to get over the jetlag. Unfortunately it turned out to be an internet fraud.
We turned up at the advertised office of the place to pick up the keys and they had never heard of us. Another scam website was borrowing their details (office address, phone number and properties) to make their site look legitimate, whilst stealing people's deposits. Unfortunately for us we had paid in full online and so lost about $1600. Lesson learned - check Trip Advisor before booking any accommodation over the internet. We learned after the fact that in fact the site had been flagged on Trip Advisor before hand.Kensington is very pretty - close to Kensington gardens where Kate and Wills live, and close to Hyde Park, Buckingham palace etc. Its not a bad commute to work - but was hard. The flat was tiny. Smaller even than the flat Lizzie and Cam had in Curtin. The kitchen was a curvy bench in the lounge room - with one 2 seater sofa and one 1 seater chair. This means that not everyone can sit at any one time. Then we had to wait til they are ready to go to bed before we caould blow up our air mattress (luckily its an aero bed l so its electric and we didn't have to blow it up with out lungs) and go to bed on the lounge room floor. We didn't sleep very well because you don't on air mattresses, and also because the mattress suctions itself onto the floorboards, and when you roll over it noisily suctions itself off the floor and sucks on again in a different spot. Not very restful. In addition to that Sarah works from home - she is setting up a little business online making necklaces with messages in a bottle. So the fact she had two extra people, their luggage, and 3 shipping boxes in her flat is very noticeable.
We spent the weekend down in Dursely in Gloucestershire at Mum and Dad's friends Rose and Nick's. It was a merciful break from the claustrophobic little Kensington flat. We caught the train down on Friday night - £20 each each way - and Nick picked us up from the train station. They had put out an amazing spread of cheese, dips and nibbly things - including a baked Camembert with fresh bread - amazing. We then fell gratefully into a real bed, up at the top of the house in our own room with our own bathroom - the first bit of privacy we'd had since we left Australia - and slept until midday. I don't think we were over our jetlag until then.
We wandered down to the local pub on the Saturday and entertained the barmaid by wanting to try all the different beers - and by not knowing what pork scratchings were. It turned out they are crackling - but put in a little packet so you don't have to wait until you have a roast pork to enjoy them. They were so wickedly good. There was a lovely fire and all the locals brought their dogs down with them. We sat there all afternoon with our pints and some books we'd picked up for £1 at the local charity store, reading and patting dogs. It was bliss and made us want to bring Scout over so she could sit with us in the little pubs.
NIck and Rose took us out to a lovely pub for roast lunch on Sunday - it was horrible weather - sleety rain and windy - so we couldn't really appreciate the view from the pub over the valley below. We got back to London late Sunday night - back to the air mattress.
Luckily for us friends of some good friends of ours (who we had met for the first time on Thursday night) were going away for the week - and offered us their flat in Putney to stay in while they are away. We of course jumped at the chance - and so spent the second week in a real bed in a flat to ourselves.
Finding our Flat
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| Tony standing outside waiting to be let in |
We also have finally found a place to live. We had found one initially in a East London which is these days the very trendy part of town. However the flat was a tired little place and it needed new floors and furnishings. We said to the agent we would take it anyway because the location was amazing. To secure a flat here you have to pay a deposit to take it off the market while your reference checks are completed etc. Once the checks are complete then you pay the bond and first month's rent (and the deposit is taken out of the rent). So we paid the deposit on the understanding that the flat was empty - but that the landlord was going to redo the floors and give it a clean and we could move in on the following Saturday. We then called the agent on the Monday before we were supposed to move in to confirm the references had gone through etc and he told us the move in date would have to be delayed by another week. We queried why (not wanting another week back on the air-mattress) - and if there was work being done couldn't we move in in the meantime etc They never got back to us. Tony did some searching and found a bunch of bad reviews of the agency - saying that this was a common tactic for this agency - get the deposit - then delay the move in date until the tenants 'changed their mind' and found another place. If you 'change your mind' you don't get the deposit back. Luckily for us the Agent did agree to return our deposit.
 |
| Our threshold |
So we were back at square one - with at least a week of not sleeping on the air mattress - but with the prospect of being back on it as of the following Sunday if we couldn't find something quick. Tony did a search of the most reputable agents we could find - and found one with 250 good reviews and only 5 negative ones. A lovely agent showed him around 3 places in Highbury/Islington. I joined him at lunchtime and looked at 2 ordinary places in Whitechapel, but Tony wanted me to see the nice ones he'd seen in the morning. So we made time in the evening to go back. The 3 flats were each lovely - all in old buildings but newly furnished and finished. I could have lived in any of them - although one was on the high street and would have been very noisy (although right in the middle of everything). The one that we decided on was on 2 levels - with the master bedroom upstairs, a lovely living space with bay windows looking over the street (from the first floor), and a private rooftop balcony with a BBQ looking over the city. It opens up right from the master bedroom so you have views of the city from the bed. Having any outside space is unusual in London so we were very excited at the prospect of a rooftop garden of our own. There's also a second bedroom for visitors. We said yes on the spot.
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| Let! |
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| The old Arsenal Stadium |
Highbury is a lovely suburb - close to Islington which is really bustling - but has its own parks, little strips of local shops and charm. There is a a local independent butcher (everything in the UK seems to be part of a chain so independent stores are rare), independent fish monger, grocer, wine shop and cheese shop. There are also lovely little cafes and a local pub - all only 1 block from our flat! We can also see the old Arsenal stadium from our rooftop - so I guess that's our choice of football team done.
Great blog - we want more installments!
ReplyDeleteI think you need more photos of how lovely the inside of your flat is - especially the sunny dining table under the skylight in the tower - and some shots of the rooftop's first Aussie barbecue!