Yesterday I took half a day off to inspect a place in Letchworth (it’s a 2 hour tube+train journey each way.) The place had much potential! Small but roomy enough for the two of us. In a bit a messy state, but that’d be professionally fixed before we got there. A smallish electric-top stove, but I found a gas connection behind it so we’d have the ability to put in something nice. A back yard to die for, seriously. Massive by UK standards, maybe 10m wide bu 30m deep, and in two parts with a dividing hedge. Clearly the back ⅔ was once the veggie garden but has been grassed over at some time. There’s a fruit tree in the middle of the rear section, probably apple, and blackberry vines throughout the hedging. The yard was a bit rough around the edges, but that’s exactly what I’m after – something I can play with without worrying about messing up manicured lawns.

The place would be dead quiet, set back far from the road (a cul-de-sac), seemingly surrounded by older folk, and with nothing but extensive gardens and greenery to the rear. Only a 590 metre walk from the station according to my GPS, walking through the central shopping district. The entire route open, well lit, and probably very safe.

Problem: No shower! Tiny little bathroom, but that’s OK. But no shower?! C’mon? Bloody English.

*sigh* So, good yet fatally flawed. It’d be an ideal purchase, a little work and you’d probably make up for any short-term value loss (unless things go really pear shaped.) In the long run it’d be a safe investment I’d say, thanks to the location. Not sure if it’d be freehold or leasehold, but if the latter it’d have about 900 years left as this is part of the original Garden City “demo village” built in the early 1900s. The building is certainly listed though, probably grade II, so there’s very little prospect of extension the place. It’s end-of-terrace so an end-side rear conservatory may be allowable (I think the place at the opposite end has an extension of the sort.) That’d provide for a better, more open, kitchen space I think. Also, maybe, a sympathetically designed far-rear-shed-cum-office could be possible. Gah, I shouldn’t be thinking about this stuff, depressing.

I’m trying to arrange to see another place this week. On paper it looks good. According to the agent I spoke with yesterday the area isn’t as nice, but should be safe. It’s twice as far from the station compared to the place I looked at on Monday, I timed the walk today: 10 minutes at a brisk pace (probably 15 for Kat.) Not too bad. In the evening I tried researching the street but could find no record of crime in the area and nothing else untoward. The main claims to Internet fame seem to be that a taxi driver is registered there and the Letchworth Buddhist centre was, until recently, located at one end. Being the location of a Buddhist temple is surely a good sign, right? Maybe we’ll find out.

I also tested out the commute to Kat’s work (The City) using the non-fast train since the direct LET-KGX trains only run during commuter hours. I went via train to Finsbury Park, then Victoria line to Kings Cross, then Northern to Bank. After walking from Bank to the vicinity of Kat’s office 1 hour and 10 minutes had passed. Not too much more than the current commute (barely over an hour.) However this was the slower-than-fast train, double-however the time was taken from Letchworth station and doesn’t account for walking from some other location in town. Overall it shouldn’t work out as too bad a commute though, not worse than the current arrangement anyway.

(As for Colchester, not possible for a couple of logistic reasons.)