A second look

This morning we went shopping but that's pretty incidental compared with the rest of the day. We bought some stuff, we had some lunch, I drank pearl tea, we filled in forms to get mobile phone sim cards, we bought some more stuff. Nothing exciting.

But then the great property hunt continued. We went out this afternoon to have a look at an open house in Halswell, near the house we saw yesterday that we liked so much. It was nice. Jo was particularly taken with it. But then we went for a second look at the other place. And to be honest, there's no comparison. There's a price difference between the two and you get what you pay for. Today's one is nice, but smaller, with a kitchen that's not quite as special, a bit smaller garden, ...etc, but it's cheaper. The other one is pretty lovely.

We were torn. Basically it was a toss up between no mortgage and a very nice almost new house, or a bit of a mortgage and a lovely, brand new house. We went drove round the area a bit more, to see if there were any hidden sewage works, and then went for a coffee, just the two of us, for a chat. We drew up a list of the pro and cons of each place, enjoyed a truly magnificent banana, chocolate and boysenberry muffin each, and still were no closer to a decision. There was a third option, of course, that we think three days in a city is not long enough to make an informed decision about a house, but we decided to ignore that one. We've done our homework, we've looked around a bit, we've seen the area and liked it, and Christchurch is not Auckland or London. It doesn't take forever to learn the city. (Not that I'm saying we totally know Chch after less than a week, of course.)

We decided to take another drive round the area, past each place once again, and then headed back to the flat. Joanne had promised to phone her mum. In fact Shirley called almost the instant we walked through the door. Talking it through together, and with Shirley, it became clear. For a small mortgage it wasn't worth giving up a house we both really loved. So we're decided. Short of multiple tuts of dismay and negative comments about the area when we mention Halswell tomorrow at church, we intend to make a formal offer for the house, subject to stuff, before the open house being held there at 3:30pm. We know there are another couple going back for a second look tomorrow so it would be nice to get something accepted before they see it again, ideally. We shall see where our opening gambit gets us, eh?

Incidentally, the house is on William Brittan Avenue. I was intrigued about who William Brittan was to have an avenue named after him. Turns out that he was an English bloke, Chairman of the Society of Canterbury Colonists, who lived from 1809 to 1876. He arrived here in 1850. His headstone reads "One of the founders of Canterbury". Interesting, eh? I thank you, Mr Internet.

Looking forward to church tomorrow. It's going to be good to finally meet our new Christian family.

Ooh, and the footy season kicks off in the next couple of hours. Up the Mariners, eh?