Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out: April 29, 2006

bodiam castle

could this be the way forward?

could we either buy a castle or maybe dig a moat round the perou factory making it very tricky for bulldozers to demolish us.

this is bodiam castle in east sussex.
i love this castle.
first saw it with my primary school on an outing when i was 8 or 9.
i haven't been back till today.

maximum loved it.
we bought him a plastic sword at the gift shop and taught him how to run at his enemies (the LDA) shouting 'charge!'.

oh dear dead deer

who killed bambi?

spent the day looking at three houses (and a castle).

this deer head was lying on the drive of the second property we visited: quite a welcome.
fortunately maximum didn't see it.
the vendor had apparently shot it this morning.
:(

we want to move into the first house we saw.
it's (very) big and sits on 40 acres of mainly woodland.
down a quiet private lane.
it's got a beautiful overgrown, mature garden and a huge old swimming pool.

apparently the previous owners had to be escorted off the premises after defaulting on their mortgage.
before they left, they destroyed the house (inside): it looks like it has been squatted in.
it's disgusting...but it's got potential.
i think the former tennants might have been mentally ill (seriously).

so anyway, now the bank owns the property and they're holding open days over the next three weekends.
today was the first open day.
there were 20 couples there who had all arrived in range rovers and bentleys etc...

and now, unfortunately, it's a closed bid thing where you have to make your offer (above the suggested price) in a hope to outbid everyone else.
you get one chance.
the guide price was pretty much our absolute full budget.
outbidding anyone will require a miracle of some kind.

IF we did get it, we wouldn't be able to afford to renovate it at all: we'd just have to do a room a year or something.
but at least we'd be living in the home of our dreams etc...

i very much doubt we'll get it.
we appeared to be at the bottom of the financial tree there.
ho hum.

saw two more places we didn't like so much.
(the dead deer head didn't help).

sick of house hunting still.
and my cold's getting worse.

sometime soon, i know this will all be sorted and it'll be ok.
getting there's exhausting though....