Second weekend of houses

[davidn]

The second weekend of house viewing saw us going around with our new-found housing agent Helene in Watertown, being driven around the area as well as looking at houses that are on the market. With the exception of the last, nothing really stood out so far:

#1 had unfinished-looking walls and a lot of its space contained in the basement, which was nicely finished but almost like a completely separate apartment from the main house, being separated by a common entrance with the floor above.

#2 had a weird layout with a front room with no usable walls (three openings to other rooms, and a window-seat). It also boasted a "bonus room" in the basement, which was a dingy little room with a dartboard, broken sofa, vending machine, fishing rods and about 98 golf clubs stacked against the wall.

#3 was probably the best of the first day of looking, but the windows in the bedrooms were very small, making them too dark. And there was a truly oppressive amount of stuff piled in the basement by the other flat that shared it.

#4 was built by Salvador Dali. The rooms were nice individually, but were stuck together apparently at random, with a need to walk through one of the bedrooms to get to the kitchen, and quite a lot of space at the side was taken up with what you might call a utility room, but only because it had a sink stuck on the wall.

#5 is amazing for the price, is in a near-perfect location and has the complete overkill of three bathrooms despite only having two bedrooms, but it's too high up considering Whitney's knees (it's a third floor flat), and has no garden or parking space.

Of all of those, #5 looks like the most likely (the only worthwhile one at all, in fact) but it's still only the start of our search. I still think that Watertown is the best place for us because it's right next to central areas, especially the amusement I have of possibly living somewhere called "The Village".

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Calling it a "bonus room" must have felt like a complete stroke of genius for whoever came up with it. "How do we explain that part of the basement is cut off behind a separate door? Maybe make it sound like it's something extra. The... the appendix? No, no.."

[davidn]

When I read it, it did rather made me think that it would be full of ? blocks.

[diarytypething.livejournal.com]

It's a word which appeals to gamers as well as to corporate types - it's probably as close as they thought they could get to a universally well-received description. And it must work sometimes, because some poor bugger owns that bonus room now.

[kjorteo]

I was thinking more that filling the "bonus room" in one's basement full of things like a dartboard, broken sofa, and golf clubs everywhere really added to that cozy "this is where the bodies are stashed" atmosphere.

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

If you find a fire flower in there, let me know.

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

When I hear "bonus room", I always think of the song included in Skullmonkeys (http://www.danielamos.com/tst/imaginarium/thelilbonusroom.html).

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Oh man, listening to that song in a tiny little windowless basement room would be the creepiest thing ever. X3

I need to play Skullmonkies! I enjoyed The Neverhood...

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

It's surprisingly different than The Neverhood was (as it ended up being a side-scrolling platformer than a puzzle game) but all still incredibly clay-like. That's what I liked about it. It's too bad it's an obscure game.
If you get a chance, try to listen to Terry S Taylor's soundtracks for the games - I think it was titled Imaginarium - they are bizarre, but very humourous :)

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

I've already got The Neverhood's soundtrack, and the title song from Skullmonkies :)

I really, really hope they still have the original photographs to these games; seeing The Neverhood so dithered and compressed was heartbreaking, after all the effort they put into all that scenery that must have been so vibrant in real life... an iPhone revival with full-color images would be perfect!

[davidn]

I need to voice my agreement that, written out like that, that is the creepiest song ever! It could be perfectly innocent in the game, I don't know, but it's like Animal Crossing, which I've read so much about being this nightmarish twisted cutesy world that it's easy to forget that it's really a very innocent game.

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

I never really realized just how creepy that song is without the music. Here's the track (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al0XOLM9FPw). :)