Tuesday 10 March 2009

Exceptional Extras

My quest is over. I’ve found a place to live, and it wasn’t easy. After leaving Dovecot Towers, and indeed because of Dovecot Towers, I had a list of cast iron requirements. Sadly, what I now consider essential in a home is in reality up there with diamond encrusted door-handles and platinum floors.

I was only asking for basics, like a strong door. When I lived in Dovecot Towers and discovered that miscreants had stolen the main door, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but my new block has a good door on it. A fine door. A safe door.

The post room is still communal with shallow boxes, but it’s safe. The building has a proper concierge (hooray!) which isn’t as grand as it sounds. They’re caretakers, really; the difference is, they will sign for post. The idea of having someone sitting at reception acts as a deterrent to people forcing their way in, but then the architects and developers have also hit upon a totally sci-fi innovation, usually found only on spaceships. It’s a main door that actually closes properly.

Regular readers aware of my proclivities might be curious for details of the cupboard situation. The news is not all good. I am not overburdened with yawning storage so vast that suitcases look lonely, or acres of shelving (sigh...) but there is a utility cupboard, for my mops, brooms and washer-drier. Let the joy be unconfined!

There’s a separate kitchen. Old-fashioned tenants accustomed to boiling their smalls on the hob appreciate separate kitchens. Personally I am not so inclined, but even so I’m grateful that I can shut the door so the entire flat doesn’t reek of whatever I am cooking.

There’s also a small balcony with a door that opens inwards so you don’t knock visitors over the edge, and a view. Hardly a stirring panorama of snow-capped mountains, but at least I’m not staring into someone else’s flat with a distance of just five feet between us.

And it’s larger than the average flat, but unfortunately, it’s painted white throughout and must stay that way. There were nails ready in the walls begging to be hung with pictures. I can’t hear my neighbours music, or their toilet flushing or any other diverting Dovecotian delights. There’s a recycling bin, and a water meter. There’s a well-posted fire assembly point (but with a decided lack of arsonists hereabouts, I doubt I’ll find myself standing there at dawn in my curlers.) The landlord seems to be a reasonable man who simply wants to let his flat and therefore needs a tenant.

Speaking as a former resident of the gruelling dystopia that was Dovecot Towers, I know from bitter experience that these matters are vital, even in buy-to-let developments. Security, a good, sturdy design and efficient management should never be considered as indulgent extras beyond the reach of renters. Safety is not a luxury.

So that’s a great flat, an apparently secure building, in a quiet area (all it needs now is a pseudonym; any suggestions?) What could possibly go wrong?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Renter Girl.
Congratulations on finding your new home.
I hope it is all it seems.
I'm still a bit worried about the open mail room.

Did you end up use the Land Registry;

http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/lro/index.html

to locate the landlord in order to make an offer than wouldn't be sneered at by the letting agent?

Anonymous said...

Great news! Hope you will be much happier there RenterGirl!

Anonymous said...

Good luck in your new home Renter Girl. Might need a little more info for that pseudonym .. lovely to meet you tonight by the way.

Anonymous said...

Hi liked the article in the Guardian.
For the landlords perspective see www.propertyhawk.co.uk

RenterGirl said...

Thanks for all your good wishes. Half me thinks: if all goes to plan, it will be too boring to post about. And anonymous - I'm linked to property hawk (they didn't link back!) but there is another side. I didn't use the land registry to find my landlord. I just seem to have through usual means found a reasonable home with decent owner. So far...so good...And expletive undeleted - yep, it was good to meet. So many normal normal well-balanced bloggers in one room. We give our kind a bad name.

RenterGirl said...

As for the postroom, well there's no choice. The comunal postroom is a design orthodoxy now. At least someone watches over it.

Anonymous said...

congrats RG,well done.

Anonymous said...

I'd call it Southfork Ranch.

x

RenterGirl said...

Southfork? Hmmm...tempting. Valhalla? Shangi-La?

Anonymous said...

I love your blog! I feel as though I will live in rented accommodation forever and ever but at least if the boiler goes, I don't have to pick up the bill.

Emily