The Flat Hunter.

So I'm a little late in writing this, but everything is happening now at such whirlwind speed, it's actually hard to keep up with myself!

Thursday just gone was the day I had been most dreading/looking forward to... the flat viewing day.
I had managed to whittle my extensive shortlist of potential places down to just three, one of which I didn't really like that much; but it was, as David Dickinson would say, "cheap as chips".

My lovely friend N had offered to come with me for moral support and to ensure I didn't get ripped off/end up living in a hole, I'm a bit of a pushover when it comes to these professional types in suits you see! Swoon...

We managed to make it down to Leeds in my trusty little Sylvester the Fiesta in a record 1 hour 30 minutes, only breaking a few speed limits... which felt quite comforting as I realised it's really not THAT far from home.

The first viewing was at a new build complex called West Point, which comes inclusive with its own little Greggs, Tesco Express and a bar called 'Toast'. I really like toast, so I figured we were off to a good start. We were met by the letting agent Tony, (who was quite the silver fox) and shown into a second floor studio apartment complete with a delightful view of the building site next door. Location wise, we worked out that this particular flat was less than a 5 minute walk from where I'm going to be working, probably a good thing considering the parking spaces for the building cost an extra £127pcm! Think I can kiss goodbye to my car if this one turns out to be "the one".

Viewing number two was at a complex called Citispace which was pretty much on the opposite side of Leeds. We had time to kill so stopped into Café Nero for a 'quick' cuppa and bit of cake (for me anyway), naturally, we then realised time had ran away and we were going to be late... and it had started raining, well not raining, pissing down, if you can pardon the French. Armed with Google maps on N's phone we started power walking through Leeds city centre. After crossing what seemed like a thousand zebra crossings, everything started to slope downhill, but good old Google said it wasn't much further, we just had to find our way through a fairly shady looking industrial estate. Whilst crossing over the final road of the trek, N suddenly decided this was the best moment to practice her Michael Jackson impression. One leg out-stretched, one leg bent behind her she hit the deck like the proverbial bag of hammers, the only difference between her and Jacko is, Jacko usually springs back up cat-like within seconds, he doesn't wait to be hauled up by his armpits. Despite suffering from quite a badly twisted foot and bruised ego, the trooper that she is, we ventured on and arrived at Citispace.

By this point the drowned rats had nothing on us, "I hope this agent isn't gorgeous", I said to N, as a large raindrop ran off the end of my nose. Luckily he wasn't... and neither was the flat. As he reeled off the list of things that were broken in the apartment and waiting to be fixed by the landlord, I really wondered why we had bothered coming. Cracks in the ceiling, broken fridge, broken 'balcony' door... the list was endless. I politely complimented the flat on its only good point which was that it came complete with an ironing board, and made my excuses to leave. Good luck to whoever takes that place on but it was immediately ruled out of my list.

The final viewing was at a reasonably new complex directly across the road from the hell hole. This place was like Fort Knox to get into, with CCTV watching you like Big Brother and key fob entry through every door I thought yeah, I could feel safe here... but in hindsight, why would anywhere need so much security? What kind of monsters are they keeping out!?

The flat itself was quite nice, the viewing however was a disaster. The current tenants had clearly missed the email warning them of our visit, and were quite happily sat munching popcorn and watching movies when we gate crashed. The agent Phil spoke at hyperspeed and got us out of there as quickly as possible, but not before I noticed that the "memory-foam mattressed luxury double bed" actually folded into the wall. Now maybe I've watched too many cartoons, but visions of being suddenly catapulted into a brick wall in the middle of the night started playing across my mind as I took a business card from Phil and promptly left.

All in all the day was eventful and gave me a lot to think about, but after mulling over the pros and cons of flats one and three (flat two didn't get a look in) with N as we rested her sore foot in a little bar, I decided that the first flat we visited was probably going to be my best bet, so I called up Tony the silver fox and paid my signing fee. So now it's just a waiting game! I can't actually pick the keys up until April 7th (incidentally the same day as I start my new job) so the actual move is going to be a pain in the derriere but fingers crossed all will go smoothly!

L x