The sequel-to-the-sequel of our house-hunting efforts was pretty epic seeing five houses, in the rain - of course ending in the disaster of our clutch going ping on the A666.

Preparation-wise we I made a nice map of the area showing exactly where we were supposed to be going, including house numbers, an innovation which made us feel all the more organised - but didn't stop me faffing around before leaving the house and making us rather late....

Hartington Road
On the way to this house we were looking over our notes and jackie noticed that the viewing was going to be conducted by Mr and Mrs Fielding. Said Jackie, "I wonder if that's the same Fieldings who went to my primary school...." and lo it was indeed the parents of the same. They were very chatty and had fond memories of Jackie from children's parties and the like. The kids have all flown the nest to exotic foreign climes (Japan and Australia) and the parents are planning on doing likewise in the general direction of Lanzarote. It's such a small world after all. Chat-aside their house was really pretty good - it had a big garden, three reasonably balanced bedrooms and a knock-through lounge with patio doors at the end.
The main cons are that it needs a good deal of refreshing and updating throughout, the location which is just a wee bit cul-de-sac-ish and further away from our sensible transport links - and crucially the price which would require quite a lot of wiggling to make it something we could cope with.

44 Countess Street
We both quite like the location of Countess Street - it's near the local Davenport railway station and is one of a series of little roads with nice Victorian terraced houses. We looked at a different one on the other side of the road the week before however it was too small - and this one by rights would have been exactly the same, only the owners have done strange things to it, basically turning the whole house round so the staircase is off a big open plan lounge. We were hopeful for this one, but weighing it up it just doesn't meet the mark. There is an archaic heating system for starters and a tiny bit of concrete for a garden which has been eaten into by a cheap conservatory. Then the massive trees which the neighbours have already complained about. The upstairs was OK, except that it had been dressed with pretend beds, giving the illusion that the rooms were double sized.

London Road
This 1930s style semi was really really grim, right on a busy junction of the A6, shaking with the noise of passing vehicles. The house itself was fine in many ways, except for the tiny 3rd bedroom. No matter what was right about it there's no way we could cope with living in that particular spot.

Henbury Street
In a quiet cul-de-sac, this house was a fairly standard semi. Sadly it was plagued by the handiwork of the owners estranged partner, who had begun to build an olympic sized pond, destroying the garden and requiring demolition. The ex-hubby's handiwork did not stop there. The kitchen would have been quite pleasant if the work had been finished, but as it was there were allsorts of fiddly missing bits such as tiles and electrics. For some reason the washing machine lived in the hall under the stairs and there was no real alternative for it. Again a tiny 3rd bedroom ruled it out along with the other flaws.

Spring Gardens
A nice little house on a not so nice street tucked behind the A6. Just far too compact for a growing family. There was a very dodgy leaky conservatory and a not especially nice view of some factory or warehouse from the back garden.

My research of the area revealed something interesting and terrifying. I found out there is a plan to build a bypass right into the exact area we have been looking at. It looks like it shouldn't eat into the residential areas, but automatically rammed the words 'compulsary purchase order' into our heads.