Tatty flats

Visited four more flats yesterday. Tatty old flat in karriokallio and nice one in Espoonlahti which had special floors. It was on the first floor and right next to a "pesatupa" a communal washing area, so Maija thought it would be great for washing and drying clothes. We then went to Päkinarinne and say a 3rd floor flat which Maija fell in love with immediately, and wanted to make an offer on it there and then. The estate agent from Kotiovi was all smiles and was already filling in the forms. Since we had another flat to see in the same area, I tried to say let's not be hastey. So we went to see the other flat and it was on the 5th floor and it was a bit of a dump. The floor was all scratched as though the hounds of hell and been having an ice hockey match in the living room and the fridge freezer and cooker was that sunburst brown colour from the early seventies. It was ghastly with grim everywhere. But the estate agent kept on saying it was "big" and it had "potential" He was a forceful young man with badly done highlights in his hair. Never trust anyone with blonde streaks in their hair especially if they are wearing purple polyesther trousers, and driving a rusty volkswagon Polo.

We had taken a form to fill in from the previous house and we went to my office and filled it in and faxed it off the the estate agent. We said that our offer of the full price of 138000€ would be open until 15:00 today and one further condition would be that we would be able to move in on the 15th of February.

This morning we heard from the estate agent that the lady who is selling the house is pleased to be getting the full asking price, but she has an operation coming up and they is why she wants to stay to later in the Spring. Hopefully she will cahnge her mind or come up with an alternate suggestion. We are waiting for a telephone call just like Justin and Colin