Thursday, October 29, 2009

House-Hunting in Wales: part 3

This morning we awoke in The Lion Hotel, Builth Wells for our last day of house-hunting in Wales. Pictured below is the Northern Ireland-style mural visible from our breakfast table.

Breakfast view from The Lion Hotel, Builth Wells

Our usual trawl of the High Street estate agents garnered a haul of only three possibles, which we filtered in the car to just one, two miles north of Builth Wells.

Approaching past the station and under the railway bridge we drove through a familiar landscape of overgrown tufted grass, abandoned oildrums, rusting equipment, derelict caravans, gravelled and puddled driveways fronting nissen huts of indeterminate function and ... well, you get the picture. Eventually we found the driveway to the oasis of arcadian loveliness as described by the estate agent. I at least was prepared to navigate the pond outside the driver's door and look down the driveway. Clare had meanwhile lost the will to live.

We turned around and came home, a journey illustrated by the pictures below.

The M4 Severn crossing



Welcome to England

Five hundred miles and perhaps twenty properties seen, none of which was remotely suitable. Our new target to search is the area north of Lyme Regis.


Exasperated in Llandovery

Elaine always claims to find the commentaries more amusing than the video. Here was how we reacted when we discovered yesterday that the estate agents in Llandovery, along with most of the town, close up for lunch.