And isn't that an exciting subject line?

However, the news kind of is.

We're buying a house! Woo! And also Ooooh... 'Cos as well as being exciting it's also really scary. It's the first house we saw (out of a grand total of two, but we both think that it's going to be very difficult to find as nice a house in as nice an area that is as close to Newcastle for the price). The place we saw on Saturday was okay, but there were just too many little niggly things wrong with it (and, to top it off, it was about ten yards - literally - from the East Coast Mainline) so we went with this one where the only real concern was that it may prove a little bit too small for us, but, as I don't plan on this being our last house (I'm thinking we'll probably move again in about five years at the moment) and there are lots of development opportunities in the place (not the least of which is the outhouse - attached to the house - which could be really easily converted into a little office/library type affair and a third bedroom could be built above it.)

Even better, there is no chain involved so now we're just going to be waiting for solicitors and what have you. So, it'll be reasonably swift, I think. Getting it all sorted by the beginning of August (or maybe the middle of August, as we're on our hols at the beginning) would be pretty much ideal.)

Yes, yes, I know, my lunch hour is over so I should be working now rather than writing in my LJ. And, if I'm not working should I be writing the novel?

However...

I did the PC maintenance thing last night. My friend Gail's internet connection died on her and being the incredibly knowledgeable PC person that I am (and having worked on BT's internet helpdesk for all of... ooohhh... six weeks) I went around to try and fix it.

Fortunately, for my self-esteem and Gail's email, the first thing I did fixed it - a standard 'power cycle' (unplug the modem from PC and power supply, reboot the computer and the plug the modem back in) which rebooted the modem. So I was glad of that.

As a reward, she let me go through her clothes that she was giving to charity (Luckily for me, we are pretty much the same size). And I found several things that I liked lots and fitted me well - a gorgeous skirt and several tops. So, I think I came out ahead on that one. Now I just have to find somewhere to store them.

The other thing Candy and I (and Max, although he took less active interest in it than we did) did yesterday evening was look at a house. We've decided that rather than fork out £500 a month in rent, we'd rather start paying a mortgage again. We have quite a limited budget (around £100,000 - which should really be more than enough but the way that house prices have gone recently... We bought a flat about ten years ago for £34,000 and sold it about four years ago for £80,000 and the prices have just kept on rising) but it's at least enough to get something. The house we saw yesterday was in a reasonable area, two bedrooms and a garden both front and back. It's bigger than where we are now, but not by much. It is, however, a very strong possibility. It has a lot of potential (including a workroom/outhouse area that could conceivably be converted into an office/library). We have another place to see tomorrow that is very close to this house. That one has three bedrooms and is quite a lot larger than this one, but it only has one paved garden area at the back. Looking at it again though on the estate agent website, it does look very promising (and we could always rip up the paving stones and lay turf. We've done the turf laying thing and we're very good at it.)