House Hunters International - House #2

Wow!  When I named this blog I had no idea how accurate it would be to my life at this point.  When we flew over for the final move to England I was 32 weeks pregnant with a baby boy.  We had been in England 2 weeks when I woke up to find myself in labor one Friday morning.  That definitely made for "A Change In Plans"!
  
Lane Verald Brown was born on Saturday, March 19, 2011 at 7:55 am at The Portland Hospital in London.  He weighed 6 lbs 2 oz and was very healthy.  All has been well with the family since Lane's birth.  He is a very good baby.  More on my experience with healthcare in the UK in a later post.  For now, I'm going to time travel back and pretend we haven't moved over yet and I am still presenting our housing finalists...

The specifications we were hoping to find in a house were:
1)  4 bedrooms with adequate number of bathrooms.
2)  Backyard for Logan, baby brother and Dolly the dog to play.
3)  Neighborhood where other kids might live that Logan could play with.
4)  Outdoor area for Logan to ride her bike.
5)  Tiled floors in some areas for Dolly to come inside (we only allow her on tiled floors).

HOUSE HUNTERS INTERNATIONAL - HOUSE #2

Virginia Water

The listing for this house read - 
A popular Virginia Park townhouse set around the beautiful Chapel (now a multi-purpose sports facility). Just a few minutes from the village and benefiting from 24 hour security and fabulous residents sports facilities including indoor pool, Jacuzzi, sauna, gymnasium, and tennis court.  Comprising 4 bedrooms * 3 bathrooms * drawing room * study/4th bedroom * kitchen/dining room * conservatory * utility room * cloakroom * double garage and small private garden.

The monthly rental on this house = £3,750 per month.  Current exchange rate = 1 British pound = 1.6080 US dollars.  Doing a little simple math = $6,092 per month in US dollars.  

The background on this development called Virginia Park is interesting.  The grand main building was once an insane asylum.  Holloway Sanatorium was commissioned by Thomas Holloway who was a wealthy philanthropist and was built between 1873 and 1885. The sanatorium was transferred to the National Health Service in 1948, suffered a fire at some point and then became unoccupied and neglected.   Virginia Park was developed in 2000 and consists of condominiums in the main building, detached homes and townhouses.

The converted Sanatorium

Indoor Pool

Front of Townhouse

The Chapel - View from Townhouse

The Chapel - Entrance

Foyer

Steps from Foyer to Ground Floor

Door into Kitchen / Dining Area on Ground Floor

Cloak Room

Cloak Room

Laundry / Utility Room

Laundry / Utility Room

Kitchen

Kitchen

Kitchen

Dining Area

Conservatory

Conservatory

Patio

Steps from Foyer to Main Floor

Door to Guest Suite

Guest Bedroom

Guest Bath

Drawing Room

Second Floor Landing

Master Bedroom

Master Wardrobe

Master Bath

Bedroom #2

Bedroom #2 Wardrobe

Family Bath

Our review of the positives and negatives of this property:

Positives:

1)  The development where this townhouse is located has lots of character and is very nicely maintained.

2)  Safe area - gated development with security guards 24 hours.

3)  Great paved areas for Logan to ride her bike.

4)  Nice park on the grounds for Logan to play and meet other kids.

5)  Room for guests.

6)  Entire ground floor has tile flooring which would be good for having Dolly inside.

7)  The development is just across the street and in short walking distance to shops and train station.

Negatives:

1)  3 floors - stairs, stairs, stairs!!

2)  Townhouse is smaller than the house in which we are used to living.

3)  Rooms are short on storage.

4)  Older kitchen than other houses seen.
5)  Small back yard.

Last up - House #3.