Housefinding trip

As I mentioned before, the company covers housing during my secondment in the UK.  The housing package you get depends on how long you stay.  Kerry and I are here for 1 year, so we are entitled to a furnished place with a cap on the monthly rent.  

When we arrived, we moved into an extended stay hotel, and a relocation agent met us and we went on a homefinding trip.  Since we had cats, our options were limited to 3 places available and met our requirements.  Turns out most British landlords are not keen on renting furnished flats to cat owners.  Fine, they seem to have no problem with the renters cooking strong curries every night and letting the odors get absorbed into the carpets and upholstery.   

Rental properties move fast here, and one of our 3 options had just become available.  It was a ways out from the Derby city center, so it meant more of a commute for me to get to work, but we checked it out anyway, keeping an open mind.

In summary, we were totally impressed for what we could get with our rental allowance, and we took some photos to document the experience, and to help us compare to make a decision.  We were so wowed that we forgot to take a lot of pictures, but I'm sharing our favorites here.  The competition was crazy, and our viewing was triple booked with others looking at this rental, so many pictures have others in the frame.

The curb appeal was stunning.  Unfortunately yard maintenance was not included in rent, and while I'm not afraid of a bit of weekend mowing, The yards here were daunting.

Nonetheless, near the back of the property, the trees were stunning.

As it turned out, this rental had quite a history, dating back to the 1600's.  The Duke of Devonshire really poured a lot of capital into it, and it really payed off.  The furnished house had many original furniture pieces and artwork, which was a nice plus.  I really connected with the owner's design style, with paintings of nude women everywhere.

I was a fan of the dining room, but since the kitchen crockery (pots and pans) was not included, that kind of ruined it for me.

The bedroom linens were a bit dated, but the curtains would do a great job at blocking out extraneous light that disturb a good night's sleep. 

The guestroom was more our style, so we thought about just giving the master to any guests that would stop by.

The most distinctive characteristic of this house was the statue room.  Quite striking figures with the natural light and stone walls.

In the end, we decided against this property unfortunately, opting for something a bit more modest.  Only afterwards did we find out that the relocation company accidentally showed us this rental, as it was in fact well outside of our budget, it turned out that the monthly rent was all written in millions of pounds.  Anyway, we hope to have the paperwork sorted soon so we can move in, then we'll let show some pictures of our actual UK residence!