36 Years ago today

 My wife has the memory of an elephant, she never forgets anything. 

She reminded me that it was 36 years ago to the day that we moved into this house. It was the end of one story and the beginning of another.

Our first house was in Blanchardstown on the edge of a large public housing scheme and with a lot of hard work it was mostly paid off and we wanted to move up in the world.You can sell a candle or a box of matches you can also sell a house with no help from an estate agent. No internet back then, so we put a few ads in the evening paper, many people hung up when we said that the house was beside Corduff. We painted a sign and put it up on the embankment beside the house and a man came. "I've come to buy your house" (The kids later called him the cross man) Everything was put into motion to find a good house and we cornered one in Portmarnock beside the sea. Offers were made and rejected, while we increased our offer several times. No go.

Then we tried to get our buyer to pay a deposit of around £2,000. No he said. 

"Me word is me bond"

So I wanted to nail him down as he was moving from a corporation house and he was getting a grant.

I told my solicitor to take £1 deposit and he blew his top. My brother who is a solicitor in the UK told me that his purpose was to act on my behalf and he must act as per my instructions.So £1 was paid and we moved a step closer to the end. Two weeks later he told us that he would move in 2 weeks !

Back to Portmarnock NO GO ! A friend of ours who had been an estate agent told us to walk around the area day and night, there might be a drummer living next door, you only have one chance to find out.

Then on the way back home we cut up a road in Clontarf where they were putting a for sale sign on a house and the lady told us that she would let us see it on Monday. Viewed it on Monday, Survey done on Tuesday. We told the auctioneer that our house was sold and that we had been approved for a loan. So this was a cash offer.We could move in in 2 weeks another £300 closed the deal.

2 weeks later as we were moving out the phone rang and it was the auctioneer from the Portmarnock house to tell us that our offer had been accepted. Poor man was flabbergasted when I told him he was too late.

"You could not close a sale so quickly" he said. I said for him to ring back in an hour and talk to the new owner. 

I knew a guy who lived in the area and the Portmarnock house went unsold for a further 6 weeks.

Yes fun and games often backfire.