Not Happy, Mum

When we were house hunting, HRH made her requirements very clear: new, glass, chrome, somewhere cool with a lift, a pool and views of the city. Old, funky, weird: no way, Jose!

When we found the place we ended up getting, she did a quick walk through during a Saturday morning inspection, turned up her nose and forbid me to buy it. When we didn't get it the first time round (someone else signed a contract before I could make an offer), she made a feeble and brief effort to hide her relief.

When that deal fell through and my second attempt at an offer was successful, one of us was relieved, over the moon and shell-shocked, all in repeated rapid succession. The other of us was not happy and had a bit of a sulk. She complained that her friends would be too embarrassed to come visit her someplace so dumpy and dowdy and her social life would be over! I struggled to find the downside and to keep a straight face.

But she is Her Mother's Daughter and, once she realised that the deal was done, she started negotiating to make the best of a bad situation. After a couple of days of haggling, she proposed the following terms:

1. She gets a double bed to replace her single bed and double bed sized manchester (bed linens)
   
2. She gets a proper built-in in her room instead of a wardrobe (closets, an institution in some countries, are not common in Australian homes built in the 1940s) and built to her specifications around hanging space, shelves, drawers and storage
3. She gets to paint one wall in her room the colour of her choice
   
4. She gets final say about where things were put in the new place because she had a better interior design sense than I did. Sort of hard not to take that the wrong way, eh?
5. The mini-blinds in all the windows get replace with roller blinds which are much cooler and more modern than mini-blinds
6. Foxtel (cable TV) in her room
7. She gets a cat and/or a dog
   

There were some discussions about the first 4 and we did reach agreement, although only in principle for item #4. Item #5 has been put on hold until after we move in. Item #6 is still being discussed with some fundamental agreements in principle reached pending a final decision. Item #7 is on hold for the foreseeable future pending discussions with the body corporate.

In our building, the body corporate has to agree before you get a pet. There are already cats living in the other units of the building so it shouldn't be a problem, but a dog is a slightly different matter. We'll have to go through the process.

Seems that HRH is not only come to terms with living in the new place but is starting to get excited about it. Her friends have all given it a big thumbs up so maybe it's not so dumpy and dowdy after all.