You hear that, Mr Andersen?

Falling into place

I don't want to say that everything's going smoothly, since that seems like it's tempting fate. But the valuer came back, and said that the property was worth $370k, plus $5k chattles - since I was worried that I'd offered way to much, this was a relief. (I'm paying $371k, for those who are interested.) Apparently, it would be more, but having a fish & chip shop right next door is a slightly higher fire risk, and adds to the noise. (Mum was worried about the smell, but the valuer was there during the day, and apparently noticed nothing - so that's one thing I'm not going to worry about any more.)

For those who might be curious, here's a picture culled from the estate agent's page, taken from just behind the garage, looking at the house:

I kinda want to restore the stained glass windows that are so obviously meant to be up the top - you know, the red rose with the green leaves that are always there in this kind of house? I think I'll resist the urge, at least until I've paid off a significant chunk of the mortgage. Redoing the garden, on the other hand, seems like a more managable task...

One of the things that I hadn't really thought about was all the incidental costs - the mortgage broker's fee, the lawyer's fee, the valuer's fee, the property inspection fee... all up, it'll probably be several thousand dollars. I don't begrudge any of these people the money - it's just not something I'd really thought about in a way that directly related to my current account. :)

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Read a bit about the Uncanny Valley - basically, when a depiction is close enough to human that the things wrong with it make the depiction really creepy. I was pointed to this paper by someone describing what they disliked about The Polar Express, which I haven't seen; but this problem is going to become more and more of an issue as CG becomes more and more common. I guess that's the irony - because you can try things too complicated for practical effects, you're more likely to fall in the Uncanny Valley with CG.

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Someone asked me if the "beau" referenced in my Taupo trip was mine. Unfortunately, no - though PH is a nice guy, he's not really my type. The "beau" was in reference to Puggle, not me. (Or "knot" me, if I'm going to make a poor pun. ;) One day my ambiguous grammar will no doubt get me in serious trouble, or at least result in people running in and out of doors across a long corridor.

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We recently got upgraded to flat-panel monitors. Or rather, they recently reclaimed all the CRT monitors that can be colour-calibrated for artist use, so they had to give us something to work on. I like the crispness of the screen, but I've already got one dead pixel; I wonder how long these displays are going to last? I wouldn't go back, though - I really like being able to set my font size to "almost indecipherably tiny", so that I can fit as much information on the screen as possible. The much smaller footprint is also handy, though not as big a bonus as you might think - it's offset by the fact that it's a lot harder to put things on the top of the monitor without them falling off. (Dogbert has been exiled to guarding my documentation.)

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More on the house tomorrow, almost certainly.

Posted by svend at January 20, 2005 11:43 AM