So near and yet so far

My tick boxes with regard to property are: Quiet; near transport and shops; lots of storage; character; outside space; good view; two bedrooms.

Today, I saw a top floor flat in a gorgeous street. It was near two tubes, lots of buses, Tesco, Waitrose and Majestic wine warehouse, as well as lots of small local shops. It had a balcony overlooking a park and the park itself was lovely, with tennis courts and a cafe. It had two bedrooms, it had cupboards, it was quirky in extremis, and the price was brilliant.

So why didn't I grab it? Well, the main reason was the layout. The kitchen carved a chunk out of the lounge, leaving a space only large enough for a TV and a two-seater sofa. No room for a dining table or any extra chairs. No room for my dishwasher and fridge freezer. No space for cupboards, hi-fi, DVD's and CD's and definitely no room for books. 'Aha,' thought I: 'They can go in the bedroom.' Well, the fatal flaw in that idea was that there was no fitted wardrobe in the bedroom. In fact, there was no wardrobe at all, the hanging space being round the corner in a small corridor. Put a wardrobe in the bedroom and bang goes the book shelving space. There was also a small cupboard in the small second bedroom, but guess what was in it? The boiler.

Having travelled an hour and half to get there and facing a similar trip back, I felt disappointed, let down, cheated. The description and measurements in the ad were nothing like the reality. It really was a case of almost, but not quite. To get onto the terrace you had to climb through a sash window. To get into the laughingly named 'study' you had to climb through a small cupboard door. Some developer had cut every corner to turn a cramped space into a two-bedroomed flat. And yet it was so gorgeous... for a first-time buyer or a minimalist.