Road Rage
Chapter 4

Copyright© 2010 by Anthony Concept

Several months later I received a phone call from Margie.

"Are you still interested in buying a place in The Narrows Tony?"

"If it's something worthwhile, I could be, what have you found love?"

"Barry Hall's house is on the market, with him in the mental institution, the family want to get rid of it. I've got the phone number to contact and Jack took their notice down so no one else knows about it yet."

"Did they have a price on it Margie?"

"No just for sale and the contact number." She read out the number for me.

"Thanks love, I'll give them a call and see what they're asking for it. I'll call back as soon as I know something."

I called the number she gave me and I spoke to Barry's father, I explained I was calling about the house and enquired about the price. He quoted a figure a bit under what I thought was the market value, he explained that the house needed a bit of work as Barry had neglected it over the years. I arranged to pick up the keys and inspect the place before I made my offer.

I called Margie back and brought her up to date. "I'll bring the girls over with me tomorrow and we can have a good look at and decide if it's a reasonable purchase."

"Good idea Tony, the twins need to have a big input, I'm sure they will be making full use of it in the coming years."

When I told the twins they squealed with excitement. "Can we go and look at it now Daddy?" they chimed in stereo.

"I don't get the key until tomorrow girls, and anyway I don't fancy driving all that way in the dark just to look at a locked house."

"OK, but lets go as early as possible, we can't wait to see it. We will buy it Daddy, won't we?"

"I think so, but we need to give it a good looking over first. Mr Hall told me his son had let the place run down a bit so there could be a lot of work to do before we can use it."

The girls went off to plan for tomorrow's outing, I could hear excited giggles coming from their room. A while later they came out into the lounge room with a list of things we 'should' do. One thing my girls were good at was planning.

"We need to have a note pad and pencil for everyone Daddy, when we look through the house we can jot down anything we see that needs attention, when we get back here we can compile a list of what needs doing."

"That's a great idea Tania, if we decide to buy the place I can take the list and work out a rough estimate of what it'll cost to fix them. Then when I go to see Mr Hall I can bargain on the price, good thinking girls."

...

The girls dragged me out of bed at some ungodly hour, even the birds were still asleep. By the time I'd showered they had breakfast made and were urging me to hurry up.

"We can't do anything until I get the keys from Mr Hall girls, I'm sure he's still in bed sound asleep, just like we should be. You can pack the car and get your things ready if you like but we won't be seeing him before nine o'clock at least, we don't want to seem too eager do we?"

I held out until nine, "AT LAST" in stereo of course. We headed over to Mr Hall's and got the key, I was tempted to enquire of Barry's health but Hall himself seemed a fairly pleasant chap so I let it slide. The trip over to The Narrows was uneventful apart from dodging a few 'roos, the stupid buggers sit on the side of the road and at the last minute startle, often right into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The dead remains scattered along the road bear stark testimony to that.

First stop was the Bell's, where Margie had a pot of tea waiting, I tipped her a wink as the twins were straining at the leash.

"DADDY, when can we see the house?" was their plaintive plea.

"Slow down there girls, it's not going to run away, let your poor old dad have a cup of tea first, then we can all go around there and see what it's like; just be patient."

When we eventually got to the house I was a bit dismayed, I'd seen the house by night but looking at it now in the cold light of day it showed it's true colours, or should I say lack of colour. The paintwork was faded and peeling, the windows were covered in grime, the guttering sagged, probably filled with ti tree leaves. There was the remains of a fence around the block, the place was full of weeds; that would be the first task before anything, weeds and tall grass equals snakes.

When I opened the front door our nostrils were assailed by a dank musty smell, to put it mildly, Barry lived like a pig, take that back, pigs, if kept in the right conditions a relatively clean animals. There was a carpet in the lounge room was stiff with dirt, the pattern indecipherable, the linoleum apart from being worn, hadn't seen a mop this side of last Christmas.

"OK" said Tess in control mode, "Here's a notepad for each of you, we can write down everything we see that need doing, then Daddy can work out what it will cost."

"Good idea girls," said Jack, I can see who's got the brains in this family."

We spent most of the morning inspecting and compiling our lists, the stumps were sound as they were made out of concrete. A good look under the house had confirmed that there were no white ants, a major problem in this area. The roof was sound and although the gutters sagged in places they just needed a good clean our and reattaching. A last look around we retired to the Bell's house.

"OK folks, first opinions, Margie, what did you think?"

"Barry Hall lived like a derro, you would need to strip out everything and burn it, then the whole place would need a thorough scrubbing."

"Jack?"

"The house seems sound enough, a good coat of paint would work wonders. We definitely need to clean the block up first though, God knows what's lurking in the grass."

"Girls?"

"We like it Daddy, it looks yucky now but we can have a lot of fun doing it up, if we bring some of our friends over we can have a working bee ... if it's OK with you that is."

"I don't see why not kids. OK folks, I'll talk to the elder Hall and see if we can do a deal, for now though, I just want to get home and have a shower, I feel itchy all over." I left the keys with Jack as I knew we would be buying it.

It was a lively trip home, the twins were full of ideas, some a bit far fetched but I believe that often the far fetched ideas prompt feasible one's to come forward. It was going to be a very interesting project. Once at home we cleaned up and had our evening meal, then when the dishes were washed and stowed away we sat down with our notes and compiled a master list of what needed attention. I would use this list to work our a rough costing before I went to bargain with Mr Hall.

After my costing, I made an offer a bit lower than the price I was prepared to pay, allowing for a bit of haggling. I taken by complete surprise when Mr Hall accepted it without any comment, he was, as he said "Just glad to get rid of it. It held too many bad memories." I arranged with my lawyers to pay by bank cheque and tie up all the loose ends. We now owned a beach house, the girls were ecstatic.

As an after thought I spoke to the local shire rates officer, I was interested in who owned the adjoining blocks. Maybe I could find out if they were interested in selling them.

A phone call to Margie to let them know I'd bought the place and that we'd be over on the next weekend. When I got home that evening, the twins were busting to know if we had the house.

 
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