Practise the dialogues using the substitutes.

1

A: This is the house (flat, terrace house) I told you about.

B: It is in good condition, isn’t it?

A: Oh, sure, it is.

B: I’m worried about the electrical wiring (central heating, ceiling).

A: Please, don’t worry. It’s quite safe.

2

 A: I’d like to buy a house ( cottage, flat).

 B: I think I have one that would suit you.

 A: Is it far from the centre (station, here)?

 B: It’s five (ten, twenty) minutes’ walk.

 A: How much is it?

 B: It’s not very expensive. But I think you should see it first and then we’ll discuss the price.

3

    Read the dialogue ‘A House to Buy’. Learn it by heart.

David: What did you think about that place, then? Not bad, was it?

Mary: Oh, yes. It was lovely.

D: Not as big as the house we’ve got at the moment, though.

M: No, not as big, it’s true, but it’s in much better location.

D: It’s quite a long way from the station, isn’t it?

M: Oh, yes, it is, but we can walk in summer if it’s a nice day.

D: I’ll tell you one thing I didn’t like, actually, and that was the low ceilings everywhere, especially in the kitchen.

M: Yes, but I think how expensive it is to heat our house at the moment, and that’s partly because the ceilings are so high.

D: I suppose you are right. But the lounge is tiny. You couldn’t get more than five people there.

M: Yes, I know, but the thing to do with this house is to knock down the wall between the living-room and the dining-room. Then you’d have a good-sized room. And think how cosy it would be on a winter evening beside the open fire. And the kitchen was big anyway. And nice and bright.

D: I’m afraid I didn’t like the bedrooms very much, with one on the first floor and the other two in that converted loft.

M: Oh, I loved the bedrooms. They are all double bedrooms, and with those views.

D: But the main one is right next to the street, so that would be very noisy.

M: But the street is not so noisy. I mean it’s only a lawn, it’s not really a busy road.

D: Yes, true. And I suppose the children can have the bedrooms on the top floor. The stairs are a bit dangerous. I’d have to fix them.

M: What about outside? What did you think of that?

D: I thought it was very attractive, with the courtyard and then the garden. I bet the courtyard catches the sun. We could eat out in summer.

M: And it’s quite a big garden. And that’s a lovely mature apple tree right in the middle. Lots of space for your vegetables. So what do you think?

D: Well, I’m not so sure. I don’t think it would be big enough for us.

M: Think again, then.

CHOOSING A HOUSE

(from ‘Evergreen’ by Belva Plain)

(Abridged)

 They had a good office now. Maroon carpet. Nice prints. Dignified, but not lavish. Not that they could afford anything too rich anyway, the rent was so high. They were in a very good building, a prestigious address near Grand Central. Convenient for commuting, too, now that they’d got the house.     

Anna hadn’t wanted a house, but then, Anna never wanted very much of anything. She had her women’s committees for half a dozen charities. And when she wasn’t doing any of these, she read.

But he had wanted a house for a long time. When the Malones had bought a bungalow he made up his mind. They spent every Sunday driving around the place. Now he had a good payment and could afford something decent.

Then two weeks ago on one of those warm, windy days of April, they came upon this house and Anna went crazy over it.

  He couldn’t understand her. It was a big old place, probably in its eightieth year, with twelve - he counted in dismay and disbelief – gables and three chimneys. It had a spiral staircase, a turret, six carved marble fireplaces even in bedrooms, and a porch fringed with wooden lace. Name of heaven! Even the young man from the real estate agency looked doubtful.

    ‘What style do you call this?’ Joseph demanded of him.

    ‘Well, sir, they tell me it’s Gothic Victorian. This was the Lovejoy family home. One of the oldest families in the area.’

    ‘Look!’ Anna cried. ‘This round room in the turret! This could be the most wonderful office for you, Joseph… - come, look at the view!’

    On the lawn below, the hyacinths had come into bloom, rising off a bed of last year’s wet leaves.

    He looked down and noted that the cement was crumbling and the bricks were rotted away.

    ‘… up there, on the hillside, there are apple trees. When they bloom it will be all white. Imagine opening your eyes and seeing that, the very first thing in the morning!’

    He followed her downstairs. The kitchen was in a sorry shape. There was an old black monster of a stove. The cabinets were so high that a woman would need a ladder to reach them.

    ‘See,’ Anna cried. ‘They’ve a separate room with its own sink. I believe it’s a place to arrange flowers! Yes, it is! Here are some old vases on the shelf. Imagine having a separate room for flowers!’ 

‘It’s got a thousand things wrong with it,’ Joseph burst out.

  ‘You know,’ Anna said, ‘it does have a lot of charm, in spite of its faults.’

‘Charm, charm! What kind of talk is that?’

‘All right, if you want another word, it has character. It’s original. As if people who built it had done a good deal of thinking about what they wanted, so that it pleased them. It had meaning for them. It wasn’t just a house stamped out by the hundreds.’

   Joseph walked off by himself. He walked around examining the outside, the shaggy shrubbery, and the garage. He went down into the cellar. The vastness and the darkness reminded him of a dungeon in one of those castles through which Anna had dragged him when they were in France. He climbed back upstairs into the light with relief.

Heaven only knew what condition the plumbing was in! Probably corroded, and every time you ran the bath water or flushed a toilet the pipes would groan and shudder through the house.

   But she loved it.

   The roof was slate and in good condition. That at least would last forever. The house was probably cool in the summer too; the walls were a foot thick. They didn’t build that way anymore that was certain! Nice piece of land for the money too. Someday you could even sell that stretch up the hill where the orchard was and turn a fine profit. It was so near to the city. Actually, it was worth the price for the land alone.

  ‘Well, I’ll think it over,’ he told the agent. ‘I’ll call you in a couple of days.’

  He’d gone back three times to look at it that week, thinking that he had really wanted something newer and more impressive, and back again to the fact that Anna loved it. In the end he signed the contract of sale. Words like ‘dear home’ and ‘peace’ floated through his sentimental head while he wrote his name.

   Painters and masons were still working when, in early September, they moved in. And some months later he already knew, he wouldn’t sell, wouldn’t leave this house. It was his house. It was – home.

                                              Notes

1. afford smth v– to be able to provide; to have enough money to spare. E.g. He couldn’t afford a house of his own.

2. commute v- to travel a long distance to one’s job each day. E.g. Commuting is a big problem of a modern city.

3. real estate n – land and whatever is attached such as buildings and natural resources.

4. Gothic Victorian – an architectural style.

5. shrubbery n – a planting of woody plants that grow low to the ground.