It's rained where I am. And rained properly.
Three nights of gradually escalating time and intensity, followed by this morning and alternating downpours and rest. Like the rain clouds and the would-be greenery agreed a treatment plan.
On the radio, they were talking about Brits looking for cooler places to holiday - the inversion of our traditional two weeks in the Med. Scotland featured; maybe a press release had struck a chord.
But the rains today are falling on East Yorkshire's plains so that's where we're going, with a look at two townhouses with grander pretensions.
First this detached house on the edge of Withernsea. What might have been a fairly standard three-bed home has been elevated by the original designer/owner who clearly wanted to transplant a Mediterranean villa to Yorkshire's breezy east coast. There are windows wrapped around corners (long before that became a thing), a picture window that overlooks... the street. And an enormous sun terrace, which also overlooks the street. This house hungered for sea views.
But now there's a chair in the shower.
The garden is huge, even by Withernsea standards. And that crazy sun terrace sits on top of an enormous garage - losing both would create space for a double-height extension and the opening up of the ground floor to make the best use of garden views and access.
On the market at offers around £235k via Goodwin Fox. More on the agent's website here and on Rightmove here.
My next pick (thanks for the tip, Siân) is around 20 miles away, in Hull's Pearson Park.
The Park itself is full-on Victorian grand. Old trees, duck pond, fountains and so on. Buzzing and pretty during the day, more problematic in the dark of night. At least it was for the short time I lived there in the early 2000s but things can change. Plus this house is on the lighter side of the park.
Two centuries ago, Pearson Park was the grandest of residential addresses when working class lad made good Zachariah Pearson gifted its acreage to Hull as the city's first public park.
Zachariah himself lived and died in his own Victorian villa at 64 Pearson Park (now flats). Next door to the house we're looking at is the former home of the poet Philip Larkin. There is history here.
So, what do we have? A truly beautiful seven bedrooms, three-storey house with a large garden and an odd layout (kitchen upstairs, bathrooms on floors below and above it).
A house with gorgeous period details and possibilities. A house in which to host gatherings and cocktail parties that spill out into the park and onto Hull's trendy Princes Avenue and boho-riche Avenues area.
A house with its price recently reduced.
A house which is being sold around its elderly owner, viewings "being handled with appropriate sensitivity". Larkin called it.
On the market at offers over £280k through Helen Nicholson eXp. Details on the agent's site here and on Rightmove here.
