Met our realtor and viewed four houses, all in the same area of Sydney (between downtown and the Shipyards). Leijsa is great.  The houses varied from meh to mhm?

Number One: 98 years old, and looks it.  It's huge, with a funky attic space, but the layout seemed problematic. The second storey, in particular, has a lot of unusable space. And it's a good thing that there had been torrential rain earlier in the day, because it revealed what will, I suspect, be a common problem in CB: the basement was flooded. Moving on...

Number Two: Smaller, although the living room was large with a lovely high ceiling. Bathroom and closet space was also ample, and even the staircase felt spacious.  The biggest problems with this house are the electrical system, which clearly hasn't been improved since the house was built, and the basement -- once again, a sump pump working overtime to drain the veritable stream of water. Has this province never heard of weeping tile?

Number Three: Now we're getting somewhere. Did Leijsa deliberately show us this one third, so it would look better by comparison?  Lots of renovations inside and out, and a nice, open layout which accommodates feng shui.  There's also a big (two car garage) and a new, two-tiered deck.  What's the catch?  The basement is unfinished, in the same sense that a limestone cavern is unfinished.  You have to limbo down the stairs, and then it's a crawlspace nightmare of concrete and gravel. But it wasn't flooded like the first two, and I really don't envision much need to go down there at all, except to check on the furnace or the oil tank once or twice a year...

Number Four: An unusual charmer -- probably not the house for us, but enough intriguing bits to give us pause.  Like the first one, there's a creative attic layout; two bedrooms are on the main floor, with a jet-tub bathroom in between them; and there are lots of strategically placed (albeit weird) doors that can be used to trap heat in various parts of the house (it's a forced air system, so the heat spreads out).  But the kitchen is too wee for our needs.  After living with a galley kitchen for several years, we agree that it's time for plenty of counter space, so we can work as a team at mealtime. When the Puffin started speculating about which walls we could knock down, I knew it was time to go.

So, three nays and an expensive maybe.  I guess that's not a bad start.  Tomorrow we're scheduled to see nearly a dozen houses in Glace Bay -- could be overwhelming, but we'll try to keep our wits about us.  And I'll report as soon as can be.