Geoff estranged from his UK relatives is a widower living in Portland. He is in his late forties when he faces the bad midlife crisis of being forced into retirement. Unlike many it might be one of the best things to have ever happened to him recently. For sure the next bad thing that happens could also be considered candidate for the title of 'Usually a really bad thing that is actually for the best'.

With the house choices whittled down correctly, as Rachel had stated before lunch, there were only two choices to look at in Whiteley. So they had decided to look at the best candidate in Curdridge rather than driving back this way on Sunday. Unfortunately, none of the three were acceptable.

“It is not worth driving back out this way for the others as from the descriptions we already counted them out as unacceptable.” Mum said as they drove back to Fareham in the early evening.

“You want to look at Porchester tomorrow?” Dad asked.

“Why not look at Havant?” Rachel asked, wanting to stop her Dad making the same mistake as last time. “Being the junction of two railway lines you can get direct trains east to Chichester and Brighton, south to Portsmouth, west to Fareham and Southampton, and north to London.”

“Well you are wrong on the direct trains to Fareham and Southampton but the rest is true and a good idea. We never thought to look east.” Dad pondered while thinking. “What time does the realestate office close?”

“It might be already closed. It is five-twenty, and it’s a Saturday. I thought we were looking west of Porchester so I can easily get to Fareham, and I like shopping in Southampton, the girls’ like the ice rink too.” Mum offered, while Rachel realized that it was later that Havant became the junction of the Brighton to Southampton and Portsmouth to Waterloo lines*.

“It’s worth swinging by on the way home just to see. You know your Mum loves Chichester for shopping and we could take the girls to Brighton for the pier or to swim, or the museums in London. The change in Fratton would not add too much to the trip to Fareham or Southhampton.” Dad said and altered the course to include the town center when his wife didn’t object.

Lights could be seen and a group of people standing through the real estate office windows as they pulled up to the curb of the office. “If anyone comes, sit in the driver’s seat, dear. I’ll duck in there before they close.” Dad said pulling to the curb of a loading only zone, and quickly entered the Fareham office.

Barely fifteen minutes later, Dad was back with a few more house prospects. “We need to look at this one in Emsworth tonight. It was reduced a couple of hours ago and someone plans to look at it tomorrow. They called the seller and their aware we’re coming this evening.”

“What about dinner? They’ll want something soon.”

“You think they can eat chips and not mess up the car while I drive?” Dad asked.

“Yay fish and chips.” Glenda cried.

“Just the chips and you eat them one at a time and don’t drop any in the car.” Mum interrupted. “I’ll get them a small bag each as there’s less chance of a mess if they don’t have to share. We can then eat something at home later.”

“Well I was hoping for a few chips myself too.”

“Fine I’ll buy four bags.” Mum countered and checked she had her handbag as they pulled up at ‘The Plaice**’.

The trip to Emsworth was quiet, primarily as the girls were happily munching on chips. Michael following the directions given turned left onto the less busy side street just before the house and found the driveway on the right for the house on the corner lot. The driveway swung right and headed to the garage door. Right of the driveway was a tall hedge that blocked out the main road from the side and rear of the house. Left of the driveway was the fenced back garden. The fence followed the edge of the driveway allowing the garden to widen as it stretched away from the rear of the house after the driveways entrance.

“This is the back of the house. It’s backwards Dad.” Glenda said looking at the unique house.

“The prior owner got planning permission to put windows in at the now back of the garage, which was the original front. Put this driveway here and the old driveway was dug up to allow a bigger front garden.”

“Why would they do that.” Rachel asked pondering the strange idea.

“The main road got too busy to back out into. Other houses along this road have added a second front driveway or spur to turn cars around in. Of course their front gardens end up smaller due to doing that. This house being on the corner with the less busy side street had this third option to solve the issue.”

Leaving the Allegro they used the gate to leave the driveway and follow the footpath to a covered porch with French windows that were open. Sitting in the room beyond enjoying the evening sunset, but sheltered from the stiff sea breeze, the children saw a couple that were several years older than their parents.

“You must be the Stillmans? I’m William Brentwood and this is my wife Patricia.” The gentleman said while crossing to Michael with hand extended. His wife stood and followed. “Come on in. Let’s show you around.”

After the obligatory greeting and name exchanges Patricia informed the family of the room they were currently standing. “This is our sunroom and we were just enjoying the sunset. We use the porch when it’s warmer outside.”

William continued explaining the house. “Yes, the porch is nice for Summer evenings. Anyway, the sunroom here shares running the rear of the house ‘till the breakfast bar where starts the breakfast slash casual dining area. These two rooms and the main bedroom with ensuite above are all part of an extension added to the original three bedroom house that we did when we bought the house. That opening to the study-library used to be a window, and the door there adjacent replaced what used to be the rear door of the house.” Glenda couldn’t help herself running and peering through the opening into the study.

“Girls, best behavior and no running please.” Their Mum reminded them.

“On the other side of the old rear door is the hall and stairs running down the center of the Georgian style house to the front door.” William led them past the breakfast bar into the breakfast dining area where the rear wall had been knocked through so the original small kitchen could increase into the extension sharing with the breakfast dining area half of the new addition.

“We removed the old door from the hall into the kitchen to allow more counter space, kitchen cabinets and make the kitchen more modern and spacious.With the rear wall removed the sink moved into the extension to make the kitchen bigger, but otherwise it is in the same place as the plumbing had been below the old rear window. The cabinets, sink, hob and oven were all upgraded as was the tiling and marble countertop.” Patricia informed them.

After they had looked at the kitchen in detail they followed Mister Brentwood through the archway into the dining room that was at the front of the house. It had a five paned bay window looking out on the front lawn that swept at a slight slope down to a tall hedge that except for a gate in the middle blocked the busy road from the house. A foot path bisected the lawn from the gate to front door. The dining room had cornice molding and a center round that the chandelier hung from. Molding panels ran around the lower portion of the rooms walls. In the middle of the right wall a door led into the main hallway.

“The second bedroom, that was the original master is above us and has a bay window too.” Patricia stated as William opened the door to the hallway.

Running along the far side of the hall were the stairs coming down toward the front of the house. The other side of the hall had three doors too. The door they entered from was the only one on their side of the hallway as the prior kitchen doorway had been walled in. At the two ends of the hall way were the front door and old rear door. Before the stairs started there was a door near the front door that led into the living room. The living room like the dining room had a bay window.

“There is a half bathroom under the stairs.” William told them opening the middle of the three doors on that wall to show a tiny sink and loo with sloped ceiling.

The third door like the first was sunk back as the stairs had ended prior to it. Due to being indented it was clear of the old back door and it opened in to the study-library. The new fourth bedroom was directly above the study. It was smaller than the third bedroom due to the ‘U’ shaped landing at the top of the stairs removing a bit more than three foot of width from it verses the third bedroom. The third bedroom was above the living room, so as well as being three feet wider it had a bay window too.

At the top of the stairs, and at the base of the ‘U’ landing was a door. “This door is where there used to be the landing window.” Patricia said opening it and bringing them into the new master bedroom. Near the bedroom’s windows there was an archway to the right which led into a sitting/dressing area with several closets. It had a door coming back toward the main house, where the ensuite butted onto the original exterior wall. The other side of that wall was where the main bathroom over the kitchen was located. The new ensuite had a window on the north side of the house. The one window in the main bathroom that had been on the original exterior rear west wall had been blocked with sheet plaster to make a recessed interior wall. The recess was utilized with medicine cabinets and shelving for both bathrooms. An expel air vent had been added to the north side wall of the main bathroom as it now had no window.

Back on the upper landing there was a door at the end of each arm of the ‘U’ that ran just about a third of the length of the original house’s hallway below. One side led into the previously second and now third bedroom. This side of the ‘U’ also had a door in its middle that led to the fourth now windowless bedroom, above the study. The other arm of the ‘U’ had two doors along its side, and thus three total. The two side doors provided were one for the main bathroom and one for the original master, now second bedroom.

“Where does that door go?” Michael asked about the locked door at the end of the ‘U’ that had three doors. Sally had tried opening it earlier while almost running around the house in excitement.

“That door leads up into the floored but unfinished attic. The house has mid to steep roofs and we have two full gables above the extension at the rear and two mid size bay window gables at the front of the house allowing four large rooms with windows to be made easily up there. Or you could make those rooms smaller and have two windowless storage areas, one in the middle of each pair of rooms.” William told them unlocking and opening the door. Stairs started right behind the door running the rest of length of the house to the front door, which explained how the front entrance below had a higher vaulted ceiling. The stairs turned at the front of the house and finished running back above the main-stair case, up to the attic space.

Rachel looking at the turning point and seeing a window to the outside evening got a little confused. “How can there be a window here? We’re above the front door and the roof should be sloping in here.”

“In addition to the two bay window gables there is a small gable in the center of the house above the front door, which is where this window is. See the edges of this mid landing’s ceiling. They are the slope of the gable above us.” Mister Brentwood informed them. From the mid landing only four stairs were needed to get into the attic.

The entire attic was floored. With the steep slope of the roof about seventy percent of the floor’s area was usable. For the twin girls it was likely over eighty percent they could stand up in, though that took a bit of twisting between the wooden framing in places. The collar beams were run above head height and would not interfere with the livable space.

Standing in the right hand bay window and looking through the furthest right hand pane of the five panes of glass making up said bay window you could see Emsworth Harbor and then beyond the channel Hayling Island blocked the view of the joining between the Solent and the English Channel. Hayling Island also blocked the view of the north eastern coast of the Isle of Wight eight miles or more south west***.

Aside the houses on the other side of the main road it was just the few taller buildings of Emsworth town center poking above the trees that could be seen. Even from this height the front hedge blocked the main road. Thus aside the blip of a car seen going one way or the other at the break where the front gate stands one could easily forget a road was there. Due to all the wooden beams and joists along the sides of the roof to enable the open area Glenda felt they were looking down from atop a magical tree house within a huge forest.

Glenda swung her arms while twirling. Then she ran to her Mum. “Mummy if we move here I want this room.”

“This isn’t finished yet princess.” Her Dad told her before one of the other girls started demanding the room too. “It will get extremely hot in the summer and cold in the winter as there’s no insulation or walls and it would be drafty and too big to sleep in alone.”

“Daddy, why? I can’t keep my friends, can’t have this attic, and can’t have a pet; I can’t even have a horse!” Glenda in eight year old exasperation declared.

‘*’ In the 70’s and early 80’s Fratton just outside Portsmouth was the junction as it was the first train station that the three routes, Southampton to Portsmouth, Brighton to Portsmouth and London to Portsmouth shared. During the late 80’s to 90’s Havant had grown significantly that it became the junction with the three routes being decreased into two.

‘**’ Plaice is a common commercially caught flat fish that lives on the European Continental shelf. It is not commercially viable in the U.S. which is more familiar with flounder and sole that are similar. Thus the joke of a fish and chip store called ‘The Plaice’ is often lost on US tourists. There are quite a few UK fish and chip businesses that use ‘Plaice’ in their name.

‘***’ At eye level about 5’ 7’’ when standing at sea level you can see about three miles. Standing in the attic on top of a two-story house that is itself around fifty feet above sea level will enable one to see about nine miles without obstruction. So, If Hayling island wasn’t there the coast of the Ilse of Wight could be seen. Of course Hayling Island is there so the Isle of Wight still can’t be seen.