How cool is this! Here is the house we found in Surrey Hills, In the book I won’t be specific about the address or the street, but it pays to have something in mind to base the fictional description on.

When she turned into the tree-lined street, she could not believe her good fortune. A row of terrace houses lined the right side of the road. They were a a set of doll houses. or mouse houses. Sure, the paint on a few was a little faded but if anything, that added to the charm. She checked her mirror to make sure that nobody was being held up by her slow driving, and then consulted the address on the slip of paper. “Four-hundred and three,” she mumbled. Then she peered out at the terrace houses, looking for numbers. Near the door on a grey painted terrace house she saw it. 3-9-7. Then on the next house, a cream one, 3-9-9. Then an olive house. 4-0-1. And then, there it was. 4-0-3. A faded orange three storey terrace house, tucked neatly behind a metal fence and a box hedge. A set of concrete stairs ran up to the right side of a verandah and led to a heavy, black door. An ornate window from the front room looked over the verandah. Above, on the second story, was a second verandah, a wrought iron balustrade two sets of French doors. Above a small, sloped roof above that peeped the two windows of the third storey, and above that an ornate concrete parapet, like a queen’s crown.

Em checked her mirrors to make sure nobody was around and veered her Audi across the empty street and parked, wrong way round, in front of the house. She pulled the handbrake and quickly exited the car, locking it behind her.

On the street, she looked up at the house and shivered with delight. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought it possible to live in a place like this. She pressed her key lock and checked to see her car’s lights flashed orange, then opened the little gate for herself and took the stairs two at a time.

The dark door had a letter slot, a centred door handle and a knocker. Em grasped the heavy brass ring and gave it a good whack. The sound reverberated through the door.

X had told her about the house, and what the bond would be, and she had found an ATM at a servo and withdrawn the cash. It was wadded up in her pocket. She tapped at it with a sweaty and and was reassured to feel the lump there. Good.

Note that above the balustrade, Em can’t see the roof. There is actually a small attic room up there with a high dormer window that looks over the small back garden, across other roofs. This is   the ‘crack room.’ These houses are good for reference. If Erin stands up on the bed and looks out the window, she can see the irregular roofs of sheds, look into the small back yards of the neighbours, see straight into the head of a large, green tree. 

Neighbourhood

It’s only a minute’s walk from a primary school, a library, a cafe and a small supermarket. Em imagined that the library is where she might go to curl into a cosy armchair to read a good book. This would be different from reading in the university library. She imagined herself slowly walking home from the small supermarket with a paper bag full of crispy bread sticks, thick butter assorted ingredients to prepare a hearty meal. The cafe is where she would pop out on a Sunday and complain to the barista about her heavy study load and her pounding headache, then whip down a coffee… The primary school is where the children would come from who dawdled home from school, with their hats strapped up tight under their chins, and their bags large and empty.