She was shaking her head a bit, though.  She looked at Bette and Tina, handing the paper to Bette, “But I don’t know about this one, Bette.  It looks like you two will need to do some work on it.  Unlike the others, this won’t be move-in ready.”

“I like the bones of the building, Sarah,” Bette responded, re-reading the information on the paper.  "Besides, it’s closer to the school that we’d like Angelica to go to.”

Hmm…thinking ahead to schools and such, huh, Bette.  You’ve really changed your tune from the last time we were looking.

“What do you think, T?”

Tina was finishing her tea, and leafing through the other print-outs and brochures scattered around the table, occasionally turning to lean into the stroller to check on Angelica.  She could see why Bette didn’t like these.  Most were new-built apartments, and seemed overly decked out with ultra-modern features, like 3-D screens in dedicated media rooms.  They would likely draw the interest of investors who were looking to rent, rather than a family like theirs, that was looking to buy, in a quiet street, and near good schools.  Bette had made the right choices, she thought, based on what Sarah was describing.  She accepted the print-out Bette was handing to her, concerning the last property Sarah and Bette had just discussed.

She could see why Sarah would be concerned. The building did look handsome, though, and had the most interesting windows that she’d seen amongst all the properties Sarah had shown thus far: neat rectangular holes that looked like they’d been punched through the smooth surface of the outer façade, like precise cut-outs on a plain sheet of paper, precise, and exact.  The closer Tina studied the print-out, the more she intuitively picked up on what Bette was probably drawn to.  There was a proportionality of the rest of the building vis a vis the windows, and Tina understood why a severe, almost austere look would turn-off other buyers who might have been looking for more ostentation in the exterior of a building.  

Other buyers, that is, except she and Bette.  Even in a state of some disrepair, though, Bette was right, the building stood out — there was an underlying beauty to it, borne mainly out of the delicate but exact balance and proportionality of the outer form.  It was almost sculptural.  She had a feeling about this one.