Leaving On A Jet Plane !

Bought a house !

Well, as the bleedin’ internet doesn’t seem to be working her at work this lunchtime I thought I might do you a quick update.

Big news here with us in case you haven’t heard is that we’ve bought a house!

It’s in the northern beach resort of Trinity Park and is nothing fancy, a 4 bed low level block home plus self contained granny flat or servant’s quarters as I like to call them (for all you free loaders who plan to come out. Well you’ve gotta pay your way now haven’t ya ? Mines a cup of tea, 2 slices of brown toast with marmalade at 7:15 am sharp ok ?). It has 3m high ceilings (rare for the area and more expensive to build due to scaffolding requirements etc.) enormous master bedroom with en-suite, is spacious, cool, Air Con in every room, nice décor plus large outdoor pool, carport for 3 cars plus boat (I’m working on that !) a shed for my bike and gardens all on 1065 square metres (most modern blocks are 600).

We will be putting in a lot more tropical plants around the pool area, fruit trees at the rear (you can grow all sorts here including pineapples, figs, oranges, lemons, limes, dragon fruit, papaya, avocados, bananas, paw paw, lychees, etc. etc. etc. Approx. between $12 and $20 for a fruit tree at Bunnings who are like B&Q) and maybe a sail over the pool to give some shade when the kids are in it.

Here’s the link to the house: http://www.reefcityrealty.com.au/index.cfm?pagecall=property&propertyID=559584&CFID=9747134&CFTOKEN=90662070

The suburb is an up and coming one and has a pristine tropical beach at the end of the main road (1500m away) with creek running into the sea opposite Yorkey’s Knob Marina (insert your own Jordan/Dwight York joke here! Not sure whether the locals get it but no-one seems to titter or nudge nudge wink wink here when you mention Yorkey’s Knob. Not even this weekend just gone when they had the Festival of the Knob ! maybe they’re just soooo tired of the knob jokes ?). The knob is a hill/rock by the way and is very nice. It’s on the flight path though so we didn’t consider living there.

Back to Trinity Park – lots of new development going on there. They’ve just put in a new Marina with houses with pontoons, shops, restaurants etc. to be completed, there’s a new estate called Bluewater going in the north of the main beach road which is going to be huge including lake etc.

So, Lou has started work (and is doing fine – new job, newly qualified, different country being considered) so I went to see the house and put in an offer (it ticked all the boxes for us and there was other interest. The offer was accepted and the contract signed (once everyone has signed the contract you have 14 days to get the finance sorted, any building & pest inspections done etc. and then it can be as little as 30 days to completion. We opted for 60 as they need to find a rental and we need to sort out our lease/get someone else to take it over or sub-let.)

We have been looking elsewhere since we’ve been here but not over seriously, esp. as most of the houses we like are out of our price range now L

Saw a really nice modern Queenslander in Rainforest Estate in Kamerunga but it was $550k and had no land at all. The estate is really really nice but head ruled the heart etc. and we decided against it and knew that we wouldn’t be able to afford the other houses in the estate, plus the maintenance costs, termite barriers etc. etc.

Sorted the mortgage through a broker recommended by the previous tenant of our rental house (nice bloke called Damien). The broker is a nice bloke called Michael who is married to a girl from Portsmouth, supports Pompey and was brought up on a 5000 acre farm in NSW !

Young bloke at work next to me has recently bought a house and his partner works for solicitors so that was that sorted and he recommended the building & pest inspectors. ($200 for each).

Weird thing also, once you have signed the contract, you then become responsible for the insurance on the property ! so have had to get contents insurance on our contents at Lillipilli street and Buildings insurance for the new house in Sandra Close. They’re ok with that and still give you the 15% discount for having both even though they’re at different addresses.

Lou and the kids saw the house on Saturday morning. We arranged to see it again as it was within the 5 day cooling off period you get after you sign the contract so if she really didn’t like it we could have pulled out. Thankfully it was all good, she liked it (phew !) and the kids liked it.

We went at 10:30 so we had an hour or so before to go for a walk collecting shells on what is to become OUR local beach. Pristine white sand, palms, creek, deserted tropical beach, sunshine, cloudless blue sky. Nice.

We’ve since been fishing there (Sunday) and caught a few, watched with envy as people in boats of various shape and size cruised up and down the creek, (jetskis, waterskiers, fishermen etc. etc.) stopping off wherever they liked to chill or dig for bait, do a bit of fishing off the shore etc.

IT was Jedd’s 9^th birthday as well on Saturday so we went to the pet shop and got him the Land Hermit crabs that he wanted ! (they’re quite cute really !). Quite how $6 per crab (he got 2) turned into $120 total bill I’m not sure. At least if they die he’s got all the stuff now so we can just get more from the beach (as Zak did on Sunday – we now need another hermit crab house !).

Jedd’s are called Larry and Barry, Zak’s is called Bob.

Went to another beach yesterday (Bank Holiday for the Queen’s Birthday !) – Kewarra Beach for a picnic with MMJTBFC and family, played a bit of beach cricket, kids went in the sea with their boogy boards etc. and it was a lovely chilled way to spend the day.

They’d better make the most of it though cos next week I feel like a Bush Adventure inland !

Finally – back to things here that are different from back home.

Pet shops – they still sell puppies and kittens in the window. Very cute they are too !