trottytrue

To everyone a Big Thankyou.... I know this sounds silly or a little cruel but to think that there are many of you out there who are in the same boat gives me comfort and knowing that you are not giving up makes me just pull my socks up and get on with it.

I think the holiday will do me good. I am looking forward to seeing my brother both of my brothers are ill so that does not help. But just to see them will be nice.

Someone asked about the equity in our home. Our home is most of our savings thats what we are going to use to buy our next home in the UK. We are close to retirement so we dont want a morgage. When the house sells if the pound is still stronger than the dollar we will leave the money in the US and just rent in the UK till we can bring the money over at a good rate. Not a problem really as we were going to rent for a few months before deciding were to put down our final roots. Really dont want to rent out as not all renters take good care of your home.

The problem with the housing market in the US is that many banks and money lenders gave out morgages to people who could not afford them and then others decided to used the equity in their homes to buy boats, go on holidays and the rest. So now the rest of us have to bail them out which is unfair but thats the way it goes.

Gettingtheflipout...glad to hear you are going home best thing you can do, if you were happy I would say its fine to stay but as you are not dont waste you time. Vermont is just as bad as New hampshire for cold and the muggies.Like you say there are very few days that you can really enjoy a nice summers days.

Nicola...I think the waiting is the worst. I hope you balanced your books by now. Didnt realize it got cold in AU.

Didnt mean to upset you Sam. I am feeling brighter today. Like I said I bounce like a ball. Just keeping it all inside is hard. Cant be worrying my OH as he has to go to work everyday.

Jools I also lost two of my dear dogs one two years ago and the other one in February of this year.

quoll....The box is going to be very crowded with the three of them in it but who knows I'll try anything.

I think perhaps one of the things that gets to you the most is the disappointment. I dont know about the rest of you but when we put our house on the market over 2years ago we were so full of excitement and plans, we had the dogs tested and chips inplanted, we had a moving company ready to pack us we thought at the most it would take maybe 6months. My OH who is great with time schedules had one printed with a time for each part of the process. Relatives were told to expect us for Christmas and then just nothing. That was the worst. So now I suppose the next time we put the house on the market we wont be quite so excited just hopeful.
Perhaps one of these days when we are all home we can have a big meeting. It would be fun.

Thanks again I've gained alot of knowledge and strength from all of you. Tomorrow is another day.

trottytrue

I think that the phone call to tell me my Mum had died was the worst she died on Boxing Day and like you I could not afford to go home prior to that. I wish I had. I had not seen her in 4years.
My brother last year was so unexpected it knocked me for 6. He wasnt even ill. The awful thing was I was going to call him the day before he died but chose to call my other brother instead.
Like you say nobody can really understand how it feels.
Sometimes I think its easier for those living closer to them as they see them growing older and getting sick we dont we just remember them as they were when we last saw them. So its hard for us to come to terms with it.

Tinni

Dont give up you have got a good life coming soon your moving back to the good old uk.I lived 2 years in canada got exploited lost everything arrived back in the uk without a teaspoon ,wife and 3 kids.Nearly lost my wife through ill health.A year back here now and we have our life back its good to be back (theres no place like home) tap them ruby slippers you will soon be here.Good luck all the best Mate!!!!

Juswus

I'm so sorry that you've had to deal with so much heartache on top of dealing with trying to go home

We took our house back off the market after having it on for about 8 months and not getting 1 "sensible" viewer. We did however get a lot of time wasters and just genereally nosy people

I'm sending all the good vibes I can your way and wish there was something I could say to make it easier. All I can say is what everyone else has said "hang in there"

brits1

That happend to me the phone call just a few days after my birthday.....my mum had passed away and it was so unexpected...I think I will never get over that I will never see her again and that time spent away from her in Aus is time I can never have again (that's how I felt at the time) my Dad is 80 this year and so far is as fit as a fiddle but finds coming out to visit Aus takes it out of him so instead of 2 visits a year sometimes it's now just a few weeks in the New Year and that will not last much longer, he's getting older and I want to spend quality time with him before it's to late as does my husband with his parents....will someone please buy our home!!!!

trottytrue

Brits 1 I hope your house sell soon. My mum would come out to visit and stay for 6 weeks but after the first 3 she was really itching to get back home. Her last visit was when she was in her late 80's.
I watch all these new shows about selling your home and I try and remember all the tips that they give you. Most of my personal belongings are now stored in the attic as they keep telling you to keep everywhere uncluttered. I dont know about you but I have become very ingenius as to were I can hide things but keep them close at hand. Tomorrow the new window goes in.

brits1

Yes you become an expert on where to "put" things...it's also great way of "getting rid" of things I had a huge clean out of pictures...the ones we look at are now all in albums but the others I just shredded..it was like loosing an arm but I realised we had not "looked" at these picutres for over 3 years...and most of them were out of shot kind of thing...not sure I would do that at home as everything use to go into the roof space or garden shed....our home here in Aus is fairly big but with not a great deal of storage space.....I would not dream of putting things in the roof space here though....what with the spiders and other things....not on your nelly!!!!!
had a lady view yesterday but put an offer this morning on another home larger than ours (there is only 2 of them) but it was a bargain (her words) at 640,000....(last July it was up for 660) as it has an outside spa....it's on another busy(ish) road...so felt really, really fed up last night!!!!!
All the best and yes today I feel like pulling the plug so to speak....

trottytrue

That is so disappointing when they decide they dont want it. Does make you feel down. So many of us in the same boat but at least yours is on the market.
You should see the bedroom that just had the new window put in. What a mess. Off course now I have to landscape the area outside the window again. The land here in New Hampshire is very rocky so I have a pile of stones from the area they had to dig out on the outside of the window, so I am going to make a rock garden around that area.
Our attic is fine we did have flying squirrels in it for a time but we got one of those humane traps and kept catching them and dropping them off in the forest further down the road. I also scattered mothballs all over and that did the trick. The only problem with our attic is the heat in summer.

I went to a scrapbooking class a few years ago and you should have see all the pictures they said you should throw away. If that was the case when I was growing up we would have never kept any pictures. My Dad had the knack of taking the worse pictures.

I think it was a man from England got bitten by some sort of bug while he was on a visit. He ended up dying a few weeks ago from the effects of the bite. Not sure if it was a spider.

brits1

Thanks it does bring you out of the "bubble" when you do know there are people going through the same as you.....a rock garden would love lovely I'm sure we had one in our last home in England, I had a lot of different coloured heathers and rock flowers...the lady who bought our home said it was the first garden she saw that tipped the scales to buy our home!!!!..maybe I should build one here lol.....a home open this Sunday we have dropped the price (gulp) and we will have to see how it goes....we really don't want to go any lower as we will be giving it away.......
Thanks and have a good weekend

trottytrue

I dont know what your climate is like but we get quite alot of rain so everywhere is quite green. When we moved into this house it was suppose to be 'well landscaped'. But it was the middle of winter and there was snow on the ground. When Spring came nothing came up. The sellers had taken all the plants with them. I have spent hours making a beautiful garden front and back. We have 3 acres so its alot of work. I built a pond and a wildlife garden it looks perfect. But its just not enough to sell it. I tell myself everytime I add something to the garden it just might help. They do say that having a welcoming front helps. The women stager I had come and look at the house told me to change the colour of the doors and trim to red. My OH had just painted everything blue so I knew that was a no go.
Looks like we shall have to drop the price of our house when it goes back on the market even with the new window. The dollar was even worse off against the pound today.
Anyway I shall keep my fingers crossed for Sunday and rub the head of my St. Anthony and recite your name.

brits1

Thank you....have a nice weekend...

Giantaxe

I'm puzzled by your logic here. As you sre a long time home owner, surely one could also argue that the value of your house been "artificially" inflated by the lax lending of recent years that you refer to? Now that prices in many areas have started to revert towards historic norms versus incomes and rents, why do you feel you are bailing out profligate buyers?

trottytrue

We have lived in our house for 8 years. We sold our other home when the prices were very low.
Havnt got a clue as to the rest of your statement.
All I was saying was that people borrowed money and got second and third morgages when they should have done without. There are times when people have to borrow but not for a second car or a holiday abroad or a boat or a trip to Disney or for a child to go to another State to University just because its cool to do it, instead of staying instate. Our kids went to In State Universities which is much cheaper. If we could not afford something we didnt buy it we did without.
Now these people are crying and wanting the Goverment to bail them out which it will do but its the rest of us who will be paying for it. The people who should be bailing them out are the greedy estate agents who allowed them first of all to buy homes they could not afford and then the lending banks who gave out these second morgages.
To me that is reckless and thoroughly shameless.

Tableland

I sympathise. When I was selling my house I got pretty angry about all of this because it is so unfair. You have in society a group of greedy idiots who remortgaged their houses to buy depreciating assets, which contributed to the housing bubble. Then all the property markets go pop and everyone loses out - not just the greedy idiots.

backagen

I also sympathise. They say life wasn't meant to be easy, but I actually think it WAS meant to be, it just isn't because people make it hard.

I certainly felt like giving up yesterday when I was told that I owe the Australian tax office $12000, but now that I've found out it's probably only $7400 ish, I've got a new feeling of hope and confidence again.

To be honest, I tend to perform at my best when faced with adversity, out of some sense of "I'll show them" mentality I suppose!

All this stress and all these problems have made me see my UK / Australia situation in a whole new light, and a much clearer one.

I've been struggling for many, many years (more than I care to even think about) to decide if I should move back or not, but now, finally, I know that I will, and ASAP!

All the very best of luck with sorting out your problems, and I hope you can find strength within yourself to do it. It will be well worth it in the end when we're all finally sitting on the meadows enjoying Devonshire tea in the glorious English sun!