kezzabird

It seems to be quite steady even after interest rate rises. Although I have noticed on realestate.com a lot of houses priced in the higher regions above $300,000 are stuck and not shifting, the lower priced houses under $300,000 are selling though. Everyone keeps talking about prices falling soon, but I've not seen any evidence of this, infact the opposite.

Sammy T

Hi Kerry

How's little Mash doing?

Can I be nosy and ask where you stayed when you first arrived in Tas and how long you booked for?
Seen plenty of places and I think arrriving in June or July there should still be vacancies but not sure how long to book for, was thinking of 2 or 3 weeks but obviously need enough time to secure a rental.
Not yet booking as waiting for exchange of contracts first but just trying to plan ahead.

And whilst I'm picking your brains can you think of anything we need to bring eg dental or medical records, school reports?

Said good bye to a few relatives the other day, only see them at weddings usually, not at all close but 2 were crying and I was trying really hard not to smile and look very excited

Sam

kezzabird

That's very funny about the trying not to smile when you're poor rellies are balling!!!!

Mash is doing great, she is sleeping in the laundry room at night, and is allowed in the house when we are here. When we go out she has a run and a kennel, but she's not too keen on it.

We stayed at Graham Court apartments in New Town, they are self contained units with everything you need. In our case we only needed 2 weeks accommodation before finding a rental. But it can take longer, so be prepared to book another week if needs be. New Town is a good location, close enough to Hobart CBD and the Derwent Park industrial area, in fact its slap bang between the two.

Unless you have a medical condition or serious illness history I wouldn't bother with the doctors records or dentist. But do bring school reports, I brought Alex's and I'm hoping they will get him into a private Catholic school.

Anyway good luck with it all

Kerry

travelbug

Hi Sam, i was going to request some of my medical records from my GP/hospital - but only because of a couple of operations i've had in the past...the notes of which might be needed should i ever have to have a
similar operation again. Won't be bringing any dental records though. Im going to ask Eden's school/teacher nearer the time we go if she'd do a letter for us just detailing what stage Eden is at. Although i have her private nursery reports from age 2 1/2 - 4 1/2 I read on another thread about school reports that if they've been somewhere more recently then that's generally the only info somewhere new would want. I know your kids are a lot older so i imagine whatever you can get their current schools to provide you with the better...
Someone said a letter detailing any out of school hours activities is a good one to have just to add to whatever info you pass onto prospective new schools. I guess a lot depends on how nice the staff at the school are as to whether they'll bother doing it for you!

Must make it seem very real saying goodbye to some relatives already
Did make me laugh you saying about only seeing them at weddings - we often laugh about things like that ourselves...the old weddings and funeral get togethers - normally i'm mistaken for someone else!

Sammy T

Hi kerry

Thanks for the info.
I don't think I'll worry too much about med records then, none of us are very complicated!
I think we will book 2 or 3 weeks, have found one place with an indoor pool, so might try that one as it will give the children something to do.
I'll ask the school to put together some reports for the children, I emailed the Tas education dept, and they said the children will be in Years 4 & 6 (currently 5 & 7) so they reckon they are going to have it easy for the rest of the school year

Sam

Sammy T

Hi

It was only because we were up visiting my brother that they popped in to say good bye, I don't usually see them for several years at a time anyway, so I'm really not sure why they were crying, perhaps they were tears of happiness because we were leaving

Should be OK getting some detailed school reports done as hubby is a parent governor at the school! But it might be an idea to ask for them soon, to give them enough time to prepare them.

Just had another removal survey done, with Anglo Pacific this time and also got the buyer's surveyor coming at 3pm too. Fingers crossed he does not find anything wrong, the house is less than 3 years old, so there shouldn't be but you never know.

Sam

travelbug

Hi Sam, that's handy with your Hubby being a parent governor at the school - should definitely not have to worry about getting whatever info you want from the school then.
If you dont mind me asking - what kind of quotes have you had from the shippers? are you bringing a 20ft container?

Hope the survey went ok on the house today. If your house is only 3 years old hopefully they'll find nothing at all wrong with it! Or if there is it would no doubt be one of their pathetic things they list - like a garden fence or something!!!
Ours was built in the 50's or thereabouts - and when we got our survey report back i actually cried - there was so much wrong with the place).... Only reason we bought it was because at the time there wasnt much in our price range as we didnt want a huge mortgage because of Andy being self-employed. If Andy wasn't such a "handy Andy" i'd never have considered it. Before we could even move in we had to have damp-proofing done / the whole house treated as there was bad wood worm/rot - all downstairs floors replaced - i could go on and on!!!! We moved in feb02 and at the end of May - after returning from a trip to Mauritius we were surprised to find out i was pregnant with Eden - which did shock us as we had until the end of that year really to get the whole house sorted out properly before she arrived - which included forking out for double glazing etc ... the place was a money pit! Whoever does buy our house wont have to do much apart from replace the kitchen (but only if they feel the need as it's ok but not really modern) - the boiler will need doing at some point if someone wants the heating to be more economical. There was a problem with the roof - but that's been sorted now... As for everything else - you name it we've replaced it - the bathroom only replaced just before Christmas last year.
But......i still reckon a few things will come up on the survey that gets done on our house!!!! I'd put money on it!

Andy took a call from our EA earlier today - his "weekly update chat".
He's still hinting about a price drop we reckon - but Andy stood his ground and said that we're not interested in dropping the price at the moment...
which i think shut him up a bit... He's EMailed Andy with some "stats" showing how many people have viewed the property on rightmove blah blah blah...
One of the other agents that we had round has just sold the house a little bit down the road from us - and he rang Andy to tell him that he had done and at full-asking price (he's definitely after our business when this contract ends). We never picked him as we thought he was a bit smarmy - but now we've seen the true colours of the guy we did pick - i wish we'd gone with the other agent in the 1st place!

anyway, all sounds exciting for you guys - hope you get to exchange contracts very soon so that you can start getting more organised for the move....
Cathy

travelbug

Sorry Kezza - just realised i didnt reply to your post....
I must admit i have seen some of the same houses on realestate.com.au for a while (ie, the ones over a certain value)....
Cathy

travelbug

Looks like the attempt to diet this week is going to go out of the window...
I'm going out with people from work on friday evening this week to a restaurant in Covent Garden :-

www.papagenorestaurant.com

We're having the set party menu as there's about 12 of us going....although i'm going to watch the drink as when i went out with this lot a couple of months ago i had a massive hangover the next day!

Question for the tassie locals.....what is your "favourite" restaurant in Tas and what sort of food do they do?

Cathy

Possums

Hi there are a few we like, they are all up north though

Stillwater Launceston

http://www.stillwater.net.au/stillwater.html

Angasi Bay of Fires

http://www.angasi.com.au/

Daniel Alps Rosevears

http://www.bestrestaurants.com.au/re...rathlynn.aspx#

and if your ever up our way Barnbougle is pretty good

http://www.barnbougledunes.com.au/th...se/dining.html

travelbug

Hi Possums - thanks for all those links. They all look lovely. Especially like the look of the 1st restaurant listed. Some of these restaurants do breakfast menu's - is it common in Tas for them to be open for service for most of the day? You might get the odd restaurant here that does an "allday breakfast" as part of their lunch/evening meal menu - but they're not normally open for 3 services....

I might not show my OH the very last link (he plays golf) - otherwise if we do make it to the North of the Island i know where he'll be!

thanks again....as you can see i am very interested in food!
Cathy

Sammy T

Wow, thats got the taste buds going!

Sam

Possums

Hi well the first is a cafe in the day then posher dining at night, its a little expensive but soo good. many in the city will open for breakfast we have found a lot of hotels dont include breakfast in the room charge, so I guess others will cash in on this. others I mentioned have accomodation with them so are open for breakfasts. Then a lot do lunches 12 - 2 then dinner 6 - 8ish. As opposed to the UK all day menu. It is really a very tourist based island in many respects so there will always be something open.

we have some fab bakeries that will have seating for coffees and to eat in.

oh and if you do let him go to the golf course we are only up the road so you could come for coffee/wine/beer which ever you prefer

travelbug

Hi Possums. Sounds good to me.... The breakfasts do look nice - but like you say probably too expensive to have often! I notice you live in Bridport - what's it like - is it a big town? We're interested in having a look at Ulverstone on the other side....not sure how far that is from you? Quite a way i think? but we'll probably start off in the Hobart area 1st of all as that's where we're familiar with from our trip last year.
Whereabouts in the UK do you originate from (if you dont me asking)...
Cathy

travelbug

YET ANOTHER QUESTION FOR THE TASSIE LOCALS

I was reading on a thread that another poster was advising someone to make sure that they had 2 years left on their UK passport when they emigrated.
I wont actually have that much time on mine. Is it a pain getting your UK passport renewed in Tas? What's the procedure/how long does it take and is it more expensive than getting it done in the UK? Not sure i want to renew mine over here unless absolutely necessary....I'd rather wait until i had less than 6months left on it before renewing...

thanks guys & gals!

Cathy