SarahB

OK thats good... was worried she didnt get fed enough.

Jude J

No, my lovely hubby is a geek and like most geeks he isn't so great with diy. He knows his limits which is a good thing
Ours needs modernising, it was built early 90's and looks like it hasn't been touched since. Peach bathrooms, white plastic door knobs, same old wallpaper and carpet throughout.
Nothing drastic though.
Not had loads of experience with workmen in general as everyone has a builder friend here including us so he has done a few jobs for us. He is a fit 25 yr old who hasn't accepted my offer of tea yet.

SarahB

Only tea!!???

Ours was built 1971.... needs a totally new kitchen (still the original in it!).... needs some damp proofing done.... .needs painting and a ruddy good clean (had men living in it!).... other than that there are lots of silly little things that came up on the building report.... but it came back as a good sound house... thats the main thing. Oh yeah, and it needs a slight bit of sorting out in the garden!!

Jude J

Yeah, you have to make the compromise somewhere eh? We looked at so many in the end we decided on that one cos of it's position, a 10 minute walk to work and pubs
We have done the opposite to you, ours is smaller than others we looked at but with our oldest being 18 and talking of moving out next year, probably followed in a couple of years by the 16 yr old, we felt it was OK.
What I like about it is it's split level with our bedroom being the only one on the top floor so we get the privacy and space away from the teenagers who are on the bottom level, with the living areas, baby room, office in the middle.

You little boy is gonna have some fun in that garden! Its huge!! Is there a house in there somewhere?!

Jude J

[QUOTE=SarahB]Only tea!!???

Yes

It was a Saturday morning!!!

SarahB

Yep we had to compromise....we had to make up our minds what was important to us..... Id seen this house and wondered about it..... then we went off to view loads more, each time we though they were so small..... we like our space. So we went back again to the property and took loads of pictures..... we rang the estate agent up and he put our offer in for us that evening.... it was accepted. We stayed Conditional for about 2 months as we had my house to sell first in the UK.... luckily the seller wasnt in a hurry and he waited for us..... how nice of him!! He told everyone else who wanted to view it that it was sold!!! Its all going through and looking forward to getting in it.

Yeah, theres a house there somewhere!! Its on a original Beachlands section 1012 sqm... (1/4 acre) the house is set on to the back of the section and garden in the front..... theres trees and bushes and loads of places for him to hide away from me.... hes gonna have fun!!

The house is oddly designed with 2 bedrooms upstairs.... also kitchen, living area, bathroom, dining area..... balcony to the front of house and large sun room too. Downstairs theres a large living area/playroom.... storage room... laundry with shower and toilet.... 3 or 4 bedrooms.... plenty of space for us you see.... it has potential.

danny.f

That's one trhing I noticed with the houses-there's some quirky designs,some with the garage upstairs,only messing,but they look odd in design,which is great-different to all the grey standard crap you get here.
One thing though-this rumour you get over here-5 bedrooms-2 bathrooms-46 acres and 2 pools for $4.50-myth.

Jude J

That's massive! You do realise that all the kids sleep-overs will be held in your house as it is the biggest?

Jude J

Definate myth,,I had illusions of servants quarters, infinity pool, etc etc but no
just a regular house for me.

danny.f

It's only fair. The butler can do food,we'll retire to the bar by the pool for canapes and champers.
Or we can go out on the yacht while the kids are entertained by the circus entertainers we keep in the loft.
Or-we can go in our helicopter-as previously mentioned-to Fiji or summat while the nanny sorts things out on the ranch. mmmm....lovely.

SarahB

Seriously its not that big a house..... most of the rooms are small. There seems to be lots of smaller rooms..... we would need to knock a few walls down and make them into decent sized rooms but you need a permit to do anything here. Only 2 of the bedrooms will take a double bed. It used to be a vets and still has the "surgery" and the "waiting room", complete with signs, downstairs. We rent a nice 4 bed house now down the road to that one and the landlord already offered it to me at $200k more than what we have got ours for. We are lucky we got a good exchange rate when I sold my one bed house in South Lincs last month.... we will still have a large mortgage though... we are not one of the lucky brits who sell up and can buy outright here... we still feel pleased about where we are going to live though.... as Ive said before we really love Beachlands and dont want to move again.

SarahB

Now I know for sure that youre crazy! All we could afford now boatwise would be a dingy.

SarahB

It is good in that way..... all the houses are different (mainly) to the next one... not like UK and you get a whole estate of the same style house.... not seen anything like that here.

I remember we looked at houses in NZ when we were back in UK..... OH used to point one out and say ..... heres one..... 10 acres LifeStyle Plot.... 4 bedroom house.... stables etc.... for only blah blah blah dollars.... but we never knew where those houses were.... and truth is they are in the middle of no-mans land.... no civilisation nearby and definately no jobs! Gotta live where the work is.

Jude J

He's completely potty!

Funniest thing is, I am trying to imagine 'canapes and champers' in a Liverpool accent

Jude J

We did that too!!!! On realenz. We would spend entire evenings looking at what our pounds would buy!
We spent almost all our cash before coming as we weren't married so decided to get married before we came. That and a wicked honeymoon in Amsterdam cost quite a bit, then we didn't bring anything with us so started right from scratch here. Hence, hardly any deposit and a big mortgage!