Just back from another Melbourne trip. With daylight saving gone it became a very dreary drive, but the audio books I took were great. I should have been listening to them ages ago. They keep you alert and some of the stories are so entertaining. It seems to shorten the drive.
It was a bad week with so many bills to pay. Some of them were late, some huge. The car insurance had gone up by $100 – great. It has left us short, and the cost of petrol edging up steadily doesn’t help. If for nothing else, my time in Melbourne gave S a rest with my help during my visit with the house tidy up sessions, prior to each open inspection.
The neighbour’s cat, Abo, seemed to have taken up residence in our place. I wonder if that’s because S has been feeding it and its owners hadn’t been.
I got the garage cleaned up and made a bit tidier, and some boxes of stuff were put into our storage space at Eltham. I spent some time rearranging the stuff that’s in storage to allow space for even more things if need be. Our little spot is now one-third empty; it seemed full before the tidy up. It’s amazing how much you can get in there if you pack it correctly. I should have done this much earlier, but there never seemed to be the time with so many other priorities.
Our fish is still dangling on the hook, but with no acceptable offers the property is still on the market.
It was a cold drive back to Canberra. I wasn’t going to turn on that smelly heater unless I had to. Some mice or rats had taken up residence in the car heater some months ago, and to say it smelled a bit was an understatement. The extra clothes alternative worked fine: two long sleeved skivvies under a hooded pullover, and a blanket over my knees. I must have looked a sight. It was pathetic, really.
22 April 2008
21 April 2008
A nibble on the line
Spotted a property in Calwell, south of Canberra. It is a good sized house with four bedrooms on a relatively small block, but it did have some views of the distant hills. It had an amazingly large kitchen with a huge bench surface and great kitchen storage. S liked the size of the kitchen when spotted on the web. It must have had about six metres of bench space down one side. Though, the rooms seemed on the smallish side. I got the building report. It has villaboard, like the Bonython place we liked a few months ago. We may need to put up with asbestos. Villaboard is asbestos.
I also came across a property at Macgregor that caught my eye. It was advertised for auction and the agent thought it would go for between $330 - $400k. This was an older house and not as well cared for as the previous one, but this is a house with style. It had a very large lounge and four bedrooms on separate wings; three on one wing and the main and ensuite on the other wing. The design left an area between the two wings that might be large enough for a small pool or secluded garden. There was little in the way of views from this house, but definitely a house with a difference. Some of the doors and walls had been knocked about, and the kitchen looked like it needed to be ripped out and started again. But for all that, there was something about the place that clicked. The trouble in favouring unusual properties is that they may be more difficult to sell.
In Melbourne, S came home after an inspection, and found a strange car parked in her spot. It looks like someone was testing the drive. We did this before we bought the place all those years ago. In fact, there was no way I was going to buy the property until I tested the driveway. I actually wondered if the car could make it up, as the grade was so steep. Of course it did, but the driveway gave troubles in winter as on the steeper sections the car would loose traction when it was wet. So, someone else is going through the same thought processes. This is good!
According to our agent, there are two punters nibbling at the bait: a mother and daughter pair, and another interested party operating through an agent-friend. Eventually, our agent phoned to say they were offering $345k. Apparently, he said, we had earlier knocked back an offer that was below $350k, which wasn’t true. The agent-fiend would probably suspect this to be a lie. It’s a game this negotiation. By their previous experience, the mother-daughter won’t buy as they’ve been looking in the area for 5 years. Russell says the others are dream buyers, with the money in the bank. If they raise their offer to $355k well take it. He’s concerned about interest rates restricting the market. Our advertising bill is $5,000, so far.
I also came across a property at Macgregor that caught my eye. It was advertised for auction and the agent thought it would go for between $330 - $400k. This was an older house and not as well cared for as the previous one, but this is a house with style. It had a very large lounge and four bedrooms on separate wings; three on one wing and the main and ensuite on the other wing. The design left an area between the two wings that might be large enough for a small pool or secluded garden. There was little in the way of views from this house, but definitely a house with a difference. Some of the doors and walls had been knocked about, and the kitchen looked like it needed to be ripped out and started again. But for all that, there was something about the place that clicked. The trouble in favouring unusual properties is that they may be more difficult to sell.
In Melbourne, S came home after an inspection, and found a strange car parked in her spot. It looks like someone was testing the drive. We did this before we bought the place all those years ago. In fact, there was no way I was going to buy the property until I tested the driveway. I actually wondered if the car could make it up, as the grade was so steep. Of course it did, but the driveway gave troubles in winter as on the steeper sections the car would loose traction when it was wet. So, someone else is going through the same thought processes. This is good!
According to our agent, there are two punters nibbling at the bait: a mother and daughter pair, and another interested party operating through an agent-friend. Eventually, our agent phoned to say they were offering $345k. Apparently, he said, we had earlier knocked back an offer that was below $350k, which wasn’t true. The agent-fiend would probably suspect this to be a lie. It’s a game this negotiation. By their previous experience, the mother-daughter won’t buy as they’ve been looking in the area for 5 years. Russell says the others are dream buyers, with the money in the bank. If they raise their offer to $355k well take it. He’s concerned about interest rates restricting the market. Our advertising bill is $5,000, so far.
16 April 2008
It's not so easy
I still have the touch of a cold lingering – a tickle in my chest that, almost but not quite, makes me cough in Canberra’s cold air. Canberra can have some nice warm days with beautiful blue sky, but the morning and late afternoon air seems to cut right through your body. The doc thinks Echinacea is the bees knees for keeping colds away.
The credit card just went over its limit, and my ISP have suspended service because they didn’t get paid. A cheque goes winging its way toward them. The first half of the year has always been bad for bills in Melbourne. I wonder how it’ll be in Canberra when we get here permanently.
The credit card just went over its limit, and my ISP have suspended service because they didn’t get paid. A cheque goes winging its way toward them. The first half of the year has always been bad for bills in Melbourne. I wonder how it’ll be in Canberra when we get here permanently.
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