Men are from Mars!

Now it has been a while since my last post - so much has happened.

We have had visitors from the Mainland and all sorts of Soccer and Family stuff.

In between all that I have been trying to convince my husband to buy a home.

So far the only response I get is <Asbestos>.

Yes I know Asbestos is bad for you.

But really, is that an excuse not to buy a home?

We had a building inspection on the home we looked at - see previous post.

It was an ok inspection - things came up that I knew about - but Asbestos wasn't one I had expected.

The home does need renovating - it REALLY needs kitchen and bathroom makeovers. So that is a major cost when you factor in the Electricity box needs to be moved outside and the asbestos needs to go.

There isn't that much Asbestos - just in the Laundry, a couple of panels in the rear of the house and under the front porch.

I think the issue isn't just Asbestos but all the other stuff that needs doing as well.

The other night as I lay snuggled up to the Martian I was (in my mind) positioning the furniture in the new home. I was working out whose bedroom was whose and where I would put the lounge and dining furniture, how I could accommodate my business without impacting on living space etc etc.

I was musing on paint colors, how I could improvise in the kitchen short term using the furniture from the period so we didn't have to redo the kitchen straight away.

How I would change the name of the business to the name of the house and improve on the quality of stock.

I am a great stretcher of money - amazing - I can make it stretch even further when I have a task or goal in mind.

I am happy to get my hands dirty and am not afraid of hard work.

I think the Martian is the opposite - he doesn't want to partake.

I look at the positives, the potential, the ability to improve.

He looks at the hard manual labour he may be subjected to. The disagreements we may have when I want to him to do things - now. He is a Nyoongar so he works on Nyoongar time.

He will do it ..... it may take a week, a year or even longer.

Thats where the frustration on my part kicks in.

So the Martian would prefer to abstain from anything that may mean he has to physically do something. Ask him to do soccer related or AFL related tasks and he will move mountains to do them.

Ask him to vacuum and he will go walkabout. Literally.

So as I drifted off to sleep snuggled up to his back, I realised that while I was renovating the house in my head he was thinking about football.

I did the unthinkable yesterday......

I went to an open home!

I have always just stalked a house on the net preferring to ogle from afar but yesterday was different.
The inspection time suited me - I dropped the boys at soccer and went for a chai latte at Swamp cafe then visited this home.

It has all the "I wants" in a house. It has 2 bathrooms, air conditioning, character, it is low set (single level, no stairs), brick, no lawn to mow, off street parking, big shed, polished floors.
It does need work - painting, kitchen, guttering and some minor alterations to get it to how we could best utilise the space.

It is on a main road, and that is not a negative either - I could run my business from there..... it is close to Mackenzie's school, bus route and shops, with a walk to the markets or Aurora Stadium.

Invermay has always been on my list of places to live - providing it is the dry side of Invermay.

So now I just have to convince Michael that this house is it..... hopefully he will get a look through this week.

If you saw Mackenzie you would wonder if he is mine.....

My children do not look like me. 

Madison is so much like her father - I didn't get a look in.

She has his legs (lucky for her), his eyes and nose and chin and widows peak (even though I have one), the only thing I may have contributed to is her boobs (and they are really hand me downs from her Nana).

Mackenzie is so much like his father - the only thing I

 may have had anything to do with is his nose!

He has gorgeous olive skin, dark eyes an athletic figure

 and ability (I joke and say he got this from me).

One thing both the kids seem to have got from me is their personality.

Madison can be quite shy sometimes (so can I - although some of you would be laughing right now) and other times she can be very confident and capable. She is happy to argue the point and can hold an adult conversation. She is the eccentric one (another hand me down from Nana) and comes up with some weird and wonderful ideas. She is forever telling me of her crazy dreams and is able to recall them in vivid detail.

She is brave enough (or stupid enough) to take off to Hobart without really knowing someone and makes friends and stays there for weeks. She has no idea how gorgeous she is and has the ability to look good in anything she wears.

Mackenzie is so much like me at times it is quite frustrating!

He is a Soccer Boot stalker on the internet. 

So he will spend hours trawling the websites of ALL Soccer Boot shops who deliver to Australia..... and I mean ALL. Then he will make you look at all the pairs he has picked out hoping you will buy a pair for him.

Last night on the way to the shops we went past a house that is for sale in Invermay. 

I said to Michael - "thats the house I have been stalking." He asks "how can you stalk a house?" 

Mackenzie answers - "on the internet Dad - just like me with Soccer Boots." 

We had to laugh. 

Michael said " I keep telling you that he is so much like you!"

Anyhow I had better do some work.... I may continue this theme later!

Letter to the Editor No.3

Amazing! So you have to pay someone from Sydney to assess the clock? Just because you have some complaints from a few Quest guests? I live in town and yes I have already voiced my opinion on this matter but I am also a business owner who relies on the tourist dollar to earn a living. The tourists who visit my shop always complain loudly about parking, the lack thereof of free parking and the cost to shop when you park in the city. So if you are going to consider silencing the clock how about stopping the parking fees that stop the many tourists visiting my shop and the CBD! Don't stop the clock for a few Hotel guests - stop the parking fees for the many hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit our City!

So.... in this market - is Rent to Own an option?

Just putting it out there!

I am so sick of the rental roundabout. Not that we have been doing it long but I am frustrated with the inability to improve the property.

On the mainland there are many options to Rent to Own. You can pay a high rent and a percentage of it becomes your deposit when you eventually purchase the property. I have been reading up on it a bit and I have devised my personal wish list of "Rent to Own"

• The house has to be habitable
• Pay market rent plus $1000 per month (as deposit)
• Agree on a purchase price and sign a contract accordingly (could be slightly inflated to reflect increases in property values)
• Settle within 2-3 years.
• be able to improve the property as we live there - achieving two things 1. hopefully an improved value creating more equity later and 2. making it ours
• be in Launceston or within an easy commute to the CBD

As previously confessed I am a realestate.com.au addict. Over the months of trawling the site I have seen regular homes remain on the market and are still on the market today. Some have been empty for all that time. There doesn't appear to be anything "wrong" with them ..... maybe they are a tad overpriced or lack some of the wanted space or convenience the buyers want. Maybe they need some TLC or are missing a perceived necessity like car parking - who knows but why isn't there an alternative to remaining vacant and unsold???

I am putting it out there because I want the opportunity, NOW, not in 3 years time when the business can show the figures the Banks want. Not when I have paid out more than a deposit in rent year after year and have nothing to show for it, surely there has to be a way.....

The last straw!

My weekend was going along fine till my 17 yr old daughter went out Saturday night.


To say we have been having issues with her is an understatement. If you call dropping out of school, running away to the south of the state and existing on no funds, food or shelter is normal then I want the not normal, thank you! 


She was going to come home on Saturday night (97% sure according to her) and would probably start heading home around 12.30am, so I text to see if she would like a lift, but no she was walking with a friend. Friends are all nameless too BTW. So I went to bed and did the one eye open, one eye shut thing until 3am when she let herself in, put the hall light on..... walked around, turned the light off and then I heard the clunk of the back door..... she let herself OUT! So I text asking what she was up to and she said she had come to get some clothes and would be home tomorrow. No point arguing or replying on my part.... I don't matter, she doesn't care. 


So I get up and start to get ready for work on 5 hours sleep and guess what?? My make up is gone!! Some may say this is trivial, but to those who do their face every day, it is the last straw!! I tried calling (no answer) I tried texting (no reply), called again, got a text back saying she did have the make up - sorry. Asked her to bring it back, so sorry was the response. Asked where she was so I could go collect - sleeping sorry bye xo - came back. Sent her a swearing text (I don't normally swear) telling her to answer the f.....g phone and she did. 


Then I lost it. 


I burst into tears and told her I wanted my make up back (really I wanted my daughter back) and how unhappy I was .... and how I needed my make up to go to work (really I needed her to come home). She hung up on me, switched off her phone and went back to sleep.


I rang my husband, still in tears, and told him she had my make up (sounds funny now) and how could I go to work without my face on. He was ready to come home and help me (don't know how) but fortunately I found some leftovers in a box I was supposed to go through and throw out 5 yrs ago. So I regained my composure, applied my professional face and went to work.


She arrived home around 4 pm as if nothing happened. Amazing! 


I know in the face of all that is going on in the world this may appear minor and it is in comparison to other things we have gone through with her but sometimes you can only take so much when you have already been hammered with the lot before. 


I know now, today, that my reaction was hormone induced. I had an idea it might be, but tough, I am over her disruptive ways.

What came first the Hotel or the Clock??

"Does Ivan Dean have the experience of hearing the clock after midnight? 

We live in town and are just 2 blocks from the town clock and after midnight the clock only chimes on the hour.

If you come to visit it is part of the Launceston experience. Surely the Hotels have the ability to reduce the "noise" levels by double glazing, heavier window furnishings etc, and shouldn't this have been factured in when they were originally developed? Has the noise levels of the town clock been measured? And if so what was the result? And while you are at it can you also do the local Niteclubs, Pubs, loud cars etc that DO wake us up? This is a waste of resources and council time, when there are more important issues that need addressing in this city ,than the toll of a bell!"

I get on my soap box every now and then - this week it was the town clock and last year was the assault of my 16yr old daughter in broad daylight in the Launceston Mall (a story for another time). But if I feel strongly about an issue I will write to the editor of our local newspaper.

"If I were a rich man, Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum. "

" I'd build a big tall house with rooms by the dozen,
Right in the middle of the town.
A fine tin roof with real wooden floors below.
There would be one long staircase just going up,
And one even longer coming down,
And one more leading nowhere, just for show."

                                        Fiddler on the Roof

Just happened to be singing this tune (in my head) so decided to blog and thought I would just check into realestate.com to see if there was a suitable picture of a house I could pinch! And the first one was just perfect. A lovely Terrace in town with nice room proportions and a maintenance free backyard. It has the space to fill with lovely items from home and the shop - perfecto!

 

The pictures for this house are lovely but rather empty of things you would expect to see in a home of this size. There are few personal touches and it appears very sparse. Its not that you have to crowd a home like this but I certainly would fill it with objects that were useful and pleasing to the eye such as this pair of vases.

I have not taken too many things home from the shop - just the odd piece of furniture if it is special and I know I won't get another one like it. When I commented on these vases, my husband said "why don't you take them home....." and I said "not until we have a home that's ours....." but I can still plan in my head how and where they would go.

See what I mean by sparse! It makes you wonder why they are selling..... anyhow my long recycled timber table that seats 8 would be perfect in here...... would be our home in no time!

Hello, my name is Cathy & I am a realestate.com.au addict....

I trawl through the listings of Launceston and Invermay on realestate.com.au weekly if not sometimes alternate days. Its not that I am in the market to buy a house just yet - it's just that I really want to buy a house. I need a nest!

I know how hard real estate agents have to work to list, present, market and sell a house. I was a mortgage broker in my past life and one of the things I did was attend Open Homes with an Agent. So on Saturday's I would get to see 6 to 8 homes. I was there to sell my service, hopefully convert the sale or alternately ensure the buyer was ready to buy and buy NOW. After awhile you tended to recognise the habitual Open Home Lookers - they were the Saturday Open Home Trawlers. 

They would turn up to the open home, gladly give their contact details (if the agent didn't already have them) and then go through the home inspecting with delight. They were time wasters. We were their Saturday entertainment. Nothing more nothing less.

They spent money on petrol or walked if they lived close by and were able to look for ideas for their own homes - even to the point where they wanted to know the color of the paint etc.

The Agents would treat them with respect and have a never ending hope that one day they would ask them to sell their home.

So knowing how hard it is for the Agents I don't go to open homes - even if I would buy the house if I had the money, have looked at every detail online and decided where to place my furniture. I won't give the Agent or the seller false hope.

The Seller (sometimes still in the house/across the street/in the next backyard) watches for visitor numbers, takes heart when the numbers are good and crashes emotionally when no one turns up.

I know when we were selling our home I wanted to know who came, did they like the house, were they in the market NOW to buy? And I knew from the names whether my neighbours or friends had just popped in for a look or a sticky beak.

So now, knowing my buying position, I trawl the internet. It is safe, harm free and can be enjoyed at anytime of the day or night - and I don't use up petrol!

My kids however see me on realestate.com.au and start to ask the questions..... are we moving? does it have a pool? make sure it has a backyard - I want the biggest bedroom..... etc etc. And then I have to reassure them that no we are not moving, Mum is just dreaming about moving and when we are ready I will let them know and give them fair warning....

Tidy & Clean = Peace and contentment!

I don't know about you, but my emotions at home are dictated by the state of the house.
I either feel grumpy, anxious (especially if someone knocks on the door) and frustrated if my house is messy, needs a vacuum or the bathrooms need cleaning. It appears that I am the only one in the family who notices the mess, the rest appear to be oblivious! I also seem to be the only one who can tidy away, clean, and vacuum.

There is nothing nicer than a tidy and clean house to keep me in a content mood.

Its nice to start cooking dinner with clean bench tops and an empty sink.

I am one of those people who madly tidy’s stuff away and clean’s before the cleaner comes. I feel really bad if the house is messy and I will not let anyone come to visit unless the house (or what they see of it) is tidy and clean. We moved into a NO cupboard house over a year ago now and I am still trying to create suitable storage to put away the things we never use, but can’t toss out. 

I feel serene and calm when the house is clean and tidy and really stressed and agitated when its not! I do get distracted when I have to do housework and have learnt to set myself a goal per day rather than do it all at once (otherwise I really find it hard to do cos I don’t want to do it at all).

There seems to be no easy solution (other than hiring a house maid) to ensure my happiness in the home!

Inbuilt desire to own.....

I wonder when the first seeds are sewn into our mind that we should have a home of our own. What conscious or subconscious thoughts are placed to return time and time again to start up the yearning for our own home. It's okay when you do own your home, you settle into a routine of living in what you have, decorate it as you so desire and maintain and improve it until its use is up. Then thoughts go to "is it time we move? do we need a bigger or smaller space? Do we want to live in a different suburb closer or further away from town etc etc etc."

My parents were 10 pound Poms from England. They moved to Brisbane in 1964 and for the next 6 years they moved 6 times. Then my Mum put her foot down and told Dad that the next house they bought had better be the one he could live in for a long time because she wasn't moving again.

So they bought a 3 bedroom brick house on an acre of land, 28kms from Brisbane. It was a very basic rectangle box and was considered to be located in the "sticks". They paid $14k for it then and 26 years later sold it for $220k. They had extended with a further 3 bedrooms, double garage, swimming pool and it was fully landscaped. Two years after it sold again for $650k.
They had been happy in this house, it had served them well. They saw 3 kids grow up, get jobs, drive and park numerous vehicles in the front yard, move out, move back, and move out finally for good. Then they were empty nesters, a large big house with the two of them echoing through it.
So the thoughts started of moving again, to a smaller more manageable block, to a more suitable house. It wasn't long and they sold and moved to the eighth home. Three years later they did it again.... sold and bought the "final retirement" Unit. Located close to my brother and his family, across from the beach and close to all the amenities they would need to see their later years out. Their next stop would be an aged care facility and this could be years away.

So when you no longer own your home and you rent a home why then does the yearning start all over again?

My needs are simple..... Our needs are simple.....

We live in town - right in the CBD. We really enjoy the convenience and ability to walk to work, walk to restaurants, shops and local events. Our rental home is what we need to house us (except for the lack of cupboards) with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 living areas, kitchen and separate dining. It has parking but NO backyard. The lack of a backyard is the only thing letting it down (other than NO cupboards). My son likes where we live, enjoys catching the school bus to town and then the short stroll home via his friends coffeeshop. But he hates that we don't have a backyard. Where as Michael loves the fact he has no lawn to mow, no weeds to pull and no hedges to cut, Mackenzie would like to be able to kick a ball and not have it roll down the street. I too miss the ability to sit out the back in the sun and read the paper or to have my outdoor setting nicely set out for lunch and entertain in private. So next time I would like a small backyard that would allow Mackenzie to kick a ball around, scoot on his scooter, for the maintenance to be minimal and for the peace to begin.

It's a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach.....

Assuming that every mother wants to protect their children and family is just what it is .... an assumption. But I do.... cross one of my children or my husband and look out for the Lioness slinking up behind you! I am not the violent type but I will slay you with the written or spoken word and my eyes will lock you in with a deadly look.

One thing that has been gnawing away at me is the need to have our own bricks and mortar - again. I am becoming increasingly frustrated with renting. Yes we rent because we have to but I don't have to be happy doing it. It solves the purpose now but it doesn't ease the gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Once upon a time ago I would have wanted the three level mansion with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms that could house a few families. Been there.... done that. Brought back to reality very quickly, and more realistically now, my wish is for a simple house to accommodate the four of us and the cats.