Saturday we went to the house in Cranbourne to check it out. 2 acres, 3 bedroom, BV, set up for horses. It wasn't what we were looking for unfortunately, though I did like the neat all weather riding arena... would be an ace agility set-up - good traction, non-slippery and lower impact on their joints. Ironically while we were looking around, we turned and noticed Nikki from ASCV, checking out the property as well.
Then we drove out to Tremont where we were looking at another property. This is one we only knew what the RE agent told us... that it was very similar to the property we'd lost out on, had 5 acres, period house, similar style of property, lightly treed, area for grazing, close to town and transport, supposedly was someones holiday home they decided to let go when he put out feelers for us. I was trying not to get over excited but it sounded too good to be true.
Having seen it, I'm not sure how I feel or what to think. No one had lived in it for 15 years. The story goes, it’s been in their family since the 1920's, the lady and her husbands holiday home but after he died she couldn’t bring herself to come touch it. No electricity at the moment. Interior is semi-gutted because when they decided to sell it much of it wasn’t in great condition. Exterior needs replacing and repainting. All 3 verandahs are partly rotted out from no care and need replacing. The gardens are a tangled, overgrown jungle but I can see the structure there that has potential to be a show-case garden. I have no idea how much of the peeling I saw on the house is just cosmetic and how much will be actually structural compromise. The land is pretty and there are a few things I *really* do like about it... but it's a major lot of work in trimming, removing/repathing, regrading, removing dead trees, major tree maintenance with dead branches etc. There are a 2 massive trees that are spectacular and would be lovely focal pieces to rival anything you'd see in the Royal Botanical Gardens. There are cute little springs that make a fairy grotto and a stream... but I'd say that under an acre is at all grazeable, you can't see it from the house and that's at the bottom of a very steep hill which water runs down to... making me suspicious of how boggy it would get. There is no fencing which means I'd have to put a lot of money into fencing off areas securely for the dogs and La, then running standard post/wire fencing for the sheep surrounding the rest of the property. The agent, our RE Dude's brother, doesn't have any of the Section 32's available. There are only 2 bedrooms and not an easy place to build a third for when we have another child. The owners are asking $500-520 for it.
On one hand, there is a lot of potential in it. If someone has the time and money to fix it, it does have it's charms. And I know myself well enough to know I'd want to personalize almost any house I'd get since it's a pretty rare thing to find someone with the exact same taste as me. (Happened once but I'm not holding breath on those odds striking 2x.) It’s a 2 minute drive from Ferntree Gully Station. However, it does need a LOT of work, potentially a lot of structural work, potentially quite costly. I don’t know at this point. So... I am feeling exceedingly cautious. It doesn't have the area for the sheep and dogs like I wanted, though it's hard to tell since it's such a tangle of growth! It does have nice features to the land though. It doesn't have enough bedrooms or space to add on since it's essentially on a sheer drop. We were looking at $500-510 for the other place, with it finished, enough bedrooms, usable land, fencing existing etc. This is going to be that, plus a lot of money outlaid for fixing it up, for less usable land.
I'd consider the place, I suppose, if it turns out to be sound structurally and financially feasible. I'm not sure I want to spend all that money fixing up a place. That was one of the big reasons we wanted to move from this house, even before I ever thought I'd convince Nic to go to the country - it'd cost too much to restore it properly. I'd wanted to invest whatever we had leftover from this place, not sink it into improvements. Nic likes it a lot, he thinks it's got an electric feel to it. I think it's nice but it's not near as nice as the other place, it doesn't resonate for me really and that's what I'm really after. Maybe that will change, maybe not.
Nic asked if I liked it. I said, yes, it's okay, it has some nice features but I can't work up an emotional response to it, it doesn’t speak to me one way or another. I half wonder if some of the ambiguous feelings aren’t residual energy from the lady who owns it, it’s such an unusual feeling to me you know? Usually I react strongly, instantly one way or another but this... I just had such a sense of melancholy sadness about. It’s not that I’m against it but neither can I really say I’m for it either.
It has a lot of things I'm feeling really reserved about. I could see me living there I suppose. I'm not sure I could picture me living there permanently which is what I'm after and willing to wait for if I have to. He asked if I would be heartbroken if they took this one off the market like I was when they took the other house off the market. I said no. I like it, it's okay but it doesn’t strike me emotionally at the moment. Other times I’ve found places I instantly felt at home. This is a nice (potentially, with renos) home but I’m not sure it’s MY home. He didn't like that much, he wants me to get what I want and it bothers him that we're not able to find it and that I wasn't reacting as he'd hoped or it wasn't as he'd hoped it would be for me to react that way, I'm not sure which.
See? Told you I needed the ambivalent, muddled and introspective smiley. ;-) Maybe a long, rambling one too. And a tired-cuz-La-got-dairy and sooked all night, waking every 20 minutes wailing and clinging one.
One of the goofier moments recently... we spent the day on a picnic and went to one of the little tourist shops where I hammed up the cultureless Yankee and turned him into La Dundee.
Pic of Hope from last weeks show. This is the only point she wasn't being a total nutter!
And a rather dirty Sierra after digging in my pot a few days past. As you can see she is terrified by my grumbling how I'm going to trade her in for a nice, quiet, well behaved goldfish if she does it again. lol
No comments:
Post a Comment