Busy day today... out the door at the crack of dawn to meet our Buyers Agent at the Tremont house. Basically he was going to assess exactly how much renovating would cost and try to negotiate the people down if possible. He's both a Buyers Agent and an Architect, so he's great for assessing renovations!
I am NOT holding out any hope it's going to happen because my Spidey Sense tells me this place is a money pit and the people are (exactly like I predicted after the electricity thing) not going to negotiate... they'll wait and pass it off to someone who believes the RE Agent when he says $30K will fix it and doesn't have an inspection. Nic loves the place though, so for his sake we'll at least give it a go.
Our buyers agent wanted to see it for himself so he could use his assessment and the Archicenter reports to negotiate. So I meet him and (everyone fake shock here) he agrees with my assessment: it's a beautiful piece of property but the house is a disaster. He reckons my guess of $80K in renovations (after RED said $30! PMSL!) is actually quite low... he reckons he'd put $125-150K to fix the house up. Which means we'd need to get them down significantly from $510K which my bet is that it ain't gonna happen. So, the freak-chance they decide to sele cheap aside, that appears to wrap up that chapter. Nic is pretty sad but agrees it's too much.
I'm feeling equally relieved, vindicated, annoyed no one listened to my gut feelings earlier and saved us a lot of time/stress, slightly smug and a bit sad at that. The gardens and vista were absolutely spectacular and I liked the trees, flowers and fairy grotto. I'm also just feeling really anxious now that we're definitely not getting this one as it means we're definitely renting for an unspecified period of time and I'm having a hard time trusting that the universe will bring me my perfect place. Part of me wonders if I'm being realistic in wanting the "whole package" at our budget. It seems like you either see the nice house or the nice land but not both. If push comes to shove and I have to compromise, what would I choose? I really don't want to live in a house where every time I look at it I go "urg... how depressing, what an ugly place!" but on the other hand, giving up on my dream just because it's more of a risk to wait for my perfect place than settle for a pretty house and garden without the farm feels like the cowards out and I keep thinking of my MIL. She put off going after her dream of moving to the country and opening a B&B because it invovled a degree of financial risk in staying afloat until she hit the break even point and she opted to wait rather than put it on the line for her dream. At 50, her cancer came back and now she'll never have that chance... something she'd worked her whole life for. It's always struck me as so tragic, life is just too short and unpredictable not to grab every chance to live your dreams that comes your way you know?
Our buyers agent wanted to see it for himself so he could use his assessment and the Archicenter reports to negotiate. So I meet him and (everyone fake shock here) he agrees with my assessment: it's a beautiful piece of property but the house is a disaster. He reckons my guess of $80K in renovations (after RED said $30! PMSL!) is actually quite low... he reckons he'd put $125-150K to fix the house up. Which means we'd need to get them down significantly from $510K which my bet is that it ain't gonna happen. So, the freak-chance they decide to sele cheap aside, that appears to wrap up that chapter. Nic is pretty sad but agrees it's too much.
I'm feeling equally relieved, vindicated, annoyed no one listened to my gut feelings earlier and saved us a lot of time/stress, slightly smug and a bit sad at that. The gardens and vista were absolutely spectacular and I liked the trees, flowers and fairy grotto. I'm also just feeling really anxious now that we're definitely not getting this one as it means we're definitely renting for an unspecified period of time and I'm having a hard time trusting that the universe will bring me my perfect place. Part of me wonders if I'm being realistic in wanting the "whole package" at our budget. It seems like you either see the nice house or the nice land but not both. If push comes to shove and I have to compromise, what would I choose? I really don't want to live in a house where every time I look at it I go "urg... how depressing, what an ugly place!" but on the other hand, giving up on my dream just because it's more of a risk to wait for my perfect place than settle for a pretty house and garden without the farm feels like the cowards out and I keep thinking of my MIL. She put off going after her dream of moving to the country and opening a B&B because it invovled a degree of financial risk in staying afloat until she hit the break even point and she opted to wait rather than put it on the line for her dream. At 50, her cancer came back and now she'll never have that chance... something she'd worked her whole life for. It's always struck me as so tragic, life is just too short and unpredictable not to grab every chance to live your dreams that comes your way you know?
On the upside, in rental news, we found two places within our budget that were okay with the dogs. One is in Ferntree Gully and one is in Sassafrass. They're both decent as rental properties go. FTG Rental House has neighbors with a small herd of yappers and a fence in serious disrepair (as in segments don't exist) that the agent can't guarantee they'll do anything to fix. We heard the dogs howling from the point we got out of the car. Otherwise, I like the house, it's got a big backyard for agility and a nice front yard for La to play in. In a more erm... boganish looking area though, not entirely sure I'd want to go walk the dogs at night iykwim! The second, Sassafras Rental House, is in a much nicer area, pretty streets to walk the dogs in, nice big sandbox for La to play in, ace built in computer desk and shelving! The downside is that the backyard fence is below knee-high and the neigbhors have chooks that apparently like to fencehop. I wouldn't be able to leave the dogs outside at all unless I was right there watching because they'd be over the fence in a heartbeat. The first time the chooks fencehopped I'm afraid they'd end up lunch too. The front isn't fenced either but as I said, much nicer area and lovely to go jogging in with the dogs and it's in a more "alternativey" lifestyle area... a new montessori opening up apparently, the owners are hippies, very nice, mum was BFing her 4 yo little girl which was so sweet!
So we're hoping to get one of those by Monday. Have to dash to get the papers in tomorrow after we go to our show. Which brings me to that... Hope's going to be showing tomorrow at KCC and possibly Sunday. I entered both days but didn't remember the ASCV's funday in Ruffery Lake Park which also sounds fun! However if everyone is going to be at the funday I'm not sure it'd be worth showing or if we'd be able to show and then dash over to the funday. Decisions, decisions!
La has come out with some new words in the last 2 days. "Grape", "Hopie", "Au revoir" and "Chat". Pronunciation isn't crystal clear of course (poor Hopie is "oopee" or "pee"...) but it's so horribly cute when he speaks French. I'm desperately trying to convince him to repeat "petit lapin Lala" but no luck yet! He is asking for names of things more though, constantly pointing, "Mum! See it! What's that?" in chipper little toddler-slur.
Last but not least... Sif, you'll get a kick out of this... I started a hat the same day you started one for La. It's *finally* off the knitting needles. I still need to sew it (I can't do it in the round) and figure out how to pull of the (fancy, very cool, rainforesty) decoration I've planned for it! (Now you know why I'm in awe of how fast you are! LOL)
Last but not least... Sif, you'll get a kick out of this... I started a hat the same day you started one for La. It's *finally* off the knitting needles. I still need to sew it (I can't do it in the round) and figure out how to pull of the (fancy, very cool, rainforesty) decoration I've planned for it! (Now you know why I'm in awe of how fast you are! LOL)
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