Saturday 27 February 2010

We bought a house, finally!!!

Well after a false start in 2008 & nearly 2 months of searching this year, we’ve found ‘our’ new home. Such a relief. It’s smaller than our current home but we plan to do some serious de-cluttering before we move, so it should be plenty big enough.

Paul has been in Melbourne all this week searching, 2 maybe’s that didn’t pan out & then this. I knew the right one was waiting for us.

exterior

It’s a storeybook cottage, I’ve lusted after them for years but never thought I’d have one. I found it online at 10.30 Thursday night, rang Paul straight away & he rang the agent at 9am Friday morning. He had 2 offers to take to the vendors & said I can show you now, but you’ll have to move quickly. We did, & luckily our offer was accepted. Paul & dd Emma have been back this morning to measure it all up & draw up a plan. The owners were very generous letting them in as they were hosting a big birthday party for their dd.

I can’t wait to start planning where everything will go. There is a study for Paul, an area for Rowan’s computer desk & drums & a sewing room for me.

kitchen

I don’t cook but this is my dream kitchen. I want the house to have a French flavour & this kitchen certainly lends itself to it.

loungeroom

Lovely timber floors in the loungeroom. I think this room could be made quite ‘Weasleyish.’ :-))

sewing room

My sewing room–to-be. There will be ‘playing’ of a different variety when I get all my fabric in there. I’m itching to know the measurements to see where everything will go.

Two friends have already put their hands up for the guestroom. Helen will be doing a course in June & will spend the weekend with us. I can’t wait, I’ll take her to Chadstone so we can drool over all the designer shops, then we’ll go to DFO & hopefully find some great bargains.

I rang the Victorian Real Estate Institute the other day for some advise & when I said my dh was in Melbourne looking to buy a house the guy burst out laughing & said, ‘My wife wouldn’t let me loose to buy a house!!’ I assured him he was on a very short reign & I was keeping in touch by phone & email & our dd would be doing the final inspection. As it turned out there wasn’t time for Emma to look before we had to make the offer & I’d only seen the pics on the website but I knew it was the one. So in a way it’s a bit of a mystery house for me. Oh my favourite thing at all the fetes I went to as a kid were the lucky dips, so it’s my lucky dip house.

Another thing I especially love is there is so little needs doing. All the other houses we were interested in needed a lot of work, new kitchens/bathroom/ carpets ripped up & then painting everything inside & out. This house is only 4 years old & only needs 2 bedrooms painted as Rowan didn’t fancy pink or purple.

I might get a little sewing done next week. What with trawling the internet for possible houses, the million phone calls to Paul & being glued to the Winter Olympics as much as possible, especially the figure skating & ice dancing, I’ve sewn nothing!!!

9 comments:

FlourishingPalms said...

It's a gorgeous house, Jan! You are the luckiest duck ever! I hope you have a smooth move, and will share pictures later of your settled-into sewing room. Enjoy!

barrie.r.smith said...

What a fab house Jan! It is just like what you find in NZ!!! Lucky girl, it was obviously meant to be!
Dorothy in NZ.

Jan Quigley said...

Hi Linda & Dorothy, thanks so much for your kind comments. The house is certainly very different to the usual houses on offer. Yes I am a very lucky duck!!!! :-)))) I'm so looking forward to posting the pics of my new sewing room all set up. Cheers, Jan

Fran C said...

Lovely house Jan looks perfect. What suburb is it in. I am in Mentone a short drive from the DFO at Moorabin and 15 mins from Chadstone.

Jan Quigley said...

It's in a new development in Langwarrin. It's 10 minutes from the school we've chosen for Rowan, 40 mins from our dd Emma in Glen Iris & yes 30 mins from Mentone where we have friends & there is DFO. We started looking in Berwick in 2008, this year the search went up into the Dandenongs & finally we decided on the Mornington Peninsula. We don't know the area but Paul said it looked nice when he drove to the school to ask about enrolment.

Lindi said...

It's gorgeous! "Lucky" you! I believe you make your own luck, and your years of searching have really paid off, by the look of all that loveliness and space. :)

Jo said...

Glad you found your place Jan, just down the road a bit from Patchwork Pumpkin! Looks lovely and Im sure you will enjoy making it your own :0)

Ozjane said...

Congratulations Jan, from age 7 I lived at Baxter which is very close by and we would drive on the worst roads in history to pick up a family and take them to Sunday School. Way back when. I went to High School, Teacher's College and taught in Frankston.when it was a nicer place than it appears to be now.
Sandy soil but gets more water than we do here.

Jan Quigley said...

Thanks Lindi, Jo & Ozjane.
It was a long & at times stressful search but it has paid off. I'll be checking out Patchwork Pumpkin, it will be great to have so many quilt shops to visit. I've been on a few quilt shop crawls in Melbourne & there are some fantastic shops.
Thankfully the roads have improved.I haven't had sandy soil before, I've had clay & that's hard work,we'll be installing a tank to try & green up the garden. I did notice many of the houses for sale had very little grass & what was there was brown. Jan