This week I have been a little consumed with the prospect of finding a newer and bigger house for us to stretch out in. Luke and I regularly check what houses have come up for sale in our area but often the homes that appeal are way above our budget because they come with the bonus of being waterfront (ahhh, someday…). Usually the ones in a more realistic price bracket are little improvement on what we already have, or are so old they would take too much time and money to reach their potential. We live in an area that was mostly holiday homes when the suburb was first established and as such there are very few homes available that offer more than 3 bedrooms unless they are one of the mansions built along the waterfront when people were able to take advantage of cheaper land prices (bastards). While we were checking out the listings over the weekend Luke pointed out a property that seemed to tick all the boxes and then some, so I called the agent and arranged a time to view the house, and that’s when I should have started listening to the signs…
The only time I was able to get in clashed with my usual Tuesday morning gym class which is my favourite one, but I was so excited by the idea of finding the perfect house I was happy to do it. The fact that I had such high hopes already should have told me things may not be what I expected. The house for sale is pretty close to where we are now so I got every thing ready and started loading myself and Skye in the car only to discover I couldn’t find my car keys! After emptying the contents of my handbag at least twice, searching under our bed, calling Luke to abuse him for not putting my keys back where he found them and turning the kitchen upside down I admitted defeat and strapped Skye into the pram whilst trying to call the agent to let him know I was running late.
As I was unable to get through to the agent I started jogging down the hill hoping to get there ASAP with the added bonus of making up for some of my lost gym class, graceful as a gazelle I made my way to the bottom of the hill where I was met with the Tidy Town Commitee who were working on the parklands in front of the reserve (I love those guys!) one of them signalled for me to pass them with their mowers and as I drew level suddenly my grace came to a grinding halt as I busted the plug on my thong.
Even the expensive ones will let you down at the most inconvenient time.
Mindful of the time and my desire to see this house that I had by then convinced myself had been waiting for me all these months because we were meant to own it, I pulled off my thongs, threw them in the pram and hobbled as quickly as I could dodging loose rocks and broken glass to my destination.
You can imagine what kind of impression I made on the agent turning up pink faced and bare foot accompanied by a toddler covered in Weet-bix and half a packet of Tiny Teddies spread over her pram.
Flustered but determined I went inside and was instantly disappointed. Downstairs was in pretty good condition with two large living areas that I could picture housing Skye’s growing toy collection and some kind of rumpus area with proportions better suited to the enormous TV we own, or possibly an office to make all the business paperwork easier to manage. We headed upstairs and that was when I began to question how old the photographs used in the advertising material actually were. I was promised generous bedrooms with built-ins, modern kitchen and
“top end fittings and fixtures compliment the ultra modern bathroom which looks like it has come straight out of the pages of a home style magazine”
Hmmm, I am not sure what qualifies as generous but shoe boxes are probably a better description, the bedrooms in our current house are larger than what I was seeing here. The ‘modern’ kitchen would have to be as old as mine and did not have a dishwasher - gasp! This one is a deal breaker for me I’m afraid, I would rather put the money into upgrading our kitchen than face taking on a bigger mortgage and still need to replace or upgrade a kitchen. As for the bathroom, I doubt any home style magazine would feature a bathroom with a broken vanity. An entire panel of the glass front door was smashed! Did they think no one would notice? There were clear signs of considerable wear and tear throughout the house including damage to the newly laid carpets and a big chunk of the wall in the stair case missing. Had I not been given the impression that the inside had been completely renovated and only the outside needed attention I would have given it more consideration, but every where I looked things needed work, more work than I saw the value in doing.
Deflated I started making my way back home, bare foot. I had no idea how rough the roads were until then, I even stopped at the general store to see if they had any kind of footwear suitable to save my feet – I would have even worn crocs! It took me about half an hour to make the usually ten minute trip home and as soon as I was back in my own street I put the one working thong back on to give at least one of my feet some relief. Until then I was not about to wear the one on its own because I figured being completely barefoot might make me look like a bogan, but wearing one thong would just make me look pathetic – or bat-shit crazy.
To add to the wonder of my morning Skye fell asleep in the pram on the way home, possibly because it would have been a gentle soothing saunter for her as she was oblivious to the crippling rock and bindi dance going on behind her. It was only 10:30am! My hopes of her having her normal afternoon nap were dashed and instead were replaced with the enticing promise of cranky tantrums in the early evening.
Just to add insult to injury, once I got back home, I had the bright idea that maybe the keys had fallen into the lounge so I picked up a cushion to start searching and voila! First cushion lifted revealed the elusive car keys… and the need for me to maybe run a vacuume over the cushions sometime.
One reflection of my day I have decided that signs are always there if you are willing to listen, some are big and some are very small, but often they are meant to save you the heart ache and hassle of wasting your time on things that may not be what you really seek. I have also realised that I am pretty happy with the house we live in right now. In fact, I love our house, I love it so much I wish there was a metre more of it every which way and it would probably be our ideal house. It is human nature to always want bigger and better and I am sure one day, when the time is right, we will find a house that meets our growing needs but until then I am not putting my feet through any more grief when the Universe is telling me its not right.
