I have a great habit of saying something only to completely backflip on it in a matter of days. It drives me and Mr Bond crazy, but sometimes you just have to be open to seeing an opportunity when it presents itself. A few months ago we had been looking at houses and found something that looked ideal, but of course once I got to view the property for myself it was clear that my dream home was nothing more than a blatant use of Photoshop. After the initial disappointment we decided that the timing was not great for us to move anyway and this was just the Universe’s way of telling us to wait for something better to come along. Since then I have been keeping an eye on the properties coming up for sale in our area and there really hadn’t been anything suitable for our needs that was also suitable for our budget. The good thing about this was that it gave us time to get a really clear understanding of what we needed in a new family home.
Late last week I was discussing the topic of house hunting with Mr Bond and after talking about what we both wanted and where we were heading it was agreed that we should probably wait until later in the year before we thought about moving into a bigger house (and bigger mortgage). We felt very mature for deciding to put our efforts into paying as much off our current house as possible in that time and getting it sale ready in order to get the best return.
I celebrated our new plan by logging onto realestate.com.au for yet another listings search.
Idiot.
Of course there would be something we just had to take a look at.
Since the address was listed we also stalked the property on google maps so we could check out the back yard. Happy days, it has side access to a huge shed for Mr Bond’s work jazz AND yard for Skye and Bundy to play in. Some of the most difficult features to find in our area.
This is going to be a problem.
We made arrangements to go and view the house and I was excited that Mr Bond was able to join me as I did a lot of the house hunting solo or with one of our mum’s for our first home and I wanted to make sure that we were on the same page for this one. As we wandered around I could hear myself saying “when we fence it here” and “I could put a command station there” and “Oooh, that would make a great space for a mud room”. I was doomed! I hadn’t even made it upstairs before the mental IKEA list had started.
There was of course a few things that weren’t ideal such as the configuration of the bedrooms and the fact that there is no dishwasher (because I was NEVER buying another house without a dishwasher, see? another backflip) and the rather perplexing use of curtains instead of doors on all of the built in cupboards. But there are so many things that seem right about the place that I am willing to work with it anyway. Even Mr Bond who rarely shows much enthusiasm in these situations said that he liked the house – a bold statement believe me.
So now there is just the small issue of discussing finances with the bank, you know, so we can find out if buying this property is even an option. We still have to decide whether we would be better to rent out our existing house or sell it, and what would need to be completed on the house for both of these options. Oh, and the pesky detail of the owner accepting our offer…
But since when has something like that held us back???
