Everyone knows the old real estate
adage ‘location, location, location’. Hell they even named a tv show after it.
And it’s common knowledge that to make money from property you should buy the
worst house in the best street. Well...
OK so maybe it’s not the worst
house (kind of looks nice in this shot) but it certainly has issues. Take the
trees for example - the real estate blurb called them ‘mature plantings’ – but
these mothers are big! Approximately 15 metres tall with trunks as thick as ...
well, very large pine tree trunks. Did I mention they are perilously close to
the house?
Because we couldn’t see the
forest for the trees we engaged a tree whisperer slash monkey to do some
judicious pruning (removing them altogether was going to cost approx. $10,000!).
I love the sound of chainsaws in the morning.
Of course
the house has bags of potential. Potential to inflict serious damage on our
finances, sanity and health. It is named Craigheath but we’ve
dubbed it Twin Peaks because of the trees and its somewhat
creepy nature. And although there’s been no sightings of Laura Palmer "wrapped
in plastic" we did find the decomposing body of a possum under the
floorboards.
Don’t get
me wrong we’re no DIY virgins. In fact the grumpy one is a licensed chippie and
I’ve even held an owner builder’s permit before. We honed our skills at our
recently sold, much-loved circa 1915 weatherboard cottage in a neighbouring
suburb.
In fact
we've already sorted out the raw crude bubbling up in the backyard. Luckily
major sewage work was avoided ... for the moment. And dismantled an ancient shed that was chock full of asbestos. But it has been a shock to the system moving from a large (4
bedroom plus studio), finished (safe, dry and centrally heated), and comfortable
(three bathrooms!) home into a renovator’s delight complete with obligatory
70’s bathroom make-over ...
...yes that is wallpaper in the bathroom. Did I mention we
don’t have a dishwasher?
No comments:
Post a Comment