Home Sweet Home - the beginning

OK, so it's February 2011. At this point we'd been homeless for about 6 weeks. We'd pretty much given up and decided to rent when we stumbled upon a listing that i believed had lots of potential (i am VERY good at seeing past the worst to what could be.... ;) We found the listing and with much cajoling, convinced the realestate to let us see it straight away, depsite the fact that it wasnt actually going to be on the market for another month yet, and that the owner was currently away. (we'd stumbled on an old listing, you see. It had been taken off the market and was going to be put back on).

We went in the evening, so assumed that was why the house was SO DARK. Even with all the lights on. It was like walking into another world, another time. Everything was wood....and i do mean EVERYTHING!!!! It was like being in a log cabin in switszerland, only we weren't in Switzerland, we were on the sunny Gold Coast, minutes from the beach. Even with all the lights on the house was still dark. And it was built funny. Everything felt slightly akward and in the way, as if you were always walking into something or around something. The bathroom door didn't even open all the way because it would hit the sink. And there was a massive eyesore of a god-awful sauna/shower contraption in the batrhroom that didnt really even fit in it. You kinda had tp shimmy into the bathroom if you weren't the size of a twig. Oh wait.....and peice de resistance was the wooden box aka: the tiolet. Yes, it was an outdoor dunny indoors! They had wood walls, wood floors, wood cielings, wood furniture, wood bar, wood clock...i really meant it when i said EVERYTHING was wood! 

Here, have a look for yourself...

(ps. look at the Mr's face. I think he was slightly horrified)

looking towards the kitchen

what will be my girls room

looking down the kids hallway

the tiolet

looking out to the front door (kitchens at my back)

turning back to the kitchen

this photo makes the kitchen seem bigger than it really is. It's pretty narrow.

the bar (Aka: waste of space)

Lounge room. See those stools and extended counter in the background? That was thier dining table. They actually had no where but there to eat! Guess she wasn't a fan of dinner parties ;)

the master bedroom

wardrobe

ensuite

Our bathroom opens straight into what will be TJs room.

what will be TJ's room

You can't really see in this photo but this room is wierdly laid out with a wall right in the middle of it witj a doorway , but no door, to allow you access from one room to the next. Each room on it's own is ridiculously small. One side holds a bed and a small terrible wardrobe, and the other side holds a vanity table and thats all! 

But i could see past all this. I could see the potential. I mean, just look at these cielings! And the windows! Nothing a few little renos and a bit of paint  a crazy amount of reno's and a WHOLE LOT OF paint couldn't fix!

So there you have it. This was Jan 2011, the month we finally found our new home. We put in our offer and went from there. In the end, we paid more than i wanted to, but the Mr was getting anxious, as was the rest of my family, because we'd been homeless which is not fun with 3 kids and a baby. So after much bargaining, we took an offer and made the deal. I was pretty confident we could have got it for ALOT less, as it had been on the market for almost 2 years on and off and was in bad shape, but we still got it for a really good price , so in the end it was all good. I was actually surprised at how good i was at this whole bying/selling thing, seeing as i had never done it before! I was way more fearless than i thought i would be :)

So thats the beginning! Stay tuned as i plan to do monthly updates for everymonth from when we bought it till now. I have a bit of catching up to do!

 

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[plumbing fittings]

With a new home, you know how the house was built and what went into it both what you can see and what is behind the walls. You can arrange site visits through your builder, and if you have questions later, your builder will be there to give you helpful and accurate information. With a new home, you have the chance to use the most advanced building components.