More Steps

Our offer was officially accepted last Monday. This means that a week from today, we will either have an unconditional contract, or be looking for a new house to get excited over!


As testament to how excited we are, here is a (rough) floor plan I made up last night, to help describe it to people and to get an idea how furniture we have (and don't have) will fit.

Last Wednesday we had the pest and building inspections, and both men were quite free with their praise for the house. "They don't make them like this anymore" type comments were heard, and the pest guy seemed quite infatuated with the house, saying that he himself would buy a place just like it.

The completion of the building and pest inspections signified the start of my real excitement for this purchase, and we just got more excited over the course of the weekend as we went to the auction for the other property we had been interested in. The run down "fix-er upper" went for $505,000 - well over what we would have paid for it, and well over our budget for a house in general. The feeling of absolute relief and confidence in the price we offered for our new home was very satisfying as the auction bids went higher and higher.

The flat is due to settle on Wednesday afternoon, so it seems all our checks and balances are falling into place as everything gains momentum to our goal. (I'll also be without a mortgage then... and have a fantastic looking bank account for a while too!)

The only blemish so far in the ease of all these transactions is that the house has a tenant in it, and legally she's allowed to stay until the 23rd of November. That leaves us with 6 days we don't have a home! Additionally, her contracted rent payment is less than we have to pay to stay on in the flat!

We will wait until the house goes unconditional before we start negotiating with the tenant, to make sure she knows there will be no penalty for breaking the contract early. I just hope that the fact that every time we have been to the property there have been more boxes packed is a sign that they are looking to leave sooner rather than later. I can't imagine that anyone would plan to live with packed boxes for 2 months or more. Fingers crossed she finds an ideal place to live and can't wait to get there!



Now comes the time to seriously contemplate packing and the move.... I'd love to be in our new home at the start of next month.