We got our stuff together yesterday morning and got the Non ready for her Mermaid party. This reminds me, I’m a little dubious about our getting the deposit back on the mermaid costume we borrowed – she sat in something yellow which hasn’t come out despite washing, and whether she tore it or I tore it while washing I’m not sure (might well have been me) a bit of the very fine gauzy fabric has ripped on the front, I’m sure it wasn’t like that when we got it. I’ll have to try and patch it up early tomorrow morning. Anyway, plenty of wavy hair plaits and shells tied into her hair as well later, we were off. Took a while depositing her and making sure she ate something as well as getting her face painted (she always likes that), and then went off on our errands. Dropped off some books at the library, dropped off the inventory to the estate agents (thought we’d done this ages ago but found the stuff at home unexpectedly – woops), and went to see the first house. This one was the Mr’s favourite one, and he does still like it subsequent to viewing:
http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/House/NSW/Merewether/?adid=2008138897
43 Yule Road at $729K. This is actually quite a nice family home, quite spacious and got lots of ‘friendly design’ bits. You enter the house pretty strangely through a garage at the top of Yule Lane (very large double garage), then down some very rickety steps into the Annex. Now they apparently rent out the Annex to a student at the moment, and you can see how it would be a great student digs – a big room of about 7 or 8 m squared with a kitchenette and a bathroom to one side, with it’s own little exit to some grass and paving and so one. Then you go down to the main part of the house and they’ve got an OK kitchen-bedroom set-up scenario with a nice balcony, and downstairs they’ve got a rather frightening TV room with a very serious projector and comfy-chair setup . Ends up being rather dark but it’s easy to see it could be presented infinitely better. They’re got a very useless bathroom downstairs (it’s unused, piled up with junk, a store cupboard and a utility room. This house is relatively large, relatively expensive (I think it’s probably overpriced from various things I’ve heard) and would still need a bit of work – names the stairs down from the road to bypass the annex and the stairs from the annex themselves – also turning the useless bathroom into a useful bedroom and possibly locating a bathroom somewhere upstairs – or doing a very small loo downstairs. Kitchen’s relatively nice though and the rooms are decent though not huge by any standards – bedrooms that is. Very pleasant outside areas and dining, view not bad at all over the side of the hill. Interesting house, pleasant.
Then we rushed back to pick the Non up from the party, who seemed to have had a good time – and what with chatting and travel took a while. Hauled Non back, and went to visit (still in her mermaid costume)
http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/House/NSW/Merewether/?adid=2008227550
55 Yule Lane at $625 (actually they’d reduced it to $599). Much more enticing than we’d thought it would be from the description, they’d really gone through it and used every square inch of space available and done it all very nicely, light colours, unified style, very beautifully set out low maintenance courtyard, all sorts of space-saving things and pretty touches throughout. However, unfortunately this one really is just too small. The decor was MINIMAL to say the least, there was barely anything in the house when you come to look at it properly and what’s more there outlook to the back (despite the beautifully thought-out courtyard) is really just a concrete and wood fence, and at the back it looks out on a vastly spacious tin roof just below it. There’s nothing much more to see. This one again has the ‘annex’ where they’ve added on – a whole bedroom – bathroom – sitting room thing with its own courtyard. Well, strictly speaking they’ve converted the whole of the downstairs into an annex. Textbook nicely done, but not appropriate.
Then we went on to:
http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/House/NSW/Merewether-Heights/?adid=2008264016
13 Sun Hill Drive, Priceless (auction), 3 bed 563 sqm . This was a bit bizarre, have to say. The owner was a smith, it seems, and the first thing that presented itself to my stunned gaze was a large-scale oil reproduction of the Scandinavian god of Fire and smiths that I’d found for the Non on her ‘Gods Chart’ back at home – Ilmarinen, I think I remember his name was now. Well, they had a garage, but it and a very large shed at the back were entirely given over to a working furnace, anvil and the lot. They had an enticing pizza oven in the small yard, the rooms were small and VERY strangely distributed, and although it had some interesting points it really wasn’t suitable at all. The agent there said she expected it to fetch between 5 and 6 hundred K at auction. Ambitious, I’d say. 5 maybe.
http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/House/NSW/Merewether/?adid=2008142354
40 Rowan Crescent at $899 (down from $995 ), Ah, Rowan Crescent. Now, we’re not about to buy this but it’s jolly interesting. The newer houses are MUCH more to our liking. Thing is if they’re old ones that have been redone, they’re almost inevitably small bedrooms (original size), and two or more unconnected ‘living spaces’ either on one level / extension or the next. The new ones are just much more modern feeling connected living spaces with decent sized bedrooms – besides, as they’re new they’re built of more modern materials and have better AC / insulation / pest control (or less liable to be infested) etc etc. Detriments to this particular property were that it had an incredibly steep front entrance with a precipitous spiral staircase (which could be rectified but of course that’s extra cost), and it had no outside ground-sitting area at all (a small slope that was nicely planted but that’s it). Also it had a terrace but not of huge dimensions. Bonuses were that it’s in an incredibly sought-after neighbourhood and you see why – fronts onto a cricket green at one side sea views to the other. Pretty damn fine. Open plan kitchen / sitting dining area, very good sized bedrooms (at least 4x4 mostly) and a LOVELY study at the top of the house that would do very nicely for all three of us, really. Really loved that study area. We’re in the study a lot, so it’s an important place – and we often want to be there all together, working on different things. The estate agent said that in this location it’s pretty rare to find something so cheap – and estate agent as he was, we believe it readily enough. It’s a nice area.
http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/House/NSW/Merewether-Heights/?adid=2008107723
51 Rembrandt Drive at $929. OK, the most expensive and also the favourite one. 4 year old house, all mod-cons, open plan living space like the last one only newer and more modern – also inhabited by people more like our age so the decor is closer to what one would like – I know a negligeable thing but you know. Also, it had an outdoor area – small, but enough flat grass to put a good dining table on, and a solar-heated pool with a waterfall - now usually a pool isn’t a draw because of the maintenance and so on but actually this one really did seem as if it would be used and practical. Whole area fenced off with about 5 meter high bamboo hedges, all uniform. Very nice. Detriments – had white carpet throughout upstairs, and some of the rooms were pretty – decidedly decorated – vibrant pinks and dark purples but frankly wouldn’t bother me too much – you know what I’m like with tart’s boudoirs. (For those not in the know, we painted one room in our first house entirely purple – I think there was some pink in there too. Some very nice shimmering purple curtains as well. Loved it. This was apart from our own green bedroom, the orange study and bright yellow stairs. Yes, we’d really had enough of magnolia rented walls at that time. It was jolly). Very nice house – but I’m sure clones of it will appear on the market when we’re ready to buy – in goodness knows how long.
Anyway, so there we are. It was about 2:30 by the time we got home – maybe 3 because we stopped off to re-stock on wine (which I’m currently imbibing at a rate of knots, very tasty). All pretty tiring one way or another and we didn’t do a great deal more after that I think. Did a nice little sausage with salsa dish – very simple for Saturday consumption but jolly nice and I’ll try and post it on the other blog – the Littles was OK with it too (strangely enough, as it involved her favourite SAUSAGE) so we can easily run another go at that one soon enough. I’ll slap this very house-oriented posting up and get started on the one for today, lots of love to all Vxxxxx
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