Midweek Musings… On Houses and Property

Thoughts about houses and property and the property market in general are never that far from my mind to be honest. I have always loved to peruse the real estate section of any paper, and my husband who loves to do the same. So we certainly have our thoughts and discussions and opinions on lots of things property-related.

An ancient mulberry tree in the paddock at our new home. It still fruits, apparently.

We have just moved into what you could call our dream home. It is about 76 years young, has approximately 20 million little holes to be filled (literally, you could see daylight through some of them), has a few floorboards that need replacing in places, has an outside laundry, has a room that needs re-doing due to termite damage (the original bathroom, that we will convert to an inside laundry), has repainting to be done throughout the entire house (some as a matter of need, some because we aren't into the colour scheme in place). It has beautifully narrow doorways into the older rooms - doorways were so narrow 70-odd years ago, why are they so much wider now? It has uneven floors, uneven doorways, uneven bench tops. And to us, it is just perfect. 

I wrote this post a little while ago about what I wanted in a simple home. Looking back, I can tick a lot of the boxes for the home I described. Not all, but most. That was always going to be the case with a wish list. This little house, it is both spacious and small at the same time. We have consolidated and decluttered our possessions so much already, and now we realise we need to do even more. And I think that is wonderful. We will truly keep in our home only those things we need, or love, or need and love. And it is a home with character. Clearly not everyone's cup of tea, as it's been sitting empty for the better part of a year. And I guess it's not much to look at from the outside. Just an old white weatherboard, in need of a wash and some TLC.

Thing is though, one of the things we wanted but never really believed we could get, was a couple of acres within the boundary of a small town. Rural, but still with a community. Some land, but still walking distance to the main road and a few shops. Walking distance to the monthly market. And it only recently dawned on us, that that is precisely what we have got. We never thought we would be able to get it, not because it doesn't exist, but because it doesn't exist at a price we could afford to pay. And yet somehow this little property sat and just waited for us to find it. It almost sold, it fell through, and then it sat, and sat, and sat. We had briefly looked at it online, but originally dismissed it as it only had two bedrooms, (we wanted three). But compromise gets made somewhere, and for us it was there. And I truly believe that this little house was just for us.

And the price we paid for our humble little place? Being fully open here on the blog, we paid (or more correctly, the bank helped us to pay) $160,000. For a little old house, with character and charm and in need of a few repairs (but with good solid bones), on three acres of land, within a nice small town in Central Victoria. A nice town, close enough to Bendigo and with NBN access. A town that we have visited regularly for a few years now, but had never really considered calling home, but a town that I am thrilled to be in, and to raise a family in. And I look at what we have, at this space to share together as a family, for our little one to grow, and learn and explore. And I wonder why - why why why? Why do people flock to overcrowded cities, with ridiculously high property prices - really, really ridiculously high property prices? Why do people lock themselves into huge mortgages that require two incomes just to make ends meet? And to be squeezed in like sardines to boot? Don't get me wrong, I think city living is actually a pretty sustainable way to live, when you can home a lot of people in apartments utilising upward space, and really negate the need for a car when all amenities are close by. I think that is a really good option. The part I don't get so much is the suburban sprawl, particularly the new estate builds. Where the house takes up almost the entire block, with barely any space for a garden at all. Where houses are just big, bigger, biggest. We drive past such houses being built and I wonder how on earth they are going to heat the place. And really, it's not about the money. Sure, you can have all the money in the world to heat a massive house, but just because you can, does that mean you should?

In any case, I am grateful to be just here. I am grateful for the opportunities this little place provides for us, to make a beautiful home, to grow much food, to hopefully get some equine friends to keep the grass down, and to build our family life. I am so happy, just to be here. We have all the time to do what needs doing, and in the mean time, we're busy building family memories to share. And it didn't cost us an arm and a leg, or the earth for that matter.