So. This is our new house. The stuff isn't ours though and we're not moved in yet. Currently we're in a hotel. But these are the photos of our new place anyhow.
I'd been meaning to transfer my blog for awhile but never found time to get around to it. It seems that now my hand has been slightly forced as during the move, my computer was shipped off to storage and along with it my nice automated sign in and password - which try as I may I cannot remember.
So. New blog. New start.
At the moment, we're living out of (heavens help me) the California Motel. We managed to pack the entire house in 24 hours, the movers arrived and took everything to storage as still we had no place to go. Our buyers agent hadn't found anything in the areas we'd suggested and on a lark I said, "Well, what about Packenham?" A lark because Packenham was probably the absolute last place I'd have considered moving... my favorite scrapbooking store is out there, just off the train station and it's such a long ride I'd always joked to N there were places that were too far even for me and Packenham was one of them. So naturally, now we're moving there in a few weeks but I'm getting ahead of myself.
As I said, I mentioned Packenham to the buyers agent. It's Kate (of Rozate's) fault really because she'd mentioned something about it at the last show we were at. I pretty much dismissed it out of hand but by the point I mentioned this to our buyers agent, the dogs were in boarding kennels - except Pointy Red Dog, lucky little turkey managed to land a spot with Jayne where he's being a rotten brat by the sound of things and our stuff was in storage and we were going to the motel in 2 nights. So I looked on the internet and foudn a place that wasn't what I was looking for style-wise but looked to be of a nice quality, nice area, nice amount of land and a decent price. I e-mailed it to him with the question, "Well, what about Packenham?" He e-mailed me back saying, "It's 2 bedrooms and too expensive, what about this place?" Lo and behold, a very cute house at a very decent price and with nice land as well.
It was over what we'd wanted to spend as, while we had the money to afford it outright, I'd wanted to spend less than what we'd made on the sale of our house and keep some money aside to invest for ourselves and to add to L's school investment fund. I told our buyers agent to go ahead and make contact, check the place out, do a house inspection to ensure it was in good repair and if everything looked good to him, to start negotiating. He did, called us back and told us everything looked great, he managed to negotiate them down to a very good price and were we able to come out Saturday to sign the papers. After speaking with the bank, we decided we could do both by taking out a small house loan which works out well for us, $75 per week house payments, small entry fee, no penalties for paying off faster or closing out the loan early. Saturday we drove out, saw the place for the first time, were quite happy with it and signed papers on the spot.
We are now the proud (and slightly in shock) new owners of a house and property in Packenham Upper. It's further out than I'd like but not horrible and seems to be a nice area, with good amenities. Our neighbors on one side have horses, the ones on the other side have cows and the ones across the road have sheep and geese. It's a pretty area, the land in the area is a mix of hills and flat land, two big beautiful paddocks for sheep, a nice front garden, space for the dogs to run, beautiful late Victorian house with an interesting history and garden where the feature trees date from 1913.
After haunting the real estate agents and websites since November I've got to say I'm happy but in a bit of shock that everything fell together so quickly. I'm eager to get out there (hey, I'm eager to do ANYTHING that gets me out of a hotel and back with my critters) but I've been out to Packenham a grand total of 4 times, 3 of which were to a scrapbook store 100 meters off the train line and straight back onto the train! So yes, there's nerves and an element of bemusement that it seems that even with all my searching and planning I've once again ended up moving on a whim, knowing virtually nothing about where I'm moving to, leaping first and planning the landing on the way down. This will be the 7th such move, though probably less spectacular than deciding to move countries 3 days after first coming over. ;-)
So. New blog. New start.
At the moment, we're living out of (heavens help me) the California Motel. We managed to pack the entire house in 24 hours, the movers arrived and took everything to storage as still we had no place to go. Our buyers agent hadn't found anything in the areas we'd suggested and on a lark I said, "Well, what about Packenham?" A lark because Packenham was probably the absolute last place I'd have considered moving... my favorite scrapbooking store is out there, just off the train station and it's such a long ride I'd always joked to N there were places that were too far even for me and Packenham was one of them. So naturally, now we're moving there in a few weeks but I'm getting ahead of myself.
As I said, I mentioned Packenham to the buyers agent. It's Kate (of Rozate's) fault really because she'd mentioned something about it at the last show we were at. I pretty much dismissed it out of hand but by the point I mentioned this to our buyers agent, the dogs were in boarding kennels - except Pointy Red Dog, lucky little turkey managed to land a spot with Jayne where he's being a rotten brat by the sound of things and our stuff was in storage and we were going to the motel in 2 nights. So I looked on the internet and foudn a place that wasn't what I was looking for style-wise but looked to be of a nice quality, nice area, nice amount of land and a decent price. I e-mailed it to him with the question, "Well, what about Packenham?" He e-mailed me back saying, "It's 2 bedrooms and too expensive, what about this place?" Lo and behold, a very cute house at a very decent price and with nice land as well.
It was over what we'd wanted to spend as, while we had the money to afford it outright, I'd wanted to spend less than what we'd made on the sale of our house and keep some money aside to invest for ourselves and to add to L's school investment fund. I told our buyers agent to go ahead and make contact, check the place out, do a house inspection to ensure it was in good repair and if everything looked good to him, to start negotiating. He did, called us back and told us everything looked great, he managed to negotiate them down to a very good price and were we able to come out Saturday to sign the papers. After speaking with the bank, we decided we could do both by taking out a small house loan which works out well for us, $75 per week house payments, small entry fee, no penalties for paying off faster or closing out the loan early. Saturday we drove out, saw the place for the first time, were quite happy with it and signed papers on the spot.
We are now the proud (and slightly in shock) new owners of a house and property in Packenham Upper. It's further out than I'd like but not horrible and seems to be a nice area, with good amenities. Our neighbors on one side have horses, the ones on the other side have cows and the ones across the road have sheep and geese. It's a pretty area, the land in the area is a mix of hills and flat land, two big beautiful paddocks for sheep, a nice front garden, space for the dogs to run, beautiful late Victorian house with an interesting history and garden where the feature trees date from 1913.
After haunting the real estate agents and websites since November I've got to say I'm happy but in a bit of shock that everything fell together so quickly. I'm eager to get out there (hey, I'm eager to do ANYTHING that gets me out of a hotel and back with my critters) but I've been out to Packenham a grand total of 4 times, 3 of which were to a scrapbook store 100 meters off the train line and straight back onto the train! So yes, there's nerves and an element of bemusement that it seems that even with all my searching and planning I've once again ended up moving on a whim, knowing virtually nothing about where I'm moving to, leaping first and planning the landing on the way down. This will be the 7th such move, though probably less spectacular than deciding to move countries 3 days after first coming over. ;-)
Also in keeping with my moving traditions, I managed to get rear-ended by a Beemer driver who saw me inching out waiting for a clear spot to turn, decided I was darting out and that she was going to dart out behind me - by jamming her gas pedal down and subsequently taking out part of the front of her car at a good speed. Steriotypically she got out and started examining her car, rushing up to me chattering about it's damage when I snapped and told her I didn't care about her car, I was checking my CHILD who was crying because of her hitting the car. Jeeze, she had minor damage because she only hit the little towing ball on my car so only one part of her bumper was damaged. Thankfully La only was upset from the jolt and having bitten his tongue. I'm off to another round at the chiro though. Idiot.
Meanwhile, I'm missing the heck out of my critters. I know the Pointy Red Dog is living it up pretty cushy so I'm less worried about him but I feel bad about Fuzzy Red Dog and the Puppy Wonder because the kennel I left them at wasn't one I'd usually use and it's not one I think I'll use again. They got snarky with me over the fact that Hope didn't have her adult vaccinations (well, duh, she's had all her puppy ones up to this point but you can't give them a vaccination that isn't DUE for another FIVE MONTHS...) and were arguing with me that they couldn't kennel her with Sierra because "in-tact dogs are aggressive" and Hope might attack Sierra. Sheer, utter ignorance with a heavy animal rights slant. Yarg! I could write a whole rant about that alone. They had the absolute nerve to argue this while the two dogs were standing there wiggling and playing with eachother on the ends of their leads no less. Then they were arguing with me about Cade's vaccinations and refused him because he was a whole month out of date. (Never mind the titers...) Sheer, blatant stupidity on full display once again.
At any rate, I'm going nuts and counting the days until I get my babies back and am moved in again...
Meanwhile, I'm missing the heck out of my critters. I know the Pointy Red Dog is living it up pretty cushy so I'm less worried about him but I feel bad about Fuzzy Red Dog and the Puppy Wonder because the kennel I left them at wasn't one I'd usually use and it's not one I think I'll use again. They got snarky with me over the fact that Hope didn't have her adult vaccinations (well, duh, she's had all her puppy ones up to this point but you can't give them a vaccination that isn't DUE for another FIVE MONTHS...) and were arguing with me that they couldn't kennel her with Sierra because "in-tact dogs are aggressive" and Hope might attack Sierra. Sheer, utter ignorance with a heavy animal rights slant. Yarg! I could write a whole rant about that alone. They had the absolute nerve to argue this while the two dogs were standing there wiggling and playing with eachother on the ends of their leads no less. Then they were arguing with me about Cade's vaccinations and refused him because he was a whole month out of date. (Never mind the titers...) Sheer, blatant stupidity on full display once again.
At any rate, I'm going nuts and counting the days until I get my babies back and am moved in again...
