Saturday:
I told the children yesterday that we didn't have to keep the house spotless anymore; Aiden's response was to joyously trash his sister's room. I did make him clean it up a bit, but it's been hard on them to live in a sterile house all holidays. We definitely relaxed a bit; piles of clothes folded on the bed, a few dirty dishes, toys on the floor.
Then we were having dinner last night. And I saw the people who bought the house coming down the driveway! They knocked and asked if they could look around outside again, and inside at the ensuite bathroom. They had their friend who is builder with them, and wanted some advice (the ensuite is a bit of a problem and I assume they are going to renovate it). I said that was fine, and it was fine really I guess, but it seemed a bit odd just turning up. Most people go through the agent and give notice of wanting to see a house someone else is still living in! I picked up a few clothes off the floor but didn't worry about it too much and went back to eating dinner. I am a bit sick of not being able to relax in my own house.
Weeks ago, when we were preparing the house for showing, we packed up personal photos. We have a lot of Chinese artwork from when we visited there and I thought we should put some of the wall hangings away, I worried just a little that people might find the house "too Asian" but Tim thought we should leave it out so we did. Well the people that bought the house are Chinese! And when we met them after the auction they mentioned the art. So it seems like it influenced them in a good way.
I wanted some time to myself today so Tim took the kids to the flower festival Floriade in the morning. I really didn't want to go again anyway, it wasn't inspiring this year.
I went over to the auction of our neighbour's house two doors down - we had to change our auction time because it clashed with theirs. Their house is a bit smaller than ours but is fully renovated and absolutely immaculate and beautiful instead of slightly shabby. The bidding started just below what we ended up getting but then didn't go much higher and didn't get to their reserve so was passed in (not sold). It certainly makes me more appreciative that we got a price we were happy with. They did have a sold sticker up a bit later so they must have negotiated with the highest bidder.
I used my CPAP last night, four hours. I'll increase tonight. I'm still working on my blood glucose, a bit of rice tonight was enough to send the numbers too high. Seems I can't eat much carb at all.
Showing posts with label auction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label auction. Show all posts
Saturday, October 10, 2015
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Auctions and Fathers' Day
Sunday:
Well we didn't get either of the houses we wanted :( It was a long, exhausting and exciting - if ultimately a bit disappointing - day.
To start with, on the drive to Sydney I suddenly realised we were nearly out of petrol. I noticed it just before the warning light went on. The problem was we were on the highway in the middle of nowhere. We pushed on and made it to the next petrol station, but the needle was pretty low! That was a bit stressful. Then we looked at one new house, didn't appeal to us, then went to the auction for our favourite house.
We still loved it and I think we nearly got it. Tim went one bid over our maximum, just in case, but the other remaining bidder went higher and we just couldn't. Actually the other guy then tried to bid again, not realising he had it, so I guess he had even more to spend. We were disappointed but know there are more houses coming on the market every week and we'll find one.
We had a quick lunch then saw another new house, nope, then the second auction. This house, we weren't so sure about. We looked around for a long time and only decided to bid at the last minute. But it went way over our limit almost straight away. I'm not upset about that one, it was a lovely house but didn't really suit us perfectly like the other one did.
If we don't find a house to buy very soon, then we'll have to rent for a while in Sydney while we look after Tim starts work there. In some ways that won't be a bad thing, it means we can sell this house first and not have to borrow so much money. But it's tricky not knowing which school to send the kids too. And a pain having to move twice. I guess we'd keep most of our stuff in storage. But it would be so convenient being on the spot to go look at houses, instead of having to drive four hours each way.
One funny thing was that every list of auction hints we saw suggested we dress well, so we did. I think it's supposed to intimidate other bidders into thinking you are rich, so they don't bother to bid against you. But at both houses the winner of the bidding was dressed in ratty dirty clothes. I'm sure it makes no difference at all. It depends on how much money you have to spend on the house, not your clothes!
We dropped in for a quick visit to Tim's brother, then the long drive home. Tim was already exhausted from the stress - he did all the bidding - and I collapsed when we got home. Such a big day. We both still felt pretty tired this morning.
Today was Fathers' Day, but we had a lot to do today as we had a skip bin sitting out the front ready for our final load of rubbish, including the old trampoline that we had to dismantle first! We have to concentrate on getting this house ready for sale.We spent hours clearing all the junk we'd collected. Tim took apart the trampoline and I trudged up and down the driveway with the wheelbarrow full of parts, and other junk from the garage and garden shed. How many plastic pots does one person need? Really physically exhausting.
It turns out that the trampoline, and the posts that held up the safety netting, were a spider condo. Nothing deadly, but none of us are keen on spiders. And this is Australia, so some of them were pretty big!
Tim had mentioned at work that he was throwing away a treadmill on the weekend (they are impossible to sell because so many people buy one and never use it and then try to get rid of it, the world is already full of second hand treadmills for sale) and one woman asked if she could have it. Of course he said yes, so she and her husband came to pick it up today. Hmm, he never mentioned to me he had such an attractive co-worker... She gave us a box of chocolates as thanks which was lovely, but also a bit ironic considering it was a swap for a healthy device! Maybe it should have been a bouquet of kale.
It wasn't a very healthy day food-wise. I made French Toast for breakfast, Jasmine cooked burgers for lunch, and we had roast lamb for dinner followed by lemon meringue pie. All delicious Father's Day fare, but I hope I burned off all the calories with the work I did!
Well we didn't get either of the houses we wanted :( It was a long, exhausting and exciting - if ultimately a bit disappointing - day.
To start with, on the drive to Sydney I suddenly realised we were nearly out of petrol. I noticed it just before the warning light went on. The problem was we were on the highway in the middle of nowhere. We pushed on and made it to the next petrol station, but the needle was pretty low! That was a bit stressful. Then we looked at one new house, didn't appeal to us, then went to the auction for our favourite house.
We still loved it and I think we nearly got it. Tim went one bid over our maximum, just in case, but the other remaining bidder went higher and we just couldn't. Actually the other guy then tried to bid again, not realising he had it, so I guess he had even more to spend. We were disappointed but know there are more houses coming on the market every week and we'll find one.
We had a quick lunch then saw another new house, nope, then the second auction. This house, we weren't so sure about. We looked around for a long time and only decided to bid at the last minute. But it went way over our limit almost straight away. I'm not upset about that one, it was a lovely house but didn't really suit us perfectly like the other one did.
If we don't find a house to buy very soon, then we'll have to rent for a while in Sydney while we look after Tim starts work there. In some ways that won't be a bad thing, it means we can sell this house first and not have to borrow so much money. But it's tricky not knowing which school to send the kids too. And a pain having to move twice. I guess we'd keep most of our stuff in storage. But it would be so convenient being on the spot to go look at houses, instead of having to drive four hours each way.
One funny thing was that every list of auction hints we saw suggested we dress well, so we did. I think it's supposed to intimidate other bidders into thinking you are rich, so they don't bother to bid against you. But at both houses the winner of the bidding was dressed in ratty dirty clothes. I'm sure it makes no difference at all. It depends on how much money you have to spend on the house, not your clothes!
We dropped in for a quick visit to Tim's brother, then the long drive home. Tim was already exhausted from the stress - he did all the bidding - and I collapsed when we got home. Such a big day. We both still felt pretty tired this morning.
Today was Fathers' Day, but we had a lot to do today as we had a skip bin sitting out the front ready for our final load of rubbish, including the old trampoline that we had to dismantle first! We have to concentrate on getting this house ready for sale.We spent hours clearing all the junk we'd collected. Tim took apart the trampoline and I trudged up and down the driveway with the wheelbarrow full of parts, and other junk from the garage and garden shed. How many plastic pots does one person need? Really physically exhausting.
It turns out that the trampoline, and the posts that held up the safety netting, were a spider condo. Nothing deadly, but none of us are keen on spiders. And this is Australia, so some of them were pretty big!
Tim had mentioned at work that he was throwing away a treadmill on the weekend (they are impossible to sell because so many people buy one and never use it and then try to get rid of it, the world is already full of second hand treadmills for sale) and one woman asked if she could have it. Of course he said yes, so she and her husband came to pick it up today. Hmm, he never mentioned to me he had such an attractive co-worker... She gave us a box of chocolates as thanks which was lovely, but also a bit ironic considering it was a swap for a healthy device! Maybe it should have been a bouquet of kale.
It wasn't a very healthy day food-wise. I made French Toast for breakfast, Jasmine cooked burgers for lunch, and we had roast lamb for dinner followed by lemon meringue pie. All delicious Father's Day fare, but I hope I burned off all the calories with the work I did!
Friday, September 4, 2015
Auction nerves
Friday:
The auction for the house we love is tomorrow. We are really nervous! We are trying to resign ourselves to quite possibly not getting it but it's hard not to hope. Tim's cousin has been looking in the same area for over a year without success, the auctions keep going over his budget. We have a little more to spend so fingers crossed. Last time we saw him we were joking about how we could end up bidding against each other! At least if we saw each other at an auction we could sort it out between us, but it would be very unfortunate if it was a private treaty house and we were each individually competing over the phone and not knowing who the other bidder was! I don't think that will happen though, we are not looking for quite the same thing.
It doesn't help our nerves that our real estate agent for selling this house was talking to us last night about how he will maximise the price paid to us at our auction. Tim and I both couldn't help thinking about how that will be working against us as buyers when the other people's agents are doing the same things!
I did my twice-weekly grocery shopping this morning and was driving home when it occurred to me that I no longer have a small fridge with a broken shelf. I have a medium-size fridge with all its shelves. I could probably fit a whole week's worth of groceries in instead of shopping twice a week! I think I'd run out of fruit before the end of the week though. (I don't put fruit in the fridge, but still have to fit it in the house somehow.) Did you know if a household of four people eat their recommended two pieces of fruit a day each, that is 56 pieces of fruit a week! That is a lot of fruit.
Wish me luck for tomorrow.
The auction for the house we love is tomorrow. We are really nervous! We are trying to resign ourselves to quite possibly not getting it but it's hard not to hope. Tim's cousin has been looking in the same area for over a year without success, the auctions keep going over his budget. We have a little more to spend so fingers crossed. Last time we saw him we were joking about how we could end up bidding against each other! At least if we saw each other at an auction we could sort it out between us, but it would be very unfortunate if it was a private treaty house and we were each individually competing over the phone and not knowing who the other bidder was! I don't think that will happen though, we are not looking for quite the same thing.
It doesn't help our nerves that our real estate agent for selling this house was talking to us last night about how he will maximise the price paid to us at our auction. Tim and I both couldn't help thinking about how that will be working against us as buyers when the other people's agents are doing the same things!
I did my twice-weekly grocery shopping this morning and was driving home when it occurred to me that I no longer have a small fridge with a broken shelf. I have a medium-size fridge with all its shelves. I could probably fit a whole week's worth of groceries in instead of shopping twice a week! I think I'd run out of fruit before the end of the week though. (I don't put fruit in the fridge, but still have to fit it in the house somehow.) Did you know if a household of four people eat their recommended two pieces of fruit a day each, that is 56 pieces of fruit a week! That is a lot of fruit.
Wish me luck for tomorrow.
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