House Hunting

I'm still looking for a house. Brisbane is definitely a seller's market, as far as any kind of real estate goes. There are ridiculous conditions for obtaining a house, outrageous fees, long waits to see a property, multiple bidders or applicants, and it's all rather expensive. I've been looking every day for a new place. Every weekend, I've been visiting 4-8 houses. I've seen more neighborhoods in Brisbane in the last three weeks than in the last year. I've seen horrible places in great neighborhoods and find places in nasty neighborhoods. I finally found a wonderful section of town called Newmarket. There are a couple of nearby suburbs called Wilston, Windsor, and Stafford. All of them seem to have been built up during or just after World War II. Probably the high density housing of its time, there are huge swaths of two bedroom, timber frame housing. The locals call them "workers cottages."

It's been a challenge to find the right combination of size, price, location, amenities, neighbors, shops, train station, and off street parking. I've learned a lot about the housing market. After quite a bit of time, I finally found the right combination. Big front lawn. Big kitchen. Dishwasher. Covered back deck. Covered front deck. Basement with termite dishes on all of the wooden piers. Big back yard. Fences all around the property. Hardwood floors. Well kept garden. Three blocks from a train station. Shopping and food shops within an easy walk. There are plenty of bonuses, like a real local downtown about 1k away, the CBD is 5k away, there's a view, it's not too far from one of the major roads out of town, I can park the Defender off the street and behind a fence if I like, there's plenty of room for a washer and drier separate from house, and the neighbors work for a living. It's also less than a kilometer from a place that's reputed to be the home of rugby in Queensland, Ballymore.

In contrast, I found a great house the other night. But...the commute in the afternoon would have been a bear and the neighbors were very young, and very loud. There were some minor problems with the place, nothing that I couldn't work with, but dealing day and night with a house full of adolescents who like to play loud music day and night, living 3 meters from my living room, and then facing a 30 minute commute every night in bumper to bumper traffic? No thanks.

There was a house I had high hopes for last week. It was located on a ridge, looked great from the outside, reasonable price. Unfortunately, the place was an absolute pig sty, tiny kitchen, filthy rugs, and filled with the smell of mold and mildew, fiercely overgrown garden, torn up sprinkler system. It was sad, but for the money they were asking for, I had no intention of putting my sweat into such a place to clean it up. Plus, the thing with mold and mildew is you never know how far it goes...I wasn't going to commit to living in a place that could be potentially toxic. No, no way.

Then there were the places that were beautiful, but kilometers away from train stations, or 45 minute commutes by car from work, or too expensive or too small or kitchen too small or electric stoves, or uncovered deck or no off-street parking or no yard or too exposed to the neighbors or no air conditioning. Perhaps I'm too particular, but I suppose I can afford to be choosy.

Enough about house hunting for the moment.

Queensland has been under water for weeks now, literally. At least, large portions of coastal Queensland have been flooded for some time. And yet, we are still technically in a drought. The reservoirs are filling, though, which is great news. It's been the wettest year in almost fifteen years. And the state government is thinking of relaxing water restrictions. Great news, overall, but the people of Mackay, Rockhamton, and Gladstone are not feeling it.