This year has been a huge one for us to say the least. It all started off with the big bang in February and hasn’t really slowed down since then. It has seemed like we’ve moved from one massive thing to another with each month that has passed.
Well since moving to Brisbane, after settling the children in school, the next biggest thing on our minds has been purchasing our own house. A place we can call home once more. We’re the type of family who like to live in the four walls our bank owns. I think is makes up feel more secure knowing we don’t have a lot of deposable income. Like happy children, with a mortgage we have boundaries. Like many people in our Tully Heads neighbourhood, we haven’t actually lived in our own home since 2nd February 2011. It may not seem long to some but to the Bofingers, that’s a long time to be nomads … that’s a long time to not necessarily feel grounded.
So for 11 weeks and for months prior to moving, our favourite website has been realestate.com.au. We have refreshed that site so many times a day looking for a principal place of residence that is infact our own, I do believe we should own shares in it. Saturday after Saturday we’ve traced through house after house searching for the perfect place to call home. Our two youngest flatmates have protested from time to time at the boredom and grind and effort of it all. Actually, I think it may have been the afternoon of the second Saturday we started to get smart and bring along iPads and iPods and by the third week, they were happy to stay in the car while my husband and I romanced our way through each house … hand in hand … as a couple … and a childless couple at that.
In between each Saturday’s visits, we’d have our real estate iPhone apps set to show ‘newest to oldest’ with our financial guidelines restricting our affordable eye candy and we’d refresh and refresh eagerly awaiting the perfect house for us.
It became a quite obvious at the beginning of this process, that I was in fact going to be quite frustrating to work with in finding the right home. If you’ve ever visited The Gap in Brisbane, you would know how gorgeous the streetscape is. You would also notice the amount of adorable homes there are to buy and live in. Happily. You may even question why young families might find the process of purchasing a house in The Gap a little difficult. Every street is divine, each house along it .. gorgeous and with each new quiet cul-de-sac, neighbourhood children play joyfully. I’m sure that is what my husband has been thinking each time I have bucked at the next available perfectly fine, newly renovated, ‘in our price bracket’ home that has come on the market over the past six months or so. Each day he sends me links via email with a new fantastic property. Most times without really looking at anything other than a few photos and the map direction, I will instantly reply with the (now all too familiar) words ”It’s facing the wrong way.” or ”It’s too dark inside.” The disappointment on his face has become more and more evident with each very quick disapproval I have given. Most times he’s accepted my response. Sometimes he’s asked for more information. A few times, he’s commented in a persuasive tone about the brand new kitchen with the industrial-style oven or the fantastic salt water pool in the backyard. But in his sweet and supportive and loving way, he’s always accepted my disapproval without any real doubt.
From time to time, I have sent him a property link, too excited for words. “This one’s the one.” or “We have to look at this straight away.” With each send I scream and plead and jump and shout. Loudly. Excitedly. Emotionally. I try to ignore the sadness on his face when he spots the old wallpapered walls that need stripping and repainting or the sixties kitchen that needs modernising or the bathroom that not only has a little grout missing but perhaps needs all new plumbing. Quickly commenting on the north-eastern aspect or the abundance of natural light in the home, I try really hard to dismiss the disappointment spread across his loving face.
You see, the three year renovations that went on at our little beachshack on Taylor Street, Tully Heads are a little too soon in history to easily forget. The 7 metre storm surge that ploughed it’s way through those renovations, destroying a perfectly good lifestyle back in February this year, is surely by far too soon in history for any grown man or sane woman, to live through another renovation project. Surely. Especially when the rebuilding of that storm surged, freshly renovated beachshack is also taking place 1500 plus kilometers away. Surely. well, some would think.
In true Bofinger style, we have continued to have many belly laughs along the way, keeping the process of buying another house very real and very honest. We have broken all the rules in purchasing real estate .. falling in love with many real estate agents, getting to know them on first name basis, chatting to them throughout each week and talking sweet nothings with them at the local shopping village. We have quickly fallen in … and out of … love with houses that become ‘under contract’ before we’ve had a chance to make decisions. Sometimes, this love is for different reasons. Always, there’s been emotion. Our boys have made comment on the ones they like. On the ones they don’t. Giving completely valid reasons, like the smell of the fresh paint on the staircase or the world map which encompasses a bedroom wall or the ‘Star Wars’ lego filled bookshelf or the fart odour in the main bedroom another visitor prior to them walking through has left. In true Bofinger style, we can’t say the process hasn’t been fun.
One day in the near future, we may well be reflecting back on this post as we sit in the comfort of our own house, requiring the odd renovation or not, in our new neighbourhood. The neighbourhood we plan to live in for the next twenty odd years. Possibly for life. Definitely the one our boys will complete their education. Regardless of when this might be, it’s refreshing to know we love each other unconditionally. Regardless of our separate, occasionally frustrating opinions …
… and regardless of our questionable sanity.
Until next time .. enjoy.
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by Carolyn B
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Kate - What beautiful photos capturing the energy and love this family exudes. Well done Carolyn!