Project New Home: Contracts Exchanged!!!

We have lift off!!!

The last 2 weeks have been so hectic. Since we inspected the villa with Dad and Mum, then having our offer accepted, then experiencing the small glitches regarding the settlement date, only to find out why the vendors were fixed on the December settlement date, we went and saw our solicitor yesterday to sign the contract and to hand over my life savings.

It was a huge moment for the both of us. We were buying our first home together, one that we will be raising our family in, one that we'll be living in for quite some time. We have gone into this whole thing with our eyes wide open, receiving so much help from Dad and Mum, our friend Andrew the finance guru, and the very lovely real estate agent who has been tremendous in getting bits of information to us.

We'd received various inspection reports a couple of days ago - building, pest, and strata all completed by a reputable company, and there were no gaping issues that we needed to worry about. The reports yielded a small number of things that need to be fixed before we move in, but nothing major, so we were happy to continue with our tentative steps forward.

Today, at 2pm, contracts were exchanged.

With any luck, the property will be ours in 6 weeks. There is an outside chance that we won't be able to collect the keys until December, but here's hoping that we will be able to move in around mid-November.

In the meantime, we promised photos, and here they are! These are the photos used in the advertising material, and we will have some of our own photos when we've moved in.

We're both feeling very grown up right now!!! Bring on settlement!

Things That Make Me Go Awwwwwww!

The simple things in life are often the best.

And yes, while I do sound like a 21-year-old TV commercial for Kellogg's Corn Flakes, the sentiment is very real.

Here are a few things from this past weekend that made me all soft and gooey:

- Feeling Speedy wriggle around inside my belly.
- Hearing Jonathan giggle when he feels Speedy wriggle around inside my belly.
- Hearing Mina's infectious laughter.
- Getting cuddles in bed from Jonathan and Mina on sleepover weekends.
- Hearing Mina call me "Mummy" practically all weekend, simply because she wanted to call me Mummy.
- Making dinner with Mina.
- Seeing the joy and delight on Mina's face after a big swim and play in the swimming pool with Daddy.
- Getting a handmade piece of art from Mina.
- Watching Mina spend hours working on another piece of art for Daddy.
- Catching up with old friends (and making new ones), whether it be at a lovely high tea or at a laid back BBQ.

I'm such a soft touch these days!

Project New Home: Homes Viewed = 18

Jonathan and I decided earlier in the week that considering the small glitches and tentative steps we've made with the dream home in Denistone, we would continue attending open house inspections until we have exchanged contracts on the Denistone villa.

With that in mind, we found 2 properties to inspect, both in Marsfield. The first one was in the same complex that I lived in for 6 years prior to moving to St Leonards! My unit was at the front of the complex, and this townhouse was at the back of the complex, so it was a lovely trip down memory lane to visit the old stomping grounds.

The villa was quite lovely, with spacious bedrooms and a lovely courtyard about the back. The kitchen was smallish, but not tiny. The living / dining space was quite small, with a sunroom between the living space and the courtyard. The layout was a bit odd - the sunroom felt disconnected with the townhouse, which meant that the sunroom felt like it was to be used for "formal" occasions only.

The master bedroom was a very good size, and the other rooms were quite big too. Only the master bedroom and one other bedroom had built ins though.

The courtyard shared a fence with the Stamford Hotel North Ryde, with some of their rooms overlooking into the courtyard. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing!

There was a single lock up garage that had access through the sunroom. And to top of it all off, there was a full bathroom, and an extra toilet in the laundry at the back of the townhouse. The clothes line was also on the back wall of the townhouse, in the shadiest part of the property.

The property was listed with a price range, and we expected the property to be able to fetch the higher end of the price range, which was out of our range in any case. We thanked the agent and headed to the next property.

The next property was very close to Epping Boys High School, and we arrived a tad early, so we walked along the footpath for a bit and Mina picked some yellow flowers from the lawn. At the appointed time, we headed down a fairly steep driveway to the townhouse.

I had seen this property advertised for over a week without any addresses, and only received an email from the real estate agent after 3 separate emails. That was the first sign of trouble.

As we headed down to the property, we walked past the little sandwich board out the front of the complex, noting that "this property has been sold". Jonathan and I debated whether we should still head down to look at the property, and upon seeing other people heading down, we too took a chance and joined the others.

After giving our contact details to the agent, we asked him what the sign out the front of the property meant, and he said "well, the property is actually under contract, but if those purchases pull out, then we will have a list of people to contact to see if someone else might be interested". Um, WTF??? If the property was under contract, then in my opinion, it is a really bad business practice to continue showing the property. While it's not illegal, we found it very unprofessional and very unsettling.

Oh, if you want to know who the listing agent is, click here. The guy showing the property appears to be the son of the proprietor. The property in question is here - if you're looking for a property in Marsfield, skip this one as it has been sold. And if you choose to contact the agent, he's only after your contact details to expand his database. Jerk.

There were so many nice things about this property, but we won't bother listing them. The whole experience left a really bad taste in our mouths. If we had been seriously looking, it would have been a huge waste of time for us.

As we were leaving, another couple was also putting their shoes back on, and they expressed their disgust at having wasted their time inspecting a property that was already sold. We totally agreed.

Hopefully, these are the last properties we will inspect for now. We hope to have some good news by mid to late next week regarding the Denistone villa. Cross everything for us!

Speedy's ETA = 100 Days!

To our darling Speedy,

If all goes according to plan, we get to meet you in 100 days!!!

We can't believe how quickly time has flown. You are well and truly passed the half way mark - 25 and a half weeks now, and kicking strongly and growing well.

Daddy loves putting his head on Mummy's belly to hear you move around. He giggles every time he feels you move. Mummy giggles every time Daddy giggles. Your big sister Mina has yet to have the pleasure of feeling you move, but we're sure you'll give her a surprise one day soon.

People can definitely see that you are in Mummy's belly now. Which is good, because for the longest time, everyone said you were tiny tiny tiny and no one believed you were there!

Daddy and Mummy felt your feet last night. It was a little strange - they felt like a big lump. So maybe the lump wasn't your feet. Maybe that lump was your bottom!

We found out something about you this week. You don't much like to share Mummy's belly space with food! As you get bigger, Mummy can't eat as much food as she use to. It's very important that we remember that, otherwise, Mummy will be very uncomfortable after any big meal!

So for the next 3 months, stay safe and keep growing perfectly, like you have been doing so far. We can't wait to meet you!

All our love,
Daddy & Mummy
xxx

Speedy @ 25 Weeks

It's been a while since we've given you an update on our baby. How time flies when one is happy and healthy and growing at a perfect pace!

Ok, so first things first. Speedy is a "he". The Hill name lives on!

We know for sure that Speedy is a boy from our 19 week scan. At the time, we were still in two minds about finding out the gender of the baby, but in the end, neither Jonathan nor I wanted to wait. And after we made up our minds to find out, the lovely lady who did the ultrasound said "Look, the baby has one of 'those'." One. Of "those". And that's how we found out we were having a son!

It's been 10 weeks since our last update, and in that time, Speedy has definitely gotten a lot bigger. The bump is definitely a lot more pronounced now, although I am still getting the inquisitive looks from strangers that read "I wonder if she's pregnant or if she's just big boned, or perhaps she might have just had a large lunch." These looks occur most often when I'm on public transport, and usually from people who are undecided as to whether to give up their seat to me. You see, there are some women out there who have a rounded figure, because that's the way she is, and who may be offended if a person gave up their seat for her simply because she "looked pregnant". Sadly, that's how our society is these days - welcome to the minefield of political correctness.

In any case, if I did feel inclined to sit down, I usually help the inquisitive looker with a rub over my belly, the way only a pregnant woman would rub her growing bump. And I'm usually rewarded with a smile and a seat. Bless!

Since the last update, Speedy has also learned how to kick and wriggle. With vigour! Until he's born, Speedy will also be known as Master Speedy Wrigglesworth and Master Kickitty Kick. I can't describe to you how awesome it is to feel Speedy kicking away. It is a feeling like no other.

The first time I truly felt Speedy kick was on the day of our 19 week scan. It might have only been a small kick, but it was forceful enough to freak me out. I actually jumped when I felt that kick. For days afterwards, the kicking and the wriggling continued freaked me out. Even now, weeks and weeks later, I still can't get use to the kicking and the wriggling - it's such an alien feeling - a little boy growing inside me that is making all that movement, and usually, I'm sitting down or lying down, doing nothing to encourage him to move.

Speedy must have known I was talking about him, for as I type this, he's kicking and wriggling around, making himself known!

I'm so happy to be able to share Speedy's movements with Jonathan. It's been 6 years since he last felt a baby move, and boy, does she move like lightening these days! At night, when Speedy likes to move a bit more, we'd lie down in bed together, with Jonathan's chest pressed up against my belly, and every time Speedy kicks, Jonathan giggles. Mina has yet to experience the movements, so hopefully, Speedy will put on a show for her soon.

Our wonderful doctor, Dr Baber is really pleased with the progress. My blood pressure is good, and I feel well, and Speedy's growth rate is "perfect" (how much do we love hearing that word?) and everything is tracking along just fine. After initially losing about 7-8kg, I am now starting to slowly gain some of that weight back. In the past 6 weeks or so, I've put back on just under 1kg, which is almost Speedy's current weight. We were told not to worry too much about the weight loss; in any case, Jonathan and I have our own explanation - since getting pregnant, I haven't been out drinking and yahooing and then eating snack foods at 2am after a big night out. Go figure!

We have more recent photos of Speedy, which I'll upload to an album shortly.

Stay safe and well, little man. Keep doing us proud. And keep kicking Mummy to let her know you're all OK!

Project New Home: Tentative Steps Forward

After a restless night of weighing up the pros and cons of continuing our investigations and negotiations with the villa, we decided to contact our solicitor with instructions to hold off on all inspections for the time being.

The completion date was still a huge factor to not continue with the negotiations. And our solicitor understood our predicament, and put on hold all inspections until further notice. He also said that as far as he was concerned, he had done as much as he can to get the vendors and their solicitor to change the settlement date, and that if we still wanted to push the issue, we should enlist the real estate agent to help us.

So we called the agent and asked him to have a word in the vendors' ears. Our agent was keenly aware that we were totally sold on the property, and was more than happy to help. Alas, he was not privied to a number of things - in fact, he didn't notice the specified settlement date until I pointed it out to him. We explained to him what we knew, and he promised to get back to us once he had spoken with the vendors.

A little while ago, the agent called back with the last piece to the puzzle.

Here's what we knew so far:

- The vendors had bought a property and the settlement date on that contract was December 1.
- The vendors wanted to have somewhere to live until their new property was settled, hence they instructed their solicitor to draft a contract for the sale of the villa we want to buy with a settlement date of December 1.
- The vendors were unwilling to budge from that date, but had mentioned that they would do everything they can to bring forward the settlement date.

Here's what the agent found out:

- The vendors had purchased a deceased estate which was waiting on probate being granted. Probate usually took around 6 weeks from lodgement to issue.
- The vendors' solicitor had kept the vendors informed of the progress of probate, and it was only a matter of days before probate was expected to be granted. The wait would be no more than a fortnight.

We told the agent that we would definitely seriously consider all the information now that we knew everything, and that if we were to go ahead with the purchase, the exchange of contracts would not take place until after all the inspections were completed. In which case, the earliest we could hope to exchange contracts would be mid next week. The agent agreed that we needed to have a complete set of reports, and told us that the vendors were expecting us to obtain various inspections prior to exchange.

The agent noted that if probate was granted in the next fortnight, there would be nothing stopping us or the vendors from pushing the settlement date forward to mid November - earlier if possible. The vendors were keen to get their money from the sale of the villa, which was a good sign.

Jonathan and I talked about this villa again, to see whether it was worthwhile continuing with negotiations. Since we still have to do the inspections, chances are it will be another week before we have the full picture and be ready to exchange. And if probate was due to be granted in a fortnight, well, we'd be a week closer to that milestone. We still really really really loved this place, so we agreed to give our solicitor the go ahead to continue with the inspections.

In the meantime, we continue to attend open house inspections on weekends, until such time as the exchange has taken place.

For now, please send all good vibes and think good thoughts for the Probate Office and the vendors, for the expedient processing of probate!

Project New Home: A Small Glitch

Another day, another update.

Our solicitor received the contract earlier today, and after reading through all the conditions, raised a few items of concern with us. We made an appointment to see him after work today, so he could go through the list of concerns with us. The main one remains the settlement date - this was now becoming a much more contentious issue than it has been.

We arrived a few minutes late to our solicitor's office, but he too was running late, so it all worked out for everyone. We went through the conditions that he had concerns with, and talked about the reports that we need to obtain prior to exchange. The one thing that kept coming back was the settlement date. It turned out that the vendors have purchased another property, and the settlement date on that property is December 1, the same date as the one stipulated on our contract.

The more we talked, the more it became a problem. Fact remains that I am pregnant and due to be giving birth at the end of the year, and the last thing I want to be doing 3 weeks before Speedy's expected arrival date is to move house.

Nevertheless, we instructed our solicitor to keep negotiating with the vendors' solicitor for an earlier settlement date, and to keep pushing the issue for us. In the meantime, we gave instructions for him to commence the strata search, the building inspection and the pest inspection.

We had arranged to have dinner with Dad and Mum tonight to give them an update on the proceedings. So after dinner, we gave Dad and Mum a thorough report, and they too are very worried about the December 1 settlement date. Dad mentioned a few points, namely that both sisters went into labour earlier than expected with the first baby, and there is every likelihood that Speedy will come early too. Mum was of the opinion that if we are not moved in to our new home well before Speedy arrives, then the soonest we would be able to move would be February.

Mum also pointed out that movers are pretty booked up during December and January (or on holidays), and in her experience, to move during those months, one would had to have booked the movers by now. Dad then pointed out that December / January / February were notoriously quiet months for the property market, so even if we were to settle and move into a new home before December, we would have trouble selling St Leonards any time before March.

As I said, the more we talked about the settlement date, the more contentious this issue has become.

Jonathan and I are now convinced that we need to push our solicitor to push the vendors to commit to an earlier settlement date. The settlement date has now become a deal breaker, even though it wasn't only 2 days ago. And if the vendors pull the plug because they feel our demand is too great, then so be it. First thing tomorrow, we'll be calling our solicitor with new instructions, and to hold off on all inspections until we can reach an agreement on the new date.

We are a little sad that it has come to this for now. But we are hopeful that the vendors will understand our situation and be willing to help. Stay tuned for further updates!

Project New Home: Almost A Reality

Since our offer was accepted yesterday afternoon, Jonathan and I have been dancing around excitedly about the prospect of being in our new home by Christmas time.

We kept pinching ourselves that we have found our dream home, and are now waiting anxiously for our solicitor to do his thing prior to exchange.

The solicitor we engaged is a long term associate of Dad's, and someone I have had dealings with in my past working as a paralegal. The solicitor fondly remembers our past dealings, and continues to tell Dad to this day (some 15 years later) that he thought I was one of the most efficient and thorough paraglegals he had had the pleasure of doing business with.

Our lovely agent called late yesterday afternoon to ask for Jonathan and my full names, as well as our solicitor's details, which I promptly emailed over. The contract front page was amended and was faxed straight to our solicitor, who called me to confirm he had received the front page. We talked about a few things, namely the settlement date of the contract. Oddly enough, a date has been specified on the contract for settlement, and not the usual 6 weeks from the date of exchange as is with most conveyancing contracts.

The specified date is 1 December, which makes it 3 or so weeks before Speedy is due to join us. The timing was just a bit too tight for us, so we had asked the agent to speak with the owners about shifting the date earlier, if possible, to mid November.

Our solicitor asked us if the settlement date was a deal breaker, and in all honesty, it's not, but it would be lovely to be in our new home and all settled in before Speedy joins us, and definitely before Christmas. Moving house is stressful at the best of times, and I would hate to go into labour early. In fact, Speedy is not allowed to make his grand entrance any earlier than 18 December - if he does, I will lose my paid maternity leave, which would suck for all involved.

So we asked our solicitor to go back and talk to the vendors' solicitors about moving the settlement date, and he warned us that even if the vendors are willing to move the date, to say, 15 November, they still don't have to settle on that date - there are provisions for the vendors to settle within 14 days after the specified settlement date.

We've just heard from the solicitor, and he said that the vendors were unwilling to commit to an earlier settlement date. The instructions that came back were that they will try their best to settle in mid-November, but the settlement date will still remain 1 December as stipulated on the front page of the contract. Our solicitor asked us if we would like to negotiate the 1 December date to be "time of the essence", which means settlement must take place on that date, and we agreed that would be the best course of action for now.

Now we wait and see what happens next. The contract was being sent to the solicitor, so he'll be in touch when he's gone through the contract with a fine tooth comb. Stay tuned!

Project New Home: Another 2nd Inspection!

After a night of great anticipation, Jonathan and I took Dad and Mum, and Mina, to see the gorgeous villa in Denistone.

Prior to leaving for the inspection, Dad and Mum had asked about the villa's proximity to schools and public transport. Mum had pulled out her very old street directory and looked up the area, and we found that besides the Catholic primary school a block away, there was also a public primary school on the other side of the main road, about 3 blocks away, which was still within walking distance. I had told Dad and Mum that we had checked out the high school situation, and that the villa was within the catchment area for the schools we want the kids to attend. Denistone station was a little bit far away, but the walking distance was not entirely out of the question.

Having already spent 30 minutes at the inspection yesterday, we were ultra keen to show the property to Dad and Mum, whose opinion and expertise we value. For the duration of the tour of the villa, I was expecting Dad and Mum to pick apart the property and list all the flaws. Yet, strangely, for much of the tour, there was silence.

Meanwhile, Jonathan and Mina busied themselves with their measuring tapes and measured up the rooms. As we weren't given a floor plan, nor the dimensions of the rooms, we felt it was important to get some measurements to see how big a space we were dealing with.

From room to room we roamed. Dad and Mum both noticed that the stove was electric (they have always preferred gas), and the hot water system was on the small side. They both noted that the ceilings were nice and high, and that the master bedroom has the only built in wardrobe. In the back garden, they noticed the overflow pipe for the hot water system seemed to be jutting out a fair way from the house, and asked if it could be sawed back.

Dad and Mum also noticed the spacious laundry space, and the lovely lovely lovely walk in pantry. They seemed to like the security shutters on the front windows of the villa. They made a comment about the single car space, and the single toilet in the 3-bedroom villa, but liked the fact that the toilet was separated from the bathroom.

We spent another 30 minutes at the villa with the agent, talking about various things before finally heading off for lunch. Mina seemed to like the villa a lot, although we can't be sure whether her comment of "this is the only one I've liked so please buy this one" was reflective of her true feelings, or simply that she'd had enough of house hunting with us and really wanted us to buy a place so weekends could return to doing stuff she wanted to do.

The agent told us to put in our best offer by midday tomorrow, as he had received 3 other offers already and was keen to end the inspection process for the vendors by then. We took the buyers' price declaration form and promised to email him our best offer before midday tomorrow. With that, we left to head back to Chatswood for yum cha and a debrief.

Over lunch, Dad and Mum listed their main concern - that the train station was a bit far away, and getting to and from the bus stop, even though it was close by, was still subjected to the elements. Mum's concern was for Jonathan's trip to work, and that was when we realised we hadn't told her that Jonathan had moved offices and was now working in the city! Dad said that while the bus is a good mode of transport, the trips to and from work may be long ones for us as we would inevitably be stuck in traffic during peak hour.

But otherwise, generally, Dad and Mum were both quite complimentary about the villa. Even though it didn't have the "magic" combination of 3-2-2 (bedroom, bathroom, garage), there was plenty of storage space, with room for more outdoor storage in the form of a future garden shed behind the garage. The villa was at the back of a complex on the high side of the street - at the highest possible peak of the street, and it was on a quiet street with very little traffic. From the front of the villa, there is a lovely view of Homebush and Parramatta, which would be a good vantage point for any fireworks displays from the Sydney Olympic Park.

When it came time to talk money, Jonathan and I needed a little bit of guidance as to how much we should offer. The agent had already informed us of 3 other offers, and told us that if we were to make an offer, indicatively, it needed to be higher than the listed price and the amount should not end in a rounded figure. Jonathan and I wanted Dad's opinion on how much to offer, and the amount he had in mind was the same as the one we wanted to pay.

We thanked Dad and Mum for all their help, and spent most of the afternoon discussing the property and our offer, until we were both 100% comfortable with making the offer in the amount that we had in mind. We also came up with a totally random sum, with the last 4 digits being 1234. We hope this will get us over the line, because we really do like this place, a lot.

As soon as I get into work tomorrow, I will be emailing the form through to the agent. After that, there won't be anything else to do but wait. Stay tuned!

Updated on September 13 @ 9.35am

Email sent. Waiting game begins.

Updated on September 13 @ 12.05pm

Agent just called. Our offer is the highest! Pipped the 2nd offer by that much. Agent is now going to take the offer to the vendors and see if it is accepted. Stay tuned!!!

Updated on September 13 @ 4.03pm

Agent just called again. Our offer has been accepted!!! Now comes the scary part - the part that involves solicitors and money!

We are almost there. We can almost almost almost say we are the proud owners of a gorgeous new home!!!

Project New Home: Homes Viewed = 16

With no real hits from either Domain or RealEstate.com.au early on Friday, we thought we would have a weekend's break from house hunting. Luckily, late yesterday afternoon, I checked both websites again, and up came 2 properties for inspection.

The first was in Marsfield, which was on the same street as one of the first properties we ever inspected. In fact, this property and the one we inspected previously were separated by only 1 large complex.

The townhouse was at the very back of complex, and it was on the end of a row of townhouses which meant it shared only 1 common wall with a neighbouring townhouse. On the other side of the townhouse was a small grassy reserve which was common property.

The townhouse had 2 levels, and the downstairs level had a generous sized living / dining room and a decent sized kitchen, which had a nice nook for a laundry attached. The room flowed out to a small but tidy courtyard with a lovely little garden patch. There was also a toilet just inside the entrance to service downstairs.

Upstairs, there were 3 good sized bedrooms, with a nice sized bathroom as well. The master bedroom was the only one with a built in wardrobe. And it had a rusty old air conditioning unit that has seen better days. The walls all looked like they had a new lick of paint, and the carpet felt quite new. The bathroom didn't look that bad either.

Neither Jonathan and I thought very much of this property on paper, but we were impressed with the size and condition of the townhouse once we had inspected it. The agent was very keen to see people interested in the property, and told us that if we were super keen, we should make an offer, and the owner is in such a hurry to sell that we could even offer up to $20K lower than the asking price!

Jonathan and I worked out that we would probably need to spend around $30K to $50K to pretty up the place - get rid of the air conditioning unit, reglaze all the windows, repaint the whole place after all the hooks have been removed from the walls, maybe a new kitchen, and tidy up the laundry. Even then, the townhouse would have been bought at a good price.

We drove to the second property, in Denistone. Although we were a bit early, there was already another family there waiting for the same agent. The thing that struck us first was that the villa was in a small complex, that looked like it could have been a retirement village once upon a time ago. The villas look like they were lifted straight from the set of Blast From The Past!

Once inside, we were transported straight to the modern day. The interior had at one point been gutted and totally renovated by the current owners, with gorgeous floor boards, state of the art kitchen, and a professional paint job. The whole place screamed "class" and "elegance", and everything was well maintained and gorgeous.

There are 3 bedrooms in this villa, all quite spacious. Built in wardrobe in master bedroom only, but you'd expect that from a villa that was over 40 years old. The owners must have put that in in the last decade or so - it looked quite new. The bathroom and the toilet were separated, which was great.

The living space and the dining space were quite adequate, and the open plan kitchen was GORGEOUS! State of the art appliances, huge walk in pantry, loads of bench space - basically, my perfect kitchen!

The backyard was lovely too. The yard wrapped around the back of the villa, with one side paved for entertaining and the rest turfed with low maintenance grass. Just the right amount of grass for the littlies and not so much that Jonathan wouldn't mind having to mow every now and again.

High fences meant that intruding neighbours would find it hard to peep over the fence to spy on the backyard, one side of which shared a fence with the car park of the local Latter Day Saints' church.

We loved it. We really loved it. We loved it so much we spent 20 minutes looking at the property in fine detail, and then spent 10 minutes talking to the agent about the property. We loved it so much that we asked him to send us the contract straight away, and told him that we would be keen to inspect the property again with my parents tomorrow if we are able to tee up a time that would suit them.

After bidding the agent farewell, Jonathan and I drove around the block for a bit to find out what amenities are close by. We found the local Catholic primary school, the bus stops, and a park / reserve area not far from the villa. We paid a trip to Top Ryde Shopping Centre as well, which really wasn't that far away from the villa.

We spent most of the afternoon talking about both properties, neither of which we held much hope for at the beginning of the day. Yet here we were, impressed with both and debating which one we liked better! In the end, the villa at Denistone won the day - because it was a "move in straight away with nothing to fix", as opposed to "there are a few things we must fix before we move in" at Marsfield.

Once home, we looked at the My School website to see if Denistone was within the catchment area for the high schools we wanted to send the kids to. And Denistone was definitely in the catchment area. With this information, we rang my parents and arranged a time for them to come with us for another inspection. The last piece of the puzzle fell into place with the agent also available at the time we wanted.

Super super super excited now! We are so close!!! Stay tuned!

Project New Home: 2nd Inspection Time!

So, after our chat with Dad and Mum yesterday and last night, a second inspection has now been arranged for my folks to check out the third property - the villa from Saturday's inspections.

Dad and Mum went to have a look at the property on their own yesterday, and we had dinner with them last night to receive the verdict.

Dad rightly gave us all the "flaws" first - we needed them to pick apart the property for us, so we didn't mind that they had a small list of "flaws" to tell us.

First and foremost, this property is on a main road. This fact has been niggling Jonathan and I too, and while the villa is gorgeous, it will always be on a main road.

Because it is on a main road, we may have a lot of issues going in and coming out of our driveway. And when we have guests, they will have to park on the side streets and walk a short walk to our front door. If Jonathan and I were to have my family over for lunch or dinner or something, which will involve 3 families coming from 3 different locations in 3 cars, at least 2 of the cars will have to park on the side street. There is only room for 1 other car to park in the complex, which will be reserved for Dad and Mum.

Other small issues that Dad and Mum saw included flimsy windows and the air conditioning being in the main living room only. Being very security conscious, and with the property being on a main road, Dad and Mum were wary of how flimsy the windows were. And with summer approaching, and the Speedy bump increasing in size, Dad and Mum were worried that the single air conditioning unit might not be able to stave away the heat.

After all the concerns were noted, Dad and Mum said if we could deal with everything - and mainly if we could deal with the property being on a very busy main road, then it would be worthwhile to make an offer. They liked the property for a lot of things too, such as the space and the size of the rooms, and that it was quite new and in a good area. With everything in mind, Jonathan and I talked about it some more after dinner, and decided to make an offer today.

We called the agent first thing in the morning and made an offer. The agent told us that we were the 6th party to make an offer, and our initial offer was the lowest of the 6. As we had never made an offer on a property before, we asked the agent to give us an indication of the range we hope to be playing in. The agent was quite cagey - around this point, I started to feel uncomfortable about dealing with him - and told us that we should make a much higher offer if we want to be in the game. Quickly, Jonathan and I decided to substantially increase our offer, which was still in our price range, but was now at the higher end of what we want to pay for this property.

The agent continued to make me feel uncomfortable, by asking if we would be willing to make an offer even higher than our revised offer. I asked if he could tell me why, and he told us that we were now at the higher end of the offers he'd received, but not the best offer by any means. He kept saying things like "You're around the 2nd highest offer", "I won't be taking your offer to the vendor because it's not the highest offer", and asking "Are you sure this is your final and best offer?", which I felt was him being extremely aggressive and pushy. So I became defensive and told him that our revised offer was all we are offering, for now, since we have no way of knowing if he was telling the truth about there being 5 other offers.

The agent at this point back-pedalled a bit and told us that we were definitely the 2nd highest offer. Then he did something which made me think even less of him - he said that he knew we were stretching and implied that he didn't think we would be able to make a higher offer. How patronising! At that point, with Jonathan's total support, I dug my heels in and told him that our revised offer was our best and final offer, and that I would email him that figure to confirm our offer.

Even via email, the agent was still trying to get us to up our offer. Since he was so pushy, and I was now tired of dealing with him, we confirmed it was our best and final offer.

Let's see how this one pans out!

Updated on September 10

Jonathan and I have heard nothing from the agent. The property has been taken off Domain. We can only assume we missed out. Oh well. We weren't totally enamoured with the property. Ultimately, the villa IS on a main road, it will always be on a main road, and the main road will never be anything less than a main road. Truth be told, the main road is just going to get busier in the future.

We've found 2 properties to inspect this coming weekend, so our search continues!

Project New Home: Homes Viewed = 14

Anther Saturday, another round of open house inspections.

After last week's slim pickings, we were able to find 3 homes for us to inspect this week. Of course, our trusty power point counter and bath spotter was with us this weekend, and we had to ask her again to be patient with us while we inspected each of the properties.

During the week, when I found these properties, I had a good feeling about this batch of homes. The feeling was that one of these would be perfect, and on paper, one was in a great location, one had a pretty good floor plan, and one had awesome low strata levies. And they were all well within our price range.

The first of the properties was in Epping - on the side of Epping where I grew up. For many years, I had walked past this complex and always thought it was quite pretty. And being the first weekend this property was open for inspection, I was expecting a large group of people to be viewing it at the same time as us.

I was not to be disappointed. There would easily have been 10 other families crammed into the 3 bedroom apartment for the inpsection when we arrived. The property presented quite well, if somewhat a bit older than some of the others we'd seen. The bedrooms were spacious, all with built-in wardrobes, but the bathroom could do with a bit of an upgrade. The kitchen was a tad small, with a few odd food storage solutions found in the laundry. The lounge/dining area flowed onto a small balcony (which can also be accessed via the master bedroom).

There was a strange bump in the hallway, which I almost tripped over. The single lock up garage was downstairs, about 15m from the side door and the stairs to the front door of the apartment.

The biggest drawcard was the gorgeous gardens. We walked through the beautifully manicured gardens to get to the front door, and I would imagine that would be where the bulk of the strata levies would go to - and rightly so.

Location wise, this was perfect for us. It was a short walk to Epping Station and the bus interchange. There was a row of shops and restaurants between the apartment and the station, and my old Church was but a short stroll up the road. The street, while not a main main road, was still one of the main roads that connects North Epping to the rest of the world. And that was one of the "cons" on our list - the balcony and the living room, and to an extent the master bedroom, faced onto the often busy road. And Jonathan thought the apartment was a bit "twee".

With that property inspected, we went to Macquarie Shopping Centre for our weekly visit. We went and visited our gorgeous friend Tristan in his store, and bought Jonathan a fabulous Father's Day gift (the Nintendo DSi XL, because I'm a good wife and the only Christmas / birthday present he's getting this year is a baby). It was during this time we discovered Mina's fringe was covered in nits.

We headed to the food court for some lunch after buying Jonathan's present. Mina was so hungry she wolfed down her lunch before Jonathan even returned with his food! As we had a bit of time before the next inspection, Jonathan took Mina down to the play area while I went and did a small bit of shopping in Big W.

Just after 2pm, we headed to our second inspection in Macquarie Park. The apartment was at the bottom of the complex that was situated at the bottom of a cul-de-sac. The apartment overlooked part of the Lane Cove National Park, which was very peaceful and tranquil. Unfortunately, that was about the only thing going for the place.

It was an obvious share house for university students, one of which was still in the apartment when viewers arrived for the inspection. When we got there, the real estate agent was nowhere to be seen, so we put our name and number down on the list. The kitchen was the first room as we walked in, and it needed a lot of work. It looked like it was the original kitchen when the complex was first built.

The bedrooms were crammed with stuff belonging to each of the 3 students living in the apartment, which made the rooms very small and not well presented. The split level dining and lounge room was quite spacious, and the balcony looked lovely, but it had a very poor drainage problem, which was evidenced by the large puddles of muddy water along the edge.

We really weren't impressed with this property, so we hightailed it out of there as soon as we had made up our minds that this was not the one.

The last property of the day was back in Epping, on the other side of the railway line, very close to where I use to live back when I first moved out of home into a share house. Jonathan had a few reservations about this property, namely that it was on the main road. We had already viewed a property on this main drag when we first started looking, which was further up the road towards Carlingford, so Jonathan was well aware of how busy the road is.

We arrived far too early, so I introduced Jonathan and Mina to one of the best fruit and vegetable markets in the Epping / Carlingford area - Martelli's. Jonathan was quite impressed with the freshness of everything in the market, and we picked up a few things for us along the way. Before too long, it was time to head to the property inspection.

The villa was located at the back of the property, which was some distance from the main road, making the property quite secluded and quiet at the same time. The villa was in a complex of 4, with a self managed strata plan and levies of $150 per quarter. Brilliant!

There were plenty of families also viewing the property, and we squeezed our way into the front door through the maze of shoes. The agent out front was the same guy who we'd been dealing with from the Eastwood property we viewed 2 weeks ago, and it was pleasing that Jesse remembered us as well as we remembered him.

Once inside, we found ourselves wandering through the really-close-to-perfect potential new home. The living space was huge - there would be enough room to have an area set aside specifically for the kids and their toys. The kitchen was a good size, although the oven was on the small side of things. The "family room" could be turned into a dining area, which would be quite spacious for our dining table.

The 3 bedrooms were all generously sized. All with built-ins, all very spacious. The master bedroom had a walk in wardrobe and an ensuite. There was an internal laundry too, which had its own separate entrance to the villa from the backyard.

The backyard wrapped around the side and back of the house, all enclosed. There was a paved area, as well as a patch of grass, which would be great for pot plants or a veggie / herb patch. There weren't any plants in the yard, so it would be easy to fill it with our own choices, if we were to buy this place and if we were to buy plants. There was also a clothes line in the backyard.

Everything about this place screamed "Take me, I'm yours"! It really was the nicest place we had seen that we can afford, since the townhouse that we fell in love with in North Ryde. The location was not the best - it was after all on the main road, but the rest of the villa ticked every box. We were really truly impressed with this property, and told Jesse in no uncertain terms to send us a contract as soon as possible, as we were very very very keen on this property.

With that, we were done with the inspections for the day. Jonathan and I talked about this property a bit more on our way home, and we were both of the mind set that we need to take my parents along for another inspection and make an offer. That's how serious we are about this place.

Tomorrow, being Father's Day, we had already made plans to see my parents and take them to yum cha. This would be the perfect opportunity to talk to Dad about the villa, and get his opinion and try to lock him in to inspect the house with us next weekend.

We might be nearly there. We hope so. Until such time as we sign the contract though, we will keep looking.

The Perfect Husband

Without meaning to shatter all my single girlfriends' hopes and dreams (and those of all my single gay male friends), I have married the last perfect man in the world.

I have had such a horrible day at work today, resulting in no lunch until around 4pm. I was so overwhelmed by the day that I called Jonathan at 5pm, in tears, asking if he was still at work as I couldn't face going home on the bus on my own. Luckily for me, Jonathan was just finishing up, so he waited for me to get to his office before heading to the bus stop together.

The short walk to the bus stop was filled with me verbally unleashing my frustrations from the day, and Jonathan patiently listening to me and nodding every now and again in sympathy. To get my mind off the horrible day, Jonathan asked what I would like for dinner. What I really wanted was a soft cheese and paté platter, followed by a huge soft serve ice cream cone, but alas, I am not allowed to eat any of it. So Jonathan made little jokes to cheer me up, and telling me that I can't have paté because it was "yucky". That made me giggle.

During the bus ride, I changed my mind a few times about what I wanted for dinner. Sang Choi Bow crossed my mind, as well as Peking Duck, so Jonathan offered to drive to Chatswood to pick these up. Not long after that, I changed my mind again, and Jonathan offered to drive to pick that up too. In the end, we decided to eat our leftovers, but perhaps with an entrée from the noodle shop downstairs.

Having finally settled on that idea, my whim wanted spring rolls as the entrée. But more than anything else, I wanted a McDonalds apple pie. So when we got off the bus, we headed to the McDonalds Express to pick up the apple pie. Only problem was, I really wanted the apple pie as my dessert. Which I happened to mention as we neared McDonalds. The perfect man holding my hand then said, "Why don't I come downstairs and get you the apple pie after dinner?"

All together now: AAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Once home, I changed immediately into my pyjamas, forgetting that I was suppose to head out a couple more times to pick up various papers from my neighbours. The perfect man ran those errands for me, completely voluntarily. He made me laugh, which made me relax from my horrible day. Over dinner, I wanted to watch Wipeout (silly show, but such a good laugh) and he sat through the shenanigans with me.

And you know what the perfect man did after dinner? Went downstairs, and bought me a McDonalds apple pie. Which I just ate. Bless him. I'm such a lucky girl, to have the perfect husband!