Changed da house,
Changed da look.
BTW, my bathrobe's usually pink
and we don't have a fireplace.
Other than that,
it's pretty accurate...
Psst...click the words above to navigate.
Best viewed, unfortunately, in Internet Explorer.
Sunday, September 04, 2005
~ Stuffing... The Game of Life ~
The last time Tony and I had dinner at the Jennings, we found out we had similar issues confronting us. As fellow newlyweds - they were the ones who got married two weeks before us - they too are confronted with the quandary I face. (I think Tony has a better idea of where he wants to put our money than I initially did.)
To stuff the house, or not to stuff the house... that was the question.
House prices in Canberra are ridiculous; considering the population size (330,000) and the amount of land we have (potentially a lot, if we get rid of the sheep velcroed on the countryside), we have ridiculous rent and housing prices. We are SECOND to Sydney. That's just stupid. Granted, we have the highest income per capita in the whole country... but that still doesn't justify crazy house prices.
Not while I'm living here anyway.
Kate mused that while there is immense pressure to start saving and house hunt before the 2.4 kids come, she's been told to stuff the house and go for the holiday. Tony, having been on his Great Pan America Baseball Adventure, is quite content to house hunt and stuff the holiday.
I haven't quite decided. I think the impetuous, romantic, adventurous side of me wants to travel the world with hubby and get some good photos outside of Singapore and Canberra. The sober, growingly-practical side of me has done the elementary math and knows that unless I intend to attend my children's graduation when I'm a geriatric, I need to get the house now so I can have babies within the decade.
Further exploration on the husband's home-grown home loan calculator has revealed more depressing statistics: as it is, with house prices the way they are, and future plans for mother to migrate, we can only start surviving on a single income while paying off a house loan AFTER 5 YEARS.
Which means I'll be 31-32 before I start a cloning shop in my mid-drift.
(Why single income, the Singaporean might ask. No Filipino maid here will work for AUD$300 a month, which means we cannot be a dual income family for about the first 7 years. Which might be a good thing. But there goes the holiday to Polynesia.)
I don't know if the Jennings are going to house hunt anytime soon, but we started dabbling a little last week and by yesterday, we were going around Gungahlin district with clipboard and home-designed fact sheets in hand, intimidating housing agents. It was actually fun, and rather romantic amidst the dust and the construction around us.
I know we already have a rather ghastly street name as our address, but there were a few here we knew we'd never live down. I mean, "Lizard Lane"??? I particularly enjoyed "Kopi Lane" because it had a Singaporean flavour. And then there was "1 Kangaroo Close". Don't think you can ever say that's UnAustralian.
We fell in love with about 4 houses out of the plethora we visited and each of them have their merits. The first one we visited on Friday, and has terrific resale value. Unfortunately, the house has a very open plan and most of the floor is tiled so I don't know how future-kid is gonna enjoy crawling around ankles in winter. (The image is comical now, but I suspect I won't be as amused later.)
The second one we fell absolutely in love with because it was big, apparently cheap, and had a fully bricked wood-fire barbeque/oven thing in the pergolla at the back! Upon closer inspection today however, we discovered it's also right next to the highway. (A competing housing agent gave a lively impression of a 10 tonne truck braking at the lights outside the house.)
Resale value is a curiosity, to say the least.
House number 3 is located in a new suburb called Harrison - which incidentally is next to an even newer suburb called Forde. Heh heh. House number 3 is brand new, promises to be super comfortable with high resale value... except we'd have to survive without public transport or broadband for at least a year, maybe longer.
House number 4 isn't built yet. But there's the land, there's the blueprint, and there's the possibility of getting it JUST RIGHT. House number 4, however, is situated in Whoop Whoop for now, although the city is a 15 minute drive away. A primary school and high school will be built in future; buses will run past, and the suburb is replete with its own pond, park, and the unmatched view of the mountains. But for now, it's a giant construction site.
So much to think about.
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