For many reasons, some of which I am not able to share here, change became inevitable. There seemed to be only one choice now – sell the Purple Nest and down size – down size our debt, down size our lives. Simplify. Change relationships too.
But before I continue our little saga I need to back track, just a little.
…
Ever since buying our first home I’ve had a bit of an obsession with property. I would regularly go to open houses and search the real estate pages and shop windows for properties I liked the look of. Then, when the internet became a staple in our home, I would ‘live’ on realestate.com and pursue the properties there. For awhile I had a Tasmania fetish. I had dreams of moving down there and buying a run down old B & B or barn. I even went looking for an investment property down there, after realising that my extended family and closest friends were not going to follow suit and pack up and come with us!
My Tassie fetish waned, though if I could rope a few of the fam to come down there I’d probably still go, even now but my love for property and interest in investing remained strong and so every now and then I would annoy one of the poor real estate agents in town and get them to take me out to see my latest property love.
This was one such property:
That view! That’s what grabbed me when I first went to look at this block...a long time ago now. I looked at it when it first came on the market. I didn’t really have any intentions of buying it then but it has always been a place I’ve loved {it was once a winery where we bought wine and had yummy lunches}.
I took Lewi, Sarah and Meily with me to meet with the agent. I was only ever meant to be having a quick sticky beak squiz. But on arrival, as can often happen, my mind started wandering and planning and scheming and...designing! I fell in love with the place.
I asked the agent about council regulations on renovating the building etc. He put in an immediate phone call to the owner who told him that whoever bought it would have a hard time getting this building approved for residential living. My dreams were instantly smouldered. And anyway, I could never leave the purple nest.
Around about this time a dear friend of mine was toing and froing and wondering about what to do and where to live and should they buy and all of that. We were having one of our many property discussions while picnicking up at her bush block. I got to chatting about the winery and the subdivision that’s taken place there and the fact that that old house, which was part of the 6 block subdivision, was also for sale.
Her ears pricked. This could be worth a look. So, of course, on our way home, we roped the kids into coming to the house for a peak. She loved it! So she rang her husband and he came to have a look too. He loved it! Quick as a flash they went to the agents to talk prices and all of that real estatey talk, only to find out that the property had, in fact, already had an offer accepted and contracts exchanged.
Double bummer.
…
Fast track now to 2010. Financial troubles become quite apparent and talk arises about maybe selling the purple nest. Mark is keen. He’s been keen for sometime. I’m not at all. But I start to sticky beak around again, looking on real estate.com and All Homes to see if there’s anything that could tempt me to move. Things aren’t, after all, dire straights.
It’s at this time that I notice that the Winery is still up for sale but this time it’s got an LJ Hooker sign. I give Gerry a call and ask if I can wander on over and have a look. He says it’s fine to visit on our own, so we do. This time I do some enquiries of my own with the council. It seems that the building could be made liveable as long as it follows council regulations. That was a better response. So Lewi and I visit out there quite a few times. We snoop around {respectfully of course!} and I can not help but continue to look out to that beautiful Mumbulla Mountain view that I’ve been longing for since my childhood days.
I can’t shake the love for that place so I make Mark a bit of an ultimatum. I’ll sell the purple nest but only when I can find something I love to replace it with {and of course, a place that matches our plans for down-sizing and debt cutting}. So I persuade him to come and have a look at the Winery.
One Sunday we drive out to take a look, just the 3 of us. All this time Lewi hasn’t been keen AT ALL to move. He gets so attached to things and his home is such security for him. I know exactly how he feels as I felt this as a child too. I still feel it now. But he’s beginning to warm to this place ~ there’s an enclosure area that we could turn into Steel’s outdoor home and there’s even a huge big pondy tank thing that we could make into an axolotyl haven. The ant lions on the brick verandah are also a draw card. A true nature boy can be lured by nature!
Mark likes it. He very rarely comments much anything other than an “it’s OK’ but this time he says he could imagine himself living here and that it would be quieter etc. So we make the decision to pursue this, properly.
The next day I gave LJ Hooker a call. Gerry wasn’t in so I talked to one of the other agent. He tells me that the winery had, not long ago, sold ~ an offer had been made and accepted and the paper work was all going ahead.
That was that. All over Red Rover. Thoughts of having to put the purple nest on the market and leave such a beautiful place without any other prospects ahead now really concerned me. Daily. I felt sick to the stomach.
But change was inevitable and it was all in His Hands.
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