So, I've gone back through the posts from the last month or so to see just how quickly things went from us feeling a little cramped to getting an offer on our house and putting an offer on a new house.
From what I can tell, somewhere around 2 Jan is when things became a little serious, my wife wanted a desk that should could do some studying at and I signed off that day's post with "time for a bigger house".
The two weeks after that we did a lot of looking around and a fair bit of research into extending our current house. We came to the conclusion that we would have to move to get the space we wanted and that doing an extension was probably not affordable for us at the moment.
In the following two weeks we talked to a couple of real estate agents about putting the house on the market and were about to sign one of them up when we received and accepted an offer on our house. In the same period I took the kids camping for a couple of nights and started some of the preparation work needed to sell the house.
A week or so of figuring out if we should or even could build a new home resulted in us realising that we didn't have the time to build so we looked a few properties and talked to everyone we could to see what was currently for sale and what may be coming onto the market shortly. We only ended up with a few candidates and instead of waiting to see if something better came on the market or if we'd have to move in with my Dad for a while, we made an offer on a place.
02 Jan - Think about moving
07 Jan - loving it, or listing it?
15 Jan - listing it
21 Jan - house hunting begins
25 Jan - accepted an offer for our house
02 Feb - put an offer in on a new house
03 Feb - our offer accepted
Basically one month from just talking about moving to putting an offer in on a new place with only contract exchange and settlement left to organise. Good price for our old house, reasonable price for our new house. How crazy is that. If anyone had told me on New Years day that we'd be moving into a new house in March I would have laughed at them. You often hear of people who can't find what they want and have been looking for months, or can't sell their house for whatever reason and end up with two mortgages with both houses about to be foreclosed. Sure, nothing is guaranteed at the moment and things could still go wrong, but it's almost like it's meant to be and everything is working together to make sure this all happens.
I never win at raffles, I can't think of the last time that I won anything or had what others would call a run of good luck. I just have the most unbelievable selling and buying and moving experience I think that anyone could ask for.
Bomber
I'm not going to complain about not winning the lottery anymore
Thursday, 7 February 2019
Wednesday, 6 February 2019
Change of Focus
I'm wondering if I need to change my focus for the Motocamp360 business, at least just for a while so I can get everything else sorted. I say it like there is a Motocamp360 business, what I should say is that instead of building it up straight from YouTube videos of going motocamping, perhaps I should just start with some more 360° photography on Instagram. The reason why I'm thinking this is because the intro vids and stuff on YouTube didn't really do anything and I wasn't expecting them to, but what has happened just recently is that I've gained a number of followers on Instagram and I haven't posted anything on there in ages. I currently have 13 followers and only four pictures have been uploaded, only two of them are 360° photos. Most of the followers have come on-board in the last couple of weeks and from the names of them, they are other 360° camera enthusiasts.
Taking some more 360° photos that are motorcycle related could be a good way to start a following that I could hopefully convert into YouTube subscribers. I haven't done anything to promote my Instagram account, I just thought that I should have one to go along with the YouTube and Patreon accounts.
I've also noticed that there are now a few 360° Motovloggers on YouTube so I won't be as unique as I was hoping to be, I guess that's what happens when you drag your heels and don't get things started the way that you'd hoped. The only person to blame it myself and I can make all the excuses I like, but when you get right down to it, I just didn't try hard enough and made too many excuses about it being too cold, or too hot, or not having the time. I'm sure that I could have made the time if I really tried. If I really wanted to I could have almost gone during the work week and just packed up early enough that I could have dropped the kit at home and headed off to work. Yes that would be super keen and I don't plan on doing that anytime soon, but I still could have done it.
Bomber
need to get snapping
Taking some more 360° photos that are motorcycle related could be a good way to start a following that I could hopefully convert into YouTube subscribers. I haven't done anything to promote my Instagram account, I just thought that I should have one to go along with the YouTube and Patreon accounts.
I've also noticed that there are now a few 360° Motovloggers on YouTube so I won't be as unique as I was hoping to be, I guess that's what happens when you drag your heels and don't get things started the way that you'd hoped. The only person to blame it myself and I can make all the excuses I like, but when you get right down to it, I just didn't try hard enough and made too many excuses about it being too cold, or too hot, or not having the time. I'm sure that I could have made the time if I really tried. If I really wanted to I could have almost gone during the work week and just packed up early enough that I could have dropped the kit at home and headed off to work. Yes that would be super keen and I don't plan on doing that anytime soon, but I still could have done it.
Bomber
need to get snapping
Tuesday, 5 February 2019
Moving right along
We had the pest and building inspector this morning and this afternoon we had a valuation done on our house too. These have been organised by the people who are purchasing our property and their solicitor exchanging contracts with us will most likely depend on the results, or at least they won't go through to settlement if there is anything that they don't like the looks of.
It would be interesting to see what they say and we may get a chance to look at them as things progress, I'm most interested in the valuation as it will let us know what the banks think our house is worth and if we will be receiving a fair price for the house.
Everything is moving along nicely but I think it is already getting to my wife, she likes to be super organised well ahead of time, where I'm not getting too excited until we've at least exchanged contracts and have booked in an actual date for settlement to occur.
In my mind, if we're not sure of the settlement date, then there's no point talking to removalists or the utility companies as they will want to know what date we're moving in so they can book everything in at their end. I've asked my wife to tell me what I can do to help, but so far she's not tasked me with anything. I still have some painting and what not to do around the house, so I'm going to busy myself with that over the weekend and hopefully next week we'll have the settlement date so I'll start organising the utilities and internet connection. I'll also book in for Foxtel to come and collect their equipment as we've decided that we're not going to get the same kind of pay TV at the new place. We already have 3 Fetch boxes and I'm going to sign up to get some channels through them, we can then watch them on all three boxes for the one fee. Currently we only have one Foxtel box and I only watch two or three shows on it a week. The Fetch TV has the Discovery Channel and National Geographic channel which are the two that I browse the most when there is nothing else on Foxtel anyway and they have a good selection of children's channels. I can get those two packs for $12 a month where currently we pay something like $90 a month for Foxtel. The only thing my wife will really miss out on is the last season of Game of Thrones, I'm sure she'll survive when she thinks of the savings we'll have from cancelling Foxtel.
Bomber
I've never watched an episode of GoT
It would be interesting to see what they say and we may get a chance to look at them as things progress, I'm most interested in the valuation as it will let us know what the banks think our house is worth and if we will be receiving a fair price for the house.
Everything is moving along nicely but I think it is already getting to my wife, she likes to be super organised well ahead of time, where I'm not getting too excited until we've at least exchanged contracts and have booked in an actual date for settlement to occur.
In my mind, if we're not sure of the settlement date, then there's no point talking to removalists or the utility companies as they will want to know what date we're moving in so they can book everything in at their end. I've asked my wife to tell me what I can do to help, but so far she's not tasked me with anything. I still have some painting and what not to do around the house, so I'm going to busy myself with that over the weekend and hopefully next week we'll have the settlement date so I'll start organising the utilities and internet connection. I'll also book in for Foxtel to come and collect their equipment as we've decided that we're not going to get the same kind of pay TV at the new place. We already have 3 Fetch boxes and I'm going to sign up to get some channels through them, we can then watch them on all three boxes for the one fee. Currently we only have one Foxtel box and I only watch two or three shows on it a week. The Fetch TV has the Discovery Channel and National Geographic channel which are the two that I browse the most when there is nothing else on Foxtel anyway and they have a good selection of children's channels. I can get those two packs for $12 a month where currently we pay something like $90 a month for Foxtel. The only thing my wife will really miss out on is the last season of Game of Thrones, I'm sure she'll survive when she thinks of the savings we'll have from cancelling Foxtel.
Bomber
I've never watched an episode of GoT
Monday, 4 February 2019
Time to start organising things
After work we met with the solicitor who is handling our sale and also our purchase, everything seems to be in order and we are aiming for a simultaneous settlement in mid March, most likely the week we return from our holiday on the Gold Coast. We are just waiting now for the contracts to exchange so we can lock in a definite date and start booking in everything that we'll need.
We've decided that we'll use professional movers to move everything as we don't have any family living nearby and my wife's back wouldn't be up to helping me to carry out all our furniture. We'll probably have to start boxing things up before we go away and then when we get back finish off what is left. We also need to arrange for the power and water to be connected as well as the phone and internet. We'll probably move our pay TV over as well so there is a little bit of co-ordination required to make it all happen. We're hoping that we can get access to the new place a couple of days prior to settlement to allow us to move in. I'd already planned to take a couple of extra days off after returning from the Gold Coast, but at the time I had no idea that they would be used to pack the house and get things ready for moving. My wife and kids will be at work and school the week we move so I'm guessing that I'll be doing most of the work and co-ordinating of all the different people who will need to go to each house.
We have a building and pest inspection at our house tomorrow that the new owners have organised, it means that I'll be a little late to work so I'll probably have to work back a little to make up for it. We're not sure if we're going to bother to get one done on the place we are purchasing as it is a new build and they reports are known to be basically useless, the one we got done when we purchased our current home had all sorts of mistakes in it. I think they even stated that the garage was made from brick when it is clearly galvanised iron. They also stated that the alarm system and electric garage door appeared to be in good order and functioning correctly. We asked the previous owners about it as things didn't seem quite right and as it turned out the alarm systems battery had been disconnected as it went flat years ago and the remote for the garage door hadn't work in years as well.
Bomber
I'm still surprised that I can write each night.
We've decided that we'll use professional movers to move everything as we don't have any family living nearby and my wife's back wouldn't be up to helping me to carry out all our furniture. We'll probably have to start boxing things up before we go away and then when we get back finish off what is left. We also need to arrange for the power and water to be connected as well as the phone and internet. We'll probably move our pay TV over as well so there is a little bit of co-ordination required to make it all happen. We're hoping that we can get access to the new place a couple of days prior to settlement to allow us to move in. I'd already planned to take a couple of extra days off after returning from the Gold Coast, but at the time I had no idea that they would be used to pack the house and get things ready for moving. My wife and kids will be at work and school the week we move so I'm guessing that I'll be doing most of the work and co-ordinating of all the different people who will need to go to each house.
We have a building and pest inspection at our house tomorrow that the new owners have organised, it means that I'll be a little late to work so I'll probably have to work back a little to make up for it. We're not sure if we're going to bother to get one done on the place we are purchasing as it is a new build and they reports are known to be basically useless, the one we got done when we purchased our current home had all sorts of mistakes in it. I think they even stated that the garage was made from brick when it is clearly galvanised iron. They also stated that the alarm system and electric garage door appeared to be in good order and functioning correctly. We asked the previous owners about it as things didn't seem quite right and as it turned out the alarm systems battery had been disconnected as it went flat years ago and the remote for the garage door hadn't work in years as well.
Bomber
I'm still surprised that I can write each night.
Sunday, 3 February 2019
Weighing In
A much better week this week than I've had in quite a number. It was only a four day work week with the Australia Day public holiday on Monday but as I mentioned earlier in the week, I was really busy at work. The heat is still here, the next couple of days are meant to be a little cooler so maybe I'll get back in the swing of things.
I didn't get any tidying or cleaning done this weekend, it was pretty busy with going to lunch with dad and checking out houses as well as the kids swimming lessons yesterday, so I basically took it easy and played a little Fortnite with my son.
I do need to get things done around the house as now that we've put an offer in we could be as little as 45 days away from moving and we've got a fair bit on in that time including going on holidays for a week to the Gold Coast.
I imagine that now we've found a house that we're happy with that the content of this blog will once again shift a little to everything involved with moving and then setting up house. There is a fair bit that we'll need to organise, like some landscaping and some electrical work in the house itself. Depending on how much money we have left once we've moved in, I'd like to look at putting a PV system on the roof to try and offset some of the aircon costs that we're no doubt going to have in the new house. I'd also like to put in a watering system for the yard to keep everything looking nice since we're going to have to plant a hedge and some trees out the front and in time we'd like to put a hedge along the back fence and maybe the side fences too.
Weight: 110.5KG
Steps for the week: 45,275
Average daily calorie burn: 3,381
I didn't get any tidying or cleaning done this weekend, it was pretty busy with going to lunch with dad and checking out houses as well as the kids swimming lessons yesterday, so I basically took it easy and played a little Fortnite with my son.
I do need to get things done around the house as now that we've put an offer in we could be as little as 45 days away from moving and we've got a fair bit on in that time including going on holidays for a week to the Gold Coast.
I imagine that now we've found a house that we're happy with that the content of this blog will once again shift a little to everything involved with moving and then setting up house. There is a fair bit that we'll need to organise, like some landscaping and some electrical work in the house itself. Depending on how much money we have left once we've moved in, I'd like to look at putting a PV system on the roof to try and offset some of the aircon costs that we're no doubt going to have in the new house. I'd also like to put in a watering system for the yard to keep everything looking nice since we're going to have to plant a hedge and some trees out the front and in time we'd like to put a hedge along the back fence and maybe the side fences too.
Weight: 110.5KG
Steps for the week: 45,275
Average daily calorie burn: 3,381
Bomber
Our offer was accepted!
Saturday, 2 February 2019
wowsers!
Did I say just how fast things were moving and how it was all becoming a blur. Well last night and this morning my wife had been basically talking non-stop about houses and we realised that no matter what, we'd have to be making compromises. Whether that was on the size of the house, or yard, living spaces, location, inclusions, orientation etc etc.
We both started looking back over the houses we had visited and decided that we wanted to take another look at the second house we'd inspected. We initially ruled out this house as it had large windows facing west and would get pretty hot in summer, other than that, it was a nice house. Of all the others we've seen this was the only house where the compromise wouldn't be in the size of certain aspects of the house or in the layout.
The price is also good and will leave room in our budget for making some changes to try and alleviate any summer heat issues. We'd also need to get a few power outlets installed and a gas connection for the bbq area as once you've moved away from using bottles, you never want to go back and we converted our bbq several years ago.
So, after having lunch at Dad's, we headed out for another look. If anything, it was slightly better than we remembered and the front room and master were already starting to heat up. Everything else is actually really good and the yard size, whilst smaller than I'd like, is bigger than most in our price range.
We left the inspection and are now both really keen on the house. We know that the builder has already dropped the price a couple of time and is very motivated to sell, so we might be able to negotiate a fair price for the house.
We both started looking back over the houses we had visited and decided that we wanted to take another look at the second house we'd inspected. We initially ruled out this house as it had large windows facing west and would get pretty hot in summer, other than that, it was a nice house. Of all the others we've seen this was the only house where the compromise wouldn't be in the size of certain aspects of the house or in the layout.
The price is also good and will leave room in our budget for making some changes to try and alleviate any summer heat issues. We'd also need to get a few power outlets installed and a gas connection for the bbq area as once you've moved away from using bottles, you never want to go back and we converted our bbq several years ago.
So, after having lunch at Dad's, we headed out for another look. If anything, it was slightly better than we remembered and the front room and master were already starting to heat up. Everything else is actually really good and the yard size, whilst smaller than I'd like, is bigger than most in our price range.
We left the inspection and are now both really keen on the house. We know that the builder has already dropped the price a couple of time and is very motivated to sell, so we might be able to negotiate a fair price for the house.
Bomber
we made an offer on it....
we made an offer on it....
Friday, 1 February 2019
a swing and a miss
We looked at the house that I'd pinned my hopes on this afternoon. It was just too small. The agent then took us to another that was a bit bigger and now we have a dielema. I think my wife really likes this new place but it didn't grab me. I'm starting to think that it won't be our forever home that we move into next, it'll be where we live to raise the children and then we'll probably move again when we're older, either downsize or upsize down the coast or something when we're ready to retire.
The new house is about three houses from the end of what should be a quiet street. At the end of the road there bushland but it doesn't look like that there will be any footpaths through it and it is quite steep sloping down away from the road, it doesn't look like the kind of place the kids would go and play. At the other end of the street there is a park and then around the corner from there is a couple of ovals. To get to that end of the road you have to cross a couple of streets to get there, but again they look like they should be quiet streets. The house is north/south on the block with the living areas facing east. The lounge room is on the northern side but the kids bedrooms are on the western side so could get quite warm. I'd prefer east/west with the living areas facing north and the bedrooms on the northern, eastern or southern side of the house.
The house we now really really want is too expensive, we're still going to go and have a look at it on Sunday afternoon and we are also going to talk to our broker to see if there is anyway that we'd be able to get approved for a mortgage of that much. This house has a dedicated study as well as a dedicated space for the kids, it would be perfect for us. There would be a dedicated guest bedroom instead of what we were planning on doing which was using the 4th bedroom as a study and putting a sofa bed or something like that in there.
It's really doing our heads in at the moment becuase we can't quite afford what we know would make us both really happy, possibly broke, but still happy.
Bomber
still wanting wanting wanting
The new house is about three houses from the end of what should be a quiet street. At the end of the road there bushland but it doesn't look like that there will be any footpaths through it and it is quite steep sloping down away from the road, it doesn't look like the kind of place the kids would go and play. At the other end of the street there is a park and then around the corner from there is a couple of ovals. To get to that end of the road you have to cross a couple of streets to get there, but again they look like they should be quiet streets. The house is north/south on the block with the living areas facing east. The lounge room is on the northern side but the kids bedrooms are on the western side so could get quite warm. I'd prefer east/west with the living areas facing north and the bedrooms on the northern, eastern or southern side of the house.
The house we now really really want is too expensive, we're still going to go and have a look at it on Sunday afternoon and we are also going to talk to our broker to see if there is anyway that we'd be able to get approved for a mortgage of that much. This house has a dedicated study as well as a dedicated space for the kids, it would be perfect for us. There would be a dedicated guest bedroom instead of what we were planning on doing which was using the 4th bedroom as a study and putting a sofa bed or something like that in there.
It's really doing our heads in at the moment becuase we can't quite afford what we know would make us both really happy, possibly broke, but still happy.
Bomber
still wanting wanting wanting
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