Queen of my own new castle

We bought a house!!

And when we bought it, I hadn’t even seen it! But I’ll explain that shortly.

We knew we wanted to start looking after we got married last year, so we started hunting around once we got back from our honeymoon. I haven’t ever bought a property before (where we live right now Mario bought when he was in his mid-20’s), so this was all new to me. I’m a housemate by trade. So when we decided we wanted to start looking around, I hit the websites surfing around, and was quickly swept up in some dream houses before realising there’s such a thing called budget. 

That’s not very fun.

I found that where we live right now, that Mario and I had a mould that was hard to fit. Everything was either so small that if you farted the neighbour would hear, or oddly shaped with weird features, like one memorable house, where lawn gnomes went to die. Or there was just no chance we could afford them, even if we decided to sell our current location instead of keeping it as an investment. All of the ones that suited and that we loved were snapped up in a heartbeat, so by the time we attended the open house we were met with “sorry, this one is already under offer/contract”.

We learned the game quickly – as soon as you see a picture of a house you like, phone up the real estate agent and organise a viewing immediately. Which is how it came about that we bought a house I hadn’t seen. Here’s the rundown, play-by-play.

Buying a property Kel and Mario style:

• Thursday
  • Morning: Mario starts surfing around seeing what’s out there, happens upon one right in our target location and block size. Phones the agent and organises to see it that afternoon.
  • Afternoon: Mario goes to see the house, Kel continues to be a workaholic and stays in the office.
  • Night: We discuss it, Mario really likes it, says that it needs some TLC and we’d have to do renovation work. It’s definitely worthy of an offer. Kel dreams of starring on her own version of The Block, and all the possibilities for blog posts.
• Friday
  • Morning: Kel gives Mario blessings to put in an offer if he thinks it’s worth it. Mario puts in an offer, it’s accepted within an hour.
  • Afternoon: Kel finally surfaces from a crazy hectic day at work to loudly declare to her coworkers “um, I think we bought a house, but I haven’t seen it yet”.
• Saturday
  • Morning: Kel and Mario attend the open house, along with two friends, their mothers from either side of the family and a partner. We find out that 8 people wanted to put in offers that day, so Kel walks around feeling like the queen saying “hee hee it’s OURS”. Kel loves the property by the way, and her blind faith in Mario’s taste has paid off.
• Fast forward 3 weeks, it’s past all the building and pest inspections (the reports were things we already knew), and the finance is approved. The purchase is unconditional and I can now post about it!

WOOHOO!!

Of course, this has just given me enough material for the next 12 months at least. The before and after pictures, the dreams of styled rooms, the rundown of arguments. Even the recaps of where Mario realises he’s wrong and Kel’s right – it’s just blogging GOLD!

So what now?

We get the keys in another few weeks. Once we’ve got access we’re pulling up floors, redoing walls and a bit of work outside. After that we’ll think about moving in. For anyone who was cluey, you may have seen my subtle hint in my 52 in 52 list. Did you see the house category? Sneaky sneaky! I plan on getting in and learning quite a lot, and where possible, use a sledge hammer as much as I can.

So for now we twiddle our thumbs and dream. First thing I’m doing is going shopping for my own little tiara, because I’m the queen of the castle dammit! 

Oh, and apparently I’m now in debt up to my eyeballs.

Totally worth it. I’ll have a tiara to show for that debt.