Let's not forget HOME

I have been neglecting the ‘HOME’ part of my blog. Of course there is a reason for this; my hold on my home is tenuous at the moment. Those who follow this blog will have read that our house is for sale, going to auction on June 12th, and then the hunt for a new home will be on in earnest.

The past months have been spent reassessing our wants and needs for our next home. We are Baby Boomers; no kids at home and no one else to consider in terms of location, size or arrangement of the new house.

I have found it interesting that many people have an opinion about what we should be looking for, because of our age.

“Why not go into an over 50s village. You will be with people of your own age and be able to do things more attuned to your time of life”. WHAT? While I am sure that these villages are a wonderful for many people, I still want to be in a community that reflects the population - all ages, cultures, types of people represented.

“You will need to downsize, you are at an age where you shouldn’t have to worry about the maintenance of a large home”. Now I can see the point of this comment. While maintenance is certainly an issue – with a very un-handy hubby and a totally unmotivated house cleaner (me) I am well aware that maintaining a large home brings with it problems – BUT, both my husband and I have our interests and each of our hobbies require space. My husband’s interest is photography. He has a large caravan that is his darkroom [outside] but his digital photography requires studio space and spaces to print and frame, inside. My hobbies – paper and fabric crafts require lots of space, well at least a room! So there, we already have 2 rooms required. We also like to entertain; we like to have places for our grandchildren to play happily, where they won’t wreak havoc on the rest of the house. While I realise that many grandies manage to do this all in small spaces, I would rather not if I can help it.

“Live in an apartment”. As a couple, we have not lived in an apartment. I often think about what life would be living in a huge penthouse, overlooking the lovely city of Brisbane. I couldn’t imagine living on the ground floor of an apartment building! Then reality hits with questions like: What if the lift breaks down? Where will Polly (my Maltese) go to do her business? How will I manage with neighbours so close? I am sure that many of you who are reading this will think I am silly. Millions of families, retired people etc live in high rises very successfully. It’s just that for me, at the moment, it is a foreign concept.

There are certain things I am looking for in our next home. Some of my wishes are not priorities for my husband and vice versa. Let’s just put it down to the differing needs/desires of the sexes.

Our selection of house will be dependent on the amount we get at auction, so at the moment we are looking at a range of homes with a wide variety of unique aspects. Going to open homes is certainly an education. Having a sticky-beak into the lives of others; seeing how they live, what they consider is important in terms of furnishings and outdoor entertainment; how people use their rooms; colour schemes [oh don’t get me started here...] and floor coverings, is so interesting and I want to say: ‘I often thought when I went to the furniture store, who would buy this type of furniture/floor rug/drapes/colour paint’! I now know!

While we have spent a lot of time and money getting our present home ready for the real estate market, it is amazing how many people place their properties up for sale with little or no preparation. While following the market, we have seen that these unprepared homes get the price they want in spite of their preparation. What’s with that?

I am really good at packing up the dog and house in 5 minutes flat, when the agent calls to say she is bringing someone over to look at the house. We have open houses, but potential buyers are also able to arrange private visits. Having to keep the house spotless, smelling lovely, no dog poo in the yard, everything packed away and ready for a critical ‘buyer’s eye’, is very stressful.

I tend to get up very early these days (so not fair when one is retired!) so that I can get the house in order and then have to spend the rest of the day, sitting somewhere quiet, where I don’t disturb the order – so that is in front of the computer, hence the generation of posts here presently.

I so wish someone would buy our lovely home before auction! But then I think, ‘where will we go?’ We haven’t identified an actually suburb, property type or price yet ~ HELP!