We are Homeless Millionaires

Well its now all over and we can stop boring you with our home renovations. The Auction was on Saturday at 1.30 pm and 15 mins later it went under the hammer. Next thing we know our auctioneer had exceeded our reserve price by 20%. This makes our plans for retirement very doable.

It was quite a few stressful days of pondering over the various scenarios. What would it sell for, how much will we have available to build, and how much can we put away with our current retirement funds. Now we can relax and plan for the future.

The really nice thing is that the new owners are just like us when we made this house, our home. They are a young couple (30 somethings) with two primary school children. I'm sure they will breath new life into this home using their own personality.

Scenes from an Auction

All these B&W pics taken by our good friend Ell - Photographer of note.

One of the many friends that lent their support in labor and moral support over the many months to have our home ready for this Saturday's auction.

What Was is No More

Its come to the end of October. This time last year we were floating around Italy and France having just completed riding the L'Eroica cycling event in Chianti. This year we find ourselves in another exciting situation as we draw closer to the auction date of the sale of our house - November 14.

As I write this post, we are about to have our third open house inspection. After the first two, we've had a total of 36 inspections (some would have be neighbours) with 3 repeat inspections, 4 expressions of interest and 9 requests for section 32s. The activity looks promising however you can't help feeling anxious. We'll know more with another three open for inspection days to go.

It was 33 years ago that we walked into this house and knew it was for us. We were married in the backyard, surrounded by close friends and family. Three kids grew up in the house. Pets are buried on the property.

Melbourne - Our Home by the Bay will possibly cease to exist as we know it. Mentone will become a distant memory once sold. The bay will be replaced by trees, fields, forests and hills. Our pets will be the animals and birds of the bush.

We have been asked if we'll be sad to move on after all the work we've put into the house - maybe a little but this is softened by the exciting prospect to the next stage of our future.

We moved into our home in Mentone in the early 80s. It was almost original from the day it was built in 1929. Most of the  original features remained. Certainly the kitchen was.

Several years later we started the renovation - extension work and the kitchen was demolished along with the bathroom. In the background of this photo is the old claw foot bath.

You can see why it needed replacing - there was much mildew and rotting of timber.

You've seen this photo before - The house has gone from whites/cream to heritage greens and back to beachside whites again.

This one of our first full paint jobs in the greens.

We followed the theme inside with a wallpaper frieze under the picture rail.

As is is today - with two weekends before auction.
Bright and uncluttered.

Before

And after the sitting room

Before

And after - the dining room

PS: Another 19 groups came thru Saturday with two groups for their second visit - Hmmm, what should we think?

It's Now Real

It's the real thing now - the sign is up to let the neighbours know that we are moving out soon. November 14 is Auction date. This weekend our friends are coming around to help with all those little jobs that we've missed. My sons are cleaning up the garden and mulching. The ladies are styling the interior. The blokes are doing a bit of painting.

You would think that friends and family would be doing all they could to make us stay but they realise that its what we want to do and are all the way behind us - we are blessed with great friends.

I hope that the letterbox that looks like a exclamation mark is not an ominous sign.

Once we get back to a more relaxing life, we promise to get back to being diligent bloggers.
You could follow us on Face Book if you do that thing.

https://www.facebook.com/leon.sims.399

GOSH, ITS ALL HAPPENING NOW!!!!

Boy have I been slack again - November 2 was our last post and I can only blame the house, work and general life.
The big news is that we signed with a Real Estate Agent on Friday and now have an Auction date of Saturday November 14. The next few steps are that we need to supply various notices of council and water rates - we employ a conveyor to arrange the necessary paper work that is required with selling a property.

The instant turf has transformed the front yard, new paint on the house has also added sparkle.
Being spring, the garden is starting to bloom. Friends gave us a few rose bushes that they were throwing out and another friend gave us some ground cover lillies.

This is our entrance hall (welcome) with the newly sanded and polished Baltic floorboards. Our hous was built in 1929 and these boards had never been exposed until 8 weeks ago. 

Our living room has always been the quiet spot in the house - a place of refuge.
Nothing better than sitting in front of the flames with a glass of port, muscat or tokay on a winter's night.

The living room has become the domaine of our 17 year old blue burmese who loves to sit in the afternoon sunshine streaming in through the bay window. 

Sue loves to entertain and the dining room has been a focal point with friends and family over many years.
It still is.

The Real Estate Agent will be arranging for photography and advertising the property which will go to 2 or 3 Internet sites and newspapers. The photography is around October 12 and the ads will be on the Internet from October 21. The first inspections start from October 24.

I demolished the en-suite this week and we went shopping for a new shower base, taps and all the tiles for the floor and sower recess.

The vanity was fitted and I layed the base for the floor tiling. The Plumber arrives Monday to checkout the work to be done. The room will be painted in the Antiuque USA White to match the colour theme of the rest of the house. I have 3 weeks to get this done prior to photography - the stress of it all. The floor tiles will be a charcoal colour with the shower recess being a crisp, clean whit gloss with a feature strip of clear aqua colours in a vertical strip up the wall and as a splash back on the vanity. The finishing touch will be an arc Deco mirror above the vanity.

These are the tiles we will use as a feature in the shower recess and the vanity.

Before October 12, I have to have the e-suite completed. Its just a small job of fitting the shower base, tiling the walls and floor, having the Plumber fit everything and then painting the room (not small job - I'm freaking out).  Next week we are having three rooms carpeted and then we style those rooms. Oh, the pressure!!!!!!!!
I must say that they place has never looked better. He's some photos to show where we are.

It doesn't end with the Auction and hopefully it sells well. If the sales recently are any indication of our local market, then we should be quietly confident. So once we know how much finance we have to play with, we can start our search for a new home in earnest. The location will be a country town less than 2 hours from home. Stay tuned.

The Front Yard Transformed.

It's been a very productive weekend starting from my Friday - that's when my weekends start. Our big project this weekend was to lay new turf in the front of the house and replant the entrance garden bed. We achieved our goals with the help from out two sons Mitchell and Andrew. They've been so helpful during our house spruce up.

Old grass and weeds being removed

New grass and top soil delivered

Mitch and Andrew spread the top soil

Andrew and his friend cleaned the terracotta tiled roof - only three weeks ago they helped me paint one side of the house and part of the side fence. This weekend they helped lay turf. Sue had organised the top soil and turf to be delivered on the Friday. Come Saturday we started by taking a skim of grass and weeds from the surface. Next was to spread and level the top soil. We then took the water-filled roller over the surface before laying the turf.

Almost ready for the turf

Preparation all cmpleted

The turf now laid and we have a new front yard that has been transformed.

This is where I previously parked my car while Sue's car was on the brick driveway. Over the years, the grass had become worn with weeds taking over. I would judge where the car would be parked by the wheels hit the pot holes.

The whole job on the Saturday took around four hours between the three of us which allowed for some time in the afternoon and Sunday to do some gardening. We bought a small white peach tree and added some colour with a planting of small cottage flowers in the under it. We also did a similar planting in the front entrance garden bed where our wisteria is.

The white peach tree with lots of cottage garden flowers.

The front entrance garden bed. A rose bush is the central focus with a Wisteria behind and small cottage flowers below.

This year I cut back the Wisteria rather savagely. In past years we have felt it might just start encroaching into the house. Its been a wild beast of a plant, spreading its tentacles without warning.

Sue still has another pot to fill like the one shown here - these will grace the entrance to our front entrance.

Its been an amazing transformation to the front yard with the new fence and a lick of paint here and there on the house. With that job now ticked off the list, our next BIG project is to renovate the bedroom en-suite. This project involves fitting a new vanity, rebuilding the shower with new tiles and then hitting it with a bright new lick of paint. With only four weeks to go before we engage a Real Estate Agent and set an Auction date, I'd better get my act together.

Although Spring seems to be on the way, we have had a cold, wet winter and so we decided on an open fire on Saturday night to welcome guests to our home - it was a great end to the days hard work.

House Hunting and Renovation

The deadline is drawing closer - we expect to have the house ready for putting on the market in late September, early October. In the meantime we are still trying to decide where our next life will be.
We have friends that made the BIG MOVE from their birth country to another country -France.

For us, the move is not so dramatic but still the choices are just as important. This Friday we took another trip to the location that seems to be calling us. It goes by several titles - The Macedon Ranges, The Goldfields Region but it all comes down to the area of Woodend, Kyneton, Trentham and Daylesford.

We had tickets to see a Viennese recital at Kyneton at 11.30 am. Sue enjoys the waltzes but without meaning to, I could a few doze-offs until Sue poked me in the ribs. The Kyneton Town Hall has  marvelous theatre and there's always something on more than once a month. We took the opportunity to check out a house that is on the market while there.

Kyneton Town Hall where many live shows during the course of the year are held.
This day was the Viennese Masterpieces. Next month will be a tribute to Dave Brubeck.

No longer in use but great to see that the old movie projector has been saved.

Our next stop was Trentham for lunch - just a share plate, an entree each and a glass of wine before moving on to Daylesford to pop in on a real estate agent, look at some land and a house. The town has a really nice feel to it and its growing on us with each visit.

Lunch at the Plough Hotel Trentham.

We looked at a block of land at Daylesford but found that the current residents were checking us out.

We had organised to meet with friends from our MG Car Club days who had made their Tree-Change not that long ago and we wanted to get their feedback on the life style they had chosen after being inner city dwellers for many years. It was a great night and interesting to get their perspective on moving from the city.

Below are two properties that meet our budget - new in design and comfortable for our lifestyle with no work required - just move in and start living. Coming from a 1929 Californian Bungalow with a heap of charm, could we cope with modern - Hmmm, we wonder.

Quite modern with no work to do - after what I've done on our house, I have an open mind on modern!!

Great out door entertainment area.

We actually like the floor plan.

This one is at Daylesford and has a great view overlooking the township.

Sue tells me it has a kitchen she could work with and it has high ceilings which we have with our current home.

Again it also has a very livable floor plan.

We left around 9.30 pm after dinner and finished the day by jumping under the doona by 11.00pm.
All in all -a great day.

Saturday and Sunday saw us getting stuck into the house with renewed enthusiasm. Paint brushes were whipped into a frenzy, giving a fresh look to the outside of the house.

Next weekend we are laying new turf in the front yard and planting the garden beds with I don't now what yet.