MONDAY JULY 2     MARONG

Our first house inspection was scheduled for 10am, so we needed to get going at an earlier than usual hour. This meant we were up at 8am, and encountered a first for us. In all our years of camping, caravanning and Coastering, had never before had our hose from the water tap freeze solid! A drip from the attachment at the tap end had frozen into a long, solid icicle. We were lucky that the hose itself had not split.

John phoned the agent for the house we had primarily come to see, to find out what new time had been arranged for our inspection. It seemed the message John had left for him had not been passed on, and the sellers had, over the weekend, accepted an offer. That was possibly a pity for us, and definitely for them, because two potential buyers might well have pushed up the price they got. I was disappointed because the place had certainly seemed interesting.

That left us with two arranged inspections, plus an address of another place found online that John wanted to drive past and look at; this one was being sold by the owner – no agent. All three were properties John had found online – even though they did not match the parameters he had earlier given me for such searching.

The first home – at 10am – was in the Maiden Gully area we both liked. The agent was the same man who had conducted the Open For Inspection we’d attended, earlier in the year – that had shown us what an owner should not do at such events. In this case, the owners were departing as we arrived, so we could look around in the agent’s presence, without them watching us.

I loved the place. The house ticked most of my boxes: modern, light, spacious, the right number of rooms. I’d have preferred wood floors instead of the tiles, but John tended to prefer tiles. It was on a fairly standard block in what had obviously been a housing estate some years before. All the houses along the street looked to be a similar age. This meant that the neighbours on each side were actually closer than those we had at Mt Evelyn – supposedly a real no-no for John. But he really liked it too, perhaps especially because he had found it online, rather than me. Of course, it had a large shed – imperative for him.

We left the agent and went driving to the fringes of Maiden Gully, where John wanted to drive past a place that was on a larger block, with a couple of large sheds and garage detached from the main house. The sheds were the attraction for him. It was more rural here, than suburban, with undeveloped land around and bush nearby. The fencing around the block was only a couple of strands of wire – not great to contain a dog. Fortunately, from my point of view, as soon as we drove past John decided it was not what he had in mind.

Our second agent led inspection was in the northern suburb of White Hills. Again, John had been attracted by the large block – room to build a large shed to supplement smaller ones already in place. Initially, he was quite tempted by this place. There was a large, older house at the front of the large block and he saw the potential to live in this whilst sub-dividing the block and building a new, better house on the back half – which had been part of the ad that caught his eye originally.

The house was quite strange. An original garage had been turned into the main living room, still complete with bare cement floor. The original passage to the bedrooms had been sealed off – why was unclear – so one had to walk through the kitchen and laundry to reach these. The laundry also contained the kitchen’s pantry. It was all a bit ramshackle.

Fortunately, John decided sub-dividing and building would all be too much hassle. I was so grateful that he’d dismissed the possibility, because the house was decidedly unattractive.

After a very quick discussion, we parked at the Bendigo Botanic Gardens in White Hills, phoned the first agent and put in an offer on the Maiden Gully house. It was not much lower than the asking price, because we had really loved the place, but was more the token initial offer one makes, expecting to then haggle a bit.

In our favour was that we would have the purchase money without needing to wait on obtaining finance. Against us was the fact that we would not be able to complete a purchase until mid October.

Took Couey and went for a walk in the very attractive Gardens. The freezing morning had turned into a beautiful sunny day, though it was not as warm as the sun suggested.

Botanic Gardens

Waiting – hoping – to hear from the agent, we couldn’t think of much else to do but to drive back to Maiden Gully, where John had noticed a bakery in the small cluster of shops there. Late lunch A pie and pasty for him, an egg and lettuce roll for me. We sat in the car, in the carpark, eating these – then the phone rang. The agent…

Our offer had been accepted. Just like that, we had a home to move into – three and a half months down the track. Apparently, the long period until settlement really pleased the sellers, who were going to build a new and smaller place, and so would have to rent a temporary home for a shorter time.

This would be ours…

It felt great to have that sorted out, and in just the area of Greater Bendigo that I really wanted to live – and at a price that would not break our budget.

We didn’t even have to go see the agent – all would be dealt with electronically.

We cruised back past “our place”, and then back to the caravan park.

It felt like we should be having some sort of celebratory festive dinner. The reality was that, after the late bakery lunch, all we wanted was a tin of soup and some biscuits and cheese.

Another freezing night was forecast. John disconnected the water hose as a precaution.