December 10th, 2010
We moved!
I haven’t written to this thing in ages, but thought now is as good a time as any. So to fill you in, after Stephen left home, I was basically walking around this huge barn of a house on my own. What with Larry being away three or more days a week and Stephen off on his new life, I was living the life of a hermit. It felt ridiculous to have four bedrooms and three living rooms for essentially one person. Then there was the area; next door neighbours had moved away, roads were hilly and cardiac arrest invoking and I realised it was time to go into the next phase of our lives. So where to go? Well the last thing I wanted to do was settle for less. I didn’t mind downsizing, but I sure wasn’t going to be stuck in some tiny suburban home. It needed to be a move that was exciting, that gave good access to all the services we need now and in the future, and give us the opportunity to be close to things to do.
The answer for me was obvious. A move to the city. In the middle of the sounds and sights, close to all entertainment that matters, easy to get around and for Larry, to cut down on his horrendous travel time. So we started looking around and straight away I found this building that was in the middle of being built. It was in the middle of the arts precinct in Melbourne, behind the Art Centre and National Gallery and a short stroll to all the eateries and entertainment on the Yarra River. Our initial thought was Eureka Tower, but the building is crammed with apartments and some of them are lucky to fit a double bed in the bedrooms. That was off the list early. Freshwater Place was similar. Still I kept going back to the website.
Finally, I asked Larry to go and have a look at Triptych Towers. He had a look around August and despite all the building works could see it was beautiful. However the price was a real problem. Even taking most of our cash and with our current house, we still needed a mortgage to live here. Was it worth it? A couple of months later, with Larry on holidays I asked if I could look at it. We made an appointment and I walked into that apartment and it was love at first sight. I could see myself living there. We went home and started looking at it seriously. Could we really do this? By the afternoon on Friday, we’d put a hold on our apartment, had arranged a solicitor and contacted a real estate agent to have our home valued. We were on our way!
The house sale was tough. We managed to sell our home at a time when the housing bubble burst. David, the estate agent was dumbfounded. Week after week passed with one, two or no inspections. The auction was a complete joke with no bids made. How could anyone bid? There had been no-one interested. Finally a couple of people started to show interest and competed for our house. The losing bid missed out by $112. I was very disappointed with the estate agent. They only wanted to give a one bid process which was ridiculous. Why they didn’t have these people bouncing off each other and edging the price up I don’t know. Maybe they were just sick of the house being up for sale. Regardless it came as no surprise that we received $1000 more than our bargain bottom price. I suspect the real estate agent told them exactly what to bid to get the house. I’m still annoyed and bitter about that.
As I write this, we’ve been in the apartment for almost a week. Lots of things to do still but the main living area is just about there although we don’t have the pictures on the wall yet. I love it. I simply love living here. It is everything I hoped for and more. This is the beginning of a new adventure!
Here’s some pictures of where we are today.
I haven’t written to this thing in ages, but thought now is as good a time as any. So to fill you in, after Stephen left home, I was basically walking around this huge barn of a house on my own. What with Larry being away three or more days a week and Stephen off on his new life, I was living the life of a hermit. It felt ridiculous to have four bedrooms and three living rooms for essentially one person. Then there was the area; next door neighbours had moved away, roads were hilly and cardiac arrest invoking and I realised it was time to go into the next phase of our lives. So where to go? Well the last thing I wanted to do was settle for less. I didn’t mind downsizing, but I sure wasn’t going to be stuck in some tiny suburban home. It needed to be a move that was exciting, that gave good access to all the services we need now and in the future, and give us the opportunity to be close to things to do.
The answer for me was obvious. A move to the city. In the middle of the sounds and sights, close to all entertainment that matters, easy to get around and for Larry, to cut down on his horrendous travel time. So we started looking around and straight away I found this building that was in the middle of being built. It was in the middle of the arts precinct in Melbourne, behind the Art Centre and National Gallery and a short stroll to all the eateries and entertainment on the Yarra River. Our initial thought was Eureka Tower, but the building is crammed with apartments and some of them are lucky to fit a double bed in the bedrooms. That was off the list early. Freshwater Place was similar. Still I kept going back to the website.
Finally, I asked Larry to go and have a look at Triptych Towers. He had a look around August and despite all the building works could see it was beautiful. However the price was a real problem. Even taking most of our cash and with our current house, we still needed a mortgage to live here. Was it worth it? A couple of months later, with Larry on holidays I asked if I could look at it. We made an appointment and I walked into that apartment and it was love at first sight. I could see myself living there. We went home and started looking at it seriously. Could we really do this? By the afternoon on Friday, we’d put a hold on our apartment, had arranged a solicitor and contacted a real estate agent to have our home valued. We were on our way!
The house sale was tough. We managed to sell our home at a time when the housing bubble burst. David, the estate agent was dumbfounded. Week after week passed with one, two or no inspections. The auction was a complete joke with no bids made. How could anyone bid? There had been no-one interested. Finally a couple of people started to show interest and competed for our house. The losing bid missed out by $112. I was very disappointed with the estate agent. They only wanted to give a one bid process which was ridiculous. Why they didn’t have these people bouncing off each other and edging the price up I don’t know. Maybe they were just sick of the house being up for sale. Regardless it came as no surprise that we received $1000 more than our bargain bottom price. I suspect the real estate agent told them exactly what to bid to get the house. I’m still annoyed and bitter about that.
As I write this, we’ve been in the apartment for almost a week. Lots of things to do still but the main living area is just about there although we don’t have the pictures on the wall yet. I love it. I simply love living here. It is everything I hoped for and more. This is the beginning of a new adventure!
Here’s some pictures of where we are today.
