After several months of searching we bought our first home in 1998 in the northern Adelaide suburb of 'Brahma Lodge'.
Sounds posh, huh?
It's not.
The place had the same owner for over 40 years before we moved in and suffice to say it was in need of a little reno work. Nothing drastic. Nothing structural. Just some new ideas really. Ideas like; not having a different paint colour in every room... and... not having different carpet in every room... and... not having wood panelling - anywhere... and... not having vertical blinds, netting curtains and heavy drapes - all on one window! You know, that sort of thing.
In addition we also did a little kitchen update, a total bathroom & toilet overhaul and a bit of a garden tidy up. All with a lot of help from our (soon to be long suffering) mums & dads.
We had been there more or less a year and were about half way through the reno when we spotted an ad in the Saturday paper real estate section. "WAREHOUSE APARTMENTS" was the title and we headed off to Port Adelaide for a look. It turned out that the warehouse existed but the apartments didn't! Everything was set to go to develop this derelict 100 year old 3 story paint factory into 20 apartment shells, they just needed one more to be bought and the project would proceed. We had a guided tour of the building (where we got to see what generations of pigeons will do to a building that's been empty for 35 years) and knew we were hooked. After taking our parents for a look and receiving some sagely advice we signed on the dotted line.
The conversion of the warehouse was supposed to take 6 months. During that time we would finish off the renovation of the house at Brahma Lodge, rent it out & move in with Lee's parents. Then after getting the keys to the apartment we would do our own internal fit out and move in. All up it was intended to take about a year. Yeah right!
Our parents helped us get the house finished in double quick time and we (along with our cat, Bauldy) moved in with Lee's parents. It was then 19 months (January 2001) before we got the keys to our apartment shell - 13 months late. By then Lee's parents had moved house, and we (and Bauldy) went with them.
Then once again a new plan arised. We decided to rent out the apartment and go back packing for 7 months. So we finally got the doors on those cupboards, hid those ugly cables, installed the long awaited bench lighting in the kitchen and painted that last bit of gyprock. Once again, a renovation finished off just in time to move out! Kind of depressing.
After our long holiday we moved in once again with Lee's parents. Are you beginning to understand the 'long suffering' reference yet? After living in Queensland for a couple of years they had returned to SA and settled down in the Adelaide Hills, not far from the block of land we had bought. We decided we would not return to Port Adelaide but try to settle in the hills as well.
Kerry went back to her work but Lee started looking for a new job a little closer to home. We also started looking for a place to live in or near Mount Barker, however with only one regular income and an existing mortgage it quickly became apparent that we would struggle to afford anything decent in the area.
At one stage we looked at an old building that was in serious need of renovation in the nearby town of Dawesley. This had already been started and left unfinished by the previous owner. The property was being sold by the bank as the owner had apparently over capitalised and had lost the place to repossession. As it turned out the bank were trying to recover a substantial debt and were asking around $280k which in our opinion was way over priced and out of our budget for a place that needed a lot more spent on it.
Lee eventually found work at the new Bunnings Warehouse just next door to Mount Barker and we had the idea of building a house instead of buying. This idea went out the proverbial window too as we found land in the area to be very expensive. Many people suggested that the increased First Home Buyers Allowance had pushed prices up which was shameful and a shame for everyone except those who were selling.
Some 6 months after we first looked at it we noticed that the old building in Dawesley was still up for sale. We were not really surprised even though the price had by now dropped by $50k! Soon after the asking price changed to a range of $210,000 - $229,500. We knew this meant that the bank was finally getting serious (read: desperate) to get this bad debt off the books - they had been trying to sell it now for well over 12 months. We had a building report prepared and made an offer of $190k. We had already decided we were not willing to go much over this offer so when the bank asked for more money we increased the offer to $192,500 and the bank accepted. Because it's a 'Mortgagee Sale' it took about a week for a special contract to be drawn up, we have signed this and it's now heading back to Sydney for the bank to do the same. And now we wait. Settlement should be sometime in October and of course we'll keep you up to date on that right here!
