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This is my series about trying to find our footing in Australia. It will no doubt be a series of joy and sadness and struggle... Things will turn out alright? Won't they?

Part 1: Settling In and Adjusting
Part 2: Checking In...

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It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks of house viewings and learning about how the property market works in Australia. It doesn't seem like so long ago that we sold up our house in the Netherlands... and at that time, we were on the advantaged side, with the sellers being definitely in power.

We had closed up the sale over there by accepting an offer that wasn't the complete top, and refusing all other higher offers that had come in afterwards. We chose people that we had a good feeling about, and it was important to us as to who followed us in our dear little place over there. More important than a little bit more money... Speaking of which, we should check in to see how their pre-move renovations are going!

Back on this end... we are on the opposite side of the table... looking to buy a place in a very overheated market. The past two weeks were supposed to be mainly about getting a feel for the property market here... but in the end, we also stumbled across three places that fit our critical points... and were in our price range.

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House 1 was a beautifully maintained house... crazily perfect, wooden timbers... polished... on the smaller end of things, so there were some thoughts about the exact fit of the instruments and kids, but it was possible to build out an extension to accomodate the pianos, and well.. the kids... it might be a little trickier in the future. Amazing garden... but oh so pristine... and backing onto bushland. In many ways, it was the picture perfect magazine house...

House 2 was on near the top of a hill, with a gradient... not overly steep but enough so that it means that the house is split into three levels. There is a cute courtyard in the middle with timber decking... and there is a perfect area near the top that appears to be a converted garage that would be ideal for pianos and harpsichords. The building report indicated small problems with the decking... but the owner had replaced and rebuilt everything in response! So, that was good news... Anyway, it is a unusual sort of design of a house... they describe it as European... but I'm not entirely sure what that means. On the other hand, the layout is much more distinctive than most of the Australian designed homes of the same era... most of which follow a very similar plan.

House 3 was a really cool older house. Leafy and shaded garden, that was more rambly than the first "perfect" garden. It had high exposed beams, and a nice loft... there were also lots of little hidey holes all through out the subfloor... three levels (if you count the loft), with the lower level being built into the slope of the land package. I guess that the best way to describe it would be stately... it is the sort of place where you could imagine yourself sipping a cognac by the fireplace!

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House 1 and 3 are up for auction these coming weeks... and that will be very interesting to see and take part in. I suspect that both might rapidly start to push the limit of what we are willing to spend... but we still have a bit of extra boost potential if we want to burn that... on the other hand, neither House 1 or 3 are the ideal house that my wife and I are completely in love with.

House 1 would need a bit more renovation to house the keyboard instruments... there is no way that they would fit immediately, and so we would have to have them temporarily in the living area. Sadly... temporarily might end up being longer that we imagine! More disturbingly for me, the second child's room appears to be a touch on the small side... of course, it doesn't matter too much at the moment, but as they get older...

House 3... well, it is sort of really cool in an antique sort of way, but I think that the maintainence would be really quite daunting and expensive. There is a good deal of patching up that would need to be done pretty soon... and the cooling/heating is not really up to scratch... and Australia can have quite large differences in temperature in both the hot and cold directions!

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That brings us to House 2... well, not to get too attached... but my wife, kids and I loved this place. We love the split levels... the layout is perfect, not just for the pianos, but the rooms and living areas. There is a good deal of privacy between each area due to the split levels... and the outlook from the hill is pretty nice... plus, there is a little reserve on the front of the house as well.

We are pretty happy that the owners had responded quickly and effectively to the building report... not everyone bothers to do that...

... so, we just made an offer on it. Yes, can you believe it... one of the very few places on the market that isn't going to an auction... but the regular old fashioned offer/response route! Apparently, we are one of three that are interested in the place... there was an offer made yesterday, and now ours.

... now I have butterflies... and I feel like throwing up. I guess this is what buying a house feels like... I had forgotten how that felt.

We would really love this place... but we also have time... if it isn't the one, then we have time and the patience to wait. But WE REALLY LIKE IT!

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