Cabin Fever

Part One - Have these serial renovators bitten off more than they can chew?


Everyone knows the old real estate adage ‘location, location, location’. Hell they even named a tv show after it. And it’s common knowledge that to make money from property you should buy the worst house in the best street. Well...




OK so maybe it’s not the worst house (kind of looks nice in this shot) but it certainly has issues. Take the trees for example - the real estate blurb called them ‘mature plantings’ – but these mothers are big! Approximately 15 metres tall with trunks as thick as ... well, very large pine tree trunks. Did I mention they are perilously close to the house? 

Because we couldn’t see the forest for the trees we engaged a tree whisperer slash monkey to do some judicious pruning (removing them altogether was going to cost approx. $10,000!). I love the sound of chainsaws in the morning.


Of course the house has bags of potential. Potential to inflict serious damage on our finances, sanity and health. It is named Craigheath but we’ve dubbed it Twin Peaks because of the trees and its somewhat creepy nature. And although there’s been no sightings of Laura Palmer "wrapped in plastic" we did find the decomposing body of a possum under the floorboards.

Don’t get me wrong we’re no DIY virgins. In fact the grumpy one is a licensed chippie and I’ve even held an owner builder’s permit before. We honed our skills at our recently sold, much-loved circa 1915 weatherboard cottage in a neighbouring suburb.



In fact we've already sorted out the raw crude bubbling up in the backyard. Luckily major sewage work was avoided ... for the moment. And dismantled an ancient shed that was chock full of asbestos. But it has been a shock to the system moving from a large (4 bedroom plus studio), finished (safe, dry and centrally heated), and comfortable (three bathrooms!) home into a renovator’s delight complete with obligatory 70’s bathroom make-over ...


...yes that is wallpaper in the bathroom. Did I mention we don’t have a dishwasher?


No comments:

Post a Comment