Holy cow, we just bought a house! It's a few kilometers from Barb and Eric's house, off Scenic Drive. Yippee!!!
It's not a done deal yet, we need to get our money from the US bank accounts and secure a mortgage. Today Darin went along to the inspection, and there appears to be a leak in the roof. We just had a big storm (another), and there is a spot on the ceiling and on the carpet below. It is leaking around the solar panel that is attached to the roof. We will ask that this be fixed. Fortunately, this house was build with hardwood, heartwood Rimu, which is solid. It has Rimu hardwood polished floors in 2 bedrooms, the hallway, and the kitchen. It's throughout so we could pull up the carpet and finish the floor in the living room.
The house is on a lot 809 square meters, with lots of shrubs, trees, flowers, etc. It's fenced and has backyard access. There is a veggie garden, a small patio area in back and a porch in front. There's a double garage, gas stove, solar water heating, and septic is a biological system that digests the waste. We have city water (many homes out here have water tanks that collect rainwater). There are 2 large bedrooms and one small, that I think will be turned into our closet. Only one bathroom, but it's recently remodeled and large. The toilet is in a separate room, a lot of houses are like that here. There's a hearth to put a woodburner back in, but it was removed when current owners installed a heat pump. There is insulation in the ceiling, and there's storage under the house. The view from the back of the house is West towards the forest parks. We have neighbors on either side of us, fairly close, but it feels private. The street we are on dead ends. This will be the 4th house in a row that we have lived in on a cul-de-sac.
We bought something quickly because I have had trouble feeling settled. I feel that if we're going to make a serious attempt to live here, we need our own place to call home. I am impatient. So is Darin. We had wanted to buy a house with land, like Barb and Eric have, but those properties within commuting distance of Auckland are out of our price range. So, we'll save our money for buying land later. We still plan to keep chickens, and, fortuitously, baby chicks are hatching as I write this. Two are hatched already. We'll have our pick of the juveniles! No idea what breed they are- a neighbor brought over the fertilized eggs when she heard Barb's hens are broody. Less than a week until I get my pets back!!
You can see photos of the house on the following link.
http://public.fotki.com/rebelrottie/our-next-house--auc/
