House renting blues
I seem to have spent a week cleaning, cleaning and cleaning again... Why? Because we're subject to the tyranny of the Property Management Company Periodic Inspection a.k.a. a Small-minded Person's Chance to be Petty and be Paid for It. Yes, the lovely Ann will be here tomorrow morning. She would rather have been here last week but I put my foot down and said that with 70-odd boxes from our second shipment recently delivered and me only just off the plane from the UK the place would look like a bomb-site and so she'd have to postpone her visit.
Michael sorted out the contents on the boxes, and I spring-cleaned the house. This involved filling and painting the holes in the walls where a certain young man without functioning joints in his knees kept slamming his chair into the wall, cleaning all the disgusting paintwork we inherited when we moved in here, and re-cleaning the windows that the same young man 'cleaned' last week. Among other things. I thank goodness for strong suction on vacuum cleaners as lots of spiders were sucked up, webs and all, thus saving me the trouble of going anywhere near them!
Now all the boxes have been put away, a lot of rationalising of drawers, cupboards, wardrobes, the larder and the linen cupboard has been done, and all surfaces are clean... and Michael and I are knackered. Ella helped too, tidying away in her bedroom and splashing lots of water around while we washed the windows this afternoon.
I can't tell you how much I hate renting... you're so much at the mercy of the agents and your landlords. I suppose we don't have much to complain about in our landlords; they've just finished putting in air-conditioning (and a really good system, at that), and previously they bought us a dishwasher. They're also approachable and friendly which is also worth a lot. However, the flip side of that is that we've had loads of workmen in the house. Just before I went away we had a very hot week during which we couldn't open a window because of the toxic fumes given off by the several coats of paint applied to the verandahs... And the air-conditioning guys left dust and mess everywhere and de-stacked half the boxes in the garage and didn't re-stack them, and they also uncovered a mouse's nest and a wasps' nest. What fun.
I can't wait for us to have our own house again; only a year or so to go...
Talking of which, we're making progress on the obstacles to our purchase of Lot 31 North Boambee Road. While I was in the UK Michael went up to the property with an environmental consultant who said that in his opinion we wouldn't have any problems getting permission to build where we want to build because the vegetation is of a sort that the Council and the Rural Fire Service will want cleared away. He also said that the tree ferns on the property are prickly tree ferns, which grow quickly and can be transplanted - apparently the tree ferns already on the property might only be 15 years old, but anyway, we can move them and grow new ones fairly quickly. Michael's also engaged our solicitor to check out the legal aspects of access along the dirt track, which leaves only the soil testing to sort out and we've got a consultant doing that later this week.
Michael also phoned Jake Maddon, the headmaster of St Augustine's primary school who's building a house on the plot to the west of Lot 31. Mr Maddon said his solicitor had confirmed legality of access up to his property, which is most of the way to our property, and he also said that when he did soil tests on his property - which was part of the same banana plantation as Lot 31 - he found that the banana farmer had been ahead of his time and farmed organically. So we should have no problems at all with the soil tests. So, contrary to earlier suggestions, we may be able to go ahead with the purchase in a couple of weeks' time. Phew.
Michael sorted out the contents on the boxes, and I spring-cleaned the house. This involved filling and painting the holes in the walls where a certain young man without functioning joints in his knees kept slamming his chair into the wall, cleaning all the disgusting paintwork we inherited when we moved in here, and re-cleaning the windows that the same young man 'cleaned' last week. Among other things. I thank goodness for strong suction on vacuum cleaners as lots of spiders were sucked up, webs and all, thus saving me the trouble of going anywhere near them!
Now all the boxes have been put away, a lot of rationalising of drawers, cupboards, wardrobes, the larder and the linen cupboard has been done, and all surfaces are clean... and Michael and I are knackered. Ella helped too, tidying away in her bedroom and splashing lots of water around while we washed the windows this afternoon.
I can't tell you how much I hate renting... you're so much at the mercy of the agents and your landlords. I suppose we don't have much to complain about in our landlords; they've just finished putting in air-conditioning (and a really good system, at that), and previously they bought us a dishwasher. They're also approachable and friendly which is also worth a lot. However, the flip side of that is that we've had loads of workmen in the house. Just before I went away we had a very hot week during which we couldn't open a window because of the toxic fumes given off by the several coats of paint applied to the verandahs... And the air-conditioning guys left dust and mess everywhere and de-stacked half the boxes in the garage and didn't re-stack them, and they also uncovered a mouse's nest and a wasps' nest. What fun.
I can't wait for us to have our own house again; only a year or so to go...
Talking of which, we're making progress on the obstacles to our purchase of Lot 31 North Boambee Road. While I was in the UK Michael went up to the property with an environmental consultant who said that in his opinion we wouldn't have any problems getting permission to build where we want to build because the vegetation is of a sort that the Council and the Rural Fire Service will want cleared away. He also said that the tree ferns on the property are prickly tree ferns, which grow quickly and can be transplanted - apparently the tree ferns already on the property might only be 15 years old, but anyway, we can move them and grow new ones fairly quickly. Michael's also engaged our solicitor to check out the legal aspects of access along the dirt track, which leaves only the soil testing to sort out and we've got a consultant doing that later this week.
Michael also phoned Jake Maddon, the headmaster of St Augustine's primary school who's building a house on the plot to the west of Lot 31. Mr Maddon said his solicitor had confirmed legality of access up to his property, which is most of the way to our property, and he also said that when he did soil tests on his property - which was part of the same banana plantation as Lot 31 - he found that the banana farmer had been ahead of his time and farmed organically. So we should have no problems at all with the soil tests. So, contrary to earlier suggestions, we may be able to go ahead with the purchase in a couple of weeks' time. Phew.
posted by Sara Bowen at 6:19 am
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