We bought a 100yr old home under the influence of jetlag. Probably not the most sensible thing to do, but we were caught up in the whole "think with your heart and not with your head" frame of mind at the time. Quite the opposite of the usual real estate mantra, I realise.
Rewind back a couple of years, and you'll have seen us selling our standard 4 bedroom suburban home in favour of a half acre block of land in a suburb we'd long wanted to live in. Off we went on a whirlwind of house designing ending with quite a large, very modern plan which we then lodged with council ... and therein began the drama. There were issues with the cut of the land (thanks very much, previous owner), removal of trees, and all manner of other "councilly" things. Throw in a husband unhappy with his work situation, and things spiralled out of control.
All the while we were designing our modern home, we kept dreaming wistfully of the Queenslander we would renovate "one day" ... You see hubby - Darren - is a builder (carpenter actually). Or rather he was in a previous life. Now he is rarely on the tools but works from home as a project manager. He comes in rather handy, considering I LOVE the building / renovating process! We have both always loved Queenslanders, and Darren has loads of experience renovating them in Brisbane. So we always thought that we would have one of our own one day.
When things went a little haywire and Darren left his job, we had an epiphany and realised that we could achieve our Queenslander dream by scrapping the modern home and relocating an old house from Brisbane onto our block! Brilliant! Why hadn't we thought of it before?
Also epiphany-related, we decided to take an impromptu trip to the UK and Ireland to visit friends and family while we were temporarily free of responsibilities (read: not building and not working, still had the kidlets to worry about!). Spontanteity is not a trait I would usually attribute to myself, but by supreme effort I decided to go with the moment and within 3 weeks of booking flights we were in the UK. Who knew I could manage a 5week overseas trip with 2 little boys without a year of planning beforehand?? But we did it and it was brilliant and I loved every moment.
While we were in Ireland with friends, we found THE PERFECT Queenslander available for sale on the website of a Brisbane relocatable home company. We emailed to request a floorplan, and from the second we saw it it was love, a fait accompli.
Which brings us back to the jetlag. The day after we arrived home, with tired little boys in tow (and even more tired grown up selves), we visited the little Queenslander and bought it that very day. And here our labour of love begins ...
Well done if you are still reading this! Such a long post is probably against the rules here in Blogland, but I am new to this so wouldn't know! I will save the rest of the story for another time.
Until then
x M
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