In the Beginning

This is a record of our renovation to date - with rather a lot of catch-up to begin.

On the 24th February, 2006, we turned up to inspect a house whose existence we'd only just discovered. It was an unprepossesing box with very few windows (13 in total, I believe) and on a block of land that boasted almost no landscaping whatsoever. It had a little garage with a laundry out the back, a hills hoist and a few mature trees. It faced both the main road and the railway track. However it also had good zoning, had a view out over the town sports oval and park (therefore a pretty view that would not be built out) and had back lane access. It was to be auctioned the next day.

As we had a very limited budget and were searching for a house that we could renovate to sell, thereby digging ourselves a little further out of debt, we decided it was worth attending the auction.

At 11:30 0r so the next day, we arrived and registered ourselves as bidders, information in hand. (To be seen at right>>)

The bidding began at an amazingly low number for the area, and proceeded fast and furious - at increments as low as $5oo. There was a total of about 87 bids! For the last $30,000 or so the bidding was between the neighbours and ourselves. We had set ourselves a definite limit - and there the bidding stopped. We held our breaths, the hammer fell, and we found we owned a house. (Well, it took some negotiation, as we hadn't reached the reserve, but for an extra 10 grand it was ours.) Then the hard work began...