The property search March 2009

So the story actually begins a few years ago in North Balgowlah on the Northern Beaches of Sydney when my hubby (who I will call Mr R) and I (aka MS J) decided that as a couple without children (our choice) probably didn’t need to live on a 725 square meter block within walking distance to 3 primary schools.

After a trial run, living in Balmain with the in-laws (rent free), we decided that the peninsular was where we wanted to live. The hunt for a Balmain home started in March 2009 and with great gusto we hit practically every open house in our search radius – alas 100 houses later we had had no success. One house was great but needed so much work we could not stretch our budget enough to buy it. After a weekend fighting (actually me yelling and Mr R looking annoyed or bored with the conversation) we/I decided to expand the search and look to Leichhardt. Initially we were not keen due to the flight path and crappy public transport – seriously buses going along Parramatta Road and not City West Link??? On only our first day looking in Leichhardt we found the dream house, Mr R still had to get his head around the fact that our dream house wasn’t located in our dream suburb, but at least it was a start.

The dream house is a detached 2 bed Victorian house which is layout looks just like a semi but has the benefit of side access and no attached neighbours, of course being in Leichhardt we are still very cosy. The house ticked all the right boxes:

·         north facing backyard (east to the side)

·         no trees (been there done that – lots of leaves and no light – no thanks)

·         decent sized block (265 square meters)

·         masses of renovation potential and no work done (so we didn’t have to destroy someone else’s prior work)

No parking but then this was not a concern to us as we aren’t really car people – well, we could be if we won Powerball and could buy something exciting – but we are happy for our Mazda 3 to be parked on the curb and pooped on by birds.