CONFESSIONS OF A WANNABE-COUNTRY-BUMPKIN

We're in the process of looking for houses. I use the term "in" loosely because it's been a process that has (at last count) lasted 2 years and inspired epic battles of Trojan proportions. I'm also taking artistic licence on the term "we" but that is a topic for another post entirely. To make life easy I'm just go ahead and say we've been looking for some time.

Pardon my French but it. is. a. b!tch.

As an aside, I wrote a massive post on this then deleted it all. I don't need to subject anyone to the depths on my frustration on this topic. That said, I feel that for my own sanity I need to get the following off my chest.

• To those of you selling your houses. You want to turn a profit. I get it. That said I feel like I have wasted hours of my life looking at properties whose prices are so grosely inflated the agent should be listing them with Jenny Craige NOT trademe. Seriously. Hours of my life.
• To agents selling these houses. I take my hat off to you, truly I do, but PLEASE stop describing claustrophically small homes hiding mildew problems as "quaint", those tucked down the end of a right of way like a tetris block as "nestled in suburbia" and (my personal favourite) places missing bits of floorboard, carpet, wall - insert other necessary object of the house - as an opportunity "to really make it your own". I do not want to BYO walls. Kapeesh?

I started this journey truly thinking it was not a big ask to find a 3 bedroom house, with a small section and ideally a garage within 15 - 20 minutes of Whenuapai. 24 months on I'm beginning to think we will colonise Mars before I find a place with those pre-req's for $450K. $450,000.00. I'm sorry - I had to write that last part down because at this point it's worth pointing out that this is our FIRST house. Seriously, who wants to spend half a million dollars on their first property?

In my weaker moments I indulge in a real estate day dream. I'm in the country living on a small patch of land. Not too much to be a nuisance just enough for me to make a vege patch & keep a few animals (which I would promptly name and then refuse to kill no doubt). When you approach the modest white weatherboard house (ideally it would be stone but even are hamstrung by NZ building materials) you would be enchanted by the mature poplars that line the driveway like soldiers at attention.

Alas, with Auckland real estate the way it is, and Scott's job the way IT is for now it'll just have to remain a dream.

As a small step in my quest to become a country-bumpkin I grow my own veges. I've exhausted my lettuces and earlier this year planted carrots. Sadly my son got to them before they fully matured but I had to share my "success" story of the vege-patch. I'm looking forward to eating them this weekend. I've got no doubt they'll be delicious :)

Jacq