Week One

 I have taken February as a month of Long Service Leave. I will have around another 8 weeks left when I go back to work, plus around 10 weeks of annual leave. I think 2025 will be dotted with lots of periods of Not Working!

I have taken this week fairly slowly. There were a couple of very hot days where I did very little. Other days were lovely temperatures and I have just pottered around mostly at home, apart from Thursday when I went to  the Stockland shopping centre with Lindsey

When I was getting ready for lunch last Sunday I swept and washed the kitchen/dining room floor. Took all of ten minutes, although I didn't move all the small dining room furniture. Then I did the lounge room carpet. I didn't do a complete, deep, thorough clean just the carpet sweeper and the vacuum cleaner. Even so, it took ages. And even then, it didn't get a good job. Very frustrating. The carpet has always been frustrating.

I called a carpet company to come and give me a quote on replacing the carpet with laminate flooring. To have the lounge room and the three bedrooms done, including moving the furniture and lifting and removing the carpet, plus replacing it with laminate was going to cost almost $9000. I knew it would be expensive but that was quite a lot more expensive than I had anticipated.

So I called "my" estate agency, the company that we rented the house from and then bought it through. They have kept in vague touch, contacting me every now and then to see if all was well, if I had any questions and if I wanted a current valuation.

The agent who we bought the house through has retired so another agent came around yesterday lunchtime. I was strangely anxious as the morning progressed and couldn't work out why. Then I realised I was thinking as though he was coming to do a rental condition inspection and not a chat to a prospective seller.

He thinks that steam cleaning the carpets would be more than enough (and considerably cheaper than replacing it).  He also made some suggestions about preparing the house and garden for the market. He gave me an estimate of the current market value of the house, which was pretty much what I thought he would say. He gave me an estimate of the costs of selling and buying a new place (which was quite a bit more than I expected) and went away, leaving me lots of things to think about.

He also said that there is no perfect time to put property on the market in Ballarat (in the summer everyone is away, in the autumn you run up against Easter, in the winter Ballarat is cold and people are concentrating on the footie, in the spring there are the footie finals plus everyone thinks they should put their houses on the market so you run up against a glut) and not to worry about property prices going up or down because the Ballarat and Melbourne markets tend to work in tandem (I knew this).

So. Declutter the house, which I have been doing anyway. Declutter it even more. And then a bit more. Showcase the light and space in the house. Make a few repairs, which they can organise if I sell through them. Tidy up the garden, which will be quite a big job. Sort out the garage, also a big job.

It was tempting to rush into it and get it all done by the beginning of March. I am not going to do that. There is no hurry. I can take my time, keep my eye on the market in Docklands. There are lots and lots of apartments available there and I don't think that will change in the next few months. And then, when I am ready, I will put this place on the market and see what happens.

I am going to Docklands for a long weekend on Friday and staying in an apartment which is very much like the ones I've been looking at online. I will take the opportunity to inspect a few in person. I may decide I do not, after all, want to live in Docklands. In which case, I'll stay here. Of course I may decide it's a perfect and very exciting place to live and I want to go rightnowthisveryminute, in which case I'll get a wriggle on with this place.  I will probably stick with Plan A, which is to take my time and proceed slowly. We shall see

This place is still too big for one person, though. I have two rooms that I hardly ever go into, except to clean or to get things in or out of the cupboards. Oh - and if I decide to stay for any length of time, THEN I will have the carpet replaced. Otherwise, it can be a decision for the next people.