First the good news:

1) Ben has started his new job and everything’s going well. Even nicer are the pay cheques which are turning up again! So good to have regular money coming in again.

2) Our unit is practically sold. It’s under contract, has hit the point of no return, the buyer seems happy, and the money should be coming our way in the next week or two at the most. It’s going to make putting a deposit on a house a great deal easier, that’s for sure.

3) Mum & Dad aren’t sick of us so we don’t have to panic and grab the old, falling-down-and-likely-to-kill-you type of house.

Now for the bad news:

1) House prices rapidly became absolutely ridiculous once we moved down here. When we were looking at moving to Canberra house prices were in fact really great for buyers. At that point we could have gotten a very nice, newish house on a good block of land for between $300 000 and $350 000. Not so any more. There are still the occassional good deal, but unfortunately those are as rare as hen’s teeth so it turns into a bidding war even when it’s not an auction. Say a house is advertised at $350 000. You don’t find anybody offering under that amount these days. The first person who wants the house will offer the asking price, but then the next person will offer another $10 000, and then the next will offer yet another $10 000. Before you know it the house that was already advertised at more than what it is actually worth is now being sold for $380 000 or higher.

Same thing happens at auctions. We’ve been to two so far and each time the bidders are going about it in the “wrong way”. Everything I’ve ever read or heard about auctions is that a) you try to avoid making the first bid, b) you never know what the other people’s limits are so don’t increase your bid by large amounts each time, c) if the auctioneer or seller are trying to push you into bidding more than your limit just walk away. Apparently nobody’s read those rules in Canberra. Either that or they’re getting so desperate they’ll agree to anything just as long as they can get their house.

So we’re still hunting around. Got another pile of houses to look at this weekend and hopefully one of those will not turn out to be an absolute joke of a house. Like those charming houses with the pokey rooms and no backyard that the agent optimistically refers to as “spacious” with “room for a growing family”. It’s just going to be two of us in this house and even we’d be cramped in those ones!

2) It’s getting cold! Yes, I know I expected that, but unfortunately we’re having to expand our wardrobe sooner than we thought. Since house prices were great and we really didn’t anticipate the extra long hiring process that goes on in the Federal Government, we really thought we’d have our things out of storage much sooner. So unfortunately I didn’t pack enough and Ben didn’t even bring any of his jumpers. Kali’s not coping well with the current weather either and is currently sniffling, snuffling, and snoring away with her latest bout of Cat Flu. We’re taking her to the vets for more antibiotics tomorrow, so hopefully she’ll feel better soon. I’ve heard a herbal vitamin thing called L-Lysine can help in preventing the flu getting a hold on cats, so we’ll find out about that too. Poor kitty.

3) I MISS MY STUFF! I miss my books, my DVD’s, my other clothes, my computer… oh god, do I miss my computer or what? I’m also missing what I don’t have yet which is my upcoming new computer so that I can play Sims 2 without lag, play Vanguard, Dark Messiah, Neverwinter Nights 2 etc etc. What’s really annoying is that over the last couple of months there have been announcments from at least 3 MMO’s that we used to play that were temporarily reactivating our accounts for a weekend as a promotional thing. Not that we can because we don’t have access to a computer that would even know what to do with one of those games *sigh*

4) I also have a cold. The kitty and I make a great pair right now, snuffling and sneezing all the time. Lucky Mum & Dad have the entire series of MASH since that’s about all I’ve felt like doing the last couple of days. Sneezing and watching MASH.

So yes, most I can say is that we’re chugging along, slowly going insane, but hopefully we’ll be okay in a few weeks. Just got to find a house that doesn’t suck and also doesn’t cost too much for what it’s worth. I’m crossing both fingers and toes (which is why this took so long to type!)

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