It all started during a lunch break sitting in the cafeteria at work. Just sitting reading the Hutt News and flicking through the pages at a rapid pace, as you do when on limited time. Just about at the end of the paper and I spot what looked to be a familiar house in the realty section. On closer inspection it is indeed the house we grew up and it was up for mortgagee sale. What a hoot, and it had some photos of the inside as well, not alot appears to have changed since we moved out 30 odd years ago, talk about de ja vu....so funny. It sat with me all day with thought inside my head about the potential a place like that had for the right buyers, never for one moment believing this was where we heading!
When I got home I checked out good old Trade Me and there it was with even more photos! Straight away I emailed my family the link and thought how they would get a chuckle out of it too. Coincidentally there was an open home planned for the week my sister would be home from Australia but as we had another family gathering planned for that day she contacted the agent and arranged a private viewing earlier in the week.
What a surreal feeling, walking up the rickity old driveway that my Dad and our neighbour between them (and a few flagons of beer) layed down over a period of time, You could tell how many beers they had by the quality of each patch of concrete....haha.....Then walking through the gate and face on with the hub of our childhood, it had been painted on the outside and a garage put up, but other than that it was like being transported back in time.
Walking inside was just so funny, however it felt so much smaller, I guess as kids everything seemed much larger than it was, the entire house was painted in the same colour, including in some cases the ceilings. Every wall had been kicked in or had some kind of damage to it, this house had been dealt some rough treatment but had stood the test of time but a bit of patching here and there wouldn't go amiss!
Tour of house completed and appropriate documentation recieved, my sister posing as a potential buyer just to get a foot in the door! The real estate agent had given what his ball park figure was that he thought the house would go for and we left laughing over so many memories. My only thoughts at the time were "somebody is going to get a really good bargain if it goes for what they think it will"
Churning the house around in my head it just wouldn't go away, it really really unsettled me that someone was going to get our house and I started wondering if this was a good idea coming through at all. I tried to put it out of my head and returned home to carry on as normal, Brent was now home from work and we were just talking about random things and of course I mentioned we had been to see the house, told him it was really run down but had great potential. Totally to my surprise he commented that it would be a great house to sink your teeth into......that was all it took and it rolled forward at lightening speed from there!
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| Dad and Pete Wood responsible for that driveway |
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