Last year, I started what was to be a facebook page for a new blog I was planning to write. That page was called, ‘Back of Buggery’
Given that this is a personal blog, I’m going to incorporate Back of Buggery into this blog. So if you think you’ve read this post before, chances are you have – in the form of a note on the ‘like’ page. Because I’m shutting down my other projects to focus on just one blog, any posts about living in the country or our house will henceforth be known as a Back of Buggery post at Funken Wagnel. (Please keep in mind that this post was written last year, so some things have changed since it was written)
I‘ll start with a bit of background: our family consists of two parents and three kids. We were living in Sydney over a year and a half ago. Rent was crippling us. Our house was a pissy little two bedroom cottage, and overcrowded. We needed to move into a bigger place. The trouble was, if we stayed where we were, then that would mean impossibly priced rent! Even to move to suburbs nearby outside of Sydney were expensive. My partner became sick with paint poisoning from work, and all doctors and specialists implored him to get out of Sydney for his own health (think smog, bad lungs, etc…)
Then, my partner came into an inheritance. Half of the sale of his mother’s house. We were always going to buy a car, as we’d been car-less for about five years. Then, it occurred to us; what if we could buy a house outright? No mortgage, no rent? It seemed insane.
However, we felt it didn’t hurt to look. We scoured realestate.com.au for months on end, for hours on end. We came close many times, but often the prices were just above our budget. As we became more proficient at refining our searches, and learning which towns were cheaper, more and more options seemed to pop out in front of our very eyes!
We stuck with it. I mean really… to go from paying $320 rent per week to nothing? That’s a massive reduction in our cash flow! We narrowed it down to a few options, and settled on the house in the photo. A 100 year old cottage in the middle of nowhere, with a shop attached to it. It has three bedrooms, and the shop has an office attached, which we are considering maybe turning into a bedroom for my partner and I. In the meantime, our two daughters share a room.
Of course, at that price, and being so old, this house needs a lot of work. Soon, I will share photos of different parts of the house, talking about what we like, and what we need to repair or would just like to change.
