house proud

There are some days you just have to blog... even if it's getting a little late, and you only had 4.75 hours of sleep last night!

Well, we're totally excited. Today, we bought a house! We only saw it on Saturday in the flesh. We'd both seen it on the internet for some time, though hadn't been particularly interested partly because we weren't really looking in Karori at the time, and also because it was a brand new property that was still in the final stages of being finished.

It's a townhouse, semi-detached, three huge bedrooms though a underwhelmingly moderate living space. It's almost finished, with the upstairs done and basically just the downstairs floor coverings and skirting boards to finish. It's immediately obvious the work already done is a high standard (though we're getting a builder-relative to inspect it tomorrow). The similar front townhouse is totally completed and recently sold but vacant, so we could go through there to get an excellent idea about what ours would look like. And we were impressed. Enough that we bought the company. Or at least the townhouse. The picture above, taken from down the road, actually mostly shows the other townhouse, attached partly to the front of ours. The parts to the far left and back are a small part of our area... [Ed: Correction, to the far right and back.]

We knew buying in the city there would have to be compromises, and there were. If we tell you there is literally no grounds to the house whatsoever, you'll be pleasantly surprised when you see the postage stamp we'll have set up a bbq on. (There is a nice little park with grass, swings, slides and a playgym just 50m from the house, however.) We were concerned too that these steps up to the front door were only finished to a rough standard. However, we stipulated in the contract they should be levelled and plastered, and were pleased to have the developer accept this condition. We will also say that we were pleased to be the only current offer, with the outcome of an uncomplicated negotiation leading to a most satisfactory conclusion (though being the careful types we are, we're still getting a registered valuer to inspect it in the next couple of days). Overall, we're stoked.

Settlement date depends on the issue of the Code of Compliance Certificate for the building, which is basically our guarantee that the place is ship shape. The developer can't get that till the building is finished, obviously, and under a new law of just a month ago, it's illegal for the sale to be settled until that is issued. Beyond that, we've stipulated the earliest date of settlement will be 19 August 2005—not coincidentally Bronwyn's last day of work here on the Kapiti Coast.

At 7:50am each weekday morning, a bus from a stop within 10m of the end of our drive goes all the way through to the Basin Reserve, just two minutes from my office, the journey taking 40 minutes. If I miss that extended route bus, I have to change buses in the middle of my journey. But we're basically looking at a door-to-door, eco-friendly commuter lifestyle here. Meanwhile the house is so far up the northern hills of Karori it's practically at the summit. We were there when the sun set on Saturday, and rather than setting behind the hills, this house is so high we can see over the hills west of Karori and can watch the sun set on the distant horizon. We won't get morning sun till a little later than some places, but light-wise we're happy with it.

As any regular reader knows, I hate shopping. We only looked (in person) at seven houses in the end, but I'm pleased to have moved on to buying! And I'm confident this is the right house for us, and we're going to be more than happy there.

What a great day.