Looking for a new house, without much enthusiasm
Because of my father-in-law's recent ill health, we have been trawling through allhomes.com looking for a new house. Unfortunately, anything remotely suitable is way out of our price range. What I basically want is a house that a) has a granny flat and b) is not dramatically worse than what we have now. Which doesn't seem to be available for anything less than about $200,000 more than our house is worth, and that's not taking into consideration taxes or moving costs.
So since we can't have that, I figure I might as well fantasise about what I really want. This is the basic criteria for my ideal home:
1. No further from Liam's school than we are now, ideally in walking distance.
2. Has an ensuite
3. Has four bedrooms.
4. Has a study (what the hell, this is a fantasy).
5. Has a Rolfing studio (this could double as a study if necessary, as it does now, but oh how lovely it would be to have a "room of one's own"), which needs to have it's own toilet or the facility for us to add one.
6. (And this is key) Has a granny flat, with internal access, no stairs, and a bathroom which could be used by someone with a walking frame. This is not essential at the moment, but it seems like it would be insane to move somewhere with a granny flat which is not going to be suitable for a granny in the long term.
7. Ideally has a northern aspect, good insulation, shade and or/evaporative cooling, ducted gas heating, gas hot water, updated kitchen and bathrooms, tank water... etc. These are the things our house has now, minus the northern aspect and updated ensuite (and our tank water is minimal and not plumbed into the house, but it does the garden well enough). Oh, and it would be lovely to keep a view. We are very spoilt with a gorgeous view of the mountains from our living areas and deck where we live now.
We found a few houses with something like these criteria. One even that was almost in our price range (combining the value of our house with half the value of my FIL's house). But it had only three bedrooms, no space that could be utilised for rolfing (so we lose income), was about three times the distance from school to where we are now, and consequently would also probably add about 1/2 hour each way on the (bus) commute to work, and it had none of point 7, as far as we can tell, though the kitchen looked okay. Also the living space is less than we have now and the fence would need to be replaced to keep Lochie in. The granny flat doesn't have internal access, but is on the same level as the house and appears to have no stairs. There was no photo of the bathroom. In other words there is no upside from the point of view of our family, several downsides, but it did have a granny flat.
Then there was quite a nice one only a couple of suburbs further south than we are now - which would be fine - with four bedrooms, which would be lovely, what with the planned extension to our family sometime next year. (The one above was the only one we found with a granny flat and less than four bedrooms.) It also had a great kitchen (in black and white, not my preference, but a great gas cooktop and lots of bench and cupboard space) and ducted gas heating, and even a view from the main bedroom. Also a double metal garage which could be converted into a rolfing studio if there was any money left over. The flat was under the house though, and had stairs down into it from the outside entrance. And then of course there was the fact that even with the full value of our house and FIL's house, we still wouldn't cover taxes and moving costs (let alone converting a garage).
And there's the fact that if we use the full value of FIL's house then brother-in-law is completely disinherited, which seems like it could cause some life long friction, even if FIL was willing to do it (which I don't think he would be). Unless we were prepared to sell up and move when FIL dies, which frankly, I'm not. I hate moving, I want to be settled somewhere where we can plant our fruit trees and expect to still be there by the time they bare fruit. I'm already mourning the potential loss of this house, with all the work we've done on the garden, including the apple tree we planted over Liam's placenta (still haven't gotten around to doing anything with Kaely's and maybe we should hold off). Also, what if we then have another aging parent who needs to move in with us? Three out of four of our parents, plus the one step parent, live in Canberra, and we are the only offspring from either family who does likewise. We're the bunnies on the spot, in other words.
Anyway, it's all very complicated. Is it unreasonable of me to not want to have to significantly reduce our standard of living in order to accommodate him, and particularly in order to preserve BIL's inheritance (which FIL may well fritter away once it's not tied up in his house anyway, after all it is his money)? I feel resentful about that possibility, and yet I can also see how BIL may feel resentful - I mean, imagine this scenario: we use all of his Dad's money to buy ourselves a new place, one with (say) an extra bedroom over what we have now, plus a granny flat. In short, increasing our asset base by about $200,000, while he gets nothing. Then FIL ups and dies the week we all move in. It could happen, quite easily. He might go on for another ten years (though I think it's unlikely), but he might also drop dead tomorrow.
Sigh.
Recent Comments