I really wanted to share this with you guys as you are my family.
So, this year has been stressful in many ways, some a good kind of stress (if there is such a thing) but I am embarking on a new journey. That of home ownership, two years shy of my 50th birthday.
It's exciting, unreal, and terrifying all at the same time.
For a kid who grew up in rental homes, often moving every year and sometimes at night because my parents owed rent, part of me has always thought I would never own a home.
But with interest rates the lowest they have been in this country for decades, the realisation that I could own a small home for the same or less as I am paying rent, made me decide to just try and see if it could happen.
And it has. The bond was approved yesterday, and I gave notice on the home I've rented for nearly 13 years.
Exciting and busy times ahead. Its a small ground floor unit in a newly built Lifestyle Estate (the big thing here these days) and what made it irresistible is that the garden overlooks a river. I'm looking forward to mornings and evenings of sitting out there, coffee cup in hand, enjoying the sound of the river flowing, the frogs and crickets, and knowing that little piece of this planet is mine, even if only for a fleeting moment.
I feel incredibly lucky and blessed.
Man cave pretty much done with this addition:
Aw, well jealous. My ambition is to have my own cave.
I've accumulated so much shite over the years, memorabilia, music and sports, all sorts.
I've nowhere to put it......
Man-cave under construction……
I might have expressed this before. Hey, new homeowner, don't let the water heater get too old. Ask your neighbors about a good reasonable plumber. I will never forget the flood in our basement.
This is a bit random but where I live now is on the edge of a river called The Jukskei. When I moved to the area nearly 20 years ago almost all of the ground around here was open, trees and cows.
When I was a kid, this area was called Halfway House, because it was a roughly halfway point between Johannesburg and Pretoria. back then you drove a single lane road between the two cities. That road still exists and is used every day, now referred to as Old Pretoria Road. Today, the two cities are effectively merging, with us here in the middle and the huge highway to my left.
This whole area, now referred to as Waterfall, was a farm called Waterval (Afrikaans for Waterfall, natch)
I found this online last night.
Waterval Farm is a sprawling piece of land, once owned by the Gibson Brothers, who arrived in SA from England. The brothers bred cattle and ran a stagecoach business between Johannesburg and Pretoria. In 1934, the farm was sold to Moosa Ismail Mia (who registered the development in the name of Witwatersrand Estates Limited), who built a religious training facility and a school for Indian and Black orphans on parts of the land.
Today, the biggest mosque in SA is still on the land, and the Mia's own a successful chain of fishing and cycling shops. I've met and spoke to Mohamed Mia, one of the descendants.
But my point is trying to imagine the miles and miles of nothing that must have been here in the Thirties, and the time it must have taken to travel from Joburg to PTA by stagecoach on whatever infrastructure existed back then... Amazing. I wish more of this kind of history was available here.
Looks beautiful, Steve. Congratulations.
I see some good sleep out spots beyond your fence there. Would something eat me?
Looks a damn sight better than our compacted moss infested patch! Is that an electric fence there?
You free for some landscaping work in the Scottish Highlands anytime soon?
So, as DJ slightly resurrected this thread, I will use this as a tenuous excuse to post some pics and show how proud I am of our wee lawn. When we moved in their was Kikuyu, a local wild grass which is very common here, but it dies and goes brown in winter. It was badly planted on terrible soil full of building rubble, as seems to be the way here.
It was all pulled up, cleaned, and replanted with LM Grass, a more lush, thicker bladed evergreen. I also had irrigation installed which I'm hoping will help with keeping the grass green and happy through winter. The flower beds are WIP, so ignore those in the pics for now.
Steve sorry i missed this
have a happy first Christmas in your new home
im very excitted for you belated comngradulations
plumbing is the big issue for us becsue we have very hard waterso 4 years in sometimes we feel a bit jaded
but last night as i was 'tidying up' Borris's dirt box i asked Gary whom we should send the evil little paper bag clutched tightly in my hand to ? and he named our old land loard
hope all is going well
I recognised the BTR house straight away, when we went there a car was blocking the good photo angles.
I'm sure the current residents must get pissed off with the likes of me, as I quickly snuck partway up the drive so the wife could get a picture.
I'll need to dig out that drive with the pics.
Some explanations - top picture shows Big Pink near Woodstock above the BTR house and below that the famous Basement from Big Pink.
Second picture is mostly obvious, but the poster is from an Otis Redding concert in Birmingham in, I think 1968, which Mr J attended and I didn't - something I am often reminded of!
Bottom one requires no explanation at all!
And we finally got around to putting up pictures - the music wall!
I have been having problems uploading pictures, but I think I have resolved this now! The deck got wired up a couple of weeks ago and is now working beautifully!
A rare Daisey Jeep sighting.
Im so happy for you Steve
But home ownership eats into Bruce funds
@SteveInJoburg , was watching the news here about what's happening down there. Awful, hopefully you/the family and new house are out of the line of fire! Good luck my friend!
You are in good company @Jerseyfornia
We had to call round to the old house on Wednesday, would you believe they have the same surname as us, so post is somewhat problematic! However, whilst it felt a bit weird knocking on our front door, I didn't feel any pull to go back.
Yesterday didn't go quite according to plan! The turntable can't go where we thought it could, so we need to extend a shelf slightly to accommodate it. Consequently it's still in the box. However, we do have a functioning TV, radio and CD player.
The TV is disguised as a painting when it's switched off, which I wasn't sure about, but now think is quite cool.
Moved in to our new home on Monday - boxes everywhere, but progress is being made.
I am pleased somebody else is coming to sort this lot out for the new TV and sound system!
We checked out of our old house (as I must now call it) yesterday. I felt surprisingly unemotional in the end, just a huge sense of relief, coupled with exhaustion! We can't move into our new home until next Monday, so we have a week at my nephew's house in The Cotswolds - there are worse places to be!
Something odd on, my last reply was in response to Anne's "Cabaret" post.
I was thinking that AJ, a glaring omission.
I think change gets trickier as the years advance AJ.
33 years is a helluva time. I'm currently closing in on the longest "single house stretch" of my life at 16 years plus.
A few months and I have the record but the previous 16 years 8 months was childhood into early adulthood so this one counts as longer I'd say.
Anyway, it's bound to cause a few wobbles, but as Steve says it's a new chapter to look forward to, on top of a myriad of happy memories to look back on.
We have one week left in this house. I am excited about moving, but feeling very strange about leaving our home of 33 years. Mr J (usually far more sentimental than me) is showing no emotion at all but I wonder whether it is because my mum lived with us in this house (we still call one room 'Grandma's bedroom) and I'm leaving that connection behind.
I don't know, just in melancholy mood.
If you folks will indulge me, I do not have a man cave... But I did make myself what I think is a pretty cool little retro stereo corner... The amp is my original Technics unit bought by a far skinnier and younger SteveInJoburg back in 1993. The CD player and turntable are later replacements of similar components. My original Technics double tape deck is in for a repair (belts are gone and then it will join this lot)
Now just need something cool for the little back wall.
Yeah, in the same way the Beatles info is all online, physical media is more and more expendable. (You'd never know that if you walked through my house.)
Cabaret is one of my favourite films, but with everything available to stream, it doesn't seem worth keeping it.
Back in the day, that Beatles book was a valuable reference. Last year I watched Cabaret for the first time in decades. Great movie.
Starting the moving process - this lot sorted out a few things for sale, a bit of vinyl and a few box sets, the rest are destined for the charity shop. No Bruce on the way out the door, of course!
More than anything, world peace, spiritual enlightenment, more than anything else in the world......I want a Man Cave.
With shelves like that on two walls, the other two with my framed signed jerseys and other random stuff.
@whispered secret yes we have... Still unpacking boxes but starting to settle in, thank you for asking. So far so good. ☺️
Post ride chilling a couple of Sundays ago.
And of course this very important part of the wee home is starting to take shape. I want to get some better shelving though.
@SteveInJoburg How is it going? Have you moved yet?
Reading these posts, I guess where we are different and very lucky, is that we have most everything we need being the age we are. In fact we have to get rid of some stuff and some things will need to be replaced because they are 20 or more years old. I remember doing the no furniture thing but that was way back when I came out of the army and got my first place, a decrepit rented bachelor flat that had broken and faulty everything but was my first own home. Although not my first owned home, if you get my drift. 😁
The most appropriate way to describe our house is with this song...
Except I don't iron, I steam.... And it will be paid for in December 2028...😊
One of the major factors in our decision to sell up and buy somewhere smaller is to enable us to help our son and his girlfriend get their own place. Yesterday over dinner (they are living here due to lockdown) we were telling them that the only new item of furniture we had in our first home was a bed - everything else was donated by family, including the most ancient cooker which burnt everything I tried to bake! They will get the pick of our furniture when we move, as we plan to replace almost everything.
Do hope it all goes well for you. I totally get your sense of excitement and trepidation. Got me reminiscing about our move from rental to our own place. Sarah doing cartwheels up and down the back garden, unaware that our new neighbours were standing in their back garden watching. That first evening in our OWN HOME: 2 garden chairs, a borrowed futon and the hi-fi. Nothing else!
More recently making that final mortgage payment. Get yourself a pair of running shoes, never too old to start! Early morning runs by the river sound great.
I so clearly remember our excitement when my wife and I bought the house we still live in 25 years later. Even more exciting? The day we finally owned this place! As Magic Rat wrote, BE SURE to ask neighbors about a good plumber, electrician, etc. It's a great moment when you're no longer paying for someone else's place. But when you own a home, it's always something. I don't mean to come off as negative, I'm really very happy for you. Congratulations.
Congratulations, Steve. This is exciting and your river-view garden sounds great. Looking forward to the "I took my bike on the jogging trail" thread. Enjoy your new home, brother.
Out of interest, Google Maps is a bit slow, the unit is already built, but this might give you a bit of an idea. You can see the lake at the bottom of the pic, and the bulk of the already built units. The empty ground across from the river will be built up too, with a different estate from the same developers. Eventually there will also be jogging/walking paths along both banks of the river. I don't think they will allow cycling though, but I'll hold thumbs.
Thank you @berlintramp !
I bet when you got that cottage you were a wee bit younger than we are now, though!
I remember the excitement when we bought our first home in 1983, a small half-timbered cottage that needed a lot of work but was just the right thing at the time. Being transferred across the country several times lead to rented homes after that, and we held on to the little house because we wanted to return there after retiring.
It didn't work that way because world politics and the opening of the East German border intervened and took us to Berlin. Tax cuts for people who moved there led us to building our new home, and the many cultural advantages made us change our minds and we stayed here.
All of this surpassed the wildest dreams I had, being a poor refugee (ironically, then, from East Germany to West), growing up in small apartments.
(Besides, cultural advantages, my foot; no theater, concerts, restaurant or museum visits, it's been lockdown, now for a whole year!)
I congratulate you on your adventure, and I hope you will be very happy in your new home!
Thanks guys. 😊
@MagicRatAFC a Lifestyle Estate is a fancy way of saying security complex/estate. There are pros and cons… It is high density living. An area of land which in the Sixties or Seventies would have housed maybe 20 families will now house at least a hundred. I will no longer have a double lock up garage, but covered carports.
The upside is it is very secure with a dedicated security team and electric fencing etc, these estates are all boomed with guard huts. As a resident you enter via biometrics. (thumbprint) You unfortunately pay pretty high levies but along with the safety, you get beautiful walking trails, a pool, a clubhouse with a restaurant, (This one even has a theatre you can book apparently!) and other amenities such as an onsite laundromat etc. This also has a lovely man made lake along with the river it's built around.
Also, to entice buyers these units usually come complete with certain appliances so we are getting a stove (of course) but also a new fridge, washing machine/tumble dryer and a dishwasher. We’ve never had a tumble dryer or dishwasher (unless you count the dishwasher being me) so that’s a cool bonus. Of course you pay for these, it’s built into the bond, but it’s about convenience I guess.
It’s estates like this, with units of various sizes, that are allowing South Africans who previously did not own homes, specifically historically, and now have access to better jobs and can afford to own homes, to make that dream come true now.
@whispered secret I hope so too. This is certainly not a short term plan for us, that’s the hope anyway. We also have to do a ton of downsizing, or more accurately ‘decluttering’ but I think that’s long overdue and a good thing. I have, for example, Car and music magazines (Mojo and Uncut, anyone?) going back more than 20 years and there simply will not be space for that now. It will all be going for recycling. Good luck with the move Ann, I hope the new flat is works for you guys too!
@Louisa thank you. When I did some rudimentary sums and realised I’ve essentially paid off all or most of the bond on the house I’m living in for someone else, it wasn’t a great feeling.
The music collection is getting TOP PRIORITY, trust me… ☺️
Congratulations, Steve! I'm so happy for you, I think it's a smart decision, especially in the long run.
Be careful with your music collection when you'll be packing the albums. 😊
Congratulations Steve! I hope your new home will be a really happy place. Living by a river sounds wonderful.
We are in the process of the dreaded 'downsizing'. It's exciting, but a bit scary after 33 years in our current house. We have found a flat we like, so we will see how it progresses.
Welcome to the world of home ownership.
I hope your contacts are PACKED with tradesmen who'll do you cash jobs at short notice (unless you're a DIY demon, spoiler alert..........I'm not).
The days of calling the landlord are over.
Mind you having read @Tom Joad 's experience in that regard, you're probably better off........
It is a great feeling, the day I moved into my first flat was a buzz.
Can I ask, what is a "Lifestyle Estate"?
Hey hey! Mazel tov, my friend!