This is the Green House...
We are renters... of the house variety. Most of the time, this is inconsequential information about us. Most of the time, it doesn't affect how we live, or even where we live. We like to think being a renter has many advantages: weekly rent is less than mortgage repayments would be, we don't have to pay rates, we can move if we want without much financial turmoil, we don't have to pay for the broken hot water service... the list goes on*. In recent weeks however, the fact that we are renters looking to move has had a huge impact on our lives. This is not the first time and nor has it disappointed on the various markers of our situation. Looking for a new house usually means countless hours of trawling through pictures and floorplans of houses advertised on line and Andy blogging about his disillusionment.
About a fortnight ago, we happened upon the pictured house above. It's green. I must confess, I instantly liked this house and even the pictures on line seemed to "tick the boxes" (a list we try to keep quite short)... among the important though, it is on a quieter street, it has a big back yard and the house itself is a bit older (ie, it was not built in the last 5 years when seemingly everyone built an investment property that they never intended to live in themselves, nor planned on installing good quality fittings that might stand the test of time**). Added bonuses include a huge shed, a chook shed, located conveniently close to church (insert width of a road in metres) and did I mention that it is green? We followed the procedure of booking a time to view the property, only we were so confident of the house's appropriateness, we brought and submitted our completed application to the inspection hoping that this early bird might just get the worm.
We felt confident. We had excellent references. The available date was perfect timing in terms of exiting our current lease and an unannounced small pay increase meant that we could even afford the extra amount this place required without it affecting our current budget... IT WAS A SIGN!!!
So yesterday, at the eleventh hour (and forty-fifth minute), we got a call from the agent saying that the landlord had "changed his mind" or actually "hadn't actually made up his mind" as to whether he would rent out this property or live in it himself. What? No! So in the following 15 minutes, we withdrew our (amazing) application and re-signed our lease for our current abode... again...
I don't feel quiet as devastated as I thought I would (or rather as Andy thought I would). All the way through I tried to maintain perspective that either way, we would actually still have a roof over our head; that, as my son so eloquently explained to his sister, "We are waiting whether God says yes or no to that house" as we walked past it on the way home from church on Sunday. But it still stung a bit.
So if we forget for a minute my "I've slept on it" perspective, if I'm honest, Andy and I spent the evening in imaginary conversations with the faceless owner of the house whose indecisiveness disrupted our lives for the past fortnight. We wanted to tell him that while he decided whether to maximise his tax break by living in his, for all we knew, 4th investment property, we were in limbo as to where our home was going to be. And while we were at it, why not have a go at all the landlords out there who ask far too much money for a house that they themselves wouldn't be prepared to live in? Irrational behaviour aside, it does seem somewhat 'unfair' to build house after house that look pretty but pay no attention to the growing concern of carbon consumption or personal space... forget being able to swing a dead cat, try sneezing in your backyard without concern for your neighbour's health. I am not exaggerating when I say that our entire block (all 400sqm of it) has zero shade. Not a centimetre of eave surrounds the house or shrub above 50cm exists... how is that a nod to the Australian climate?
So while I maintain my thankfulness for the rich country that I was blessed to be born into and for the house that my family lives in that keeps us dry and (sort of) warm, I am currently somewhat frustrated by paying an arbitrary amount to an anonymous person who bought a piece of land from a developer who thought creating a house block 5 metres from an incredibly busy road and having less than a metre between neighbouring house walls was reasonable, and then who employed a building contractor to build an entirely inappropriate house for the climate of the Adelaide Hills who then installed fittings that could not have been designed to be used for more than a year before breaking and used paint that was not designed to be scrubbed every 12 weeks!
When we were first married, Andy and I often talked about not being very interested in attaining the "Great Australian Dream"... which is virtually impossible nowadays anyway... try even finding a quarter-acre (1000sqaure meters) block for sale that doesn't include a statement about being a "Developer's Dream STCC" (ie you could fit at least 4 houses in this space)! We weren't interested in that being the major goal of our lives - the mark of success. We actively chose a different path for the first 5 years of our marriage which, despite our current situation, we don't regret. While in all honesty we can't imagine ever owning our own house, we do like to dream about how we would do things. High on the list would be energy efficiency, quality construction and a bit of personal space... these are probably the 3 sole reasons why it's unlikely to happen! That, and we would insist on 'being in by Christmas'.
I am comforted to know that everything tangible in this life is temporary and we can't take anything we've accumulated on earth with us. Jesus is currently preparing my eternal home and I have it on good authority that space is not an issue***. So I will fix my eyes on Him and find my home in Him.
About a fortnight ago, we happened upon the pictured house above. It's green. I must confess, I instantly liked this house and even the pictures on line seemed to "tick the boxes" (a list we try to keep quite short)... among the important though, it is on a quieter street, it has a big back yard and the house itself is a bit older (ie, it was not built in the last 5 years when seemingly everyone built an investment property that they never intended to live in themselves, nor planned on installing good quality fittings that might stand the test of time**). Added bonuses include a huge shed, a chook shed, located conveniently close to church (insert width of a road in metres) and did I mention that it is green? We followed the procedure of booking a time to view the property, only we were so confident of the house's appropriateness, we brought and submitted our completed application to the inspection hoping that this early bird might just get the worm.
We felt confident. We had excellent references. The available date was perfect timing in terms of exiting our current lease and an unannounced small pay increase meant that we could even afford the extra amount this place required without it affecting our current budget... IT WAS A SIGN!!!
So yesterday, at the eleventh hour (and forty-fifth minute), we got a call from the agent saying that the landlord had "changed his mind" or actually "hadn't actually made up his mind" as to whether he would rent out this property or live in it himself. What? No! So in the following 15 minutes, we withdrew our (amazing) application and re-signed our lease for our current abode... again...
I don't feel quiet as devastated as I thought I would (or rather as Andy thought I would). All the way through I tried to maintain perspective that either way, we would actually still have a roof over our head; that, as my son so eloquently explained to his sister, "We are waiting whether God says yes or no to that house" as we walked past it on the way home from church on Sunday. But it still stung a bit.
So if we forget for a minute my "I've slept on it" perspective, if I'm honest, Andy and I spent the evening in imaginary conversations with the faceless owner of the house whose indecisiveness disrupted our lives for the past fortnight. We wanted to tell him that while he decided whether to maximise his tax break by living in his, for all we knew, 4th investment property, we were in limbo as to where our home was going to be. And while we were at it, why not have a go at all the landlords out there who ask far too much money for a house that they themselves wouldn't be prepared to live in? Irrational behaviour aside, it does seem somewhat 'unfair' to build house after house that look pretty but pay no attention to the growing concern of carbon consumption or personal space... forget being able to swing a dead cat, try sneezing in your backyard without concern for your neighbour's health. I am not exaggerating when I say that our entire block (all 400sqm of it) has zero shade. Not a centimetre of eave surrounds the house or shrub above 50cm exists... how is that a nod to the Australian climate?
So while I maintain my thankfulness for the rich country that I was blessed to be born into and for the house that my family lives in that keeps us dry and (sort of) warm, I am currently somewhat frustrated by paying an arbitrary amount to an anonymous person who bought a piece of land from a developer who thought creating a house block 5 metres from an incredibly busy road and having less than a metre between neighbouring house walls was reasonable, and then who employed a building contractor to build an entirely inappropriate house for the climate of the Adelaide Hills who then installed fittings that could not have been designed to be used for more than a year before breaking and used paint that was not designed to be scrubbed every 12 weeks!
When we were first married, Andy and I often talked about not being very interested in attaining the "Great Australian Dream"... which is virtually impossible nowadays anyway... try even finding a quarter-acre (1000sqaure meters) block for sale that doesn't include a statement about being a "Developer's Dream STCC" (ie you could fit at least 4 houses in this space)! We weren't interested in that being the major goal of our lives - the mark of success. We actively chose a different path for the first 5 years of our marriage which, despite our current situation, we don't regret. While in all honesty we can't imagine ever owning our own house, we do like to dream about how we would do things. High on the list would be energy efficiency, quality construction and a bit of personal space... these are probably the 3 sole reasons why it's unlikely to happen! That, and we would insist on 'being in by Christmas'.
I am comforted to know that everything tangible in this life is temporary and we can't take anything we've accumulated on earth with us. Jesus is currently preparing my eternal home and I have it on good authority that space is not an issue***. So I will fix my eyes on Him and find my home in Him.
* we might be just telling ourselves this most of the time
** 'loaded' statement intended
***John 14:2
** 'loaded' statement intended
***John 14:2
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