We're back!

Jo Firey wrote:
"badwilson" wrote in message
...
Well, Dennis and I are back from our trip to Australia. Got home
very late on Wednesday night and spent yesterday getting settled
in.
Our trip was very good, although not as relaxing as originally
anticipated! We went and drove down to Margaret River as soon as
we
arrived in Perth. This is the town we want to settle down in, it's
275 km south of Perth.
We looked around and through some strange stroke of luck, we saw
this
lot that was for sale that we absolutely fell in love with. It was
better than any other lot we'd ever seen there on previous trips.
We
never intended to do more than look on this trip but this lot was
exactly what we had always imagined. So we made an offer and after
going back and forth about the price with the sellers a few times,
they accepted our offer!
Then we had to organize the mortgage, etc and we ended up being
super
busy for the whole 9 days we were there. Just got word that we're
approved for the mortgage and now we are just waiting for all the
paperwork to be completed. We hope to be able to sign everything
at
the HSBC branch in Bangkok before Dennis has to go back to work
next
week.
So excited!!! It's really our dream property, 3.8 acres of west
facing grassy slope overlooking rolling hills. Has some trees near
the road with parrots in them. Kangaroos coming to graze in the
evenings. All the lots in the neighbourhood are the same size, so
the houses are few and far between. It's 8 km from the town and 1
km from a national park with hiking and biking trails.
Naturally we had to pay way more than we had allotted for to get
this
land. Now we are completely broke! We won't be able to afford to
build a house on it for a few years, so will end up just renting
when
we get over there. I will get a job as soon as possible and
hopefully that will help out a lot. Oh well, it will be worth it
in
the end!!! Despite dealing with all this, we did have the chance to
meet up with Helen Wheels. It was great to see her again and we
spent the day wandering around the weekend markets in Fremantle.
Grabbed some lunch and ice cream and we really lucked out since it
was the nicest day weather wise that we had on the whole trip.
We also got to admire the handsome Tyler and Orly who are really
giants compared to Vino! But we thought that of Susan M's Otis and
Chester too. I guess we're just used to Vino and he's just not
really a big cat, even though we always thought he was.
Anyway, I had over 1900 messages to catch up on and now I'm down to
1200. I'm trying my best but it will be a while! Hugs and purrs
to
everyone who needs them :-)


Once you get the utilities in, maybe you could put a trailer on the
property while you build.

I know how anxious you will be to get it going.

Jo

The utilities are in already. The neighbourhood has underground
electricity and phone. For water, you have to install a big tank to
collect rain water.
Well they don't seem to have mobile homes in Australia. They have
camping trailers but that would be too small for us, considering we
have a 3 bedroom house full of furniture!
Helen Wheels told me about some pre-fab houses you can get, maybe
we'll look into that. But I'm sure it would be quite expensive
initially to get one of those and then we'd be more behind on our
savings. Of course we'd get the money back when we sell it, but who
knows how easy that would be.
Fortunately there seems to be quite a few rental houses on the market
there and they aren't too expensive. I guess we'll rent one and then
see what it's like for a while.
--
Britta
"There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast." -- Unknown
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album

badwilson wrote:

Yes, we are anxious to leave Thailand. In March it will have been 5
years here and that is far longer than we had originally intended to
stay.

Yeah, I remember when you were moving there, you said it would probably
be a couple of years, max.

Of course we will miss so many
things too, especially the cheap food and great, cheap shopping :-)

Ha. You'll probably want to go out for Thai food every chance you get.

Joyce

wrote:
badwilson wrote:

Yes, we are anxious to leave Thailand. In March it will have
been
5 years here and that is far longer than we had originally
intended to stay.

Yeah, I remember when you were moving there, you said it would
probably be a couple of years, max.

Of course we will miss so many
things too, especially the cheap food and great, cheap shopping
:-)

Ha. You'll probably want to go out for Thai food every chance you
get.

Joyce

No way! We've noticed that Thai food is nothing like real Thai food
in restaurants in other countries. And it sucks to have to pay $10 or
more for a dish that costs $2 here. We know how to make our favourite
dishes ourselves, so will probably just cook Thai at home when the
mood strikes us :-) That's the great thing about Australia. They are
very into Thai food, so you can get all the ingredients needed at the
supermarket.
--
Britta
"There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast." -- Unknown
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album

Only way to have good Thai food her in Florida is find an restaurant run by
some older folks.

Matthew
"badwilson" wrote in message
...
wrote:
badwilson wrote:

Yes, we are anxious to leave Thailand. In March it will have
been
5 years here and that is far longer than we had originally
intended to stay.

Yeah, I remember when you were moving there, you said it would
probably be a couple of years, max.

Of course we will miss so many
things too, especially the cheap food and great, cheap shopping
:-)

Ha. You'll probably want to go out for Thai food every chance you
get.

Joyce

No way! We've noticed that Thai food is nothing like real Thai food
in restaurants in other countries. And it sucks to have to pay $10 or
more for a dish that costs $2 here. We know how to make our favourite
dishes ourselves, so will probably just cook Thai at home when the
mood strikes us :-) That's the great thing about Australia. They are
very into Thai food, so you can get all the ingredients needed at the
supermarket.
--
Britta
"There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast." -- Unknown
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album

That's really great! Sounds like a beautiful lot. Congrats.
Suz&Spicey