The house wot Juffy built
What, why and where
So the BAL assessment came back. What the… I was expecting mostly blue, with that strip at the back to offset it from the trees on the eastern neighbour’s block. Instead, my northern neighbour’s front garden, with some extremely tall eucalypts, was declared a Class A Forest with a 33m BAL-FZ (the nasty red bit) zone around it. Oh dear. My original plan was to have my house nearer the road (the left side of the above image, where all the red is) and my…Continue Reading “Holy What the Crap”
Some more ass-covering – I wrote an escape clause into the contract based on getting a favourable BAL assessment. This is all necessary because the block is less than 500m from John Forrest NP, so it’s in an extreme fire risk area. It should be fine, though….
More back and forth with the owner. The agent had an interesting idea – agree on the purchase price, the owner gets an official quote from Western Power for a connection, and rebate that off the price. Seems fair enough. Let’s sign some paperwork.
Back after a lovely road trip taking the scenic route to Adelaide, camping out of the back of my ute without many cares in the world. If you haven’t been to Cape Le Grand NP, I highly recommend it. More negotiations with the owner, and we’d pretty much nailed down a price. The agent had promised me all services (except deep sewerage, because this is the hills) were available, and I could take power off the pole on the boundary between the two blocks. Sounds…Continue Reading “Back to negotiations…”
I want this block. Sell me the block! Had a road trip planned to Adelaide, which put a hold on negotiations for a couple of weeks. Left the owner stewing for a bit. 🙂
Why is making decisions so hard? Narrowed down the block choice to two. The Darlington battleaxe, vs the Swan View block with the well. I loved the Darlington block when I wasn’t on it. It was the perfect location, a secluded block – it shared the driveway with two other blocks, one of which was vacant and the other was just starting construction. I had a wily scheme to get around the BAL restrictions. Setting foot on it I would instantly start noticing the issues….Continue Reading “Making decisions”
The hunt for a block….my criteria were, in no particular order: between 15 and 20km from the city (because it’s a nice distance for cycle commuting – too close and it’s not worth getting hot and sweaty, too far and it’s too hard for my aging body to ride that distance. 🙂 minimum 1500sqm, to give the inevitable large dogs somewhere to run, with room for chickens, a garden and all the fun stuff. relatively flat, because I don’t have the budget for crazy earthworks….Continue Reading “Hunting for blocks”