We lived with Mum & Dad for a while, as we looked at the housing market and worked out what was best to do. I was going to work from home, so we needed a room for an office either near the front door or with a separate entrance that would give us privacy. My Beloved is very handy and has a '64 (I think) Humber Super Snipe car that he wants to do up, so he wanted MEGA garage space. Nothing in the available housing stock met these requirements without going up a price bracket, and getting us lots of other stuff that we didn't need.
My Dad is a Building Designer, so the other option was pretty obvious. Find a block and get the perfect house for us built on it.
We looked at the land around town (whether it was for sale or not) and found the one we now live on. It was reasonably close to town (30 minute walk). Reasonably close to my parents and grandparents' houses (5 mins and 25 mins respectively) and had this view:
Not too shabby.My Beloved was brought up mainly on farms, so we ideally wanted more than just a town block, but close enough to town for my clients to find me.
We ended up with a town block, but with views across a flood plain that still has horses and cows and crops. It is perfect, we love it. We nearly couldn't afford it because it's on a slope and that makes for expensive construction, but most people in our age bracket don't have views of anything other than Hideous Coloured Tin Fences (that is their official title, and I won't shorten it).
It's in a quiet cul-de-sac, there are mature gum trees around with sulphur crested cockatoos, galahs, and heaps of other birds that give happy background music to the quiet day-times. We always get the breezes because our house is above the roof of any other neighbouring house.
There are two weekends a year which get a bit trying, though.
It's the Rodeo this weekend. Both the Rodeo and the District Show are held at the Showgrounds which are not far from us. Maybe 400 metres. They have loud speakers, and trucks delivering and taking away stock for the camp-drafting, and the nights can get a bit rowdy as the drinks go down.
We knew it was there when we bought, and I am fine with it normally, but just now I'm sitting here, trying to do my Business Activity Statement for last quarter (or now blogging as it turns out), enjoying the light, cooling breeze; the call of the birds; and breathing in the fresh scent of ... Eau D'Cow Manure and listening to someone on the loud speaker get very excited about what's going on (with an occasional groan or cheer from the crowd drifting across). At least they've wrested the microphone from the woman with the nasal tones reminiscent of Kath from Kath & Kim.
It's only two weekends a year. Chances of me wanting to sell the Best Block of Land in Town?
... Approximately None.
6 comments:
LOL, at least its not every week. We lived near a pub and the local town hall once.. between karaoke and dances, it was madness.
Your place sounds wonderful and I'm going to visit someday very soon! We are very close to some large sporting facilities which often house hundreds of people playing netball or doing athletics. But I don't mind the noise: this sort of noise is not all that offensive. There's no Eau D'Cow Manure either.
Just curious.. do you have satellite broadband? In feedjit you pop in from all over Qld...
Nick over and pinch some manure de la Eau d'Cow and build yourself a great veggie patch!
I sympathise with the noise but crikey rodeos must soon be regarded as part of Queensland heritage and perhaps should be nurtured as such. Even if they seem pretty blokey and Occa, they're community.
June also in Oz (over the southern border)
sounds like a greet place, beautiful actually.
We used to live near the showgrounds, and the thing that actually annoyed me most was when I could hear the breathing of any lead singer. I'd catch myself waiting for the breaths, and since I'm prone to suggestion, I'd breathe in deeply too. How annoying.
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