*house. We bought a house. Though, when I texted my friend with this autocorrect gem, she was pretty excited that we had embraced the country life and bought ourselves a steed, and perhaps not quite as excited when I corrected the error.

But yes, we are in the final stages of buying a house. I don’t exactly know how it happened. One minute we were looking at rentals and the next we were joking about how we should buy something instead. Just like we joked about going to Mount Isa for a year.

I’m sure this venture will work out a little better…

Some people spend months looking at places and look at dozens of houses before deciding on one and putting in an offer. We looked at this one house and decided. It was the right location, the right price (after talking them down a little) and we put in an offer 2 days after our walk through. We haggled a bit for the next 36 hours, but then the deal was done and the contract was drawn up.

I never thought I would say this but our Real Estate agent is fantastic. He’s probably in his 60s and the business is his own. He is a softly spoken, genuine guy and we just feel like we’re being well looked after. Plus whenever we have mentioned his name to locals, they have all sung his praises which is nice.

We got off to a bit of a rocky start (ha ha. Rocky…) as I rang him at about 4 and he agreed to meet us at the house at 4.30pm on that rainy afternoon. By 4.50 he hadn’t turned up and I was getting really annoyed. I rang him to see what was going on and he said “Renae I’m on my way right now.” I was all huffy, saying to Hubs “If this were a half million dollar house I’m sure he would have been here on time.” Anyway he showed up and apologised and said to me that after he got off the phone to me something came up and he completely forgot about our arranged meeting.

And you know what? I really respected and appreciated his honesty. He could have made something up to make himself look busy and important but he told the truth and from then on, he had me on side.

It’s rather exciting really. The house needs some cosmetic work – if that’s what you call a new bathroom and kitchen – but according to those who have inspected it, it’s a good sturdy house, and it has a beautiful view that is just dying to be seen from a huge wraparound deck. Yes we have big plans for the place. The first thing is to rip up the carpets and have the floors sanded and polished before we move in.

Settlement date is tomorrow week and everything is in order to go ahead. I’m really quite excited actually. I thought that the idea of living in a house being renovated would make me throw up in my mouth a little, but I really can’t wait to get stuck in to the place and make it our own. We have been scouring Gumtree and garage sales and have already bought a beautiful leather couch, a set of bookshelves and an awesome fridge, complete with ice and water dispenser. Next in my list is a washing machine.

We should be moving in on the weekend of the 21st of Feb and mum and dad are coming up this weekend for some extra help.

So even though is not a horse, it’s a big “adult” decision and I couldn’t be happier. Can’t wait to start showing some before and after pics!