We Acquire a House

This week I became a homeowner.  After learning so much about the Auckland real estate market, I felt I better get in there quick.  My colleague is building a house and after hearing about all she's gone through with builders, I decided a renovation was right for me.  We found a cute little fixer-upper, a three bedroom, one bath, two story bungalow,  We're thinking about making the attic another bedroom with en-suite.  And best part of all, the house was free.

Let me back up.

In Auckland, once per year they have Inorganics.  Inorganics is when you take all the broken junk or, in some cases, perfectly good junk you just don't want anymore, and put it on the side of the road for the city to pick up.

It usually sits there for a few days, which means that you can take a walk, survey your neighbor's stuff, and see if it is something that might look good in your house (elbow grease required).


Gorgeous home accented by pile of rubbish


Most of it is total crap; old wood planks, broken stuff you can't even identify, busted TVs with the screens gone, broken vases or dishes.  Some of it is a hoarder's dream; old sofas, tables, baskets, plant pots with a chip or to out of them, toys, shoes, busted handbags, baskets.  I've seen people trying on shoes at an Inorganics pile.  Really?  Cool by me, dude!

In some areas, people put things out that are perfectly good.  I've seen sofas, chairs, side tables, dressers, and entertainment units that, with a little (ok, in some cases, a lot) of elbow grease, could be perfectly nice in someone's house.

The only caveat to "shopping" is to try and beat the rain.  That cool leather settee may have gone through the downpour earlier.  How does it smell?

I'm not being superior - I've had my fun with my first Inorganics.  Rowan and I found a box of moldy garden gnomes.  We are going to clean them up and paint them this summer, but in the mean time, they're cozily standing guard in our little garden.  I also found some awesome pukeko statues with merely some paint chipped off of the beak.  Someone was putting out a children's easel with a blackboard on one side and a whiteboard on the other.  Rowan is in heaven playing teacher and is waiting for a live student.  The rest of us are a bit too scared to join her class, so she has to be content with teaching her dolls and bears.

Which leads me to my home acquisition.  Along with the easel, I found a little wooden dollhouse.  It had some heinous flooring, but Rowan and I have ripped it out and we plan to renovate it over the summer holidays, doing new flooring, some roof shingles, and interiors.  We're going to go slow and make it our dream home. 



Before picture. 
Cat is possible tenant. 
Would decorate with lizard tails
and headless birds.
 

I've had a lot of fun with Rowan, scathingly saying things like, "Winnie the Pooh flooring?  What were they THINKING?"  and she joins in with, "Stickers on the wall?  Ugh!  So babyish!"  Yeah, nice decorating scheme!

So, if you're planning on moving to Auckland, do so a week or two before Inorganics.  With some hard work, you could furnish quite a bit of your house on the cheap.

Word to the wise though; don't leave any of your stuff in your front yard, unless you're willing to sacrifice it to the shoppers!