We've been haunting real-estate.com for the last couple of months in preparation/anticipation/procrastination for next year. We want to rent a 4 bedroom, fully air-conditioned house with a pool, closish to the kids schools and our church in Cairns. Does that sound horribly materialistic? Maybe.
A few things:
- There's really no point in looking now since the decent things that are available now almost certainly won't be available in January.
- Looking makes the move seem real and help us to imagine life next year, so is kind of worth doing (in moderation.)
- RealEstate.com very quickly becomes an obsession. Oh. I better look again now. Something else may have been added in the last 30 seconds.
- Cairns is not really any cheaper than Brisbane for rentals. But we currently live in an expensive suburb, so for the same price we should be able to add a/c and a pool.
- 'Fully Air-conditioned except 2 bedrooms' is not fully air-conditioned.
- A house in Cairns with 'all the extras' but no a/c or pool, does not have all the extras. A big shed will not make the summer bearable.
Yep, we have a new minister coming in January. I suspect they are going through exactly the same deal at present.
ReplyDeleteA pool in Cairns is less materialistic, more smart. You can save a lot on a/c by jumping in the pool to cool down.
ReplyDeleteHappy house hunting :) I know what you mean about realestate.com becoming an obsession. Hopefully in a few weeks you'll start to find houses popping up that will be available in January.
ReplyDeleteWe survived in Cairns without air conditioning...but the six months we lived there were the cooler/dry ones. I think with kids you would definitely want both the pool and the a/c. Edge Hill is one of the nicest suburbs, all the clients I remember visiting there had gorgeous homes.
A pool will jack up your electricity costs and general household expenses (chlorine and pH balancers).
ReplyDeleteYou can survive in FNQ without air-con particularly if (a) no-one in your household has a medical condition (heart / lung) that makes drier air a necessity (not simply a desirable) and (b) you have fans. It also helps if the house has been designed for the climate and is not simply a transplant from Sydney and south (i.e. slab-on-ground, brick hot-box).
Far more important is (a) the house meets current wind-loading codes for residential buildings in a cyclone prone area and (b) there is room in the laundry for a clothes drier...unless you want your house festooned with bedding during the summer months because the wet season means you're not getting anything dry on the line.
I should also note that I'm not saying that wanting these things automatically makes you materialistic. I just wanted to encourage you that it is possible to live without them and that there are other things that may make life more or less bearable if you do or don't have them.
DeleteWhen we were in Mackay I would have loved air-con. Because of my heart condition it was the straw that broke this camel's back and sent us back to the 'Great SE'. However, if I had been more like Ian who loves hot, humid weather (he's asthmatic) then the thing that would have topped my list would have been the clothes drier (and better privacy from Ian's work but that's a separate issue). After all, one could go to the free lagoon for a swim or the shops or library for air-con.
I think global warming must have really kicked in after the bicentennial. I grew up in Cairns with no aircon at home or at school. But after I came to uni, I couldn't handle summer there any more and preferred living in Brisbane... (Although I guess it must have been hot when some kids used to faint on the bitumen during parade..!) If you live close to church, the free Lagoon will also be pretty close. Actually, once you've been living in Brisbane, everything seems close in Cairns (inc beaches etc).
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