Apartments are built up, they fit more people in on a small block of land. They bring in money for the investors.
But is it necessarily a good thing for people to be living in such conditions? I think we were meant to live beside and next to each other, not above/below. Although the sizes of apartments appeal to me, I'm uneasy about sharing a common wall with others. Especially if a neighbour happens to be a smoker. I hate smokers, they irk me to no end. I don't know how those people can live with the stench of decaying smoke clinging to their clothes and skin. It's sickening. So, I don't want to live next door to someone who smells like that and whose stench might invade my personal space by way of the common wall we share. So, a house it is for me.
I'll get there one day. Never mind the costs of everything going north. I do wonder though, candles vs electricity? Which works out better cost wise?
Anyway, back to my original thought. If everyone had a small parcel of land, say 100m2, then we could build out and not up. Granted the government here needs to get off its backside and do some work for a change and get the public transport fixed. I don't question the difficulty of it all, I'm sure its all complex and all that but let's get real here. NSW is sorely lacking in many things. It's going to take a strong person to make change happen and its evidently not Gillard.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
You've earnt my scorn, whoever you are DC
This is for the person who left a comment on an article in the SMH either yesterday or Friday, he went by the name DC and called himself an "Australian Battler" including the quotation marks.
I tried to find the article again, but I couldn't find it. Most likely because I remember the comment more than the article. He said he was an Australian Battler on 150k a year and doing it tough. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this!
How can someone who earns 150k a year be crying poor? I invite him to come meet us and raise him this question, "If he is an Australian Battler, what does that make us?"
We're a family of four living on a single income which is supposed to be roughly 50 to 55k a year. But that's not right, with only 1300 coming in every fortnight and our rent eating up half of that, we are left with 650 a fortnight to cover bills, childcare costs, petrol, groceries and every now and again clothes etc and yet we are able to set aside a measly sum of that income. And for what? I'm not sure yet, not with the price of everything set to head north.
I could go back to being a stay-at-home mum and save on childcare costs but for the sake of my sanity, childcare is a small price to pay until D2's old enough to go to school with D1.
$150k a year = Australian Battler, I only have one thing to say PFFT.
I tried to find the article again, but I couldn't find it. Most likely because I remember the comment more than the article. He said he was an Australian Battler on 150k a year and doing it tough. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this!
How can someone who earns 150k a year be crying poor? I invite him to come meet us and raise him this question, "If he is an Australian Battler, what does that make us?"
We're a family of four living on a single income which is supposed to be roughly 50 to 55k a year. But that's not right, with only 1300 coming in every fortnight and our rent eating up half of that, we are left with 650 a fortnight to cover bills, childcare costs, petrol, groceries and every now and again clothes etc and yet we are able to set aside a measly sum of that income. And for what? I'm not sure yet, not with the price of everything set to head north.
I could go back to being a stay-at-home mum and save on childcare costs but for the sake of my sanity, childcare is a small price to pay until D2's old enough to go to school with D1.
$150k a year = Australian Battler, I only have one thing to say PFFT.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Cheap land comes with catches
Apparently, you can get land as cheap as $15,500 and all for 879m2. Pretty good deal, only catch is there are no services to the land, no building of any kind on the land, oh and it's in Katoomba which means the land slopes and is covered in bush. I forgot to mention there's no roads to said land.
Land nearby costs somewhat upward of $99,000. So if you want, sealed road access, services and a reasonably level land. You can expect to pay anywhere north of $99,000 unless you want to go further into the country.
It would have been nice if that land had services, road access and didn't slope so much. Could just put it on my visa just like the advertisement said. Meh.
Granted 879m2 is a bit too much land for what I want, but I wouldn't mind it. More room for the kids to play on. After all my house is only going to be less than 52m2.
Land nearby costs somewhat upward of $99,000. So if you want, sealed road access, services and a reasonably level land. You can expect to pay anywhere north of $99,000 unless you want to go further into the country.
It would have been nice if that land had services, road access and didn't slope so much. Could just put it on my visa just like the advertisement said. Meh.
Granted 879m2 is a bit too much land for what I want, but I wouldn't mind it. More room for the kids to play on. After all my house is only going to be less than 52m2.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
No process
We haven't made any process since I last updated this blog. Those two ugly plastic towers still grace our living room and all this rain is forcing me to hang up our washing inside. So now I have stuff everywhere and it's doing my head in.
We have our rental inspection this coming Friday, so I've got to tidy this place up. Perhaps while I'm tidying, I'll see what else I can live without and eliminate it. I quite like that idea, now to get the motivation to start...
With work, uni and the kids, it's hard enough keeping on top of getting the clothes and the dishes washed. In this day and age, most people have a dishwasher and a dryer. We have neither and sometimes I like this fact, sometimes I don't.
We have our rental inspection this coming Friday, so I've got to tidy this place up. Perhaps while I'm tidying, I'll see what else I can live without and eliminate it. I quite like that idea, now to get the motivation to start...
With work, uni and the kids, it's hard enough keeping on top of getting the clothes and the dishes washed. In this day and age, most people have a dishwasher and a dryer. We have neither and sometimes I like this fact, sometimes I don't.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Downsizing
We have two of these ugly plastic towers of drawers. Forgive the background, it looks pretty messy, hopefully minimising the stuff we have will help with the messiness. The first one was our craft tower, the latter was chock full of technical items such as cables, usb plugs, mouses and who knows what else.
The project is to eliminate stuff from 10 drawers and downsize to 5 drawers. Then it's bye bye one tower of plastic. I hate mess, those pictures should never see the light of day but I had to show you the ugly towers. Mess irritates me and so does that annoying little light flashing on my pc tower just behind my monitor. Grr, I'll have to cover that damned thing with something so I don't have to keep moving my monitor to maintain my sanity.
But flashing lights aside, once this 10 to 5 drawers project is accomplished, it'll be time for the next aim in my quest for the elusive minimalistic home.
The project is to eliminate stuff from 10 drawers and downsize to 5 drawers. Then it's bye bye one tower of plastic. I hate mess, those pictures should never see the light of day but I had to show you the ugly towers. Mess irritates me and so does that annoying little light flashing on my pc tower just behind my monitor. Grr, I'll have to cover that damned thing with something so I don't have to keep moving my monitor to maintain my sanity.
But flashing lights aside, once this 10 to 5 drawers project is accomplished, it'll be time for the next aim in my quest for the elusive minimalistic home.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
A patch of sun
We live in a rental, unfortunately.
It was cheap when we moved in a little over 5years ago and for the area it is still cheap despite the rent increases over 5years which has seen our rent increase by $115 per week. Steep perhaps, I'm actually wondering when they're going to stop jacking our rent up. It seems to me as though the real estate agency makes a game out of it, let's up it $20 this time and see if they stay put or move.
I'm not sure what justifiable reasons they have for upping the rent apart from the reputation of the area. The week we were supposed to move in, the ceiling in the dining room caved. That was okay with me, because it simply meant another week of not paying rent. Two years later, one of the kitchen cupboards (three doors wide and two shelves high) came away from the wall and came crashing down. We'd been standing just inches out of harm's way.
But that's not why I'm writing this post. This post is about the bountiful amount of sunlight we get in our delightful shambles of a rental home.
Because of this glorious amount of sunlight, our rental is consequently very, very cold in winter. Not helped at all by having tiled floors throughout the majority of the house. This is a house that hasn't been well thought out in terms of temperature comfort, methinks anyway.
As you can see from this picture, in order to get this pretty patch of morning sun in an useless part of the house, we have to first open the door. This works most of the time, but our next door neighbour who shares our lounge room wall has a smoking habit that he vehemently denies having. That little wall with the pot plants on it, behind the cat. Those are the steps to his door, so as you can imagine, sometimes we are graced with the wafting smell of filthy smoke. So it becomes a choice that isn't much of one, a patch of sunlight or un-smoke-scented air? Sometimes we get lucky and we get a patch of sunlight and fresh air. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.
It was cheap when we moved in a little over 5years ago and for the area it is still cheap despite the rent increases over 5years which has seen our rent increase by $115 per week. Steep perhaps, I'm actually wondering when they're going to stop jacking our rent up. It seems to me as though the real estate agency makes a game out of it, let's up it $20 this time and see if they stay put or move.
I'm not sure what justifiable reasons they have for upping the rent apart from the reputation of the area. The week we were supposed to move in, the ceiling in the dining room caved. That was okay with me, because it simply meant another week of not paying rent. Two years later, one of the kitchen cupboards (three doors wide and two shelves high) came away from the wall and came crashing down. We'd been standing just inches out of harm's way.
But that's not why I'm writing this post. This post is about the bountiful amount of sunlight we get in our delightful shambles of a rental home.
Because of this glorious amount of sunlight, our rental is consequently very, very cold in winter. Not helped at all by having tiled floors throughout the majority of the house. This is a house that hasn't been well thought out in terms of temperature comfort, methinks anyway.
As you can see from this picture, in order to get this pretty patch of morning sun in an useless part of the house, we have to first open the door. This works most of the time, but our next door neighbour who shares our lounge room wall has a smoking habit that he vehemently denies having. That little wall with the pot plants on it, behind the cat. Those are the steps to his door, so as you can imagine, sometimes we are graced with the wafting smell of filthy smoke. So it becomes a choice that isn't much of one, a patch of sunlight or un-smoke-scented air? Sometimes we get lucky and we get a patch of sunlight and fresh air. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Live like a Gypsy
I found this quaint little home on the weekend. Isn't it gorgeous? Methinks if I were a gypsy, this would make the perfect home for me.
There are more of these tiny houses, that actually look like mini houses but on wheels! A portable home, this person is a genius! :) Maybe I should build one myself, the idea's kind of laughable though, I don't think I could build such a cute house. But I wouldn't be opposed to giving it a try if given the chance.
Seeing the tininess of these houses gives me the inspiration and motivation that I need for reducing the amount of 'stuff' I have.
There are more of these tiny houses, that actually look like mini houses but on wheels! A portable home, this person is a genius! :) Maybe I should build one myself, the idea's kind of laughable though, I don't think I could build such a cute house. But I wouldn't be opposed to giving it a try if given the chance.
Seeing the tininess of these houses gives me the inspiration and motivation that I need for reducing the amount of 'stuff' I have.
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