Anyway the big news of the week is what I feared is about to come to pass. I may have mentioned before that the owner of this house has recently passed away, so as usually is the case, such as with Sally's father, the house is sold and the proceeds are divided up among the siblings. In Sally's instance this is why we have a near-new car and a new fridge and large flat screen TV!! Now in this instance, this house seems destined to be sold and the proceeds divided up among the two siblings - my landlord and his brother!!
Last Friday evening the landlord's brother paid me a visit and informed me that a Valuer is about to come to this his, and the the Valuer would shortly contact me to arranged a mutually convenient time for him to come and inspect the house. Now this can mean only one thing..... that indeed I will have to be moving out at the end of the lease as the house is to be sold.
The lease ends on 5 November so I still have a couple of months yet, but being a Virgo I like to be prepared. Us Virgos does not like surprises, we like to be in control of our destiny, or at least as in control as humanely possible.
First thing was to see just how bad is this housing crisis that we are forever hearing about in the media, with unfortunate souls even with reasonable jobs having to live in tents or in cars cos there is nowhere for them to live, and as per the tendencies of the media, families with children are often highlighted in such reports - whole families being forced to live out the back of their car cos their previous landlord wanted to sell their previous rental property - exactly the situation I am in!!!! Only that I am not married with children so my plight will never make it to the 6:00pm News nor the 6:30pm Current Affairs program!!!
So I googled for a Realty and went on one site for a list of rentals in Perth starting from the cheapest rate upwards. Well there are plenty of accommodation around, that is the first thing. The first few pages of the cheapest were for shared accommodation, rooms for rent, etc. Being single does have it's high points, one that I can be more flexible in my accommodation needs. Obviously such an option would not work for a family with kids hence their homelessness, but it could conceivably work for me. And the weekly rates starts from $50/wk. However I am a fiercely independent soul, I prefer my own space and privacy, and that being more than just a single room where I would have to share laundry, cooking, fridge space, bathrooms, etc. Now if it means the difference between a roof over my head and living on the streets, I would take shared accommodation, but it is definitely not my ideal choice!!
So I scrolled on until I reached the more independent style of living - flats and apartments where I can more be the master of my own destiny. Rents for such places started from $260/week and that is for one-bedroom flats with shared laundry facility on the outskirts of the metropolitan area!!! That was the first clue that we are indeed in a housing crisis!!! My current rent for this mid-size 3-bedroom 1950s style bungalow on a 1/4 acre block of land about 5 miles from the city center is $300/week which is below market rates. Most here are paying upwards from $450/week for the same age and style house and even more for new units and villas that are popping up in the place of these older houses in my area!!! The only reason why I am getting off cheaply is I am renting privately rather than through an agency. Sally and I have been most fortunate in recent years, we had been getting off cheap in the housing stakes in spite of the housing crisis!! However with Sally gone (as well as Mother) the feeling is my luck is about to evaporate!!
Back in the days of my more nomadic lifestyle living in flats and apartments, some INNER CITY flats such as in North Perth or South Perth were going for as cheap as $60/week!! That was only 15 years ago so you can see how badly the housing crisis have affected rentals!!!! My last apartment before going to America was a 2nd level apartment in South Perth with two bedrooms, own laundry facility, and security grills on windows and doors on walkway and balcony, and river views!!!!... and my rent was only $115/week!! However when I stopped my current search after reaching the pages for $300/week rentals, we were still looking at flats and apartments on the outskirts of the metro area (ie 15 to 20 miles from city center) though slightly better ones, such as, own laundry and two bedrooms rather than one!!!
So I guess it is a comfort to know that I can still find a place at a comparable rate to what I am already paying, however, it seems I will have to give up my ideal of inner city living and settle for living out on the boon docks!! LOL! So to confront an evil that I despise!!! - the commute to work!!! I despise commuting which is one reason why I try to live as close to the city as I can, I work in West Perth and it currently takes me less than 15 mins to drive to and from work outside of peak. I leave for work after 6:30am and stopping off at the newsagent to get the newspaper, I arrive at work by 6:50am. Of course there is hardly any traffic at that time of day. However with most of the apartments being in the Rockingham/Safety Bay area, it seems I will have to get use to the idea of the long commute - I would probably have to leave at 6am in order to arrive at work by 7am that is assuming there is no traffic. These days the Freeway goes past this area, and my workplace in West Perth is just off the end of the West Perth off-ramp, so it will be a straightforward commute, just an excruciatingly long commute even if there are no traffic - and that is the great unknown!! There is no traffic on Wanneroo Rd at 6:30am which is why I leave for work at that time, but it remains to be seen if the same is true for the Kwinana Freeway!!
Not to mention of course the higher petrol bill!!! Petrol being so expensive, it is going to cost me a fortune!!! Of course there is public transport. These days the train line goes through Rockingham, indeed to as far as Mandurah. However I did my sums, and as expensive as petrol is, it is still cheaper than taking public transport!! The only instance where public transport becomes cost effective is if one has to pay for parking. However in spite of its inner city location, parking is free at my workplace, indeed I can park virtually right outside my office! No competition!! The private car wins over the public transport anyday!!
Then there are other considerations. I would prefer own laundry facility to communal, not only because of my fierce independence and utter disdain for having to share and compromise with other people, but my past experiences with apartment living is that there are never enough washing machines in communal laundries!! In one apartment block of 16 units there was only ONE little machine!!! And it was forever being used by someone else when I go down there to check on it, so was forced to resort to hand washing in my kitchen sink!!!! So own laundry facility is a preference even if it means slightly higher rents, it is still comparable to what I am paying now.
Furthermore - security measures. In a city whose crime rate is higher than that of New York City, home security is an absolute necessity!!! It is not a luxury!! My current house has security grilles on windows and a security door on all three of our entry points! This has saved us on at least one occasion from a break and enter - the prowler who at first knocked on our door at 11pm then went around to the back to try get in!! I opened the front door but NOT the security door. Many a home invasion victim was because the knock on the door was answered and the intruder forced his way in, or in some cases he doesn't bother with knocking, he just kicks the door in. However such victims were always without the security door (or was foolish enough to also unlock the security door!!!). Not me!! The security door remained most firmly locked!!! However most landlords seems to think we still live in the 1950s when we could get away with leaving doors and windows open at night!!! Many of the cheaper flats and apartments had no security grilles whatsoever, though some had at least a security door. That would be an absolute minimum requirement for me, a security door!! Granted many of the flats were on upper levels where one could get away without security grilles on windows - except on walkways and balconies! You'd be surprised how many breakins there are through upper level balconies, but it is usually where the occupant were blissfully unaware of the risks of leaving upper balcony doors open!! But even on ground floor units I could live without grilles on windows but it depends on the type of windows. Those modern but flimsy aluminium window frames where even I can break into, well a security grill is absolutely necessary there. Ironically the older style wooden windows with the latches are actually more secure being more difficult to break into. My current house has the aluminium windows in spite of it being a 1950s house, but there are security grilles on all of the windows.
So anyway it looks like I will be able to find a place for comparable rents even if it means living out in the boonies. Indeed flats and apartments do have their high points. Less housekeeping, less cleaning, etc. And most importantly, no gardens!!!!` I do not share my Mother's love for gardening. Many a fight with Mother in my childhood has been over the issue of helping in the garden!! I didn't mind mowing lawns, but I despised weeding and raking up leaves!!! Edging I also despised, having to use an axe cos we didn't have a motor edge cutter - we had a motor lawn mower but not an edger. Of course these days I have my trusty whipper snipper that makes edging relatively a breeze!! The only reason for doing the gardening here was to conform to lease requirements. Its the reason in the first place I went into apartment living, Sally was the only reason for us being in a house. Apartment living and Sally just didn't get on with each other, she utterly despised it!!! It was only a few months into our first apartment that made Sally insist that we moved into a bigger place, at first a villa complex but even that didn't satisfy Sally, she wanted nothing less than a house on a 1/4 acre block, and you know women always gets their way eventually!!! Hence where I am now!!!! It was Mother's love of gardening that may have cost her life. There is a theory that her neurological disease that killed her was caused by certain pesticides commonly used in the garden, such as those snail killer pellets. Mother was forever placing those little blue pellets all around the garden, I remember them well, I used to play with them!! OMG!!! Little did we know that years later it would claim mother's life, if this particular theory is correct!! This brings me to another incidence - we would drive to Northam to see Nanna and Pop, and this was during the hell years of Colin. Nanna and Pop had an almond tree out the back, and Colin being Colin he went to nibble on a few of the almonds, not realising the tree had been sprayed with pesticide. A few minutes later Colin found himself violently wrenching and vomiting his guts out! A pity it didn't knock him off!! Yeah I know that was nasty of me..... but being used as a punching bag for 8 years does that to a soul !!
Anyway.... at least my gardening years will be behind me as I embark on my nomadic lifestyle mark II !!!! But this brings me to another dilemma!! The many possessions that Sally and I managed to accumulate, and in spite of my efforts, I still have loads of Sally's items, as well as other things such as our trailer. Accommodation at these apartment units allows for only one car space and is usually not big enough to accommodate also a trailer. Furthermore, the various furniture, cupboards, etc, most of them legacy of Sally's crafting hobbies, will not fit into a smaller apartment unit. Hence my 2nd form of investigation - self storage rentals!! Prices seems to vary and seems incredibly hard to get hold of on websites, but it seems that the amount of storage space I would need would cost me between $200-$300 per month. It has to be large enough to accommodate my trailer plus at least a few of the furniture items. There are a lot of sizes and options available out there, more than what was available when I last made use of self storage rentals - my trip to America when I given up lease on my apartment so to save money!!! In those days I didn't have much possessions so needed only a little storage unit. How things had changed with Sally!!!! I am now needing space at least the size of a small garage!!! But I can be very creative in my storage of items, so could probably get away with a slightly smaller space, but it must at least be large enough for my trailer!! Plus it be more secure. Even if there were room enough for my trailer in an apartment complex, I don't like the idea of leaving it in such a public space where it could get nicked!!! It is a good 4x6 trailer with metre-high steel lattice walls all around making it a breeze to transport furniture therein, it will be a god-send for my moving of my many items of my furniture without having to resort to a Removalist company!!!! That is one way to save $$$$$'s But being a good trailer makes it more likely for it to be nicked, so unless by some stroke of luck I can get a place with a secure garage (there has been one or two places at $300/week with secure garages big enough for both my car and a trailer), it will have to be self storage rental - nearly all of them do have security with gates locked after dark, all night lighting, etc.
The most difficult bit is to secure a rental BEFORE having to move out, and trying to keep double-rental payments to a minimum. I will probably have to go deeper into debt to raise money for the security bond which is standard 4 weeks worth of rent, but I already have a good credit rating with the current company that I am repaying my loan - legacy of Sally's medical expenses. I had always made my payments on time, and the company had already offered to extend my loan if I wanted to. So I do have that option up my sleeve. It just mean going deeper into debt and meeting higher repayments - on top of higher petrol bills and other expenses. A lower standard of living it seems is in my destiny!! Nevertheless being single does have its high points. The situation would have been infinitely worse if Sally was still around, with her specific medical needs and her distaste for apartment living!!! It seems terrible to say this, but Sally being no longer around does make this current situation far easier to deal with. Nevertheless, it still won't be easy. Gone are the days where I could look up an apartment in the paper and expect to get it. Back in my nomadic days I had ALWAYS gotten the apartment I applied for. That was because there were more apartments than potential tenants!! But thanks to the housing crisis, the opposite is true. There are more potential tenants than apartments!! So there will now always be competition, and potential tenants often offer to pay higher rents than advertised - something I can't really afford to do!!! So it seems likely I will be homeless BEFORE I can find an apartment, and in this instance I would consider shared accommodation but I suspect the situation is the same there - several applicants for each spot!!!! Uh well..... there is always Pasco's house - Mothers old house - my room is still there albeit being currently used as a storage room!!!! Things always turn full circle..... moving away from one's parents only to be running back to them!!!!!!!!
Of course all this worry and advanced planning could be all for nothing...... but that is the way us Virgos are.... Virgos are worry warts!!!!.... My landlord hasn't given me any official notice yet, and I think for fixed term leases they are required to give only a three weeks notice, so I wouldn't get it until into October - over a month away!!!! But on the other hand, he could also say..... "Well I am wanting to sell this house, so you will need to move out, but I will give you a bit of time, a few weeks, to get yourself together and find another place......."
Ohhhhhhh it would be nice if he did say that........
Now a vid with a housing theme..... let's go with one of Mother's favorite.....
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