Almost homeless

Whilst I'm on the computer updating my blog, I may as well tell you that 12 days after our wedding, whilst in the middle of a major bout of homesickness as my parents were leaving the following day and I hadn't seen them for 3 days, we received the news that the new owners of our house want vacant possession. In other words, they're kicking us out. Unless, of course, we're willing to commit to paying them $400 a week for 6 months!!!

Not only that, but these new owners came to view the property 3 days after our wedding when we had specifically requested that no one disturb us as we wished to wind down, enjoy our time off work and replenish our energy supplies after the excitement of the wedding. We were under no obligation to let them in as we had not received a form requesting entry - it's a legal requirement that estate agents give us at least 24 hours written notice if they require entry to the property. However, they told us that they'd taken time off work specifically to come and view the property and, being a nice person, I felt a bit sorry for them and gave them permission to come in. Fat lot of thanks I'm getting for that now.

The real estate agent had even sent Toby a text message the day after the wedding asking if she could show someone round the property that week. When she called the house two days later she said, "I tried to call you on Saturday but there was no answer". Now, I don't want to be horrible about this girl because she's very pleasant and people I know, know her, and she's been as cooperative as she could be (apart from changing the agreed open house time from 11.30am to 1pm which was quite inconvenient) and she even negotiated a 6 week extension on our lease to get us through the wedding period... but there is a limit as to how many concessions I can give someone. Is she stupid? How many people do you know who answer the phone to a real estate agent trying to sell their rental home, the day after their wedding, when they're staying in a 5 star penthouse honeymoon suite, with friends and family from all over the world staying nearby? Not that we were even at home to answer the phone. And before you ask, yes, she was fully aware that we'd been married the previous day. Jeez... I will be pleased to get out of this place and not have to have anything more to do with these people at least for the time being.

What this all means is that we have to be out of our place by the time the purchase settles on 7th September. It's not official yet as they only have to give us 14 days notice (due to the fact that our lease ends on 31st August), plus the new owners are waiting to hear if we're willing to give them $400 a week. I expect we'll receive notice sometime this week. Unfortunately, we're not even going to be here on 7th September as our friends, Praj and Tracy are getting married up in Yeppoon, near Rockhampton, and Toby is a groomsman. So I suppose we have to be out of here the weekend before that. Which is two weeks away. Aaaarrrrgh. We haven't even had our wedding registry gifts delivered.

I was going to phone the Sunshine Coast Daily and give them Chapter 2 in their World Wide Wedding story, a bit of a sob story to go with their fairy tale... the local press love this kind of thing... and I probably still will but Toby and I got very distracted yesterday by a house we've decided to buy. Actually we tried to buy it two months ago but the offer fell through. Fingers crossed it's second time lucky... watch this space!