I feel that I should confess to someone. My DH and I have been having serious, very worrying problems with building a new house?

Shonky- shoddy
Chonce- ripoff
Poncy- pretentious

Why would you buy a house you don't like?

Geaton, we were prepared to put in a lift to the upstairs – I always thought it was a reason why the place didn’t sell for 4 years. However engineer DH has come up with a better idea – a commercial scissors-lift, which is an elevator platform where the struts are criss-cross and straighten up to raise the platform (real lifts don’t work like that). We can sink the working guts in the ground permanently (commercially they are built on a trailer, all painted bright orange), have the platform sitting level with the ground at the base, and raise it to be level with the balcony. They are about 20% of the cost of a built-in lift, you can buy it second hand, and we can buy it on its trailer and tow it up to Alice. And we have the backhoe up there already to dig the hole.

I’ve told Tony I’m fine with that, anything except a cherry-picker! My sister, who may yet get to use the scissor lift in her wheelchair, is very fond of the color orange, and says we should leave it ‘industrial’. And it’s much easier for furniture moving than dragging things up stairs.

Don, our current neighbor, almost cried when Tony said we’d buy it. He got it off the listing within a day! We trust each other, but not his creditors. I wish we still had the pictures, as I’ve only visited as a guest, and would really like to see anything with more detail. Kate is the person who made the comment lots of people liked, when Covid killed their high-spending business – “We have a roof over our heads and enough to eat. It’s not so bad”. I think she will miss the house more than Don, but now she is renting down south so she doesn’t actually have to “move out” – it’s already happened. She is more ‘poncy’ than us, and I think that the concept of her lovely house being bought for cash by the ‘scruffs’ living in the tin shed next door, will be a bit hard to swallow.

My first post was written when I had been on the turps a bit – as perhaps you can imagine. I know this is not really relevant to our site in most ways, and apologise. But it does illustrate various issues about left-field ideas, flexibility, and the problems of planning for older age. Even the scissors lift idea might interest some ‘more normal’ posters. The costs thing here seems to be that building prices are going up dramatically (worker shortage, rising materials costs), but the prices of existing properties are actually dropping (rising interest rates, local social issues in the CBD). So the money just came together for us. One more thing you could never predict!

No we won’t stay in the sheep business! This is 5 acres, not 105 acres. No stock, no slaughtering, not so many weeds! No sheep permitted in the Northern Territory, which is outside the Dog Fence, and has lamb-eating dingoes.

Thanks for your tolerance, Margaret

Back out of it while you still can and take whatever financial penalty and/or embarrasment there may come. Otherwise you will be penalized every day by being saddled with a house you hate and regret. It's like when a bride is standing at the entrance of the sanctuary and having very big doubts about the groom. Will it be embarrassing and stressful (and expensive) to call it off right then and there? Yup. But think about the consequences of going through with that ill-fitting marriage...it will only get worse.

Hi Margaret. You and I are living, breathing proof that even really smart women make mistakes.

NOW IT’S TIME TO DO WHAT SUITS YOU BEST.

Dump the deal? IF YOU WANT TO, GREAT!

Blame yourself? NOPE. Blame the lending rate, blame the pandemic, BLAME THE BOSSA NOVA, but you’ve proven that YOU’RE the REAL DEAL, No confession necessary.

I’m older than dirt, and I’m planning TODAY to buy myself a MAGNIFICENT TUBA. Why? BECAUSE AFTER WHAT I’VE BEEN THROUGH WITH CAREGIVING, I DESERVE IT! And I’m going to ENJOY IT.

Choose whichever decision you will ENJOY, then ENJOY IT. You REALLY DO DESERVE TO DO EXACTLY THAT.

Why not just stay where you are and forget about either option for now? What's the rush to make a bad decision that you will regret?

Margaret,
This thread has been so very interesting to read. I’ve liked figuring out your vocabulary from the context. Also, how you’ve planned to use the house in the future!
I hope you come back and update as you move in, and make changes. 😀

We’ve done it! So here is why:

We HAVE to get a house in Alice because we cannot live in a metal shed in Alice Springs in the summer. The temperature is over 40C every day for at least 2 months in the summer, and the night temperature is over 35C. Lots of aircon, but it still doesn’t cut the mustard. Winter is lovely, but….

We CANNOT sell the farm down south in the Adelaide Hills until we have a house in Alice for the summer, because we have nowhere else livable to go. So we have to come down south here, be prepared to protect the farm against fires, and look after sheep for about 4 months in summer. And I am over the joys of sheep! And bush fires! And burned down houses! And me standing under the water bomber’s chemicals. And 1500 km drives each way to get down here! And very insular neighbors who all went to school together 50 years ago!

We CAN’T forget the whole idea of moving to Alice and just stay on here with the sheep, because the isolation on the farm is driving me around the bend. That’s why I spend so much time on our site!

The ponce (pretension) is NOT my preference, but come now, I can cope. I grew up broke, but I’m flexible. https://www.realestate.com.au/property-acreage+semi-rural-nt-ross-140566247 The house we have just bought is far too big, badly designed, and we need a lift put in. The neighbors actually lived in about a third of the total floor area. I think the whole ground floor was just put in to underpin the upstairs view. But the view is fantastic, we know the area is safe, the flooding problems are dealt with. Our first thought was that if DH takes over a couple of the 5 bedrooms (!) for workshops, it will soon look more like our type of mess.

We cannot cope with the existing builder any longer, and a new builder’s competence is naturally unpredictable (though surely couldn’t be worse!). I’m 75, it’s taken 4 years so far. Another 4 years could see me out, as my health is not all that great, my mother died at 79, and I have blood pressure issues from stress. We have 5 years to recover from the stress before the time limit to sue the existing builder runs out, and suing is going to be easier without another builder in the mix. The price of the original block with shed (which we should be able to sell it for) plus the build cost from evil builder, is about the same as the price we will pay for next door.

The new house is enormous. Alice has about 3 major motoring functions a year that attract wealthy motor enthusiasts from across Oz and overseas, and there is a shortage of plush accommodation with safe car parking. We may well live in the upstairs (with view) and modify the ground floor for a few short lets to rich people (who may also be good company upstairs with our lovely view).

We won’t go broke! I grew up broke, and look stylish with thrift shop clothes. Tony grew up less broke, but even less than his ambitions. We can cope! This is the ONLY way out we can see from a nightmare situation. We are less stressed already! I am now relaxing with books for gardening in small spaces, that never guessed that the small spaces might result from minimal local watering in a desert situation.

So thank you all, dear friends, so much, for thinking about me and my troubles, and for your replies. And it’s an interesting comment about unusual solutions, when you thought that here wasn’t any solution! Clearly, it has more applications than the ‘house next door’! Yours, Margaret

Margaret,

I am glad that you found a suitable place to live. The view sounds lovely!

This photo ref might work?

https://images.corelogic.asia/0x0/filters:watermark(cla-digital-assets-prod,watermarks/logo.png,-2p,-2p,30,16,16)/assets/perm/vlbaiu2f6ei63p3hauscg5u444?signature=14a28184772623edff90f4850a7236e15406f40af4257b2368afa5fb33dfa61c&width=900&height=675

Well glad it all worked out. Like the idea of renting out rooms. 5 bathrooms? Two is enough for me.