Universal truth of house selling

You will live with countless deficiencies in your home until immediately before you come to sell it, at which time it becomes a
whirlwind of DIY home repair & renovation.

And so it is that in the last week, the house has been washed down (it needs painting actually, but that ain't gonna happen on this watch), a leadlight window was repaired (kind of - what's the attraction of leadlights anyway? Sure, they look classy, but in a couple of years, when the lead oxidises, it's going to bulge out or in, those little coloured panes will start popping out & a Wellington Southerly is going to rip the whole lot out so it flaps like a... flappy thing. They can be fixed by removing the whole lot & replacing all the lead between them which costs hundreds of dollars & works until the lead starts oxidising again in a few years), window catches were re-affixed to their windows, leaking window eaves were siliconed, and a dodgy bit of plaster ceiling was replaced & painted, rotting shower linings were replaced with gee-that-looks-nice tiles.

We lived with all that for 5 years, and it took less than a week to
fix it all. It helped in that it seems real estate agents can get
tradesmen to turn up to do the bits that need professionals - I was astonished.

I think I might have got mildly sunstroked, washing down the house
yesterday too.

Look out for the property press headline that says a "Kelburn house sold for 3 times it's Quotable Value", and the subsequent non headline that says "Unknown Wellington Blogger retires to stuff around while his wife brings home the bacon. Oh wait... that's how it is now except for the retirement bit.

Actually, we have plans. We'd like to develop Sunny O a bit - put up a couple of cottages prehaps, one for us (and we'll sell or rent out the existing house) and one to rent as a homestay, or for family & friends overflow at party times.

We also (this is the "Royal We" but I like the idea) have a cunning
plan whereby we buy some do-er uppers, the sort of property that is advertised as "DIY dream", do 'em up & flick 'em on for loads more than they cost us. I CAN retire then.

After a couple of forays into the field we've decided we aren't really the landlord types. One place we couldn't keep tenanted, the other place (the one we're selling), we decided we didn't like keeping maintained. Also, what's with interest rates going up all the time? Whose bright idea is that? We've spent the last few years maintaining 3 houses... it gets a bit much.

Also... heard in the weekend that old friends are so used to us never turning up places... they've stopped discussing it, or us. How bad is that? We'll have to invite them to our cottage-warming party if they remember who we are by then.