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Wednesday, March 12, 2008

D Day (aka The Interview)  
11:46 am | Fun With Immigration

It’s been a week since we made the trek more than halfway across the country to Auckland for our interviews, so it’s about time I updated!

We left on a 6.30am flight last Tuesday morning, arriving at our hotel at 12pm. We basically had time just to dump our bags and try and find the medical clinic, which thankfully was just a couple of blocks away. We were poked, prodded, full histories taken (any surgery reports sent the doctor hunting for scars) and we all had to have a chunk of injections. I came out of it the easiest, only having to have MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) and tetanus, while poor Jesse got pretty much the works. 4 1/2 hours and $1281 later, we went back to the hotel and collapsed for a while before going in search of food.

I’d like to say we got to see some of Auckland night life - I’d planned to walk the boys up to K Road to show them just how different Auckland is to our sleepy little hollow - but we were all too exhausted after such a long day. We booked a movie and it was lights out by 9.30pm.

The next morning, we were up at the crack of dawn, showering, getting dressed and in my case, making sure our paperwork was in order.

Continue Reading D Day (aka The Interview) »

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Finally!  
12:46 pm | Fun With Immigration » Vicarious Life » House Hunting

We got the house! News came through this morning that our offer was accepted as is, with no amendments or extra conditions. Phew!!  (More photos are here).

Closing is March 25th, 3 weeks after our interviews, for which the flights, medical appointments and hotel are all booked.

After sitting around on our arses for so long, suddenly, everything’s a whirlwind.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

It’s A Date!  
10:56 am | Fun With Immigration

We have our interview date. March 5th. Just under a month away.

I’ve booked us in for our medicals the day before, as they have to be done in Auckland too.

Time to go book some flights and a hotel. Another 2 1/2 grand down the drain ...

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Someone Else’s House  
10:52 pm | Fun With Immigration » Vicarious Life » House Hunting

I’m house sitting for my parents as they left to visit my sister in Australia today. The farm needs a bit more attention and it’s easier to make one trip back to our place than four trips here a day. This time I’m hoping there will be no embarrassing toe-sucking stories for me to never live down like last time.

It also gives us a chance to do some of the stuff that’s needed to our place to get it on the market, something which needs to happen soon. I sent back our police check forms last week, along with the form to say we were ready for our interviews.  I’m hoping to hear by the end of the week our exact date.

We haven’t heard back about the house. For all our rushing to get the offer in, the seller’s agent didn’t present it until Monday, along with other offers that came in over the weekend. Of course, being bank owned, it has to go through more people than weekly underwear changes. The longer it takes, the more nervous and stressed I get. I’ve fallen in love with this place, and I know exactly what furniture is going to go where even though I haven’t actually seen it in person.

As our agent says, forget the crossed fingers ... she’s going straight for the rosary beads.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Sixth Time’s The Charm?  
10:54 am | Vicarious Life » House Hunting

At least, that’s what we’re hoping for.

This place just fell in to our price range yesterday, and J emailed the agent as soon as I found it late last night. Full of high hopes (and a rather large dash of desperation) we actually arranged for a viewing first thing today and asked her to have the paperwork organized just in case. The photos and specs were just that good.

It has everything we want and kicks the proverbial arse out of everything else we’ve looked at so far. The master bedroom is well away from the others and has it’s own balcony with a pretty view of the mountains (for some reason mountain views in Vegas always surprise me - I think it has to do with that whole ‘middle of the desert’ thing). The section isn’t huge but it’s big enough for our needs and we can put our own stamp on it since it has no landscaping. The carpeting upstairs needs cleaned, there’s the odd spot in need of a paint touch up and it requires window treatments (which is a bonus in my book - I think ours will be the only place in Vegas with net curtains and drapes!), but other than that, it’s in great condition.

My only bug 2 bug bears are the colour of the carpets in the bedrooms (wine - ick!) and the bloody big cut out windows - one between the living room and family room and another in the loft wall overlooking the living room, though the latter is a bug bear in general. Seriously, how can they be advertised as ‘separate’ when there’s bloody big holes in the walls or the wall doesn’t go all the way to the ceiling? Even with those complaints, the cutouts are infinitely workable with this particular layout and my husband and kids are pigs, so the wine carpets may go a long way toward hiding their drips and slips.

As of 10am this morning (Vegas time) there were no other offers and ours was in by lunch. We’ve gone in fractionally over asking with no conditions, so fingers crossed! If this doesn’t work, I think even the agent will be handing us a couple of cardboard boxes and pointing us in the direction of the nearest bridge.

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