I wonder if you are like me and find that most days fly by so quickly, it can sometimes take a few moments to recall what happened just few days ago. What was it we did last Sunday, for example? Ah, yes - we went to the market, had coffee and brunch in Kittelty’s café at the Art Gallery of Ballarat (a Sunday ritual) did a few chores - and oh, yes, we bought a house.
Shane Jones and I first visited the property in Eureka Street, Ballarat a couple of weeks ago, on one of the last days it was open for inspection. We thought it the most beautiful house we’d ever seen, heartbreakingly so, because we assumed that financially it would be way out of our reach.
We decided to attend the auction, however, mainly to take one last, wistful look inside our dream house. On the afternoon of the auction, however, we were attending to some of those aforementioned chores, and barely made it on time.
To our amazement, not one person placed a bid and just as the property was about to be passed in, we tentatively raised our hands. The auctioneer continued his final spiel in a vain attempt to coax further buyers. To us, this seemed to go on forever, and I was convinced we’d be outbid at the last minute. I started to feel like Jane Eyre when her wedding to Rochester was thwarted at the altar. But no such tragedy befell us and, to our continuing disbelief, the house is ours.
The whole thing was so completely unplanned and unexpected that, needless to say, neither of us has had time to place our existing homes on the market. (Shane’s is in Melbourne and mine is in Ballarat). Fortunately, the agent has negotiated a particularly long settlement to give us time to prepare both properties for sale.
This is the first home Shane and I have owned together. As I mentioned to a friend, I’ll miss my current studio and the humble little house in which I’ve been so happy. But the new place will give us the additional space we so badly need to hang our artworks and, for the first time ever, to properly display and utilise other collections, in particular, books, music and films. I must admit I’ve already watched the slideshow below countless times, especially on the evening after the auction, in an effort to convince myself that it wasn’t all a dream. I still haven't quite got there.
The house has five good sized-bedrooms, two of which will be requisitioned for studios. Best of all, on the first floor is a cinema. As lovers of Art Deco and lifelong cineastes, it feels like we’ve died and gone to heaven.
To view the slide show of our future home, go HERE.