...or how about now?
it's hardly a secret any more......Leighton Smith read out my email on NewstalkZB this morning......hey I could post it here...then you'd know I do things other than knit;-)
This was prompted by a series of sob stories in the media at large about how noone can afford houses today...Leighton happened to be discussing it so I had my say:
Dear Leighton,
Do NOT let anyone tell you it is impossible to buy a first home.
My husband and I returned from 2 1/2 years in Eastern Europe 14 years ago and had $30 to our name. We worked our butts off, lived in a tiny flat, ate simply, saved every penny and managed to finish our degrees and get postgrad diplomas within two years with NO debt. We continued saving and when we had a deposit, worked out we could afford a $100,000 house so we went to the real estate agent and asked what they had. They just laughed at us! So we bought a section and built a house. Cost us $96,000.
We sold that house and built another, swapped that one and then built one more. In less than a decade we were mortgage-free in a house worth at least three times as much as our first one is *now*. And don't think it's because we were double-income-no-kids. My husband is in education (ie hardly high paying) and I have been home with the children - over the past twelve years we have had eight of them. Yes that's right. Eight kids, single income, no mortgage.
And my hubby got his masters while working aswell - you do what is important to you.
What are we up to now? Looking at taking the kids to see the *real* needs in the world - China, Mongolia, Tanzania, Great Britian (OK that bit's a holiday!) and then settling to work again in Poland or volunteer at an orphanage in Romania - these are our current dreams we are working towards.
And *that* is why we need woolly hats!!
9 comments:
Love you Rach! Love the hat, the young lady under it and the email!
love the hat
your an inspiration to me
jen at http://jenz.wordpress.com/
go for it! it sounds amazing AND i love the story about your first home. i can't wait to hear how God orchestrates the details to fulfill this dream.
too bust chatting about all this on email to comment here, but just to say
And *that* is why we need woolly hats!!
that flower is gaw-juss. X
yes well i was *bust* today.
busy too.
Kate I was going to knit a flower like that to go on *your* stripey hat and let you attach it if you wanted to.....but not now you want hearts! They just don't go together. I could try a smilar-style heart though to attach over one of the ones I knit into the pattern....if there's spare wool.
hearts and flowers.....
hmmmmmmmmmmm.....
maybe i'll make you *two* necklaces and we can do *two* swap cities...???
lol...
and then again, let's just see how the first one goes !!!!!!!!!
mwah X
I love the hat Rachael and I love your story - have heard it before.
We are a family who feel we will never get into our own home. All I can think is that you got in to the market at a good time and managed to snag a cheap section and build a cheap house and then made money selling property. The cheapest 3 bedroom house anywhere in Christchurch is no less than $200,000 and that is for a scody run-down dump. If we were to buy a section the minimum cost would be $150,000 and for $50,000 we could probably build a basic home with a company like Skyline Garages. But we couldn't afford to pay rent while we built.
I feel that we are stuck renting and I do not see how we are to get out of this rut.
It really is difficult to get into the housing market.
I think you have done amazingly well and it is wonderful that you are mortgage free and now planning to head off on a world trip with your family.
Louise
Louise, you're right that we built a cheap house - coz we did absolutely every bit of the work that we *could* ourselves, and did things like paint it white coz it cost $3 to have a tin of paint tinted!! And we only had carpet in the lounge. We painted the MDF cupboards in the kitchen - no fancy laminate doors for us!!! The section was not particularly cheap at the time (just average) and was in the definitely-not-best part of town. Could you get a section and put a caravan on it while you built? We have friends doing that ATM.
Kate - how about fluffy flowers? I saw choccy and pink in fluff when I was looking for your chunky yesterday! Or would you want purple? ;-)
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