So on Tuesday 31 August 2010, Chantelle and Craig officially stepped into their new home.

5 Country Mews is now ours – well technically this month it still belongs to its previous owners and then after it belongs to the bank, but in essence it belongs to us – the fulfilment of a lifelong dream of mine to one day own my own property.

Sure she’s compact and maybe a little on the small side, but she’s the perfect size for our little family. She’s in great shape and already looks pretty damn good on the inside – perfect in other words for a man not widely known for his sterling DIY skills.

Chantelle and Craig - Happy first time homeowners at last! :)

So as you have obviously by now figured out, in the end I decided to take up the occupational rent offer after learning that the current owners had accepted a position up in Johannesburg and thus would be moving up pronto, and so although I’m technically paying double rent this month, this does now give me four weeks to move in at my leisure, a process I’m going to enjoy as I happily shuttle along the five minute trip from our current flat to the new home carrying all my little bits and bobs.

As for the 25th of this month, we’ve hired a moving company to take care of all the big stuff, and seeing as the owner is a client of Chantelle’s at the guest house, we’re not even paying an arm and a leg for this one either! Nice.

The property doesn’t appear to have too much work that needs to be done, based on our quick look around of the now empty house on Tuesday evening. The front door needs a bit of sanding and varnishing to fix up all the dog scratches, I need to tidy up the concrete slabs under the car port and maybe throw down some stones to fancy it up, replace some plugs that were removed from some of the extra electrical box installations in order to pass the inspection, remove the outdated TV wall mount unit in the bedroom and finally get the satellite dish reattached to the house as for some or other reason the Pottages had it removed. Something about saving on the electricity or something like that…

Oh, and I need to remember to buy electricity for the prepaid meter now that I think about it.

The alarm on the place is still active so it is going to be fun and games trying to get used to that, but overall this is one challenge that I can’t wait to tackle.

Seriously, I can’t begin to explain just how awesome it feels to open that door and walk into your very first home that you bought and will now be looking after and paying off with your own blood, sweat and tears.

This is it. Just the kid to come in January and then everything that makes life good will be well within my grasp! Happy.

:) <– big, big smile. Bigger than I can indicate by means of a smiley.

Pregnant or not, this event needs a champagne celebration!

Did I mention I now own a house? How awesome is that! :)