2020 Home Page
Preparations are well under way now. We have re-adjusted to living in the van and are now cooking meals there too. The house has been cleaned as
we will leave Merrilaine on the 5th September for the van park. Settlement is the 9th September. Time has gone so quick. We wish the new owner
all the very best and thanks for the memories Merrilaine. So ends that chapter of living on the Gold Coast.
We have booked into the Securalifestyle Park at coomera for 7 days. The plan was then to go and stay at Beachmere to see the grand children, however
all the parks are basically shut due to COVID. The parks around this area are council owned so now we'll spend the extra time at Tin Can Bay
instead. Then on the 18th we head to the Lazy Acres Caravan Park where we have made an initial booking of 4 weeks while we look for a house.
Clive continued to go to Mass at Mudgeeraba every Sunday and one day driving through town he saw an open air pop up art exhibition on the Village
Green. Different and interesting were some words used to describe it. He also took some general pictures of Mudgeeraba.
Leaving Coomera we head off to Tin Can Bay. We arrive at the caravan park and Clive goes to check in. No booking for us. It's a week before the
Queensland school holidays and this park looks quite full. He checks his spread sheet and sure enough, he has Tin Can Bay Tourist Park written in.
This is where we are. MMMMM. So he gets out the Caravaning book and there are TWO parks in Tin Can Bay. He rings the other one and guess what? They
have a booking for us. We are at the wrong park. This is a first for him!
So we have a quick drive around this park to get out and the a trek across town to the correct park - the Kingfisher Caravan Park. This park
is so much nicer as it's near the water and also the Marina. Plentty of walking for him. It's a nice spot here and again due to COVID,
the dolphin feeding has been postponed, but you can still go and take photos of them feeding the dolphins.
Next stop is Hervey Bay and into the Lazy Acres Caravan Park. Our home until who knows when. More than half of this park is filled with permanent residents.
Over our time here we got to know a few and also became good friends with a couple of other vanners.
School holidays come around and the park fills up for two weeks. There are some familes across from us and their tent is like the Taj Mahal. It took
ages to erect and thankfully the familes were out most days so the park stayed quiet. From this park it's about a 12 minute walk to the beach, so
Clive enjoyed some walks to there and the also along the beach. He took to walking around the area checking out houses. Seems like a lot of building
is happening.
Time to start looking for a home and as tomorrow is Saturday the 19th, there are three Open Homes that we are interested in. Two under $400K and one over.
Both the two under have pools, so look like excellent value. So we looked at the two with pools, not for us. Too much work will be required to make them
suitable for me and lots of small steps. Then onto the last one. Well, we fell in love with it. Listed at offers over $425K. There has already been
an offer of $400K, but his has been rejected. We'll go away and think about it.
On the Monday we ring up and ask if we can have another look at this property. So back for a second inspection and we meet the current owners too. They nip
next door as they are house sitting for them, while we have a look around again. Seems the original people who offered have not come back. We make an offer
that is rejected. Got the agent going back and forth next door. Finally an agreed price and we'll meet tomorrow to finalise the contract. Settlement is
the 30th October and before we move in we want new carpets laid. So much to do with Building & Pest, Valuation, Solicitors, choose carpet etc.
Exciting times.
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