House & Home Your treechange/acreage/backyard menagerie

Love road trips...so relaxing and so much fun. You can literally feel the stress just disappear. We gotta have some veggie options on this road trip for the non meat eaters...

 

Said by someone who obviously hasn't HAD to do road trips.......

 

...not my fault...blame the wife and her bloody 5 star criteria......

 

I've had Silky Bantams a few times. Nice for kids to cuddle. They don't damage your garden like Isa Browns.

 

Boys have settled in well. Its a tough life... suns out... rugs are off... mud to roll in...

 

Gorgeous animals...

 

Foxes? Do you live outside metro?

I have to say I'm certainly an inner city kinda person but over the last couple of years have spent a fair bit of time in and with people who still live or grew up on a large property in Bendigo and I must say that if a small acreage close tl necessary and enjoyable amenities is an option id potentislly choose that over your standard vanilla suburban lobotomised experience.

They are moving to Perth and recently bought a 5 acre place and having spent some time helping with the search I did come away with the feeling that it can be much better value and provide much more when in comparison to some suburban options that aren't all that much cheaper and also involve the kind of commute many already do in Perth

 

Yes I live in a rural area... no post to the door, no town water or sewer... but all 30 mins from the CBD

 

Would be interesting to hear from @DaveM how this acreage living in Adelaide compares to his previous Sydney lifestyle from a cost and spare time pov, as a completely uneducated guess I reckon you could sell an remarkably average Sydney house, buy acreage in Adelaide with change left over for all these animals and for thousands of candles for when the power runs out D sorry couldn't help it) and also find the time to enjoy it vs the previous hectic Syd lifestyle

 

Nice one, sounds like the move has worked out well so far!

 

OK I will give it a stab. Not great at writing this sort of stuff.

My Sydney PPOR was a 5br 3 living area house on 650sqm land. House was overkill for my needs but I bought the best for future val. Its now rented out. Late 80's Masterton build, 2.4m ceilings. Not a lot of maintenance as I renovated it and covered a good proportion of the site. Views of suburbia. Weekends trimming hedges and mowing the lawn. My new place is a 2br on 13 acres. Old 1930's fibro place and nothing pretty.... but 3.2m ceilings and views of endless green.

It took me maybe 6 months of looking to find the right land, that was my priority. I had enough of suburbia and when I was a child/teen always wanted horses and to live on acres. So did dad but mum was firmly a city slicker. I originally wanted about 25 acres, but at the price point I wanted to spend (700k max) that was all bush blocks. Almost everything was either bush blocks, orchards/vineyards (ie remove 5000 apple trees), or horse properties (ie barren wastelands). I wanted to be mortgage free when I sell former PPOR so I didnt want to go all crazy levels of expense, and to get 25 acres of nice land I was looking at 900-1.5m. I am not a material person and dont need a grandiose house to be happy, just my animals.

This place came up and the price was right.. but I knew the land was right. I spent almost 2 hours on the first inspection, 20 mins in house rest wandering around the land. I figured a house could be updated or even rebuilt, but the land is very hard to change. So I bought it.

Yes its a lot more work... in Spring through late Autumn its 3-4 hours a week on the ride on cutting the grass down, every week, no slacking off. And theres fencing to do, branches and trees that fall down in wind/storms, water tanks to pump from catchment to supply, gas tanks which run out mid shower. Every weekend I can spend a day and hardly make a dent.

Ive got a nice mix of land... about 6 acres are usable pasture/grass, 5 acres of pine forest hillside (blackberry being controlled) and then the house and surrounding sheds, dam etc. Enough to be useable, not so much that upkeep changes from enjoyable to a chore.

So far I have spent about 300 hours outdoors fixing up the land, access trails, pruning, cutting down trees, fixing things. It was an overgrown jungle as the previous owner was in his 70's and his health meant the place got away from him. Photo below was all overgrown weeds and grass and vines, now tamed. I have also reconfigured the internal layout to make sense as it was added to and added to over the years.

As for prices, cost $600k and I have a mortgage of $360k. By the time I finish with fixing it up, extending house and the stables/fencing, I will be in around $750k. So bit of a difference between that and Sydney place value. I am toying with the idea of building a new house and using existing for AirBNB, but thats in the future.

Where I am is known as the fruit bowl of Adelaide and its all orchards. This pushed the price per acre way up as very fertile land but its a great location and a fantastic driving road for the commute. Hairpins and tight corners with great camber... joy to drive on vs 50 zone suburbia.

Would I go back to suburban living, nope never. No yappy dogs or noise or neighbours.... The view from my lounge room is below, and my home office looks over an apple orchard. I dont plan on leaving here any time soon either. Maybe in a box.

 

There are some great options in Perth that are very commutable from. My 10 acres is 40km from Perth CBD but that can be travelled in 30mins (non peak hour!!!). The same distance from Perth would get you Mindarie or Baldivis which are very very burbs.
For us it was the perfect choice as we work from home and a certain hoon in the family wanted lots of car room. We bought ours for the land as we couldn't find any land with houses that we liked. It has a 2 bedroom **** shack on it but that will be demolished at the end of our build which will be complete towards the end of the year.

 

My newest addition... Sarge, a 16.1hh dark bay 12yo standardbred gelding. Fully trained for endurance and trail riding. Really friendly boy.

 

Gelding is a castrated male.

 

Enough wang dangling goes on to be a constant reminder that only part was removed

 

Think we found our new chicken tractor, should keep the foxes and other predators out.

Isa brown and Rhode Island chickens look the goods, can't wait for fresh eggs.

 

Nice tractor.

I was recommended Wyandottes over Isa Browns (which I've had previously) as they are less nervous