So for those not in the secret society of Riley (modeled on Opus Dei, but with far more alcohol 😉 ), we finally acquired a house in Melbourne.

When I say house I use the term loosely, because it’s technically a townhouse, but it has separate title, so you could argue both sides.

House hunting in Melbourne requires stamina, and a strong volition not to attack real estate agents, who are in the most part lying scum sucking vampires. The short story: if it’s listed at auction for $540-$580k, it will sell for between $630 at $780k, and I’m not exaggerating on the last figure.

End of the day we needed to live within a reasonable circle from the golden child’s school in Hawthorn, because we had no interest in changing schools. After nearly two months of looking, we ended up buying a brand new town house in Mont Albert. It’s a little further out than we’d wanted, but likewise I can probably do the school in a solid 20 minutes (in peak traffic.)

Buying a brand new place helps, for example we have A/C, garage and more… something you really can’t get at our price bracket, and we also have ducted vacuuming…. I hope the cleaners know how to use it 😉 (don’t judge me there, it’s the only service we have done once a week, but we both work)

There is a little catch though: the townhouse is only 2 bedrooms…and I work from home, hence introducing the bat cave.

The garage is sunken under the two story townhouse (so it’s really sort of 3 stories) but it is 2 cars deep, and a huge alcove off to the side.

Pics as follows. If I need relief from the bat cave, the complex has an indoor heated pool, sauna and gym, so there is some balance 🙂