FROM THE HILLS OF WELLINGTON

 I sort of 'hit the wall' today and think that the last month's stress and activity has caught up with me.

Having finished with the house sale, the moving, the storage of furniture and tidying up and ending supply contracts I can now settle down and relax.

Mind you, I 'hit the wall' after I went for a long walk this morning after The Old Girl had gone to work.

I decided to check out some Te Aro properties that we had identified as prospects so walked up to The Terrace and then back down and up Thompson Street and then down and around Mount Cook area (past Tony's old place in Hargreaves's Street) before climbing up Bidwill Street.

None of the properties that looked good in the on-line photographs looked any good close up though and two of them were of the dreaded monolithic cladding-type.

In a previous post I mentioned a couple of townhouses we viewed on Sunday, one in Hobson Street and the other in Upland Road. These are monolithic cladding type and have both had weathertightness (leaking) issues in the past. Although the houses have been recladded, all of the reading I've done on the matter suggests that there may be future problems as well. The property reports that the real estate agents suppled had enough red flags to deter us. We've decided that, even though we could secure either townhouse at below asking price, the risk factor is too high. We will not be looking at flat roofed and monolithic cladded homes in the future. We will probably not look at anything built in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s either unless it was of brick, weatherboard or other solid materials.

Earlier I mentioned a beautiful house in Buller Street between the top of Vivian Street and The Terrace that we were interested in. Before we made an offer though we did some research and discovered that the Wellington tunnels project was likely to start soon and would disrupt the area. On Monday the project was officially announced and yes, the major construction will affect homes in the Te Aro, Mount Cook, South Mount Victoria, Hataitai and Kilbirnie areas. We will keep well away from those as we have no wish to live out our dotage in a construction zone.

This will mean we initially will concentrate our search on Oriental bay (very expensive), Mount Victoria, Thorndon and Kelburn for close to the city options and non 1980 to 2010 builds. We have already decided not to purchase an apartment so already our options are becoming limited. The Old Girl's desire to live in the inner city or on the city fringe might have to be adapted and we could end up looking at the outer Wellington suburbs. Personally I don't mind as some houses in Island Bay, Houghton Bay, Evan's Bay, Seatoun, Miramar and Brooklyn have magnificent views including the kind of sea views that we've been sued to living in Whangārei Heads.

It may be that we consider long-term renting thus leaving the property risk to the owners. In fact, today, I contacted the real estate agents to withdraw our interest in the Upland Road and the Hobson Street townhouses but said that if the owners cannot sell at a suitable price for them that we would consider renting for the long-term.

I have to prepare The ld Girl's dinner now - teriyaki salmon and salad.