Here begins the tale of a house, badly neglected and our journey of making it happy again.
After being told in October 2016 by our landlady of 5 years that she had sold the house and we would have to find a new place to live by Feb 2017, we embarked on a very long daily search for somewhere to live in the very very expensive Cape Town.
We needed
- a 2 bedroom home, or 1 bedroom with a big enough lounge for Lynton’s office/ art space,
- Pet friendly,
- Off street parking.
- In an area close to hubby’s work.
- Where I would be safe to be home alone in the day
- No stairs
Not asking for much are we? 😊
The Southern Suburbs where my husband works are generally much cheaper than the city center. In town you can expect to pay a starting rate of around R15000 ( Roughly US$1200.00) for a one bedroom flat.
In the suburbs a 2 bedroom place starts at around R8000-R12 000 ( at the time, it has since gone up to over R10 000- R15 000.) Plus 2 months rent as deposit, plus one month up front.
We had a look at possibly buying and got pre-approval for a tiny loan from a home loan company. What we could afford was a 1 bedroom flat in a dangerous area, half the size of the one bedroom place we had just come from. We decided to rather wait and look at renting. We had a hard time finding anything, never mind the right place! Being December no one was in the mood for moving. We had to wait for January for places to begin opening up and even then if a place was big enough it didn’t allow pets. Or if it allowed pets it was too expensive.
During this time I also learnt that realtors don’t remove expired listings!! What’s with that?
One morning while combing through Gumtree again, an advert popped up for a house..2 bedrooms.. with a yard... and a garage.. at the top end of our budget...in a good area. I called the agent and within an hour we met up at the house.
The place had been newly painted, all interior doors had been replaced. New cabinetry, new kitchen sink.
My mom, who had brought me to the appointment, said that she had had a dream the previous night about a house that had been broken and we had to fix it.
The agent told us the story of the house. They had only recently managed to get squatters out after 2 years of court cases.
The agent had taken over the property on condition that she get the squatters out. Every time they would get the occupants’ ID numbers, go off to the court and get an eviction order, only to find that by time the whole process had been followed new people had moved into the property and they would have to start all over again. This went on for 2 years.
Eventually the judge ruled in favor of the owner and ordered a forced eviction.
When everything had been cleared out they could take stock of the damage.
The house had been so filthy that the plumber refused to go inside.
All 3 interior doors had been broken beyond usability.
Cigarette burns in the bath.
The kitchen cupboards and wardrobes in the bedrooms had to be completely rebuilt. Some of the doors and planks were still in the garage so we got to see a glimpse of what had been. Swear words were written next to memo’s of babies clinic visits. A door covered in scratches and stab marks where someone had either been fighting or practicing knife throwing.
There was broken bottle glass scattered in among the sand and gravel around the garage.
The house felt sad, like it had been through a lot and was waiting for love. The things it had seen! If walls could talk this place would be in therapy for ages.
But it was big enough, in a safe neighborhood and had a big garden being a corner plot. I knew we could make it home.
I filled in the application form immediately and the agent cancelled the other appointments for viewings of the property.
We had a place to stay!
End of Part one
Keep an eye out for Part 2 where we tackle the floors