I am always looking up properties for sale on the coast. I long to live by the sea again - to smell the salty air and hear the waves again from my window. Most houses, though, are overpriced with the inflated Australian real estate market - and the area I want to live is well out of our price range, particularly as there is no way we want another mortgage. They are also small, old beach shacks that would need extensive renovation, on blocks around 500 m². Compared to our five acres, it just doesn't feel value for money, even if we did a straight swap.

^{We couldn't have a backyard view like this on a tiny block}

We live in a rural residential area that used to be part of of an estate that ran sheep and cows back in teh 18th century. The manor house is a huge old blue stone house that has tours to this day. Whilst back in the '80's you could pick up a house and a block for 40K here, now they're worth about a million, maybe more, depending on the property. That's not much considering you can't move sideways and come out with spare change. It's okay though - it's our own piece of paradise, if you've seen my gardening posts. Friends that visit go green with envy at the garden, which vindicates all our efforts.

The thought of having neighbours that close freaks me out after living on five acres for so long. We actually don't have neighbours to the back of us - just a train line which is far enough away not to bother us during the day and is a wake up call in the morning. To the west is a walking track and a forest that's part of the water facility and reservoir, and so we only have two neighbours - one across the road, and one next door.

The Neighbours Across the Road

There's two ramshackle houses on this acreage, so historically, it's attracted big families where you have more than one generation living there. That has not been a great experience for us, except for the general rule that 'one does not shit where they live', and they had enough respect for us that they left us well alone, apart from the once incident where I trapped their wandering cat which drew dirty looks from the girlfriend that came to collect her.

However, they also were quite entertaining for us as weekly, sometimes twice weekly, the police would rock up at the house, talk to them, and perhaps take one or two away in the divvy van. We were pretty sure it was all drug deals as people would turn up at all hours.

^{This photo reminds me I need to repaint the front deck..}

Now, the two woman who live there are friends with the owners. They're lovely - much older, and friendly. The only issues I have had so far is the chooks coming into our yard and scratching up the garden but we talked to them about it and they've built a pen to hold them in better. They look after our chooks when we're away.

The Next Door Neighbour

Steve was a TWAT. A tuck your shirt into your jeans and never smile kinda twat (apologise to those with simliar fashion sense). When we moved into nearly 15 years ago he had this massive 1000 watt spotlight that shone onto his sand arena where he and his wife had horses. We asked him to angle it down his property so it didn't shine onto our outdoor living area and into our living room and onto the television. We asked nicely. For weeks he ignored us and never moved the light. This resulted in me screaming over the fence at him, which wasn't very neighbourly of me either, but I was stressed back then and he annoyed me. I'm sure we would have dealt with it differently now. I was already annoyed with the neighbours two up who let their kids tear around with dirt bikes which was illegal (you can't ride within 500 m of another property) and so I'd called the council on them to deal with that.

Because they excercised the horses in their arena, if we wanted to walk down the back of the property after work, their horses would shy, and so she'd scream at us. It got so that I couldn't even bear hanging the washing out on that side without being pissed off because I'd see them. We built a corrugated iron and redgum post architectural fence to block them and they planted a row of leillandia, which are now huge, so we can't see thier house or driveway at all now.

Anyway, Steve never waved to us, never talked to us, never looked at us and basically that was that for the next eight years. They had kids, two boys. She left because he had an affair - aha! We knew he was a twat! - and he would not give up the house so she had to move. In the end we were pleased he had to sell in the end to give her what she deserved. She was a midwife and by all accounts a nice person that didn't deserve to be treated so badly.

Now the couple who have moved in are quite nice. They've fence the property well so their dogs don't escape, and even put up a nice fence where they stack their horse poo so we don't see it.

The Worse Incident

We live on a court where another court leads away. Both meet up with the reserve, so to walk around the 'block' means walking up our court, down the other, and along the reserve - it's a good 25 minutes after work or before brekky to keep the blood flowing. We wave at other residents if they're out but really know few of them.

On the bend half way around the walk are two properties on either side - one has a set of beautiful Bull Arabs, the other had two American Staffys. Walking around that corner got pretty awful at one stage - both sets of dogs would fly at the fence and bark. A woman we knew at the far end (she works for the CFA) was worried about the staffys as they attacked her dog once. She'd complained to the council but nothing was done.

Of course, the worst happened - the staffys attacked one woman on her court that used to jog around there about 5 am each morning. We heard the news from overseas. They'd savaged her so badly that they tore the muscles from her legs and ripped off her ears - neighbours woke to the screams and the police had to use pepper spray to get the dogs off her. We saw her running the other day with ear muffs, so a year on we're pleased she's mobile. The owner did a runner and no one knows where he is, and the house has stayed empty - a basic shack on 5 acres he paid 30K for twenty years ago. We wonder how he'll sell it without showing his face as I'm sure he'd be arrested.

Could we ever have neighbours?

All this makes us think about and remember what it was like to live in the suburbs. If it's noisy enough in rural residential, we can imagine what it's like living in the suburbs down the coast - lawnmowers and barking dogs and Air BNB parties and so on. And what if we got neighbours from hell on all sides?

^{Yeah, our place is pretty chill.}

Right now, our place is really pleasant. Everyone keeps to themselves unless it's an emergency. New neighbours have replaced the old - there's a new vibe in the area as new money replaces the old farmhouses and does up the garden, builds stylish verandahs and fences and so on. There's still dirt bikes every now and then racing up the reserve though they aren't meant to, and the people across the train lines sometimes play Dire Straits 'Sultans of Swing' all afternoon on Saturday, but that's okay. Leaving now seems a bit of a gamble, but I guess it's always a gamble, wherever you end up.

With Love,

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