Sweat Sweat Sweat, Toowoomba Edition!

Wow, this latest heat wave has really hit home here in Toowoomba and even I, the official air con Nazi, has had to yield. 

I just finished saying how climate doesn't really influence house prices, yet, here we are in a town often referred to as "the fridge on the ridge" melting like snowmen taking in a sauna. So I suppose the climate up here on the Toowoomba range is no different to anywhere else is South East Queensland, although I do have to say, the humidity is not as high as it was in Brissie when I was down there a few days ago. 

On the plus side to all this warm weather is the fact that my front garden, the one that will ultimately provide SOME street appeal  come sale time (I say 'some' because the house is only kind of appealing form the front, no matter what gardens will be in place) is going great guns. My hedging plants are doing well and I'm contemplating putting up a small  hedge boundary, as we have open council strip front gardens on my side of the street and I don't really like this concept much. 

"Permission to land in Toowoomba."

I wish it was a bit cooler so I could go and do a bit of gardening outside...maybe after New Year. 

In other news, it dawned on me that my little nuclear family is staying in this house for at least another year, if not longer. Not a bad thing, but it does mean that I can go ahead and try to make our house a bit more homely for the year ahead. I'm installing more permanent storage, looking at setting up the backyard for the kiddies a bit better and generally trying to fit into this house a lot more. 

Ciao. 

Should I mow my grass more often? Hmmm.....

It occurred to me today that I am not a frequent visitor to my front lawn. Yes, I vaguely look at it for a split second as I drive up my driveway, but I don't really take notice of whether it needs mowing or not. Until today.

As I pulled into the driveway I remembered that we need the other car out for a trip later, so I stopped half way and began to back out. Strategically perhaps, a car was coming down the road, so I had to wait and as I did, I spent an extra split second to glance at my lawn and what I saw scared the crap out of me. 

You see I've planted a few fruit trees to fill this empty space, you know, just to be different, maybe with the hope of starting a fruit tree revolution in my neighborhood where everyone decides to do the same in their tiny, otherwise useless, front yards and we all miraculously swap our KFC for pieces of fruit. Anyway, I digress. As I took this extra glance, I REALISED THE GRASS HAS GROWN ALMOST AS TALL AS THE TREES! Surrounding each tree, roughly where the watering system would take effect, the grass had shot up. Not that this is unusual, but I would have thought that over a few days, perhaps weeks, I would have noticed this starting. But alas no, it appears that the grass height has to hit a critical point where I FINALLY see it and force myself to push around a plastic/metal contraption which, much like to Cookie Monster, or me at KFC, goes NOM, NOM, NOM, and makes all the long grass disappear. 

I was then also thinking "Is me not mowing having an effect on my potential resale value?" Is my house going to be known as a "rental house" because I prioritise other aspects of my life over mowing? A potential buyer, who may know a neighbour, what will they think when they find out the grass grows as tall as them sometimes (I exaggerate of course, but it does get quite high). 

In established suburbs on owner occupied streets, everyone knows how each house is kept. My street isn't quite like that, there are a few rentals, but also a lot of PPOR houses too, but it is an "established" street with nice brick houses. 

So maybe I need to mow more frequently....you know, just for house value sake. :)

Gardening and the value of your house

Did a fair bit of gardening today, thanks to a visit from my dad, who just so happens to have a wonderfully loud chainsaw. We trimmed off virtually all of the trees in the backyard and then I proceeded to pull out all the ferns. I have plans to create a formal look, with a lot of hedges and neat gardens. The missus has dictated that there still must be room to kick a footy and run around a bit, but when you start with a 600 square metre block, something has to give. Anyway, I have an idea or two to incorporate into this design, which will hopefully mean that we can have both; a bit of garden, a bit of grass. 

It got me thinking; how much value does a neat or established garden add to the value of a property. I mean its obvious that it will present better during the sale. But, is the intrinsic value, the time you put into it, really amount to anything in terms of dollars? 

I think it does, especially if someone with any interest in gardening is looking at the property. Established trees, or a neat weed free laws, or some established hedges all contribute, lets say to the tune of around 1-1.5%. So in a property that is let's say on the market for $300,000, the garden may contribute between $3000 to $4500. This may not be apparent at first, but subconsciously, I bet its there. When I bought this place, I saw a few hedges and already I was thinking about the amount of time that those, being established, will save me. Was it to the tune of 1-1.5%? Hard to say, and I think this is the overall issue with placing a dollar value on this particular item during a purchase. Its just 'hard to say'. You simply can not put a value on the countless hours that has gone into a garden, even a simple one. 

Your thoughts?